Something like 250kt on the small end, maybe 350 or 450kt for something more useful. Techwise I’m a loooong ways away from getting what I want (significantly reduced research speeds are both a blessing and a curse), but this wouldn’t be some regular day-to-day scrapper, more like a moving fortress-city. Something built to move into a system, grab any wrecks there, survey the place, and build a gate (or just jump?) into the next system. Getting attacked? Dump out a bunch of small defense platforms and a bunch of fighters/FACs and you’re good to go unless it’s more settled…and you can glass as needed. Need fuel? Park around a gas giant to refine it while your parasites go out and about. Ground survery division? We have space for that. Xenology brigade for ruins? We have space for that, and can fully loot the place besides. Let’s put in some boarding parties just in case. Why not, right? Need extra cargo space? It’s really easy to tack on a tractor beam and tow a very simple storage brick. It doesn’t have to go fast, maybe at most 1kkps, but can go basically wherever it wants to.
A few games ago I ran into catastrophic supply-chain issues with Gallicite and the ONLY way I could get enough to make both a pittance of maintenance supplies and the occasional new ship was by scrapping the literal hundreds of wrecks within the first six or so jumps to Sol. There were no good Gallicite deposits within a reasonable distance. I got super unlucky with the mineral rolls …while my very long standing enemy was sitting directly on one of the best deposits. It was a super fun game before my computer got wiped and I switched to Linux out of frustration. I want to get back to that sort of energy. This far I’ve been incredibly inactive on the galactic stage (I met one NPR in a high-NPR game, they were pretty chill but I suspect they’re closer than I’m really comfortable with) and have limited my exploration to just a handful of systems due to not wanting to activate spoilers just yet.
My whole idea with this sort of design is to make as self-sufficient of a ship as possible that can range VERY far, go pretty much wherever it wants, and not have to worry too much about potential destruction along the way. It would only need to come back when it’s FULL full and by then with any luck it’s past time for significant upgrades anyways. Is there anything in particular I should keep in mind before I start directing my research mostly towards making this sort of design work?