I've been playing through Starfield (doesn't deserve the crap it gets, the game is really great, just overhyped) but it made me think how this would the absolutely perfect way to get a Trek RPG. All of the ingredients are there. The player character isn't Starfleet. Make the story focus on some sort of non-aligned/outside the Federation world, but a fairly cosmopolitan place. Character creation allows you to pick one of a few races... you can be Human, Vulcan, Klingon, Cardassian, etc. Maye don't go toooo crazy, but put in some "Greatest Hits". Each race would give you some buffs and weaknesses, as well as some unique dialogue choices, and different starting standings with factions. Plot happens, and you need to leave your world to go do Star Treky things. Just like in Starfield, you will do both on the ground open-world RPG stuff, as well as have a ship with a crew to do Space Stuff. To make this style of game work, no you probably won't be able to get like a Galaxy-Class or something like that. Will work better sticking to smaller ships. There could be say, three major factions... Federation, Klingons, and then choose your third (Romulans, Cardassians, whatever). You can move around between them, do missions for them, pick up unique rewards, etc. Your character will be able to wear some more iconic costume options... you can get a Starfleet uniform, Klingon armor, etc. You might get these as loot during the game, but I think there would be ways to earn them. Like perhaps on the Federation mission arc, Starfleet doesn't many ships in the sector, so they're reaching out to independent ship captains. You could basically enlist, get a Starfleet uniform, but work do jobs on an as-needed basis. The Klingons will hire you as a mercenary, and when you earn enough honor, they'll give you a Klingon uniform. I had a random idea for comm badges to be part of the games systems. You can collect various comm badges that give you extra buffs/abilities. Perhaps some function as personal shields, or they give you some kind of scanning ability, etc. I had an another idea to lean more into the stealth element, with a holographic system that you can utilize to try to blend in. The comm badge may tie into that, making it harder for enemies to detect you. On the topic of ships, like I said smaller ships are better... you're a Rios type, you're not going to have a Sovereign. Likewise, most ship combat will probably be against other smaller craft... BoP's and the like. HOWEVER, it's Star Trek, so I do want big ships to be around and I think they needed to be impressive and in-scale. If you're in a Runabout and you're coming up on a Romulan Warbird, it's going to be HUGE. To make it somewhat different, battles involving larger ships would probably be more like set piece battles with you either having a swarm of smaller craft, or a larger ship on your side that you are assisting. For loot and "money", I think it would be fun to have to balance different systems. Each faction will have it's own currency, but Latinum is mostly universal and can be converted around, for a price. The Federation may use something more like "Requisition". It makes getting particular loot take some trade offs or work to get. If you want an awesome Phaser Rifle or a Starfleet ship... they're either just flat out not going to "sell" it to you, or it's going to take *ALOT* of Latinum for them to consider it. Rather, you can Requisition by doing things for Starfleet. The more you do, the more Starfleet will allow you to requisition.
I want a great Trek game, but Bethesda isn't the way to go. They are still 20 years behind the rest of the gaming industry, even with Microsoft money. I was incredibly disappointed in Starfield, it is just so bland. Twenty years behind technically and bland storytelling is not a good combination. The Outer Worlds is actually the far superior game.
I would love a ST game were ship battles in space were like the days of old sailing ship sea battles, but in space, with ships heavy, slow, dense and with weight behind them.....TWOK got the closest to it with the two big ships slowly broadsiding each other and limping away damaged.
^^^ I've often felt that if someone re-skinned the "World of Warships" engine to use Trek meshes, you would have an insanely kick-ass starship combat simulator on your hands. Yeah, it would be on a 2D plane, similar to the Starfleet Command (SFB) series, but still... It could also probably be easily modded for Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica scenarios, too.
Screw Bethesda (Except for Skyrim my love). Give Larian a Trek license. The Baldur's Gate folks would make a kickass Trek game.
Have you played Rebel Galaxy? Not a Trek game, but easily could be, as the combat is just like you describe. Plus an awesome soundtrack.