[Jeb]

I would imagine the rule that cargo ships must have 50% of their space devoted to cargo bays is a play balance issue. When everyone else is flying around in escorts, a small transport hull filled with weapons would be extremely powerful, even if it would be a tad slower than military ships. That said, it is too bad that satellite bays and minelayers don't also count as cargo. This isn't much of a problem, though, because you can also put mines and satellites in regular cargo bays, so you really only need one mine layer or satellite bay per ship.

I also like the idea of Q-ships, which would be especially nasty against someone who has a "don't fire on" order about transports. Still, since transports are cost half as much per kT of space as military ships, there needs to be some restrictiont that prevents all of a player's transports from being Q-ships. A limit on spaces that could be devoted to offensive systems would prevent you from building Q-ships just as much as the current system, and in fact might be even more restrictive.