Here's an idea I don't think we've talked about, Ship logistics!
Think about it, you're managing a massive ship with heaps of stuff placed all around the shop. We need a better way of moving things from point A to point B, and here are my ideas:
Train
A train consists of rails and stations. Stations require one crew to opperate it. Stations load and unload only 1 ammunition type each. Each track is assigned a train, and said train will travel through all stations which match it's ammunition type, and will quickly pick up or deposit their cargos at each station. This would allow for larger ships to take advantage of more centralised manufacturing areas. Train stations would also be compatible with the latter mentioned convear belts and storage grouping.
Convear Belts
Convear belts connect two ammunition storages or factories (not weapons), and will transfer products between them. Products will automatically be balanced between all the storages. Convear belts will have a limited range between the provider and the requester, meaning you can't just teleport ammo across the whole ship.
Grouping bonuses
Factories and reactors should gain productivity bonuses if they are grouped together. I know there's the old saying don't group your reactors, but it would encourage players to trade survivability for raw power, depending on their playstyle.
Storage grouping
When storages and factories are grouped together, they could have their inventory combine. This would further help make dedicated mass production facilities more viable, instead of big traffic jams.
Express Factory
The express factory would have a built in crew locomotion belt, meaning crew could easily circle around from the back of the factory and come out the front, keeping the flow of ammo much more reliable, instead of having traffic jams by having crew enter and exit through the same door.
Complex Manufacturing
Late game items could allow players to dedicate large areas of their ships to manufacturing more complex materials and ammo types, or even repair kits needed for in-battle repairs, or to refuel the future fighter ships. Manufacturing would rely on multiple stages, which produce different components in different ways.
Energy Capacitor, Ammo Storage Retriver
The energy capacitor is a device capable of storing a lot of energy in a small space. However, the capacitor retrives this energy via an energy buffer, which only refills at a fixed rate, although faster than a reactor. The energy capacitor would be a far more viable varient of the energy storage, as it would still be useful in long term combat, but not in an overpowered way. This same concept could also be used in an ammo storage-like device
