probably posted before, but i couldn't find it, so don't kill me for it. There are multiple ships in the game, all of them very cool. but not enough. and there are so many ships, but only really 5 or so different ship designs, but all "warthog mineral extractor" or something similar. maybe an new design or so?

Since modeling takes so much effort, and the devs often have more pressing matters to attend to, we've been stuck with mostly old models for a long time now. The notable exceptions being the Raptor, the Terradon, the Constellation, the EC-89 (which replaced the EC-88), the X1 Valkyrie, and the Revenant (which replaced the old Wraith). Everything else, I think, is just stuff thats been updated since the alpha days.

However, since the devs seem to be making a lot of progress as of late, having finished up with a great deal of the back-end work thats been consuming their time, this sort of thing is looking more feasible. However, it would be wise to think of a niche role for the craft to fill before requesting a new design. >_>

"only really 5 or so different ship designs"
There are 15 different ships users can purchase, and 4 capital class ships used by the AI, each one using a unique model.

I'm a newb, still playing the trial version, but I love how the game is set up. I'd like to throw in my vote for new ship models also -- of all different roles. If it is low on the dev's priority list, perhaps they could hold a competition for the best fan/subscriber-designed ships, with a reward of recognition and maybe a free subscription or something.
Personally, I would LOVE it if they could get licensing to model the ships drawn by Chris Foss http://www.chrisfoss.net !

there has been a number of ship suggestions w/ roles in the past. for example, the "tpg dart" i had proposed long ago which incarnate seem to have liked (he talked about it just recently). while i hadn't provided a model, i did provide a description of it's minimalistic design and actual goals.

there has been other suggestions in the past. it's a matter of time, and as visitor suggests, backend work being mostly done does bring this sort of stuff up on the to-do list.

"jcaren" yeah, those are awesome!

I agree that we need more ships, but like it has been said, there's other priorities first.
I will include here though a more comprehensive breakdown of the ship models in-game and their approximate age in development.

Alpha/Beta Age Ships:
EC-88 "Bus"
Hornet
Centurion
Vulture
Ragnorok
Centaur
Warthog
Prometheus (Serco)
Valkyrie (Itani)
Marauder (UIT)
Atlas
Wraith (still in limited game use)

"New" Ships:
EC-89+ Model Series
Raptor Model
Revenant Model (functionally replaced Wraith for most factions)
Behemoth Series
X-1 Valkyrie (Slight resizing of Alpha-phase model)

Capital Class:
Trident Frigate
Terradon
Constellation
Heavy Assault Cruiser (re-designated from Alpha-phase "Frigate")

The "New" ships only happened because Guildsoftware lost their old artist, and gained a new one. He didn't stick around for long, but Incarnate has said he left several models that haven't been used yet. (I believe one new model has been slated for the hornet)

The constraint is time; it takes a huge amount of work to put ships ingame.

Try highering programmers and developers to create the ships and only the ships, there should be at least 100 different kinds of ships. That would make this game complex interesting and unique. I know there are only 4 people, but come on, its a business your suppose to higher people to get the job done.

Havoc, they cant afford to hire more people. Im pretty sure if they could, they would've hired them a loooong time ago.
So until there are more people paying, hiring more devs is a no-no. But dont worry, they're getting there.