Frigate and Cruisers variety, abilities and upgrades

Hello again!

In this post, I would like to ask the development team specifically about the reduction (although small) of the roster of frigates and cruisers of both TEC and Vasari factions, and the lack of active/passive abilities throughout the roster.

Right now, both factions have one less support ship: the TEC are missing the Cielo Command Cruiser and the Vasari are missing the Stilakus Subverter. The Starbase builders have transformed into capship components, so I don't consider them a missing feature.

Also, most frigates and cruisers used to have one researchable active or passive ability that either gave a basic ship an interesting role in late gameplay or was a straight-up upgrade.

Now, I have to admit that in my games in Sins 1, I was often building only a few support cruisers, and maybe not even both types  (to the point that I can exactly remember what a Cobalt or a Kanrak used to look like, but I'm not sure about Cielos and Stilakus), I often skewed away from the abilities that required micromanagement to be effective, and didn't even research them unless I had tons of spare resources to throw at research.

So... are these changes made to cater to the type of semi casual player that I too represent, who ended up underusing or straight-up ignoring these features in the old game, aiming for a more streamlined experience and maybe focusing more on the bigger picture, or are you planning to add these kind of features later?

Also, I am unsure about how I feel about the Garda Mark II upgrade. I love seeing more turrets popping on my Gardas, but at the same time it is a no-brainer upgrade for me. I confess that I do not even want to build Gardas until I have that upgrade unlocked, and it is so close in the tech tree that I always wait for it before building Gardas!

So yes, on one side I would like to see more of that for other ships which are weapon platforms, like the Harcka, but I would also like to make an interesting choice while choosing the upgrade, maybe between 2 different specializations, or having to make a tradeoff of some kind. Right now, I consider a basic Garda just like a stripped down Mark II.

Another simpler solution would be to make the upgrade more substantial and to move it further down the tech tree...

 

Thank you again for listening and answering!

All the best!