I find myself switching between races for their ability, for example I am currently Sillixx because I just needed more decks, but I find myself rather disappointed in the ship's design. I previously was Zolazin because I liked the ship's design but like I said I decided to change race for added ship size. Now, what I'm suggesting is that a race like the Zolazin, being that they are cyborgs, should be able to do some kind of DNA imprinting thus utilizing a previously captured specie's racial ability. What I mean by "previously captured species" is that the player has played this race at some time in the past. Furthermore, to have more customization on our ships I suggest the same should be done for ships. So these cybernetic space pirates can also switch between ships that the player has previously used/captured. You would be limited to the bonus that that ship's race is already able to use. So let us say that I unlocked the space pirate and in the past I've played a Zolazin and a Sillixx. I like the Zolazin ship design but I want the Sillixx bonus. As a cyborg I imprint my systems with the Sillixx DNA (the cyborg wouldn't look like a Sillixx it would just carry its DNA marker) and gain access to the ship size bonus and since I've already stolen a Zolazin ship that would be my ship design but it is only able to use the professions: Spy, Raider, Explorer, Hacker, Builder, Saboteur.

Further ship design could also be accomplished by altering the image based on ship size. It’s still hard to imagine that a scout and a star destroyer look the same.

I don't know. The A-wing fighter is essentially a scout and it looks like a tiny Star Destroyer. The original Enterprise looks very similar to the E, but the E is many times larger. Galactica looks like a Federation Runabout, even though the two are very different inside. Even the Tie Fighter and Death Star look almost identical... if you take off the Tie Fighters wings.

Ah, why didn't I think of it before...Borg! You will be assimilated...resistance is futile.