Which ship classes possibly will be in ES2? I hope they will be more role specialized rather than just differ in size and faction bonuses.

Why? The class specifies a size, not a role. That is the purpose of your modules.

Mansen wrote:
Why? The class specifies a size, not a role. That is the purpose of your modules.

To be fair the different hull types effectively lend themselves to "classes" quite well. For example a ship with a weapon module tonnage bonus would make more sense as a gunship. On the other hand mansen does have a point, modules in ES1 at least were flexible enough to use any hull type in a number of different roles.

Mhmm. I made plenty of different role ships with the same hulls, even if some were definitely more suited for certain things than others.

From my point of view it would be more interesting if hull size define appropriate roles for ship (smaller for agile scouts and attack ships, bigger for sub-ships carriers/supporters/heavy artillery ships, biggest and non-agile for invasion/super gun ships) while sets of modules define focus on specific weapons or overall offensive/defensive balance. It's just like modern naval fleets - different sizes, different roles and no only-carriers/only-heavy-cruisers fleets. Fleets with just one hull type ships looks fo me too.. uniform

I like flexibility in ship design more than fixed, assigned roles. It avoids simplistic classifications based on contemporary naval history, like the typical carrier, battleship, cruiser + other support designs used in so many space games. When you hard-code a role for a ship, you can get into balance problems like GalCiv3 is having right now with the carrier class being overpowered.



Fixed ship classes and roles also don't fit well with the idea of all these different alien cultures. They should have their own ideas about how to build a fleet, and wouldn't be basing it on Earth's WW2 naval history. Separating hull sizes and modules means the aliens could all follow different design templates that would be viable in combat, like a tendency to build zerg fleets or heavies depending on their culture.

I'd like to see small ship that have role in late game. It was ususal to build biggest ship once available in ES1

I wouldn't mind different hulls offering advantages and disadvantages that clearly predispose them to a certain role, as long as those bonuses and penalties are not so overpowering they limit versatility of design. I feel that, if done right, just role classification could add to the character of the different factions. For example, consider the Dreadnought class in ES1: The Sheredyn received a reduced CP cost on their Dreadnoughts, whereas the Automatons received a special repair ability (that I'm not even sure showed up in the tooltips), which spoke of very different ship design and military philosophies.

I like how things are in ES and i think it's fair that different class ships have different roles, but i was always frustrated by the fact that if i want to build something different from the classic ship role i was forced to had a bonus that don't give me any actual help for the customized ship i had in mind...

I'll really like to see more customization for ships class...



Think of this:

Any ship class have 3 layouts that define the general role that a ship will cover.

Any layout will have 3 setup that define how much a ship is specialized for that role, the more specialized, the more the bonus provided by that setup, like so:

- high configurable hull setup: 110% max tonnage with level 1 bonus active.

- standard hull setup that have 100% max tonnage with level 1 and 2 bonus active.

- specialized hull setup that have 90% max tonnage with level 1,2 and 3 bonuses active.



Multiply 3 layouts for 3 setup and you have 9 ship configurations. Obviously roles that a ship class provide are always consistents to their constitution, for example, on a battleship you'll never find scout/explorer/swarmer layouts, you will find a defender/invader/carrier layout for respectively sturdier battleships, more powerful direct invasions and more agevolated fighter/bomber deploy. All races will have their class related layouts options so battleground will see much more combat scenarios.

This way we have more choices for ship roles and at the same time, the flexibility to construct atypical ships o really roles oriented ones for our needs.