Does anyone know if the game designers used a particular calculation on the ship hulls to arrive at the given SP values or was it more about guess work or "what feels right"?

If there is a calculation used, would anyone know what it is?

I was hoping to design some new Hulls for my game but I didn't want them to be too over/under powered and was hoping there was some locial design steps to take to put one together for balance purposes.

Any ideas?

I'll take that as a "no" then.

It's kinda obvious they went with "what the feels right". Some hulls are a steal for the points you pay, some are fairly balanced, and others like the Conquest Star-galleon are in need of a little house ruling. For an average group of gamers who choose their ship by what sounds cool it works and works fine, but once you have someone start nit-picking some things get annoying.