Here's an action sci-fi RPG in which your inventory is a designer of ships and your skills are a technology tree

Indie action RPGs have a unique twist. Instead of a single warrior with a random inventory, your character is a starship that can be upgraded. Starcom: Unknown Space is a low-key, but still very entertaining action take on the genre of space sandbox. It also blends in story events as you explore and land on new planets.

Starcom: Unknown Space describes itself as "an action adventure game of space exploration, ship-building and fast-paced combat". It has a "vast, open-world universe full of alien factions fighting for power, strange planets to explore, mysteries and a sinister opponent that threatens the Galaxy with an ancient power."

You know, the usual sci-fi sandbox... but with ARPG gaming. Maybe like a more chilled Starsector.

The hex grid is one of the coolest features in Starcom. You can use it to build your spaceship. You can equip modules, engines and guns like gear to get the layout right, then go into combat with your design. There are specialties such as speedy strike ship and armored battlecruiser. Your "tech tree" is a sort of skill tree that allows you to choose where you want to focus your efforts when upgrading the ship.

Starcom also includes meeting strange alien factions that you can trade with, fight against, and befriend. They change their behavior based on how you treat them throughout the 60-some sidequests and storylines that span the open world. You can even set an autopilot to take you back to the places you've been.

Starcom: Unknown Space is available on Steam.