I just figured out something awesome!!
And it was right in front of me the entire time.
By tweaking the unified render controller I can stop the imported ships from doing that weird transition from light color to dark color as you get close, and I can get the textures for the weapons to render much further out.
These problems were really bugging me, and now they're solved.
I am not sure if it will fix the solid black passenger ship at night but it might.