1) you do mean this as a comprehensive change, i.e. the change affects all ships alike. I mean otherwise it just totally fucks up any sort of balance if we decide to boost hc's hitpoints and dmg by 100% without according changes to other ships.

2) what would you consider the deeper level of strategy in that change. sure, it would play a bit differently if ships were more or less easily destroyed, slower and what not. but if you set this as a value at the start of the game, how does it entail choices, which are the core of strategy, if you cannot influence it anyway? as I said, it could play a bit differently and require different choices, but I don't see it adding much of a layer inside the game itself.

and tbh, I am perfectly fine with the hp - dmg ratios in the game. in fact, the extremely low hps to dmg in hw 2 basically single-handedly killed that game for me. I suppose you could mod in any changes you want though, but then you probably wont be able to play mp and the single player ai might not be adapted to the changes.

Basically I was just hoping for sliders available for the host in mulitplayer to have the option to adjust the attributes.  Take cruisers for an example, this would affect all cruisers on all three sides at the start of the game.  When a person trains in a tech that increases that attribute as normal then add or subtract the slider setting.

Keep in mind the host can always select the default setting, this just give more options for us to help tailor the game without the need for mods to help replay value and perhaps balance patches in the future.

I personally love how it plays alot like a turn based but is a rts at the same time.  I really don't care for the old c&c rush tactic that have become the norm for rts.  The spam LRM and spec you trade isn't my thing.  Now this game gets incredible balanced when the final tech tree for fleets is reached on both sides then it becomes more of a challenge in my eyes and deeper strategy comes into play.

I am hoping instead of nerfing across the board, that a solution that makes all players happy would help with replay ability. 

I like it. Not for the host but the player.

some ideas:

lowhitpoint fast raiders for cruiser slot one

highhitpoint slow cruisers for fleet infigting slot two

fastcarrier low hp high armour for skirt the gravwell limited to 1 strikecraft and thus cheap slot 3 (special power ingnore phase inhibitor raise cost lots)

slowcarrier high hp/ armour that has long phase charge up, 3 strikecraft slot 4

super long range missile cruiser, slow, high armour very expensive.

love the idea, not sure how the abilities could be tweaked to this change but would be neat as option

games would be a real surprise, help infocards would have to be more infromative though.

You could design you ships offline and opponents could have a couple of minutes to see the ship designs prior to game start. 

Although how to keep this player design of ships faithful to the race traits established in the vanilla game requires consideration.

Great Idea Ccsmoke!!