Big ship supremacy... Can little ships keep up?

[Urendi Maleldil]

I've added a new Small Ship Masters racial trait to the next version of the Masters Mod. It should yield a race that can effectively negate the "bigger is better" strategy. Right now, ship construction is researched like it is in the stock game, but research in other areas gives additional small hull sizes with certain bonuses.

I'd like to add a few more though, and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestionson what I could add. Here's what the Small Ship Masters have so far:

Hulls:
Ship Con 2 + Propulsion 3 = Fast Escort (+50% defense, +4 combat movement)
Ship Con 3 + Industry 1 = Cheap Frigate (0 hull cost)
Ship Con 3 + Mil Sci 1 = Stabilized Frigate (+30% offense)
Ship Con 4 + Armor 1 = Hardened Destroyer (30 emissive)
Ship Con 4 + Mil Sci 1 = Stabilized Destroyer (+30% offense)
Ship Con 5 + Shields 1 = Shielded Light Cruiser (50 shields)
Ship Con 5 + Armor 1 = Hardened Light Cruiser (30 emissive)
Ship Con 6 + Resupply 1 = Endurance Cruiser (10000 supply storage)
Ship Con 6 + Shields 1 = Shielded Cruiser (100 shields)

Mounts (for 100-500kT ships):
Ship Con 7 + Mil Sci 1 = Stabilized Ship Mount (+30% offense)
Ship Con 5 + Sensors 1 = Miniaturized Electronics Mount (50% size, 150% cost increase, only for electronics)
Ship Con 6 + Shields 1 = Small Geometry Shield Mount (150% shield strength)

[Suicide Junkie]

Say what?
50 shields?!? Unless that's leaky shield points, its not worth the space in the hull selection screen.

I suggest that instead of making new hulls for that, you create a Shield mount, which would provde +10% to shield generation. Better effects, and dosen't use a hull.

[Ed Kolis]

Isn't Resupply 1 a starting tech?

[Urendi Maleldil]

Oh, why so it is. Resupply 2 will work.
... and increased shields to 75 and 125.

There already is the shield mount, farther down the list.

[Suicide Junkie]

How many shields does a typical ship have? If it is anything like stock, then 75 points is still insignificant... one, maybe two hits.

Perhaps you should consider making it 50 points of shield regen? That would be somewhat useful, pretty unique, and make the ship hard to capture as a bonus.

[Urendi Maleldil]

75 extra shields for a Light Cruiser is like having an extra shield generator onboard. 0kT, for free. The hull costs exactly the same as the regular Light Cruiser hull, and the shields don't use up any kT.

Plus you get it at Shields 1, where Shield Generator I only generates 50 shields. You can combine the shielded hull with Small Geometry Shield-mounted generators later on down the line and end up with a tough little ship.

This is just preliminary, and I'll have to test it to make sure it's a good enough shield bonus. If it's too weak, I can always make it stronger.

[Suicide Junkie]

Compare it to shields 5+, though.
Nobody is going to sit around with shields level 1, and you can't obsolete hulls.