I have some ideas for modifications in the game.

1. Capitol ships would get regenerating sheilds (e.g. cruseirs, gunships, & battleships)
But the sheild and hull strength combined would equal the origional ships
armor. So while the ships would be easier to take out once stripped of shields
getting there would be more difficult due to regenerating sheilds of the vessels. Same could be done with trains and super frieghters to a varying degree.
Bases could be given sheilds as well but that is a matter of opinion.

2. You should be able to buy large frieghters and trains at a shipyard to keep
it vaguely real since assembling such a large ship on planet and then launching
it would be insano hard. Also once bought, the animation would have the train/frieghter coming from the dock instead of the tiny fighter docking port.

P.S. (I'm not sure about putting the shield on a base since it might cause errors
while trying to dock. Also expanding on that, all capitol ships with shields
would be those like in the Battleship Encounter mod, just flying about. Sorry if I don't know whom to credit but I think the job was great.)