I think many people right now feel like the ship design is somewhat unsatisfying.



To make the design of fleets more diverse and interesting I propose a split of the current system of designating one hull size to one specific role into two steps:



First step:

Choose role.

You're going to choose the roll of the ship.

Following the current types that would be:



Offensive: -% on weapon tonnage (straight offensive, these ship carry guns, that's it)

Defensive: -% on armor tonnage + chance to take damage from other ships of the fleet (defensive ships dedicated to defending the fleet, catching shots whereever they can)

Support: -% on military support modules (Command ships that support the fleet, providing in battle repair, enhanced reconnaissance, engine support and what else goes in the category of support modules)

Utility: -% on civilian support modules (As this is only the colonizer right now as far as I remember, it might be completly pointless, but who knows what else comes along the way....)



Every role should be available from the start



Second step:

Choose size.



Corvette

Destroyer

Cruiser

Battleship

Dreadnaught



These should be unlocked as they are right now.





For the balancing consider the following:



A: Larger hulls have more tonnage per command point.

B: Larger hulls cost more ressources to produce per ton of volume.



So: Bigger ships give more powerful fleets while smaller ships offer more bang for your buck



This would make the fleet setup a lot more interesting giving a total possible combination of 20 size/role types while keeping every combination useful under certain circumstances.

Large ships are objects of prestige and allow very powerful fleets. An overwhelmed opponent may yet try to outproduce these massive fleets with hordes of small ships. They might not allow the same firepower per fleet, but you can spit out a lot more firepower for the same price as packing everything in bigger ships.