Captain’s Choice is not strictly a ship combat mod. It does, however, strongly influence how all ship combat in the game plays out with deep interplay between ship systems. No more useless habs and (fewer) useless structural components!

It is generally designed around two key concepts: Disparity and Modularity.

Disparity
Class differences between ships have been exaggerated, and in some cases trends have been reversed. 
Quality is introduced as a scaling factor for all parts.
A large part of this is designed around Spacefaring Economy - as its tiered pricing makes less sense if all parts perform identically.

Modularity
Selection of each part is now more important. 
Many decorative habs and structural components now serve a purpose, with many parts now having several roles.
It is now possible to build your ships ‘wrong’ in some ways. See below for details.

What does it do?

The main change is that most ship values are now calculated together.
You may recognize this from Apogee or Ship Combat Overhaul, which this mod draws heavy inspiration from.
However, unlike the above, there are a few key changes.

• Maximum ship speed is faster than vanilla, but not additive.
• There are also no weapon, shield, or hull rebalances as of release. 
• CC is designed to simply enhance the existing systems.
  

Despite the lack of weapon changes, you will find combat playing out rather differently depending on how you build your ship.

Ship stats now scale heavily off of Class and Quality.
Class is unchanged - A, B, or C.
Quality is determined by the Manufacturer, Value and Utility of a part.
It scales somewhat with level.

Below are the Class changes, broadly defined.

Speed and Boost
All ships are slightly faster. However, Class C ships now boast the highest top speed, with Class A ships having the lowest.
Class C ships have limited boost without careful building. If built with insufficient engines, they may have none.
Class A ships offer tremendous boost with great escape potential. 

Maneuverability
A few thruster values are additive. Most parts with visual thruster effects offer some bonus to strafing (unlocked with rank 1 of the Piloting perk).
Rocket-style engines (those with no Port or Starboard variant) have significantly less strafing ability. You will have to add side-mounted engines or invest in thrusters if you wish to use these nimbly.

The Quality changes are across all ship modules.

Manufacturer
Parts from Hope-Tech or Nova Galactic can be considered budget parts with little combat value. 
They offer slightly better exploration-related stats than other tiers but tend to be heavier and slower.

Deimos parts are mid-range, focused around combat and efficiency.

Stroud-Eklund and Taiyo compete for the top spot in the luxury market, with Taiyo parts being more efficient by a margin.
Both are generally lighter in weight than competing brands for an equivalent part.

Habs

• Living Quarters/Bunks: Each adds a tiny amount of Shielded Cargo.
• Mess Halls: Use a small amount of Reactor power.
• Cockpits: Cargo capacity reduced. Lock-on time scales with quality. Higher-tier cockpits reduce boost cooldown.
• Engineering Bays: Use a small amount of Reactor Power. Ship repair time reduced and boost cooldown reduced. 
• Computer Cores: Use a moderate amount of reactor power. Significantly decrease lock-on time.
• Battle / Control Stations: Add a small amount of reactor power and shields.
• Cargo Halls: Add a reasonable amount of cargo storage.
  

Structural Components

• Thrusters are now functional and required for large ships to maneuver effectively.
• Landing gear adds a small amount of thruster maneuverability.
• Braking Engines are now functional.
  

Note that all changes are designed around Spacefaring Economy and its pricing.

Requirements

There are no requirements except for Starfield version 1.14.70. DLC is not required.

Compatibility

Captain's Choice is compatible with anything that does not change records for the same Ship Part GBFM records.
It is generally incompatible with comprehensive ship module overhauls.
It is not incompatible with mods that add ship parts but they obviously will not reflect my changes.

It can be used with the Combat modules of SCO or Apogee.
However, as the above are designed around their own maneuverability changes, results may vary.

It is recommended to use alongside Spacefaring Economy as its Quality changes directly reflect pricing in SFE.

"Will you patch (X)?"

No. All of my mods have 100% open permissions for patching, and all information that might be needed for patches is either in the description or the plugin.

Any patches that I publish will be for mods that A. I use myself, and B. have open permissions. This list is extremely small.

Installation

All changes are contained in the plugin, which is a Light Master and should be loaded as late as possible.

It is recommended to install the mod while you are near a Ship Building facility of some kind, due to the following;

Your cargo capacity will decrease upon installation due to the changes of Cockpit capacities.
If you have some types of habs installed your power budget may change.
Therefore, you may wish to add storage or adjust your total power before taking off after installation.

If installing on a new game, these are not terribly relevant.

It is safe to uninstall as no new records are added in the release version. You may still wish to be near a spaceport when doing so.

Why Was (X) Implemented?

The Battle Stations bonus simulates your crew's ability to dynamically allocate power where needed, as well as boosting shields as needed.
Shielded Cargo was added simply because more to scan = less accurate scanning. It is negligible in A-class ships, generally.

Notes

Many values are not properly shown in the shipbuilder, for various reasons.
Here is the range of values for most parts:


Credits

Bethesda for Starfield and the Creation Kit.
ElminsterAU for SF1Edit.
gpgpgpgp2019 for Ship Combat Overhaul, some of whose systems inspired changes made here.
AshkaariElesaan for APOGEE, which (in turn inspired by SCO) also inspired this mod.

Spacefarer - A Modular Overhaul

Most of my mods so far have been designed to work as a modular and compatible vanilla+ series - Hereby dubbed Spacefarer.
Check them out if you're interested!

Combat
Deadly Effective - Overhauls the blandest vanilla combat perks for playstyle diversity (and fun!)
Balanced Ballistics - Highlights the strengths and weaknesses of various weapon types.
Suit Up - Smart and compatible categorization for vanilla armors.
Space Economy
Cost of Spacing - Simulates a complex space economy by introducing costs to space travel in a lightweight manner.
Spacefaring Economy - Overhauls prices and rewards with heavy scaling to avoid hyperinflation.
Captain’s Choice - Rebalances ship classes and modules for more thoughtful shipbuilding and combat.
Immersion
No More Magic Boost Packs - This is probably my personal favorite. You can’t boost jump unless you are visibly wearing a boost pack.
Immersive Renames [RTFP] - Renames a variety of mod-added items to meet vanilla naming conventions.