Ship Classes and Roles
This page explores how different ship types interact in combat, what roles they fill, and how fleet composition creates meaningful strategic decisions.
It does not describe final game behavior. It captures the current direction and unresolved design choices.
Goal
The goal is a ship class system that:
- makes fleet composition a genuine strategic decision, not a simple power calculation
- creates natural counters without reducing to a pure rock-paper-scissors formula
- differentiates attacker goals (raid, bombard, siege) through the ships required to achieve them
- gives defenders meaningful choices about what kinds of threats they can answer
Core Problem
If all ships are interchangeable units with different stat values, fleet composition is solved by math — the optimal fleet can be calculated. The system needs structural asymmetries that make different ship types useful for different objectives, and not just at different cost tiers.
Working Direction: Class-Based Role Separation
Ships are grouped into classes. Each class occupies a distinct combat role and has structural constraints on where and how it can fight. The constraints are not just mechanical — they reflect the physical reality of what these ships are built for.
Size and domain
Ship size determines which combat domains a ship can operate in:
| Class | Can fight in space | Can pass orbital layer | Can operate near surface |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corvette | Yes | Yes (reduced damage) | Yes |
| Frigate | Yes | Yes (reduced damage) | No |
| Cruiser | Yes | No | No |
| Battleship | Yes | No | No |
Large ships are optimized to fight other large ships at range. Orbital defense platforms are tuned to engage large hulls — their targeting systems are designed for capital-scale threats. Corvettes and frigates are small enough to fall below that threshold, taking reduced damage from orbital defenses as they pass through.
Corvettes can operate close to a colony's surface. Battleships cannot — their size makes atmospheric entry impossible and their weapons are not suited to precision surface engagement.
Attack objectives by class
| Objective | Required class |
|---|---|
| Raid stockpiles | Corvette (must reach surface) |
| Destroy surface infrastructure | Corvette or dedicated siege variant |
| Bombard orbital infrastructure | Battleship or cruiser (must reach orbital range) |
| Clear orbital defenses | Frigate or cruiser (must survive orbital layer) |
| Fight defender's combat ships | Any class, depending on target |
This means a full attack — raid and bombard — requires a multi-class fleet. A solo player with a single ship type can execute only part of an attack.
Ship-vs-Ship Counters
Different ship types are more or less effective against each other in direct combat. The counters are not strict — they express relative advantage, not immunity.
Current direction for the counter structure:
- Corvettes are fast and evasive, effective against other corvettes, but fragile against cruisers and battleships that outrange them
- Frigates are effective against corvettes and other frigates, and provide escort cover for larger ships
- Cruisers dominate frigates and corvettes in open space, and can suppress orbital defenses
- Battleships are effective against other capital ships; their large weapons are inefficient against small fast targets
The exact counter map is not yet locked. The principle is that no single class dominates all others, and that a fleet of one class type is always vulnerable to something.
Strategic Implications
Attackers must commit to a goal before they leave
Because different objectives require different ship classes, the attacker must decide what they are trying to accomplish before the fleet departs. A raid fleet and a siege fleet look different. An attacker who brings only battleships cannot raid. An attacker who brings only corvettes cannot bombard.
This creates pre-battle intelligence value: what kind of fleet is incoming tells the defender a lot about what the attacker is after.
Defenders can invest asymmetrically
A defender who specializes in orbital platforms forces attackers to bring frigate or cruiser escorts before battleships can reach bombardment range. A defender who invests in surface defenses punishes corvette raids but may be vulnerable to long-range orbital bombardment.
A defender cannot answer every threat equally with the same investment. This creates meaningful choices and natural vulnerabilities.
Large attacks require alliances
Executing a full siege — clear orbital defenses, bombard infrastructure, and raid stockpiles simultaneously — requires enough ships across enough classes that solo players cannot easily do it. This naturally pushes large coordinated attacks toward alliance-level activity.
Open Questions
- How many ship classes exist in total — is the four-class model above the right granularity?
- Are there specialist variants within each class (e.g. a dedicated siege corvette vs. a raiding corvette)?
- What determines individual ship stats — research, manufacturing quality, commander bonuses?
- Does fleet composition affect which RNG events can trigger during battle?
- Can a single ship operate in multiple roles, or is specialization strict?
- How does fleet size cap interact with multi-class fleets — is the cap per class or total?