Quick question regarding design of ships

[Larsenex]

I have not tried this as I am at work. Are we able to have more than one type of design?

As an example I want to have my regular Destroyer which is the backbone of the fleet.

I also want to use the Templet and use it as a 'Silvermist' killer, Loaded with Ion weapons, armor and engines but give it another name. Is this possible?

[feelotraveller]

Yep you can do that.
 
Beware that when the AI builds ships it will only build the most recent design in a class.  So you will have to order your ships manually from your construction yards and not with the build suggestion manager (whatever it is called).
 
(Tip - select a different ship picture so that you don't mix them up. [:)])

[Pipewrench]

yup, just create a design and make sure you do not mark it obsolete.

Be mindful of auto upgrading in fleets as the design choice to upgrade is taken away.

[CypherLH]

Yep, this should be fine although it can confuse the build manager AI. Take manual control of ship construction if you do this.
Right now I have a few different frigate and destroyer variants. Missile ships, heavy armored ships, even little pocket carrier variants, etc. Once I can build bigger ships I'll probably have many more variants. Its probably not optimal but I like it for the roleplay aspect.

[Larsenex]

I have one more design question.

I have researched ship size up to 800. Is this the size needed to unlock Capitals? I have that size researched but I am not able to build Capitals. I can increase my Cruisers to that size I suppose.

[jpinard]

Great question Minsc! Go for the eyes boo!

[Bingeling]

I am playing a game letting the AI design (and declare war, which is a bad idea being Securan). The AI designer created a workable capital design at size 650. The current design is less than 600, but I guess that depends a bit on which weapons it fits, etc.

I would be surprised if there is any limit at all to what you can call a capital if you design manually.

[feelotraveller]

You can design (manually) Capitals as small as you like.   And Escorts as large as you like for that matter.
 
Sounds like there is an issue with the automated designs in your game.

[Arcatus]

The initial capitol ship design cannot be built from the start, but it is still possible to redesign it smaller and build a Capitol ship.

Only resupply ships and carriers require a tech to build.

[Pukako]

Might as well piggyback on this line.

I've turned off the AI designed - upon researching heavy rail guns, it designed ALL military ships to be bigger than I could build, which is worse than useless.

And my little destroyers with 9 lasers seem to be doing ok against the odd pirate.

But what I need to know is what is a good firepower/armour/shield level or balance to be competitive - not interested in any exploits, but what's a good, survivable armour/shield ratio, and what's a reasonable weapons mix? Sorry for asking, but the game does kind of throw you in without a liferaft, and my questions are a bit more basic than the average here

Cheers

[Panpiper]

My rule of thumb for a mix of weapons, shields and armour is to have an equal tonnage between weapons and defence, with any odd numbers favouring weapons. So if I have 60 spaces of shields and 10 spaces of armour, I will tend to have 70 spaces of weapons or a tad over that. I generally concentrate all my weapons research on just beams (phasers) and use just that, but then I do not play with silvermists. If I were, I would probably have dedicated designs for a fleet built solely to deal with them, containing 'no' phasers and only ion cannons.

[Bleek]

It really depends on game level, ships size and tech.

I normally make two types of each ship, fast and nimble, slow and powerful.

For example I have a Frigate with close range weapons and EON, loads of shields, loads of sprint and turning speed. These are in-out deep space raid ships.
The 'normal' Frigate would have armour similar to shield level, less propulsion and it's place a few more weapons. Slower, less range, but tougher for sustained assaults.

I do similar things with Destroyers and Cruisers in that some are heavy home defence and some are longer ranged, faster and lean.

When it comes to capital I don't mess about, I normally load it up slots with 30% armour and shields so it can sit there soaking up the punishment. [:D]

Ignore Carriers until you can make them 700 and up, at that size the sheer volume of fighters becomes really potent!