Hi all!

so I've watched several videos on the technical build and I wanted to have a discussion on ship design, especially for smaller ships. We're very early in development so I think it's OK to talk about this!

As of right now, the ships are like in the first game. As in, they feel more like standard RTS "units" than space ships. For example, the light frigate could be compared to a marine in Starcraft and the Kodiak (or its new variant), could be a siege tank. But, if the devs spent so much effort into having a new engine that could handle several turrets and target solutions, why not give the smaller units more "open" roles as actual warships? Plus, take for the fact that in space, having a frigate with only front facing weapons sound... very suicidal in terms of design.

Space combat is similar in a lot of ways to sea combat, except that it is in 3D. But, Sins is still 2D, so how about we take more ideas from actual warships designs than just creating "units"? For example, today's frigates have a main gun, several point defense weapons, can launch torpedoes, do electronic warfare, etc. The cobalt and the kodiak can... shoot in front of them. The cobalt feels more like a fighter than a frigate, and the kodiak feels like a heavy fighter.

Of course, let's not go overboard with multi-role, because otherwise, why have several unit types if one can already do everything.

My main point is that ship design should favor turrets more, while still having front facing main guns if needed. If I take another franchise as an example, like Mass Effect, a lot of their ships had mass drivers at the front. That makes sense though, as a mass driver needs to accelerate an object and therefore a turret might not be big enough for the task (a bit like comparing an 18" rifle to a small caliber pistol). So, front facing weaponry still make sense, but it is more something I'd see with an artillery ship!

Capital ships are currently how I feel smaller ships should be. If we start having more variables like armor, armor penetration, etc, I think we have a lot of room to play with ship design and make the game feel more open than just "Oh the cobalt is the standard unit, it can't do much and you won't build many of them after 20 minutes". Plus, that would help alleviate the "rock-paper-scissor" gameplay that has been a bit overdone in RTS games.

Anyway, hope to have a constructive discussion on this!