Quartzmech

Not sure the degree to which you've considered this already, but it might help the vibes of this setting to not have reliable FTL communications, even if FTL travel still exists. Would help with making the ship feel more isolated, and give more plausibility for why we can get away with doing evilbad things occasionally and not getting caught (unless witnesses escape, of course).

Definitely hope we'll keep bridge officer, its nice to have a role dedicated to flying shuttles and siding with command. Aside from feeling self important and flying the ship, bridge officers are also really interesting for on-ship conflicts, as they give command some extra bodies that are likely to be loyal even if the armsmen aren't, while also giving rebellious factions a potential in on the bridge outside of the XO. I think it'd add a lot to keep them. Also, wanted to express my excitement for the off-ship interactions mentioned in this. I used to be a player who primarily focused on offships, and the idea of playing a mercenary crew sent to bring the fiends aboard the blood diamond to justice (or, alternately, the crew of the freighter the blood diamond has decided to rob) is right up my alley. I hope you'll be having options for the people on contract, too. I know that this might sound like the antagonist problem again, but at least for me the problem with antagonist was never being unable to participate in long form relationship forming RP, but the weight of the rules and knowing the round rests on your shoulders to provide entertainment. Playing an offship char in a defined role is much more inviting to me, and its nice when these get to interact with the crew.