I ask this in comparison to the upsizing that has gone on with RW naval vessels. For example, in the 1910's, the US Navy started commissioning Clemson-class destroyers - these measured 95.8 meters long by 9.4 m wide, with a full-load displacement of around 1,300 tons. One hundred years (and at least 20 classes) later and the most recent class of US destroyers is the Zumwalt, coming in at 190 m x 24.6 m and a displacement of around 15,900 tons.
This compares to the ratio in many places of 1:2:4:8 from Corvettes to Destroyers to Cruisers to Battleships in Stellaris. If the ratio is taken literally to indicate volume/mass of the ship (cost in alloys certainly alludes to this), then the Battleship would proportionally be twice as long and have 8x the mass (equivalent to displacement above). From a technological perspective, the Corvette is a Tier-0 technology while Battleships are Tier-4 (per the Wiki), so there is a technological development to get to the larger hull/class. I don't know the average research time for a player- or AI-empire to research Battleships, but I'm guessing it's fairly close to the 100 year mark indicated above.
I'm not advocating for there to only be one hull size of warship per empire - far from it. I would actually prefer to see some larger hulls at Tier-0 (although maybe only 1-2), followed by a shift in roles over time. Later technologies would allow for both bigger hulls and for existing hull sizes to get quicker (due to improvements in structural materials, paired with thruster techs). It might require extensive refitting to upgrade to a new hull (time while the ships are out of commission) but it could be done that way; either that or build a new ship (the old ship stays around available to fight and then is retired/sold).
A possible scenario would have 3 initial hulls, a Tier-1 technology adds a new larger hull and allows the 3 smaller hulls to be upgraded, a Tier-2 technology adds another larger hull and allows a similar upgrade for the 4 hulls from the Tier-1 tech, etc. I would like to see a Tier-1 thruster tech added (or possibly sliding some of the existing techs down to make room for a later Tier), to have as a requirement for the new hull tech. With that new thruster added to the structural improvements, the largest hull is at least as quick as the largest from the previous Tier, while the lower sizes see a jump in their acceleration, leading to improved Evasion. (A ship with a new thruster tech but without the matching hull tech will see some benefit to the new thruster, but not as much as a newer hull, as it doesn't have the structural strength necessary to handle the forces.)
This would of course have to be tied to a ton of other tech changes, largely to have a larger range of weapon and utility sizes, and balance adjustments to keep the latest big ship from dominating all those below. System and FTL speeds would have to be adjusted, too, as the smallest ships will be double-dipping on speed boosts each Tier (I would start with having earlier ships be slower, rather than just piling everything on later). It would also precipitate a real examination of the Evasion and Tracking systems as the 4th largest ship at Tier-4 would be at least as Evasive as the smallest Tier-1 ship.
This compares to the ratio in many places of 1:2:4:8 from Corvettes to Destroyers to Cruisers to Battleships in Stellaris. If the ratio is taken literally to indicate volume/mass of the ship (cost in alloys certainly alludes to this), then the Battleship would proportionally be twice as long and have 8x the mass (equivalent to displacement above). From a technological perspective, the Corvette is a Tier-0 technology while Battleships are Tier-4 (per the Wiki), so there is a technological development to get to the larger hull/class. I don't know the average research time for a player- or AI-empire to research Battleships, but I'm guessing it's fairly close to the 100 year mark indicated above.
I'm not advocating for there to only be one hull size of warship per empire - far from it. I would actually prefer to see some larger hulls at Tier-0 (although maybe only 1-2), followed by a shift in roles over time. Later technologies would allow for both bigger hulls and for existing hull sizes to get quicker (due to improvements in structural materials, paired with thruster techs). It might require extensive refitting to upgrade to a new hull (time while the ships are out of commission) but it could be done that way; either that or build a new ship (the old ship stays around available to fight and then is retired/sold).
A possible scenario would have 3 initial hulls, a Tier-1 technology adds a new larger hull and allows the 3 smaller hulls to be upgraded, a Tier-2 technology adds another larger hull and allows a similar upgrade for the 4 hulls from the Tier-1 tech, etc. I would like to see a Tier-1 thruster tech added (or possibly sliding some of the existing techs down to make room for a later Tier), to have as a requirement for the new hull tech. With that new thruster added to the structural improvements, the largest hull is at least as quick as the largest from the previous Tier, while the lower sizes see a jump in their acceleration, leading to improved Evasion. (A ship with a new thruster tech but without the matching hull tech will see some benefit to the new thruster, but not as much as a newer hull, as it doesn't have the structural strength necessary to handle the forces.)
This would of course have to be tied to a ton of other tech changes, largely to have a larger range of weapon and utility sizes, and balance adjustments to keep the latest big ship from dominating all those below. System and FTL speeds would have to be adjusted, too, as the smallest ships will be double-dipping on speed boosts each Tier (I would start with having earlier ships be slower, rather than just piling everything on later). It would also precipitate a real examination of the Evasion and Tracking systems as the 4th largest ship at Tier-4 would be at least as Evasive as the smallest Tier-1 ship.
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