Ship class philosophy

Outlines the philosophy behind the different ship classes.

=Civilian Ships=

Generally need no license to buy. They don't really feature combat abilities and are meant for use by civilians in protected systems.


 * Yacht: Small civilian ship.
 * Luxury Yacht: Medium civilian ship.
 * Cruise Ship: Large civilian ship.

=Merchant Ships=

Have great cargo carrying capacity. Also meant to have a good amount of autonomy. However they generally are quite defenceless and meant to go in convoys with escorts. Exception would be some transport ships modified to be able to ward off weaker attackers.


 * Courier: Small transporting ship. Meant for small trips and not too large quantities. Meant for quick short deliveries.
 * Freighter: Medium transporting ship. Meant for medium range trips. Can transport large amounts.
 * Bulk Carrier: Heavy large transporting ship. Meant for gigantic bulk transfers of goods. Very large and slow, generally accompanied by escorts.

=Combat Ships=

The bulk of Naev ships are combat ships, as combat is a fundamental part of Naev. There are many systems with little or no protection and it's therefore important for these to exist. They all require licenses and the likes to get.


 * Light combat ships
 * Scout: Small virtually unarmed ship. Meant for electronic warfare. Generally can jam, scan and cloak. By being smaller with special construction designs they tend to be much more frail but much harder to spot and engage.
 * Fighter: Small light ship. Meant to combat with other small vessels. A subvariant is the interceptor which specializes in killing bombers. Generally fast with few mounts and generally all forward fighting weapons.
 * Bomber: Small light ship. Meant to assault larger ships through extensive use of long range weapons. Generally very weak in close quarter combat.
 * Medium combat ships
 * Corvette: A fast medium ship meant for taking out ships smaller or equal than it. Generally tends to have forward mounts but can mount turrets too.
 * Destroyer: Smallest ship meant for extended duration missions. Has heavy weaponry and generally uses mostly turrets. These can hurt larger ships, and generally don't do too well against much smaller ones.
 * Heavy combat ships
 * Cruiser: A large slow ship, mounts many heavy hard hitting long range turrets. Meant to fly with escorts and primarily attack other cruisers or strategic targets.
 * Carrier: A larger slower ship that carries extensive facilities on it. Generally carries squads of fighters/bombers and may even be able to build it's own.

=Robotic Ships=

These are ships with no crew, therefore they cannot be neither boarded nor piloted by the player (without modifications).


 * Drones
 * Light drone: Small unmanned ship.
 * Heavy drone: Large unmanned ship.
 * Other
 * Mothership: Unmanned carrier.

= Organic Ships=

Ships by Soromid. Needs more fleshing out but the idea is that they're metal frames with flesh grown onto them. They should be able to grow their own weapons and ammunition.