Can I build a submarine battleship with death rays?

[The Rock Doctor]

Err, no.

Although we've taken gross liberties with geography and history, we've made a point of keeping the N-verse's technological development closely linked with our historical advances. 

In part, this is because of the limitations of our tools.  The ship design utility we use - Springsharp - can only design broadly historical vessels.  It doesn't provide for VLS cells, multi-hulls, death-rays, and the like. 

It's also in part because of game-balance considerations.  Introduce a radically new technology, and somebody's suddenly got a tremendous advantage - the kind of advantage that makes HMS Dreadnought look like a mild re-working of pre-dreadnought designs.  Naturally, the inclination of the player with that dramatic new advantage is to use it for their own gain.  Some of us old-timers have experienced this, and rest assured, it wasn't a happy time for any of us.

Now, this isn't to say you can't explore technologies that dead-ended historically.  You can.  You'll just have to convince the rest of us that the technology is feasible, that it can be reasonably accurately simulated, and that it doesn't upset game balance terribly.