I would like to be able to test various ship designs and ultimately fleets against other designs. What happens if I change the ship type or armaments against this type of ship. How do I survive against a ship of the same size but 20% more hp? What if I add thrusters instead of chaff? 

Really it would be awesome do be able to use the ship designer outside of a game and then load say a Terran ship and compare a glass cannon to a ship with defenses. Change the type from escort to assault, etc. Fleet make up to take out a fleet with two carriers, or whatever. I could probably loose a weekend doing this initially.