Ok, I have a lot to write about this. First thing I'll say is, all these civilian ships can work. Military ones, not so much but I'll get to it. Also, depending on whether you RP or not, they can be acceptable. I'm going to give you suggestions on efficiency instead. Plus some general suggestions for combat ships.
Please accept this post with the spirit of constructive criticism
First, the non-military ships. Generally, you want one ship for one function. Instead you have some hybrids here, which are less efficient. Let's see:
- The terraforming base is huge. Also, since terraforming bases generally move only once very long while, it's more efficient to build them without engines, and then tug them around. You can change the tug, and then move the base faster because the tug is faster. It's also probably more efficient to buy more smaller bases, instead of a single base with 200 modules. But if you RP, that's fine. Going to take forever to build though....
- Gigantus class Freighter: As before, it's really huge. Going to be very slow to build. I'm just going to say it in case you don't know but... You don't need a 100 cargo holds ship if you want to move large installations. Installations can be broken down in parts. You can just ferry them around over multiple trips. Still it can work if you want it. Less understandable, frankly, are the salvaging modules. You generally want dedicated salvagers, because that way the salvage ships can do their things, and the frieghters carry around what they're supposed to do. Would be a real waste to send one of these monsters on a salvaging mission.
- The 2 superfreighters are more or less ok, I don't have much to say. As before, are really big. They can work mind you, just saying that it takes a long while to build them. More concerning is the fact they're quite slow. While fuel is very costly, these ships are really slow when you consider how far they might have to travel. I think you are using too few engines here. You hsould dedicate a higher percentage of the ship to engines, so that the ship is faster. Less than 2000 km/sec in the solid core antimatter era.. is really slow.
- The Resilience freighter can work. Just as before, really slow. It obviously have maximum fuel efficiency, and huge range. However you probably don't need that much range, and you might need some faster cargo transfers. Using the best possible fuel efficiency is not always the best choice, unless you are truly starved for fuel. You want to strike a balance between range, fuel consumption and speed.
- The tug is ok, really big but ok. Just... you don't have a ship that big to carry around. Unless you want to use it to move the terraforming base? It's wasted for anything else, too big. It costs a lot of resources that can go elsewhere
- Tenax Propositi II class Freighter: Why cargo, troop bays and cryogenic berths on the same ship? If you want to move people, you'll need something with a LOT more than 10000 berths, and the troop bays are useless. If you want to move troops... you don't need the cryogenic berths or cargo. If you want to move cargo, you don't care about the other 2. Specialized ships are generally more efficient.
- The tanker, gravsurvey and geosurvey ships are ok. I'd put a jump engine on the geosurvey ship, else you can't move it easily to other systems. It's better if it's an independent ship, considering what it does.
- Your jump tender is also your gate constructor. That's not optimal. But well, supposing you have enough of them it can work. Personally, I'd still separate them into different ships.
Now on to the military ships. Here there are problems in my opinion.
-Let's start with big problem n.1. I'm looking at the cruisers and dreadnaught ships. These ships are SLOW. And I mean really slow. You have picked lasers as your weapon of choice, which means you HAVE to be faster than your opponent, or you will never be able to catch him and hit him. And preferrably, faster by a decent amount. For the solid core AM engine era, a beam warship should probably be moving at least at 15000 km/sec, that is triple of what you do now. According to my rough calculations, only about 10% of your ships is dedicated to engine space. That's way too low for a laser ship.
Generally, a good rule of thumb is between 25% and 40% of the ship dedicated to engines, depending on the ship mission. But 10% is way too low, and the speed shows it. The dreadnaught also uses commercial engines, which are a big no on military beam warships, for the aforementioned reason. Screw fuel efficiency, you need speed to catch your enemies, to close in fast to targets and kill them.
- Big problem n.2 is, your entire point defense is CIWS. That's really not good. First, CIWS ONLY shoot at missiles that target the ship they're on. If you have a fleet of 6 ships, then each ship will only be defended by its own CIWS. Second, CIWS do not shoot at fighters, small crafts or anything else. A much more effective PD for fleets is a layered approach, with laser and railgun turrets, and AMM. CIWS are much better left for civilian ships or ships who operate alone, away from your fleet. You may think that high armour and shields help with this, and it's true, but the fact remain you're using a lot more resources you should, in terms of minerals and build time. Also, neither shields nor armor can do anything against Mesons. So, if you face a meson equipped enemy, your only option is to kill it fast, and preferrably before it gets in close.
- Another not so small problem, you have a single reactor on those ships. That's a bad idea. If that huge reactor goes boom, so will your entire ship. The explosion damage from the reactor will destroy it. Even if it does not, a single meson hit will shut down your entire ship. It's more secure to have a number of smaller reactors, rather than a single one
- You have almost no anti-fighter defenses at all on those ships. Your radar, with resolution 40, will most likely see fighters only after they start shooting at you, or just before. And while your turreted lasers may be fast enough to hit them, if those fighters are numerous and/or mesons you are in a very bad situation. Plus, with only 2 fire controls you can only shoot at 2 fighters at a time anyway.
Won't comment much on fighters and carriers, as they are previous generation ships. The dropship is kind of slow and huge, but it can work. One thing for the PDC, it has lasers. Which will not really work if your planet has atmosphere. you need mesons for that.
I think these are the most important things. While the civilian ships quirks are workable, if not convenient, I feel that those military
ships are flawed. I've reread the whoel post and it seems full of critics. I hope you won't be offended, I'm just trying to write all the problems I can think of. If you have any questions, go ahead and ask
