I hugely agreee.

I am not convinced we even need to upgrade ships at all! I think it is better design when you cannot. But people tend to want their upgrades...

But making it take some number of turns would be a big improvement. Especially with espionage coming.

I want to share ideas, on how I think the devs could add to how this works, as I feel that this could be dealt with in a comprehensive manner, in the style of how other gameplay elements flow.

Meaning that there could be new System Improvements (and other Empire Research techs), that then can improve the process in a realistic manner, that, hopefully fits with the vision of the devs.

With the hope to reduce confusion, this is how I see this Ship Design working with these following ideas, as the Base Process being:

Have a design, build the Ship and it is considered Permanent (like buying Ships from the Marketplace).

• Ships can be scrapped and/or Sold; with more Advanced procedures, like the Hull upgrade transition, takes a few more steps to complete from here.

  • A manner to envision this, is as how it works buying a car from a Dealer, once the Design is in place, that is what the options are reduced down to, without additional Services.

• Design or redesign a ship, and now you can create a new Ship that can be built in your Systems, as the Base Process, works in this basic cycle.

• Therefore, new System Improvements would need to be Researched and made Available, so that the important and powerful capabilities of using Upgrades and Refits would be then possible to achieve on existing Fleets, as is the case for any power outfitting their Military.

  • This can be envisioned as now having owned a Car, you can buy and install after-market systems with one place (like a Radio or Tires), or go to another and have full custom work done on the Car, like a new suspension or extra speakers.

Ideally, the basic example, make sense and here's what I've considered as some reasonable possibilities (that can certainly see tweaks and improvements) to fit in line with what the devs intend,

With how such Ship Design and Star System management interacts and fit into Endless Space 2, for how Fleet elements can be supported by the Factions, I'm starting with these three ideas:

Forward Supply Depots – could be a System Improvement that is required for Ships to upgrade Modules, so a Ship can move from Basic OPAL Laser to Basic HELL Array Laser at one of their Star Systems, that has such a Depot, for example.

• That way there is an upkeep and would have strategic placement in a particular system as an important factor (should also be able to adjust the Dust cost seen in the Ship Design menu), so now in order to take advantage of that new Advancement, a Ship has to go to a Depot for such supplies.

• Should have a further tie in like Exotic Rations or Patriot Pills Plant, to divert a percent of Industry over to Manpower Rate Increase, as a supply Depot could also help ships fill their Manpower back up, as well as support Systems that have survived dealing with a recent Invasion.

• This could be available as a Level 2 or 3 Tech, and be say a third item along side, Boarding Pod Basic.

Orbital Drydock - this would allow the swapping of Modules on a Ship going from one Module type, to the next, Ballistics to Missile, or Laser. Hull Plating or Shield modules, so with this built in a system, we just need to pay the bill on such work to Ships.

• Such a facility would be necessary to get existing Ships up to speed with more Empire Advances and Discoveries, not to mention tearing off the old, out-dated alloys or tech systems for the newer more advanced systems and still be serviceable in the vacuum of space.

• As another important and Destroy-able System Improvement, like during Invasions (and likely with Espionage just around the corner) so strategic placement becomes another factor for most Factions, as well as a target as to make use of such a resource.

• This can be a Level 1 base Tech that supplants O2G Delivery Gear (a Module, that can be bumped up into a grouping in a Level 2 Node, such as Coordinated Command and Mobile Energy Weapons).

Naval Engineering Bureau– A Level 1 or 2 (single per empire built) Special System Improvement that influences the efficiency of constructing and repairing Ship Designs, that can adjust construction and repair costs under specific conditions, focused more on the early game progress, before a player begins investing into Industry boosting Tech.

• The basic idea is providing short term buffers, to help reduce the increasing Construction and Repair costs on a Ship Design when upgrading modules on a default 'factory' configuration (swapping or adding modules, different from the factory configuration would work as normal in raising costs). 

• So that a Design, instead of construction cost jumping up (enough to add more than one turn to building the Ship, for example) when it's simply upgrading Modules (not swapping or add to empty slots), could be absorbed to keep the original Construction cost of the base modules until the design swaps or adds new modules. 

• So then having a well worn and battle tested Fleet be faster or cheaper to repair for a period of time, when using the default configuration, even if it is say Level 3 modules, could be a help for that early part of the game, where it can be difficult to keep pace with pirates and aggressive factions.

So that's the first draft for what could be cool to consider for an area that the devs could tweak some, hopefully addressing some of the issues expressed about how this process currently works, with a few additions and changes, that in turn, can allow a different sort of  star system specialization with what can be Researched by a Faction, and then built in Star Systems, at least in the early and midgame.

I plan to keep playing more turns, refining these ideas and then posting in the Ideas area, when I get the chance, so thanks for reading this far.