21st Century Mod

Of course!
The tech tree will be completely revamped, much as I did with the Low Tech Mod for SE4, but with new additions that were not present in that mod. For instance, instead of having engine tech and weapon tech be completely separate, you will need to research various "power" techs such as Chemical Power and Antimatter Power, each with its own prerequisite level of Physics. On their own the power techs will grant crude weapons (Chemical Power might grant an Incendiary Bomb for dropping on planets, for instance), but to get engines and more advanced weapons you would need to research Power Harnessing (for engines) or the appropriate "weapon chassis" tech (for weapons). So Chemical Power + Beams would give you a Rubidium Laser, while Chemical Power + Power Harnessing would give you a Rocket Engine. More advanced power techs will cost ridiculous amounts to research (Gravitic Power, the most advanced of all, is 128,000 RP base cost!) and will require higher levels of Power Harnessing (and possibly the weapon chassis) to get benefits other than the crude explosives. (Level 1 Graviton Wake drives will require level 1 Gravitic Power and level 26 Power Harnessing, for instance.)
Armor is also kind of interesting... it will probably require a bit of playtesting to tweak the hitpoints properly, but there are actually two kinds of armor: regular armor and structural reinforcement. The difference is basically the same as SE4's regular armor and "leaky" armor: the structural reinforcement has many more hitpoints, but isn't guaranteed to be hit first, since it doesn't go into an armor slot. I also gave each type of armor an additional benefit to further differentiate them: all armor, not just emissive armor, has a small to moderate damage reduction ability, but regular armor's damage reduction is larger; on the other hand, since structural reinforcement does not have the "armor type" ability, it counts as regular hitpoints and thus must be destroyed in order to blow up the ship, unlike regular armor. In addition, obviously "external" components such as solar sails and sensors must go into armor slots, making them quite vulnerable!
Speaking of sensors, I gave those an overhaul, too... There are now four types of sensors: standard radar, long-range radar, anti-stealth radar, and active radar. Standard radar is short-ranged and can't detect stealthed ships. Long range radar and anti-stealth radar are pretty obvious what they do, but they are larger and more expensive. Active radar combines the advantages of long-range and anti-stealth radar, but it comes at a price - it gives you a -50 to defense and ships using active radar cannot be stealthed (or at least they won't be able to once I get that requirement working )

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Mr. Flibble says...
Game over, boys!

Silly webserver keeps going down... must be my brother or someone shutting it off
But once I get home I'll start it up again - then you can download the data files I have so far and look at an after-combat ship report!
http://kolis.dyndns.org/ed/se/se5/mods/21stcentury

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Mr. Flibble says...
Game over, boys!