I just noticed that the AI does not address one of the most frequent mistakes new people will make (one that I did as well still learning) in that the 1000 cost is normally due to having the stats to low for what you set. perhaps you should add something like this to the design confirm screen:
'please note if your design is to innefecient the cost will increase to 1.000 credits when it could be even better'
also of note is the fact that the AI will need to be altered in SO wars... especially when it gets into the mothership missions