Hi!
AFAIK you don't need two designs. In DL and DA you can upgrade to the same design, for about the lowest cost possible ("only" the production price of the ship).

BR, Iztok

I've noticed it myself. I find that you upgrade through most of the missle weapons at minimal cost because most of the weapons have the same price. Get some good missle weapons techs, and then work on defense.

As for repairing my ships, I don't use it because its feels like I'm using an exploit of the game. It defeats the purpose of playing a difficult game if I can simply cheat. This is a big deal in TA because we now get structural enhancements which can boost the hp of ships. You can easily double, or triple a ships hp if you are willing to put up with the costs.

In the past, I have asked for a repair command (like upgrade) to try to get around this exploit. Nothing has been made thus far.

I've been using this for close to two years now. It's really great when you can get mediums above 100 HP because of all the experience they collect.

I can see some argument that this should not be available in open space and perhaps not even at a newly conquered planet but like I said I've been using this for two years and it's very doubtful that anything will change with this.

Actually I find this far less disconcerting than being able to completely overhaul my doom rays to black hole eruptors in one week while sitting next to a planet that you just conquered the week before.