Soldak Entertainment's Space Game Q&A

Soldak Entertainment's as-of-yet unnamed space simulation/RPG is the primary topic of conversation in this new interview with CEO Steven Peeler on Space Game Junkie. While we still don't have a label to slap on it, we now at least know more about how ship progression and customization will work:
Brian: Now, let's talk about the main character in the game, our ship. First off, apparently there will be several different ship classes escort, frigate, destroyer, cruiser, battleship, flagship but will there be different ship variations within these classes, or will these just be generic classes that we customize through crew and equipment?

Steven: For the most part a new ship gives you access to more component slots. Most of the customization is going to be crew and equipment. Do you want to focus on weapons like Ion Cannons and Plasma Torpedoes or defenses like Deflectors, Titanium Armor, or Point Defense? Do you want to just use brute force with your Ion Cannons or do you want to immobilize the enemy with Tractor Beams? Do you want to use automatic defenses like Point Defense or active counter measures like Chaff? When you have one slot left, do you add in another beam weapon for some more offense or add in a secondary engine so if the first is destroyed you can still flee with some useful amount of speed? I'm hoping that everyone will design completely unique ships.

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Brian: Besides crew attributes, and attributes such as shields, armor and structure, will other details go into the makeup of your ship that can affect its speed, agility and so on?

Steven: Your ship has a bunch of other important attributes like speed, turn speed, attack (how accurately you hit the enemy), defense (how well you can avoid being hit), resistances (thermal, EM, kinetic, etc), and power load/max power load (each ship component has a specific power load, if above the max system performance degrades).