Ship Classes and variations? what are they????

[Sabretooth]

I think we should get different looking ships when we upgrade the ship classes to make them unique or at least different. for example the fleet frigates should be different from the fast frigates etc. there is just no reason to build any of the upgraded hull types from the basic from what i can see

[Nightskies]

Are you aware that the upgraded ships have more slots for components of all types, more space for components, and better targeting and countermeasures or better bonuses? The slots themselves are also of different sizes, most notably in weapons. For a higher cost, of course.

Heavy frigates are ideal picket ships in more powerful fleets with a notable countermeasure bonus and more weapon slots. Fleet frigates are straight upgrades of the base frigate. Fast frigates - yeup - have more engine slots and a bigger speed / maneuvering bonus.

As mentioned, the only advantage of the un-upgraded ships is that they're cheaper, most notably in the cruiser class.

[Sabretooth]

Originally posted by Nightskies:

Are you aware that the upgraded ships have more slots for components of all types, more space for components, and better targeting and countermeasures or better bonuses? The slots themselves are also of different sizes, most notably in weapons. For a higher cost, of course.

Heavy frigates are ideal picket ships in more powerful fleets with a notable countermeasure bonus and more weapon slots. Fleet frigates are straight upgrades of the base frigate. Fast frigates - yeup - have more engine slots and a bigger speed / maneuvering bonus.

As mentioned, the only advantage of the un-upgraded ships is that they're cheaper, most notably in the cruiser class.

Thanks for the info! whats the difference between fighters and interceptors?

[Thineboot]

Originally posted by Sabretooth:

[...] Thanks for the info! whats the difference between fighters and interceptors?

Different designs for the same purpose. Check out the stats, component bays etc.

[TheMac]

Originally posted by Sabretooth:

I think we should get different looking ships when we upgrade the ship classes to make them unique or at least different. for example the fleet frigates should be different from the fast frigates etc. there is just no reason to build any of the upgraded hull types from the basic from what i can see

As you progress in the game, you'll want the upgraded variants of the common ships for the expanded slots, etc. as has been mentioned before. Things like boarding pods take a slot, then you'll want damage control, which also takes a slot. There are plenty of nebulae which require either the ion armor or ion defense, too.

Distance also becomes a larger factor, so you may just want the extra slots for reactors or fuel. I'm with you in that they should look different, though something like that could come in a DLC at a later point. This is a base, vanilla game at this point that doesn't work very well and which has mixed reviews, which means lots of people are avoiding purchasing the game at this point. If I were a developer of this game, I'd be focused first and foremost on improving the reviews with game bug fixes so that I could feed my family. ;-) Good luck!

[DziadekPiłsuś]

Originally posted by Sabretooth:

Originally posted by Nightskies:

Are you aware that the upgraded ships have more slots for components of all types, more space for components, and better targeting and countermeasures or better bonuses? The slots themselves are also of different sizes, most notably in weapons. For a higher cost, of course.

Heavy frigates are ideal picket ships in more powerful fleets with a notable countermeasure bonus and more weapon slots. Fleet frigates are straight upgrades of the base frigate. Fast frigates - yeup - have more engine slots and a bigger speed / maneuvering bonus.

As mentioned, the only advantage of the un-upgraded ships is that they're cheaper, most notably in the cruiser class.

Thanks for the info! whats the difference between fighters and interceptors?

Interceptors have the best maneuverability at a cost of firepower. Fighters in comparision are slower but offer better protection and firepower. Both classes exceed in fighter to fighter and fighter to bomber combat. Their main purpose is to gain control over space combat by destroying enemy starfighter units and preoccupy enemy coreships weapon banks so a portion of their dps is drawn away from your coreships and help them to close the distance.

Please take care that in current version fighters are broken and cause the fleets containing them to fail at combat due to fleet's cohesion break. For now it's best to use them for stationary bases till devs will fix the bugs.

[Dervix]

Improved Escorts are mostly useless... you require 2 reactors to feed the jumpdrives at this tech-level and they eat up so much space you'll barely have anything left for goodies. Funnier still is the fast escort only weapon slot only has 270º forward cone so you can't use it with a long range missile to whittle away at space creatures. Frigates are always better.
Improved Frigates are great, for tech 2 ships they're about 80% as good but half the price of the destroyer.
On higher tech levels, the components get so expensive bigger hull is always better.

[ElanaAhova]

Originally posted by Dervix:

Improved Escorts are mostly useless... you require 2 reactors to feed the jumpdrives at this tech-level and they eat up so much space you'll barely have anything left for goodies. Funnier still is the fast escort only weapon slot only has 270º forward cone so you can't use it with a long range missile to whittle away at space creatures. Frigates are always better.
Improved Frigates are great, for tech 2 ships they're about 80% as good but half the price of the destroyer.
On higher tech levels, the components get so expensive bigger hull is always better.

My understanding is that for seeking weapons (missiles, etc.) degree of pivot, location on ship, both irrelevant. Launched seeking weapons will seek the target - no matter the facing.

[Dervix]

Originally posted by ElanaAhova:

My understanding is that for seeking weapons (missiles, etc.) degree of pivot, location on ship, both irrelevant. Launched seeking weapons will seek the target - no matter the facing.

I tried building a bunch of these with lance missiles to hunt critters. They keep speeding up and down so they can turn a bit to launch the missile... it's a bit sad to watch really.

[ElanaAhova]

Originally posted by Dervix:

Originally posted by ElanaAhova:

My understanding is that for seeking weapons (missiles, etc.) degree of pivot, location on ship, both irrelevant. Launched seeking weapons will seek the target - no matter the facing.

I tried building a bunch of these with lance missiles to hunt critters. They keep speeding up and down so they can turn a bit to launch the missile... it's a bit sad to watch really.

Glad to have evidence. Thank you. Now, i'll incorporate your findings into my designs.

[Nightskies]

Originally posted by Dervix:

Improved Escorts are mostly useless... Frigates are always better.
Improved Frigates are great, for tech 2 ships they're about 80% as good but half the price of the destroyer.
On higher tech levels, the components get so expensive bigger hull is always better.

I agree about improved escorts, but frigates aren't *always* better- improved escorts do have niche uses. For example, they are the lowest cost way of getting high countermeasure ships- they can be cheap evasion tanks, so to say. *Improved* frigates do this well, also, but they're more pricey, and one might want them to fulfill a different role in a fleet. Even then, frigates generally do outperform improved escorts.

Improved frigates cost 3000, with 99 steel, aculon, and polymer. Destroyers cost 5000 with 120 steel, aculon and polymer. The approximate cost of an improved frigate compared to a destroyer, without components, is a little less than 30% cheaper. Destroyers are appropriately more capable.

I also usually reserve high tech weapons for the big ships! I commonly use a few highly affordable light cruiser designs to make up the bulk of the empire's firepower, leaving the rare resources for those very powerful capital ships.