I know you probably have a warp drive model already, but I thought you might be interested in this idea...
Model warp drives as components that have warp-opening and warp-closing ability of various (but short) distances - the more advanced the drive, the longer the distance. Stipulate that games should (but not necessarily must) begin with no warp points. (Or maybe that can be put into QuadrantTypes.txt... set max. warp points per system to zero...) Then a ship can go to warp by creating a warp point, and other ships can "ride the quantum slipstream" by following the warp point, unless the ship immediately closes the warp point once on the other side. Regular intrasystem travel would then be handled by impulse drives, and maneuvering thrusters would provide extra combat movement (with the Afterburner ability).
Just an idea...
