Vessel Types

[Kenn]

While a variety of names will be used, ships will fall into certain types which will determine if they can offer certain features.
Flagships, one per fleet at a time, have EL-INT, are carriers, and are usually the heaviest armed ship in the fleet. These ships are jump capable. When damaged they usually lose their EL-INT and Jump capacity but not always.
Command Ships, are a dreadnought or heavy cruiser sized vessel, heavily fortified, usually jump capable, and usually carriers. As a carrier these are the ships that can carry mass drivers (Centauri) and other exceptionally heavy special weapons. These ships are not common; one per group.
Heavy cruisers are common and very deadly. They usually have fighters, jump engines, and powerful weapons. When damaged they often lose these abilities. These ships can be upgraded into command cruisers or flagships.
Dreadnoughts: heavier than heavy cruisers and more expensive.
Medium cruisers: these include a lot of bombardment, missile or torpedo launchers, assault cruisers, and other names. They are not as strong as heavy ships but make up for it with their special duties.
Light cruisers: are very cost efficient ships, powerful and affordable. They usually do not have special weapons and may or may not have jump engines. These ships do well as long-range scout at which time they would have EL-INT ability.
Carriers: These ships have durable jump engines that always survive heavy damage; reinforced that way since their primary job is to escort ships into battle. The carrier itself is not usually too strong but an attacker would have to get through the fighters first to do it any damage.
Corvettes: light weapon escorts that are capable of First Strike ability, which means they can engage an incoming enemy ship before that vessel has the ability to bring its own weapons online. This feature is especially helpful against fighter squadrons.
Scouts: Two levels of scout exist, light cruiser size and corvette size. All scouts have EL-INT abilities and jump engines.
Squadrons: These ships fire in 360 degrees, and can come in different levels from extra light, light, heavy, and extra heavy. There are even bomber-style squadrons that can be useful against planetary targets. No squadrons have jump engines and must return to their carrier at the end of the mission. Two damaged squadrons can be merged into a single unit once recovered by a carrier.
Gunships: These come in two sizes; heavy fighters in a 4-pack with 360 degree firing, or as a light cruiser.
Shuttles: These craft are cheap and able to transport crew from place to place. They have no weapons which helps make them cheap.
Transports: These ships come in Freighter and Starliner varieties.
Freighters dock with tradeposts and stations to earn Economy.
Starliners dock with pleasure planets and stations to earn Economy.