- Organic ships require a telepathic species to pilot
- Energy ships require a self-sustaining species to pilot
Thoughts: This puts a greater emphasis on the species that one picks or conquers, which I actually think is a good thing. For example, I love and care for my Mur-ush species because of their +25% ship damage; this would give another reason for a player to love on a species.
This should also give a better ability to balance (I think) as content authors can offset a ship line's strength with a species malus. For example, Trith (telepathic/self-sustaining) have only narrow planet tolerance.
This should then present the player with additional interesting strategic choices.
Starcraft has race specific units and I feel that setup makes Starcraft a better game (imagine if each race could build any unit). Granted, Starcraft is an RTS and FO is a 4x, but I contend that parallels can legitimately drawn.
I will note that initially this will through off current species and ship balancing ... not to mention the AI... but ultimately, after re-balancing, I think this would lead to a richer game experience.
Thoughts?