Ship Types
From Sins of a Solar Empire
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There are four main types of ships in Sins of a Solar empire. Strikecraft are the smallest ships and must be carried into battle by larger ships. Frigates are the most common ships that fulfill a variety of functions from scouting to colonization. Cruisers are larger than frigates and perform more specific roles such as carrying strikecraft or supporting fleet operations. Capital ships are the largest and most powerful ships, but are very expensive. Each faction possesses a unique set of ships, but they all fulfill the same general roles.
This page describes which types of ship are effective against which other types, but for a quick overview, see counters.
[edit] Strikecraft
Strikecraft are carried into battle by larger ships or deployed from planetary defense hangers. They are free to build and difficult for other ships to destroy. The two types of strikecraft are fighters and bombers.
[edit] FightersFighters move quickly, engage targets with precision weapons, and will utterly destroy bomber squadrons. They are virtually ineffective against large ships. |
[edit] BombersBombers are slower than fighters and vulnerable to fighter attack, but they carry powerful munitions designed to destroy large ships and structures. |
[edit] Frigates
Frigates are the small, cheap workhorses of every fleet. A well-balanced armada is likely to be numerically dominated by specialized frigates, which may be used as scouts, skirmishers, colonization ships, and anti-fighter escorts. Frigates are built at Frigate Construction yards.
There are six different types of frigates.
[edit] Scout FrigatesThese frigates are used to scout out planets and harass enemy supply lines later in the game. All scout frigates have the Explore ability which can be activated to automate exploration.
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[edit] Light FrigatesThese frigates form the backbone of an early game fleet. A good balance of cost, speed, survivability and firepower, light frigates are a very cost effective method for adding to fleet firepower.
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[edit] Assault FrigatesThese frigates sacrifice survivability for additional range and firepower. They are typically used to take out stationary enemy defenses or to augment fleet firepower. Although fragile, they can do substantial amounts of damage in large numbers.
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[edit] Siege FrigatesThese frigates are used to bombard planets, killing population, damaging the planet infrastructure and eventually wiping out the colony entirely. Siege frigates are not effective against other ships and need to be properly escorted to be effective.
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[edit] Anti-Strikecraft FrigatesThese frigates are used to counter enemy fighter and bomber squadrons. Although they do not excel at other types of combat, they are capable of holding their own against other frigates.
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[edit] Colony FrigatesThese frigates are used to form new colonies. They are rather weak and while not unarmed, do not excel in combat.
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[edit] Cruisers
Cruisers are generally larger than frigates, but not nearly as large as capital ships. They're also more expensive. While some cruisers are designed strictly for combat, others may carry fighter and bomber squadrons into battle or provide fleet support capabilities through indirect abilities. Cruisers are built at Frigate Construction yards (once you have researched their design).
There are four types of cruisers.
[edit] Squadron Support CruisersThese cruisers carry one squadron of strikecraft into battle. Being somewhat fragile and possessing no other armaments besides the strikecraft they carry, these cruisers are vulnerable to attack by other ships unless properly escorted.
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[edit] Offensive Support CruiserThese cruisers have abilities that vary greatly among the three factions but generally augment the offensive capabilities of a fleet.
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[edit] Defensive Support CruiserThese cruisers have abilities that vary greatly among the three factions but generally augment the defensive capabilities of a fleet.
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[edit] Heavy Combat CruiserThe outright most powerful cruisers in any faction before capital ships. Extremely well armed and extremely durable. They form the backbone of late game fleets and can easily defeat any other non-capital ship in single combat.
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Two additional cruisers are added in Entrenchment.
[edit] Anti-Structure CruiserThis class of cruiser excels at attacking structures. It delivers an impressive amount of damage and has a long range so that most structures cannot fight back, but is vulnerable to counterattacks from ships or strike craft.
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[edit] Starbase Construction CruiserThis cruiser is used to build a starbase and is consumed by the action. The Vasari have no specialized ship for this role, depending instead on the Jarun Migrator.
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[edit] Capital Ships
Capital ships are the largest, most expensive ships you can build. All capital ships are well armed and well shielded, able to effectively fight smaller ships even when outnumbered. Capital ships also possess the ability to bombard enemy colonies, much like siege frigates.
Capital ships are the only ships that gain experience and level up, gaining new abilities and becoming substantially more powerful in the process. Capital ships also gain the ability to host additional squadrons of fighters and bombers as they level up.
There are five different types of capital ships.
[edit] BattleshipThis is the strongest outright combat ship in the fleet, typically with a great deal of survivability and high damage output. They often lack the utility of other capital ships. This ship has great damage, health and a low number (2 MAX) Strikecraft slots. These ships lead any fleet into battle so they are at the front of a fleet.
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[edit] CarrierThe carrier has the most squadrons available out of any capital ship. Although they lack the survivability and firepower of the Battleship, the Carrier's abilities often make its strike craft a force to be reckoned with. Along with support capital ships and motherships, these ships take place in the back of the fleet.
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[edit] MothershipThe mothership sacrifices some combat abilities for the ability to colonize planets. This is usually considered the best choice for a first capital ship. Though the description accurately notes that the ship has somewhat compromised combat abilities, it does get a strikecraft squadron, and it means not having to worry about colony frigates, which are slow, vulnerable, easy targets for the enemy, and perpetually low on antimatter. The motherships take place in the back of the fleet when in formation.
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[edit] Support ShipThe support ship sacrifices survivability and combat prowess to augment its surrounding fleet. With abilities ranging from instant shield regeneration to the disruption of enemy fleets, the value of the support ship is without question. Buy support ships only when you have a sizable fleet to support. There is nothing more frustrating than watching an enemy fleet descend on and rend apart a lone Dunov. These ships, along with motherships and carriers, take place in the back of a fleet.
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[edit] Heavy Assault ShipThe heavy assault ship sacrifices mobility and survivability for very powerful offensive capabilities. The Heavy Assault Ship is also the only capital ship that specializes in planetary bombardment. These ships take place in the middle of a fleet.
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[edit] Other Ships
[edit] ConstructionThese ships build orbital structures at colonies that you control. They automatically build structures queued from the colony itself, but can be given orders to manually build structures as well. They cannot leave the gravity well in which they are automatically created. |
[edit] RefineryThese ships automatically travel between refineries and generate additional metal and crystal for an empire. They cannot be given orders and are automatically created. Note that the Advent do not have Refineries, hence no Refinery Ships. |
[edit] TradeThese ships automatically travel between trade outposts and generate credits for an empire. They cannot be given orders and are automatically created. |
[edit] Mine-LayerAn oddity among oddities, the Sivuskras Ruiner is the game's sole mine-laying ship in the Entrenchment Expansion. As its name implies, it does not attack directly, but instead can lay mines wherever it chooses, even at Stars or Wormholes. The Advent's Aeria Drone Host gets this capability with its unique Mine Drones that can be stowed aboard the carriers.
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[edit] Starbases
A starbase is a unit type added in Entrenchment. The base cost of a starbase is a bit less than a capital ship.
To build a starbase, you need a special cruiser, whose sole purpose is to build a starbase. This cruiser is lost when you build a starbase. The exception to this are the Vasari who use the Migrator instead to build a starbase.
You can build a starbase in any territory, however, you can only have one per territory. Unlike ships, a starbase does not require support, so it does not affect your fleet size. The construction cruiser does require support, but it will be returned once the construction is done.
Starbases have 8 module slots, which can be filled in whatever way the user sees fit. Each module does have a cost and many have some research that has to be done first before you can build them.
Like capital ships, a starbase has a name and the name can be changed.
[edit] Development
There have been numerous changes to the ships during the patches. For simplicity's sake, the ones that apply to all of them are listed here.
- All Siege Frigates (i.e., Krosov Siege Frigates, Purge Vessels, and Karrastra Destructors) have had their survivability decreased.
- All Siege Frigates have had their survivability further reduced by 20%. In addition, they have become 25% more costly to build, and now require 15 supply as opposed to 12.
- The autocasting of many ship-disabling abilities was improved.
- Ships can no longer attack unbuilt structures.
- All Long-Range Frigates (i.e., Javelis LRM Frigates, Illuminator Vessels, and Kanrak Assailants) have had their Credit costs increased 10%, their resource costs increased 20%, and their range increased by 30%. Additionally, Illuminators and Assailants were tweaked so their survivabilities were proportional to the Javelis' on a per-supply basis.
- The previous Siege frigate build cost has been reduced by 15%. All other changes from 1.03 remain as they are.
- All "Mothership"-type Capital Ships (i.e., Akkan Battlecruisers, Progenitor Motherships, and Jarrasul Evacuators) have had their speed increased from 400 to 475. All other Capital ships have had their speed increased from 500 to 525.
- All Long-Range Frigates have had their acceleration reduced from 200 to 150, their max speed reduced from 800 to 500, and their ranges decreased from 130% to 115% (in relation to Patch 1.02).
- The Anti-Very Light attack (used by Anti-strikecraft frigates) chance to hit Bombers has been reduced from 85% to 75%. In addition, the damage dealt to ships with "Light" armor has been reduced from 100% to 75%.
- All Carriers (i.e., Percheron Light Carriers, Aeria Drone Hosts, and Lasurak Transporters) have had their costs reduced slightly.
- Strikecraft had an issue of being able to launch when they should've been grounded. This was fixed in this patch.
So many it had to be split into two sections so you could read a bit easier.
[edit] Ships and Strikecraft
- All Frigates and Cruisers now spawn with full antimatter pools.
- All ships that deal Anti-Light damage (Scout Frigates, Colony Frigates, and Fighters) have had their damage against Capital Ship, Medium, Heavy and Very-Heavy armor types increased from 25% to 50%.
- All Carrier Cruisers have been tweaked to have 2-3 squadrons; additionally, they are relatively less expensive per squadron.
- All ships that deal Anti-Very Light damage (Anti-Strikecraft Frigates) have had their damage against Capital Ship, Medium, Heavy and Very-Heavy armor types increased from 25% to 50%.
- All ships that deal "Composite" damage (Heavy Combat Cruisers) have had their damage to Medium armor increased from 100% to 125%. Their damage against Heavy armor has also decreased from 125% to 100%.
- All ships that deal Anti-Heavy damage (Light Frigates, Siege Frigates, and Offensive and Defensive Support Cruisers) have had their damage against Heavy armor increased from 125% to 150%.
- There was a bug that sometimes made Capital Ships unable to get squadrons. This was fixed in the patch.
- All ships that own squadrons (Capitals and Carrier Cruisers) will now attempt to build strike craft in all non-full squadrons, rather than just one squadron per type it supports. This addresses the situation where squadron owners having all squadrons of the same type were losing "production efficiency" as opposed to those having both fighter and bomber squadrons. This should also improve construction for squad owners w/2+ squads (i.e., most high-level Capital Ships).
- Players encountered a bug where they could see the weapon ranges of ships not yet detected. This was fixed in the patch.
- Players also discovered an exploit where they could build too many squadrons.
- All Strikecraft now require 20% less antimatter for construction than they did previously, but also take about 10% longer to build for balance. They also offer 33% less experience to Capitals when destroyed, and will dock or stay docked when they're not supposed to be launched.
- All Anti-Strikecraft frigates have had their DPS reduced by 25% (in relation to Patch 1.05). Additionally, their attack range has been increased slightly from 3000 to 3250.
- There was a glitch where ships in fleets would attempt to return to their rally points at particularly bad times. This was fixed in the patch.
[edit] Abilities
- Abilities may now require resources to use instead of antimatter.
- Buffs will be removed from targets if ownership changes hands.
- Targeted channeling abilities that should stop when their target's ownership becomes friendly, neutral or hostile relative to the channeler's will now stop if it is appropriate to do so.
- More cases were found where buffs should perform their OnBuffFinish actions (fixes weirdness with various abilities). In response, duplicate buffs that get replaced by new instances of the same buff now do their OnBuffFinish actions when this happens. This should significantly improve Malice's damage output when multiple Progenitors are chain casting it on the same targets, as well as numerous other abilities.
- All ships taken over by the Rapture Battlecruiser's Domination will properly leave the fleets they are in and join the Rapture's if the Capital Ship is part of one.
- All ships that have abilities that repair damage and/or restore shields within an area around the ship will now only consider ships within that radius - they will no longer go out of their way to repair/restore ANY friendly ship, regardless of distance.
