This is all I have so far; hopefully this will clarify what I'm going for with this (for anyone who'se interested)

RPG battle system
Dungeon crawling that leads to the RPG battles
Space travel simulator that leads to the dungeon crawling
Spaceship management game that underlies the space travel
Relationship/management simulator /w crew that underlines the spaceship management
Space combat simulator that the space travel leads in to

So - six games deep, playing with six characters.

Thoughts:

    RPG battle system:
        100% text based
        Largeish variety of enemies
        Largely inventory item based; it's sort of like playing Slay the Spire
        Or, make it XCOMlike?
        Yeah, I like xcomlike better
        Still can't draw it; could do ASCII-style
       
    Dungeon crawling:
        Maybe bring in that 5D stuff?
        See enemies coming, look like Pathways Into Darkness maybe?
            No, I can't draw that. Will have to be extremely basic because
            of unavailability of art.
        Theme it as space stations and ship salvage?
        Theme battles too, then?
        Given the change from RPG battles to tactical battle, maybe should be
        a boarding mechanic for the ship fights
        Boarding in ship fights, and salvaging after ship fights and random encounters
        If I get enough time, add narrative missions on stations/planets
       
    Spaceship travel:
        TEOS clone
        Fly to stations, buy and sell things, try to identify good trade routes,
        randomly get in to fights or discover abandoned stations
        Can buy systems and parts and fuel for the spaceship management
        Realistic economy, where NPC ships also discover trade routes and opportunities
        get saturated/fixed if you don't jump on them?
   
    Spaceship management:
        Ship is made of systems, parts randomly break down or are broken by fighting
        Can be fixed by crew or replaced by spares
        Oregon Trail like
        Random events with consequences for crew and resources?
        Also need to make sure you have enough food and fuel
       
    Crew management:
        Not sure what to do with this.
        Crew are involved in other systems (every other system?), they are the PCs in the tactical fight,
        provide solutions for problems in spaceship management
        Interact with NPCs through spaceship travel game?
       
    Space combat:
        Real time with pausing, like FTL
        Ties in to the spaceship management game, systems give your ship the ability
        to do things (weapons attack, shields prevent damage, armor absorbs damage, etc.)
        See ships on a screen flying around each other, some systems & accuracy of shots
        depends on relative position, can right click to pause (or slow?) game and bring
        up list of actions that can be taken; can right click on position and move there,