Giving spaceships character

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

In my case, I need ideas for a state-of-the-art, retro-tech (TL 6+3) Patrol frigate for Tales of the Solar Patrol.

State of the art milspec equipment will inevitably suffer from having some features in the design specs that the contractors dutifully put in, that don't actually work. Pick some tasks that are normal spaceship operations and introduce some widget that in theory will make it easier but have the widget just never quite work right.