The AI performance seems to be dependant on what species it's playing.

Phidi consistently sit on like +1000+1500 coins and good income while having piddling metal income and almost no fleet. And that happens across multiple games.
Humans seem to swing greatly depending on the starting position ...

But, it's also a very fragile hull.
I just want to note that its fragility doesn't matter much as it has no reason to get anywhere near the actual fight as long as you have other ships. Maybe in late game it could, sometimes, become a problem but for most of the game the only other weapon capable ...

On the subject of Yoral Torpedo Destroyer - how hard would it be to remove the doubling of Missile launchers in its slots? Because 4 torpedoes while still very potent are harder to exploit the same way as pure missile launchers that give a lot of ordnance on the field. They are slower and you need ...

You also don't want to go through the Stellaris screw-up where 'naked corvettes' are better than the high-end ships due to costing a fraction in upkeep.
Technically it is already the case in a certain sense. Torpedo Destroyer is probably one of the best ships in the game. And most of the time it ...

Well current dev versions upkeep costs seem to not be that restrictive. On humans with 6 planets I had 6 cruisers (3 light, 2 heavy, 1 assault) and could add 2-3 more. That's with level 1 markets. Then Gremak came and put a dumper on my attempt to ally with Colonials and get out of the corner.

I've been hemming and hawing all morning about whether or not I think a nonlinear part pricing model is worth doing. I've pulled more numbers from an AI vs. AI test game. "Balance" has always been pretty rough in SiS, particularly as it exists between the different factions, and while that ...

Whatever formula is used for coin maintenance cost calculation, if it limits an empire with a typcial balanced economy (at leat one market per planet and trade pool full), in how many ships it can upkeep that will break this balance and lead to anomalies I was trying to describe and showcase in the ...

All that said, the trends are still pretty clear. The way the game is balanced right now, if we use a harpyeagle style attack x defense evaluation function, bigger ships are reliably "more efficient" than smaller ones. But, if we follow zolobolo's example, and think exclusively in terms of attack ...

But overall fleet "capacity" is determined by overall metal production: the more metal you dig out from the soil, the more ships you can build. There is no metal upkeep for existing ships

This is a simple system, and if one wants to build a lot of ships, they need to make sure they produce enough ...

The upkeep I think is a bit too much here: At turn 129 and for the above empire size, the player should probably be able to field twice as many ships (currently this is around 1.5 ships per planet). Sure its not a good comperison, but think abouth this: we currently have a single low-tech planet ...

But I am on the opinion that ship upkeep should not be able to deplete coins under normal build order and for such a fleet composition (of at least one market per planet and trade fleet fully stacked) as it is needed for at leat some instant refit (not acounting for buyout option - I can live ...

I'd actually would probably look at what type of enemy I'm going to be fighting. Escort cruisers with their turret mounts should be better suited to dealing with Destroyers that have the speed and manoeuvrability to catch up and surround the Light Cruisers. They would also be able to destroy one per ...

I think you made a mistake in your damage calculation. Unless you made it previously when determining how many weapons the ships carry in total.
Should be 32 on EC side with 128 DMG total vs 144 DMG total on LC side.

Also which species cruisers are we talking about exactly? Because for Yoral for ...

Hmm, In a fight of 2 vs 3 I would actually bet on escort cruisers. By the time one of them loses their shields one of the light cruisers would be dead. By the time one of the escort cruisers dies 2 of the 3 light cruisers would be dead and the last escort cruiser won't stand a chance. Of course who ...

As things stand in the current build, I think "turns to fully militarize" is perhaps about right during the early game, but, potentially, too high in the late game. I'm not sure about the mid game -- maybe it's ok there too?

As a rule of thumb, if you, as a player, feel like you have more money ...