I completely agree with Aquarius on this one. We could have a stat system. For example, a warbird starts with 0 on all stats: energy, recharge, thrust, speed, rotatation, etc. Each ship could have a certain amount of stat points, and they could be allocated depending on player preferences to build the ship according to their own taste. Of course, there is still the matter of different items such as guns/bombs/specials/etc. which can follow the format that Aquarius has suggested.