This is a quick idea that has popped into my head a few times, and I think it would fit the gameplay well.
I’ve already said it would make sense if non-ship equipment could be found as loot. If drones are ever added, it makes sense that pirates would occasionally carry outlaw mining drones or planetary harvesters.
I think two additional loot types would also fit, Structural Loot and Engineering Loot.
These are essentially “chunks of things”, too delicate and small to be blasted with a salvage laser, but large enough that they would yield resources at a Goldarn Recycling Depot. They would be Ship Store items, stacked if possible, or one per slot if the Ship Store doesn’t work that way. They would not be equip-able or otherwise useful. They could potentially be used in future very large schematics (most likely ships, possibly Heavy or Spinal Mount weapons), but they are explicitly recycle fodder. They are not buildable, unless a future NPC wants something built as a mission chain. (They could potentially appear in crafting-focused NPC mission chains.)
These loots would normally return five kinds of resources instead of the normal ten.
The normal pattern for Structural Loot would be to return two refined resources, two salvage resources, and one harvested resource. The refined resources would be the largest resources.
For example:
Rawk Enameled Armoring: Orbanite 16, Manufactured Tri Alloy Steel 12, Engineering Module 4, Rawk 76, Abaron 24
Reinforced Reactor Mount: Voltrite 8, Engineering Module 8, Tesla Coil Unit 4, Pryavlon 144, Kelvorite 28
The normal pattern for Engineering Loot would be three salvage resources, one refined resource, and one mining or harvest resource. The salvage resources would be the largest resource.
For example:
Engineering Analysis Structure: Myzenous 8, Cabalite 8, Cluster Disk 16, Data Integrity Unit 16, Probe Controller 8
Reinforced Portal Assembly: Metallocite 8, Rawk 28, Mechanical Transducer 24, Bulk Head Units 16, Electronic Sub Systems 12
Why: From a narrative sense, it would make sense that loot found in combat wrecks, salvage, or asteroid debris would not always contain a useful reactor or weapon. Chunks of the ship themselves would be of value. When scouring or salvaging for parts, “The cargo bay’s Shield Emitter Assembly is functional and worth a shiny credit,” would be just as sensible as “We could unmount that Melar Autocanon…”. It would make more sense to take a wreck’s functioning Fuel Flow Regulators than blast it for a few units of Ionized Rings.