*In the case that I unintentionally duplicated any similar topic, my honest apologies*



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This is a redesign of the frigate I suggested.

This redesign give the suggested ship a brand new focus but remains consistent with the defensive role.



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If you would remember I once suggested a ship I called the frigate, which I made to balance the fighters I also suggested. But since fighters are still out of the way, and that my fighter suggestion was fairly shot down, I decided to redesign my suggested ship, the Frigate.



I.



Frigate



450 Hitpoints

100 tonnage

30 production

Multishielding

Requires 1 Hyperium

1 Command Point



Multishielding works as a giant shield for the entire fleet; whatever shields the frigate has is applied onto the other ships, thereby maintaining the role of fleet defender. So a destroyer with no shields accompanied by a frigate with shields will have the same amount of defense as the frigate. A battleship with 10 flak accompanied by a frigate with 4 flak will have a total of 14 flak.



This multishielding is balanced by the fact that the frigate has only a base tonnage of 100; more powerful frigates require a lot more tech research and smart cargo, making it more expensive. But the frigate is designed to be the defender of the fleet, and a well designed frigate is a very useful asset.



However, its effectiveness against other ships remain unchanged.



Pros:

Multishielding

Low production cost



Cons:

Hyperium requirement

Weaker firepower compared to the destroyer



Effective against:

Corvettes



Less effective against:

Destroyers



Weak against:

Cruisers

Battleships

Dreadnoughts



II.Suggested tonnage bonuses and support modules



Many of the modules I suggested still have a function in this new design. These are the



Jammer Array Module - this module removes one attack from a unit; if one unit has a kinetics weapon module that fires four times, when faced with a ship with jammer module it can only fire three times. This module affects one random unit, and that random unit has all weapons affected, which means if all it's missile modules can only fire once per round, it will not fire at all. The amount of jammers determine how many times a weapon module is jammed. Two jammers mean a missile that fires two times cannot fire at all. Frigates should have a tonnage reduction with this module.



Targeting Array Module - this module reduces the effectiveness of the defenses of a unit, therefore making it vulnerable to the weapons of the entire fleet. Frigates should have a tonnage reduction with this module.



Soft Kill Module - this module reduces the chance to hit of the entire enemy fleet. Frigates should have a tonnage reduction with this module.



Systems Hacking Module - this module interferes with the fleet bonuses of the enemy fleet. Frigates should have a tonnage reduction with this module.



Gravity Shells - Each phase of the battle this module fires shells which explode between the two fleets, creating a gravity distortion that has a chance to alter the trajectory of enemy weapons. This is different from the Soft Kill Module which affects the enemy ship's chance to hit; gravity shells affect the projectile and not the ship. However, they greater the accuracy of the enemy ship, the lesser the chance gravity shells will affect the outcome. Frigates should have a tonnage reduction with this module.



The other modules suggested are now irrelevant to the current design.



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That is all for now.



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I'm not commenting specifically on the modules because those would of course need playtesting and a great deal of consideration to balance.



However, I do like the idea of the Frigate as it is posted here. In one of my suggestions, I suggested adding specialist modules for larger vessels to define a 'role' for them. One module that I tried to consider a design for was to co-ordinate defense between ships. I had trouble coming up with a specific design that would work.



While a little more simple than what I had intended, this (I think) would have a much better chance of working out. A ship that cannot have massive defenses because of tonnage, but which can grant a defensive bonus to all other vessels. I like it.



My only concern for this is that I could see this further strengthening the 'destroyer swarm' tactic and weakening larger ships against that tactic. It would enable those swarms to have defenses while not reducing their damage immensely. Meanwhile, while it would be beneficial for larger vessels, they would still suffer the same 'overkill' problem where they simply cannot shoot all of those smaller ships. Of course, since the 'overkill' is the issue, the destroyers having some defense probably isn't going to really affect that so much. But it would make the swarms more versatile all-around and thus possibly make it a better tactic. Also, if the swarm had a frigate with a 'targeting array module', I could see it really making them dangerous.



However, considering some of your other suggestions - those suggestions might be able to provide the needed swarm-counter.

"My only concern for this is that I could see this further strengthening the 'destroyer swarm' tactic and weakening larger ships against that tactic. It would enable those swarms to have defenses while not reducing their damage immensely."



Overall damage would be affected as frigates do not offer the same firepower of a destroyer; one frigate in a fleet of 21 ships would be effective, but not too effective to the point that destroyers would rival tank spec battleships. A fleet of destroyers with no basic defenses will still be glass cannons whether attached to a frigate or not. With the frigate, they're like holding metal shields with weak hands; it's not gonna matter if the frigate blocked some attacks. Also, why send a frigate with attrition units?



In the face of a frigate-swarm combination I'll counter with a frigate-tank combination; if they have targeting arrays I'll put a combination of soft kill and systems hacking on the frigates, and if there still tonnage available gravity shells and jammer arrays. Add an Admiral that decreases chance to hit by the enemy, sabotage card that decreases chance to hit by the enemy, and let's see if a frigate-swarm will hit anything at all, not to mention the chance to deal damage will be very small; a battleship with 15 beam shields accompanied by 4 improved frigates, each with 5 beam shields and fleet defense modules? I'd like to see it try; 35 beam shields total on the battleship, 20 beam shields total on the frigates, soft kill and systems hacking, with gravity shells and jammer arrays... assuming the battleship is base too, not having neutrino capture and smart cargo, same with the frigates.



But I may be overconfident.



I made other suggestions you may find interesting;



/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12728-suggestion-power-plant-requirement-for-ship-weapons-and-other-modules.



/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12729-larger-weapons-and-shields-on-larger-ships-related-to-ship-power-plants



/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12716-suggestion-hybrid-modules-important-note-related-to-my-interface-suggestion



/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12718-suggestion-ship-design-interface-related-to-hybrid-modules



They're all related in fact

In my early frigate design, the frigate had multitargeting instead of multishielding, and I made a module that allows any other ship to function in the role of fleet defender



Here's the link : /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12712-suggestion-something-to-add-on-the-fighters-and-other-ship-classes



I once made a suggestion on the fighter concepts, and seeing that my fighter concept had the potential to become the new swarm I created another ship to counter it, which is the frigate, a dedicated anti-fighter ship; realizing that the game wouldn't really have a place for my fighters, I redesigned the frigate as a fleet defense ship while maintaining it's anti-fighter capabilities should ever the need arise.



The original frigate can target multiple units, but that was solely for the purpose of anti-fighter warfare; it had no other intended function. Against other ships it would be weak, but hard to kill.

In general I like the concept of the frigate and its support role, I'd rather see the area defenses work so that only a portion of the frigates defenses are applied to the fleet, either automatically or by choosing an area defense module as opposed to the defense module, this would work in a way similar to engines (++ speed on ship, + speed on fleet).



And as pointed out that any ship could use said modules, but the frigate would get a discount on the area defense modules, and any type of area module to increase/decrease accuracy, since it's a limited bonus it probably could also use a discount on armour.



I also think both the Frigate and Destroyer should get a discount on the engine modules.