Military Ships

This is a list of all the military ship types.

Military Ships
Military Ships are state-owned ships with weapons. Their job is to patrol, defend and attack.

General Military Ships
These roles do not have any component requirements beyond the generic ship requirements, plus weapons. The main difference among different roles is how they behave when automated. Escorts mostly escort ships and watch distant bases. Frigates patrol within empire seeking for threats. Destroyers are actively seeking enemies withing and outside the empire's borders. Destroyers and up are suggested to have Troop Module components, but are not required to have them. It is therefore entirely possible to have an "escort" that is larger and more powerful than the "capital ship" it is theoretically escorting. The reason for the separate-but-identical roles is to simplify customization in the automated construction planning - rather than having to analyze each design to guess how many to build (and probably guess wrongly), the percentages are set based on the designated role.

Escort

 * Escorts are designed to protect transports and cargo freighters as they travel between the star ports of your empire. They tend to be quite small and only lightly armed, and almost never join a larger fleet. Instead, they will automatically follow transports within their range and guard them from attack.

Frigate

 * Frigates are larger than Escorts, but broadly do the same job: protecting civilian ships. Frigates tend to trade firepower for range, allowing them to travel long distances to guard ships on long voyages and destroy distant threats. They will occasionally form a small task force (usually about 4-5 ships) to take down larger threats like Kaltors, which escorts have trouble with.

Destroyer

 * Destroyers are generally the workhorse of a dedicated navy. Opposite the frigate, Destroyers tend to trade operational range and endurance for more firepower, and will not often be found traveling alone and protecting transports. Instead, they join large fleets and are a key part of major offensives.

Cruiser

 * Cruisers are large, generalist warships designed to be capable of handling most opponents on their own. They form the backbone of a fleet, providing heavier firepower than the destroyers can. They can also travel alone, since they tend to have much more firepower than smaller ship classes.

Capital Ship

 * Capital Ships are massive battlewagons designed to annihilate whatever hostiles they encounter. They are specifically designed to crush enemy defenses of all kinds, leaving broken hulls in their wake.

Troop Transport
Troop Transports are specifically designed to move ground troops from one planet to another, and as such requires either Standard Troop Compartments or Massive Troop Compartments to be built. It does not actually require weaponry, but as a recommendation, most troop transport designs should include at least a minimal weapons outfit and Assault Pods.

Carrier
Carriers are specifically designed to carry large numbers of Fighters to the battlezone. It can be built 50% larger than a normal vessel, but must dedicate 40% of its hull space to Standard Fighter Bays. Additionally, you must research Tactical Interceptors before you can build a Carrier. Note that you can choose to build a warship that has a multitude of fighter bays - it just won't be considered a "Carrier" by the game, and will be limited to a normal vessel's size.

Resupply Ship
The Resupply Ship is a rather unique vessel with a number of requirements. Firstly, you have to research Accelerated Construction. Then, it needs a Docking Bay, a Gas Extractor, and Cargo Bays, which combined occupy at least 20% of the ship. In return for this, you get a ship that can be built 300% larger than max ship size. It can move itself to a useful location (can be in enemy territory!) and function as a support base, or when heavily armed and armored, function as a capital ship to fight large defensive bases or space ports.

Short tips on military ship design

 * The real advantage of Fusion power plants is significantly lower fuel consumption. This allows warships to fight prolonged campaigns in enemy territory. Use at least 3 fuel pods per reactor, preferably 4-5.
 * Max ship size 400 is required to design decent warships. An early warship usually needs some 100 space for movement (engines, thrusters, hyperdrive), 70 space for power (2 reactors, fuel pods), 40-60 space for defenses (shields, armor, electronics) and 20 space for mandatory stuff + one collector. On a ship size 300 this leaves some 60 space for weapons, which almost forces a player to use Maxos Blasters because of their small size and good damage / power ratio.
 * Warship power requirement: add required power for weapons, engines at cruise, shield recharge and static systems. Sum should be as close to the reactor output as possible.