At the moment HE shells are the main armament of all ships in the game, with AP
bieng secondary

I believe that this should not be the case. because HE shells would not do that great
amount of damage to a ship, unless they penetrated the deck or hull. which was very
unlikely, as they would just explode upon hitting the deck

AP shells have a greater ability to penetrate amour, but because so few ships use
amour, there is little need for them so if we have a basic amour value set for each
ship as the minimal default, with the option to add more (more on this later)

HE shells would penetrate much less and with the grater value of amour they are up
against, the less damage they should deal. but should always be able to deal
damage, however it would be in inconsistent values. If the shots penetrate, there
would be a maximum damage value available for the shots

AP on the other hand, should be the main damage dealer for penetrating shots, they
should have a much higher penetrating depth than HE, and always deal consistent
damage when penetrating amour. however if the amour value is greater than the
penetrating value of the shell, then the shot ricochet's and deals no damage

Crew death.
From experience, i have noticed that genraly that AP shells kill more crew than HE.
i don't understand this. as an AP shell would only kill crew if they were directly hit
HE shells are an area effect weapon, thus should give a greater likely-hood for crew
death

the majority of ships run around with little/no amour.
this means every ships main armament are HE shells. If we impose a minimum amour
value for ships, (without loss in speed) but with the option to add more amour,
resulting in a loss of speed greater per ton untill the minimum speed.
SO an L2 with "default" amour configuration. would still go max 39 knts, but when
you start putting on amour, you reach the 35knt max speed faster from less tonnage
of amour.
example: (example of how it would work, not actually recommending possible
minimum stats)
SO. basic config of L2, say.... 2.5" deck 3.5" belt and 30 bulge
Your max speed is 39 knts, but if you want an extra 10 bulge, you lost 2 knts
You could have total end amour values of:
9.5" deck, 4" belt and 50 bulge, reducing your top speed to 35knts

thoughts/opinions welcome