I would suggest locking some of these behind technologies; a few are extremely powerful to the point where they make most others completely useless, and some are even straight upgrades (there's a destroyer section that costs 5 more alloys than one but has more weapon and equipment slots of the same type, for example).

Repeating the above.

Keep having to reggiger mods/etc, so this only applies up to the Cruiser Level.
Science ships having their own designer means they don't auto upgrade, which is a pain in the rear. The Surveyor type has additional A slots which can be used to make them faster which is nice, but there's not really a reason for science ships to be design-able since you're not going to use them in combat.

In Corvettes Blockade Runner and Enforcer are leagues above everything else. The Enforcer effectively replaces most frigate builds, and the sheer damage output with Blockade Runner is too good, especially as a 4 missile build, which is actually enough to overwhelm most picket fleets. Additionally, with your versions having 3 A slots, they're super good. They should probably be dropped to two max. I'll also point out that Blockade Runners are so good that I don't bother with other ship types except Frigate Drone Carriers.

Frigate Drone Carrier makes for a great early game carrier option, even without carrier battle computers. It'd be great to have them though. It does however invalidate destroyer carriers. Heavy Body is a interesting side grade to the normal Frigate, but should probably cost the same or more, not less. Marauder... It's load out feels weird, and I'm never bothering with that one because the others fit rolls better.

The Cheap Destroyer line makes a slightly upgunned and uparmored Picket Corvette, in exchange for less evasion.... And taking double the slots. I'm not sure if it's worth it, but it's interesting. The other Bows are all eh, and carrier bow should probably swap a slot for either hanger or picket. For the Sterns, the Carrier Stern needs +1 A slot to compete with Frigate Drone Carriers, at which point Cheap Bow and Hanger Stern becomes interesting. Shukes Bow doesn't seem to mesh with stern, but add Picket and you have a great torpedo boat (But Enforcers are better), while Star Warrior + Picket or Gunship makes for a great missile boat that's just barely more efficient than Corvettes (Which I already have tons of, so I'll keep building them until they're too squishy.).
Add +1 A slot to Carrier Stern and -1 from Star Warrior and it's probably balanced, if you ignore the vanila presets. Looking one level up though, Shukes Stern should probably loose a G slot to not invalidate Cruisers, though torpedo cruisers do have +1 A slot so maybe it's ok.

Cruisers. The Cheap is like the Cheap Destroyer, interesting but ultimately not worth it.


Tl;DR
Delete Blockade Runner. Scout Corvette can stay as a scout ship, but I'd probably change it to -1 weapon +1 a instead of -1 weapon -1 armor +2 a. Delete Enforcer, or change it to a S/M build instead of a M/G build. Heavy Body Frigates need to cost more. Destroyer Carrier build is odd, probably drop the bow section and +1A on the stern. Star Warrior Stern should lose a A slot. Shukes Destroyers should probably lose a G Slot. Cheap Sections should be reavaluated, they're effectively 1 ship level down with double health and double slot, and it'll only get worse as tech level increases increasing weapon costs. Cheap Destroyer however is good, I'd probably rename that one Hanger Bow and remove the existing one.

Looking into some of these suggestions, technologies in particular I'm considering for a future update so thanks so much to everyone for your suggestions!

Just a thought, Upgrading is cheaper than building, so cheap x still has a purpose, allowing you to mothball fleets that way. I didn't think of it at the time, but since you're looking into it I figured I'd speak up.

i feel like cruisers are left out because there are only budget sections

I agree, thats something I'll be changing in the future

cruisers are the most versatile type of ships irl iirc so it would be nice if it would have many types of sections

I really feel like the construction and science ships hulls should be bundled into a single tech… Although, frankly, considering I cannot add thrusters to civilian ships, there's really very little reason to ever choosing a different hull as, outside a few ambush events, the gun-slots have very limited use. Perhaps this entire concept should be rethought.

Originally posted by Nikal:

I really feel like the construction and science ships hulls should be bundled into a single tech… Although, frankly, considering I cannot add thrusters to civilian ships, there's really very little reason to ever choosing a different hull as, outside a few ambush events, the gun-slots have very limited use. Perhaps this entire concept should be rethought.

Actually, I'd go as far as to suggest the construction and science ship parts of the mod be spun-off into an optional submod.