So if you have played the original Gratuitous Space Battles game, you will remember that there were three classes (or crudely put: ‘sizes’) of ship in the game. They were cruisers, frigates and fighters. In simple terms, cruisers were the big damage-dealing and damage-soaking tanks, frigates were the smaller, faster raiders, and fighters were tiny things that zipped about and sneakily shot through enemy shields at very close range, plus enjoyed some aesthetically pleasing dog-fighting with enemy fighters. This was pretty simple and obvious, but it didn’t lead to enough variety, and thus we have doubled the number of ship sizes/classes this time round. So here they are, and here is what they do…

Fighters

Same as before, the small fast little one-lifeform dogfight ships, that can also carry some small missiles and do damage to enemy frigates & destroyers, but not much else. The big changes in GSB2 are that these ships (and this also applies to gunships) need to be brought to the battle aboard a carrier, and need to refuel now and then. (depending on how big the fuel tanks are you fit to them of course :D)

Gunships.

These are new. basically big fighters, more power, more hull slots, able to mount two weapons at a pinch rather than one, so consequently they can also pack enough armor to survive one or two shots and still make it back for repairs, unlike many of the smaller, cheaper fighters.

Frigates

These are quite deliberately targeted to be raiders this time round. They are faster, and more geared towards attack. They are vulnerable to fighters. Ideally deployed in a nice big formation and told to keep moving to leverage their speed and avoid getting hammered by the slow-tracking cruiser & dreadnought guns.

Destroyers

These are support-ships, that you will generally find escorting or in formation with a cruiser or dreadnought. They are roughly the same size as frigates, and share some of the same module choices. They have special ability modules such as shield support beams, propulsion support, and defensive systems such as point defense and guidance scramblers. These don’t generally attack they enemy, they defend your bigger ships against attack.

Cruisers

The main line-of-battle ships. these do the majority of the damage, blasting enemy cruisers and frigates to bits with serious weaponry and decent defenses, meaning they will last a good time into the battle, even in the middle of things. They have the capability to act as carriers, and have some of the big, scary weapons. Cruisers can also take on enemy dreadnoughts, and actually share quite a few module choices with them.

Dreadnoughts

The ultimate ship. This is the ship that a fleet is built around, and you are unlikely to have many of them deployed at once. Expensive, big, very slow, and capable of carrying the biggest weapons available. Like cruisers, they are vulnerable to missiles and fighters, and rely on an escorting group of destroyers to defend them from enemies while they deliver the killer blow. Ideally suited as carriers, that stay at the rear of the battle, refueling and repairing endless squads of fighters. Losing a dreadnought in battle can be a disaster.

I think this variety is going to add a lot to the game. Right now it’s not, I have to admit, as balanced as it could be, but that will be something endlessly debated and tweaked during beta. I’d like there to be really distinctive roles for each class and that is going to mean a lot of restricting modules to one type or another, and maybe adding a bunch of new ones. If you don’t want to wait until all thats sorted out, and want to get your tentacles dirty with the beta, we are taking pre-orders and giving out beta copies to people who pre-order starting this friday… So keep an eye on this blog, or our facebook page.