Can't you just use an empty tiny hull in orbit to fend off unarmed transports? That's what I've been doing so far, keeps the transports off.
chriskrusz
Why not use the fleet names for this? You can just rename the fleet to 'Border Guard' or something like that.
Do not confuse budget deficit with public debt! The Netherlands has a public debt of 217,6 billion euro as of January 2006. Norway and Taiwan have public debts of about 33%-36% of their GDP. Only Brunei doesn't seem to have a public debt.
The size of a ship could possibly be used to calculate how hard it is to hit, and how easily it will hit ships of other (and the same) size. Smaller ships should be harder to hit than larger ones. Then you could add tracking systems to ships to improve the chance to hit a ship, and maneuvrability upgrades to reduce the chance of being hit. And have specific types of weapons which are more effective against ships of a certain size. Would that constitute a turn-based Homeworl