Here are a couple of handy tips for newbies designing ships. I offer these had learned lessons so you dont have to make the same mistakes that I did!
#1 Beam weapon armed ships NEED reactors! (Dont forget to include them like I did!)
Beam weapons take power, for that you will need reactors. When adding reactors, remember to check your weapons for their power needs are charging times. Add up all the power needs per five seconds and total that. Thats the size reactor you need to include in the ship. For example, if your laser shows a rate of fire (ROF) of 10 seconds, and your power recharge is 10-5, you need a total of 10 power to fire it, and the unit recharges 5 power every five seconds. So, if you have 4 of these lasers in your ship, you need a reactor that delivers 20 power every five seconds to keep up with the recharge rate.
#2 Beam weapons need Beam Weapon fire controllers!
Beam weapons need fire controllers IN ADDITION to search systems. The key with them is range and tracking speed, you want to look at increasing them as much as you can as early as you can. You lasers might reach to 500,000 km, but if your fire controller base range is only 30,000 km, your lasers are not going to be as effective as they should be.
#3 When building missiles, dont forget to use fractions!
When designing missiles, dont forget you can use fractions. This is especially handy when working with small missiles, especially with fuel and agility. On small missiles in particular, 0.1 spent in agility can have a noticeable bonus to hit.
#4 When using missiles, more = better.
If your going to use missiles as your primary weapon (and you should at start) you should look at cramming as many launchers into your design as you can. One or two missiles per ship means the target has a MUCH easier time of shooting them down. Eight missiles is a lot harder for a ship to stop. Eight launchers firing 2pt missiles is better than two launchers firing 6 pt missiles. It only takes one point of damage to kill a missile, so more missiles = more potential to get a hit.
#5 Dont forget the ammo!
Missile armed ships need a LOT of missiles to keep them fighting. Build a lot of them ESPECIALLY anti-missiles, as you will go through them like Congress spending money. Even older missiles are useful, DONT scrap them! Use older missiles as emergency reserves. It is better to shoot obsolete missiles instead of none! Along those lines, dont be shy about adding magazines to a ship. If your using missiles, cram as many magazines as you can. Your ship might be able to launch 10 missiles at a time, but if your only carrying a hundred missiles, your not staying in combat very long!
#6 Active sensors on missiles is useful.
If your missile armed ship gets killed before all its missiles impact, the in flight missiles self destruct. If your missiles have active sensors, they will continue to track a target. If the targeted ship gets killed, any remaining missiles self destruct. If your missiles have sensors, they will try for another target.
#7 Armor and ECM on missiles is VERY useful
Even a fraction of a point can be quite useful in insuring your missiles survive defense fire. ECM will reduce the range that anti-missile systems can target your missile, which shrinks the time they can be engaged by anti-missile defenses. Missile armor makes them MUCH tougher, and more likely to survive.
#8 You can never have enough engineering spaces
Ships need spare parts to stay out on long patrols. Unless your keeping a ship in system around a world constantly, its a good idea to add enough engineering spaces to keep your ships out for a year or two. If you dont, they WILL have a malfuction, and if you dont have enough spares, the system breaks and requires repair in a shipyard.
#9 Dont forget the gas!
Make SURE to check how many days of fuel your ship design is carrying. If your expecting them to run around quite a bit (like geosurvey ships) you need a lot of gas.
#10 Fuel efficiency is important!
Hand in hand with #9, research those fuel efficiency techs quickly. While it looks like you have a lot of fuel in the beginning of the game, later on when you have a lot more ships out, fuel becomes and issue.
#11 Stealth = life
You want to make your ships as stealthy as you can. You want to be able to spot the other guy before he spots you, so stealth techs are important, especially for scouts and survey ships.
#12 Sensors are key!
You want to spot the other guy before he spots you. Seeing farther is important in the game, ESPECIALLY with your passive sensors. Most of your initial detections will be via passives, usually thermals. Along those lines, the further you can see, the better. Sensors are expensive, and they eat up space and crew, but they are key to any fleet. The further you can see, the better.
