fewer more personal ships, or strategic hundreds of ships
One of the questions that seems to pop up every so often is whether, with the new ship design and refit, and with the new logistics ability and fleet size limits, there will be any change to the actual numbers of ships in the game.
The two sides of the debate here are
a) Lots of ships: Keep the current GC1 system where ships are cheap to maintain and there is therefore absolutely no limit to the number of ships you can have. Hundreds of ships is very common and gives a feeling of strategic gameplay. The downside of course is that you have no attachment to any of these ships and moving them later in the game becomes a bit of a micromanagement nightmare.
Fewer ships: With the change to more personalised design of ships increase the maintenance costs so that there are now fewer ships. Ships now take on a more personal feel and you will carefully watch ships grow through refits and improve. Micromanagement is limited by having fewer ships.
Personally I'm not sure which side of the debate I fall on. I would probably lean on the fewer ship side primarily as it reduces micromanagement and makes ship refits worthwhile. What do other people think?
Paul.