why not remove the soft cap from individual stats of a component and replace it by a softcap on total with each stat having a stat^1.1 exponent(less for weapon damage/power/non255 stats)
practical calculation
component stats: comp1 100/100/50
comp2 200/50/50
comp1 2*100^1.1+50^1.1=391points
comp2 200^1.1+2*50^1.1=488points
softcap can start at 300-400 total points and varry with class (ie. LF(basic cap) BS(+200 cap) ore suchlike)
this will allow a far greater range of posible uncapped components and give the designer more flavor and ships more variability making the game more intresting overall
at the moment most practical ships have components that are eithere at the softcap(most efficient compnent) or a tiny bit over in one stat(for more specialized designs since theres no disadvantage of having any stat lower then softcap)
softcap calculation:
component size=(B*points)^(1+.001*V)
V=points-S if v<0 then v=0
B=hull dependent size variable
S=soft cap level
this means that evry point till softcap suffers no size penalty, after softcap a scaling exponential penalty is aplied 100point over=90% larger 200=350% 300=800% larger and so on
classes LF MF HF ES CO FR DE CR BCR BS CA
bonus 0 10 20 30 40 50 65 80 100 120 145
these bonuses are actualy quite conservative and may work beter if they are considerably larger(1.5-3x) but thats can only be shown by actualy testing them out
