what do ya guys think about this... menu on stations that give you access to how much armor you have on your ship makeing it tougher to kill or ligter and more maneuverable. there will be a range that you can't exceed or drop below... after all, we can't have cents at 1k armor and fly'n around faster then valcs or busses more armored then proms. kinda like the old mech warrior games. this can be expounded on too, like room for cargo at the expence of armor or speed. let me know what you think.

In principal that could work. In practice, its even harder to balance vehical construction systems than it is to balance individual vehicals.

As a long time mechwarrior, I can tell you that the original mech creation system was both extremely clever and extremely fragile. It's also far more complex than merely a trade off between mass and hull points.