I really cant see how to balance this out without horrifically bloating the design size to some number that might as well make the thing a Battleship, as well as murdering speed, all i really want out on this set of frigate designs are scouts/escorts/skirmishers. I mean i could cut morale time by a bit but then the ship is good for less and less long distance travel. I really don't want to have to rebuild a fleet in EVERY system, i thought that was what PDCs were for? 
I don't see an issue with it. More fuel comes at a tonnage price and also increases demand für crew- and engineering spaces. It never ends. I think it's a decent ratio.
Ok first, what does DG stand for?
Probably DDG...guided missile destroyer.
Ok so what ARE these ranges i want to be fighting at? I mean i assume its max range for whatever weapons i manage to cobble together to prevent losses from the billions of missiles that will eventually be shot at me and such because from all of the chatter ive read about this game missiles are better than any of the laser weapons by a retarded margin and out of the laser weapons, the only good ones are the normal laser (best range and damage for that range) and the meson cannon (because it cheats and ignores armor/atmosphere making it amazing for killing SURPRISE ARMORED MISSILES!!, good for FAC bombers attacking huge ships with tons of armor, and as a PDC Point defense weapon). If this is the case why in the hell would i ever do anything but max range for the ALL THE MISSILES FOREVER combat? After all if i out-range my opponent, i can blow his fleet up and take no losses of my own, preserving fuel, combat experience on my boats, and resources that i DONT have to spend rebuilding those boats yes?
While yes, missiles are king...other weapons shouldn't be ignored. Energy platforms are useful not just as point defense, but also to kill merchant shipping, crippled enemies and almost more important than anything else: combat in a nebula, where missiles don't work.
As for the ranges: Design your missiles first. You can always scale the fire control via size, but with missiles you can't do that, assuming you want to stay at size 6, the minimum detection size. Once you have a satisfactory missile, design the fire control to go with it, plus some margin for missile range improvements. That will give you the most efficient results.
As for the other thing: you don't know if you WILL outrange your opponent until you actually face him. And if you're unlucky, you meet one of the spoilers. One of those will most assuredly outrange YOU by a fairly significant margin and the other might just completely negate your missile armament until it's much too late. Always keep a nice mix of armament in a fleet. If you realize you won't be able to bring your energy combatants to bear, you can still peel them off. But you can't just "magic" them in if they aren't there and you need them.
I will totally give you the CIWS on AMM boats thing, i do now realize that i will have to just COAT my sensor boats in the things OFC. Now how do Volley work in this game, is a volley whenever the FC i have my Missile Launchers slaved to tells them to open fire or what? So if the optimal number of AMM Launchers per Missile FC is 3-5, then how do i make it so that i can optimally slave 6-10 Missile Launchers to my fire controls? Also those Magazine numbers where do i see them at? What is the ingame difference between an offensive volley vs a defensive volley?
You don't really have to go HAM on the CIWS, one or two is enough. Your sensor boats should, theoretically, never need them. Assuming your actual area point defense holds. And if all the escorts are dead...well....the CIWS can buy you a few seconds until death, but no more than that. They're just for "leakers", really...single misisles, two a most, from a salvo that manage to squeeze through your PD.
Volleys. That simply refers to what you can fire at once, without reloads. It doesn't really matter how many launchers you slave to a FC. The point defense automatism will fire (or not fire) them as needed. The absolute optimum, of course, would be to match it to the enemy salvo size. But that varies dramatically, so it can't really be done, unless you have multiple FCs and lots of tubes so you can connect the launchers back and forth as needed. Lot's of micro and not really necessary, since the point defense will sort it out for you anyway, setting multiple FCs to target the same missile salvo if necessary.
There isn't really a difference between offensive and defensive, except of course, that defensive salvoes will be fired automatically, as much as needed for the detected threat.
The total magazine capacity is displayed in the ship design screen. The magazines themselves are counted, as well as each missile launcher (a size 6 launcher gives 6 points of magazine space, to fit a single size 6 missile, while a size 1 launcher only gives 1..and so on) You want to try and get it s that you have X number of full salvoes and don't end up with decreased loads. So if you have 10 size 1 launchers and a total mag capacity of 100, that's 10 full salvoes, assuming all launchers are fired. But if you have a magazine capacity of 95, that's 9 full salvoes and one weaker one at half strength. Each missile takes it's size in the magazines. So a size 6 missiles takes 6 points off the capacity, keep that in mind when designing magazines for ASM boats. With AMMs it's simpler, since they're size 1, making the storage calculation a lot simpler.
