I've noticed that the automatically generated ship models tend to use the same defensive tech as the offensive tech it is using.   For example the Cutter uses lasers and shields (which counter laser).   The AI at this point tend to favour lasers and shields.  They are:  Rock - Rock  // Paper - Paper and  Scissor Scissor.

If I wanted to send a fleet of my own to counter a fleet of Cutters, I would likely use a small vessel with shields to protect against the lasers but with kinetics so that the Cutter shields are of no use  The small ship would take the incoming fire first, giving my other ships similarly armed a chance to move in.

Now for a ship design which has Kinetics weapons and Shields I have to use the ship designer.   The game does not auto-generate ship models which have this combination.  I have to re-visit the designer periodically to make a better design as my tech gets better.

I'd like a menu for automatic ship generation where I could type in the name of the class of ship, the hull type, the type of weapon and the type of defense and the game would auto-upgrade these for me as my tech allows me to fit more on that size of hull.  For example:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2swvjht22fbw439/AutoShips.png?dl=0

The ships classes configured like this would auto-upgrade as to accommodate more weapons / defense as the tech got better.  The constructor modules would incorporate more constructor points, the explorer and freighters would get more speed / range. 

The special offense / defence refers to special modules which either helps targeting, reload, jamming, defense .   This click box would tell us to use them or not as they become available.