Particularly engines and armor, have different weights at which they are the most effective option. This breaks ships down into several categories based on what parts they would efficiently use.
Ships are secondly broken down by function. What weapons they are equipped with, and what speed
Examples should use ships used by built-in game AI's whenever possible due to easy availability of those for inspection.
It should be noted that many ship classifications are subject to a players opinion and these are not concrete classifications which are used throughout the playerbase
Battleships[]
Battleship is the typical name for ships that use Bulk Thrusters and Heavyweight Armor. Bulk Thrusters are effective between 0-125m/s, and Heavyweight Armor is effective between 0-100m/s. The name 'Battleship' is often reserved for ships over $500, though the cheaper ships are usually made of identical parts. Battleships inal stacks or 360 hexmod arrangements.
Shipbreakers[]
Shipbreakers use pull waves to capture enemy capital ships and kill them with stacks of phase bombs. Often also uses stasis, rings, and autocannons.
Dreadnaughts[]
A super heavy battleship typically under 50m/s and having over 1500 HP. Incapable of dodging anything, instead using it's huge hitpoint pool to tank damage.
Cruisers[]
Cruisers are ships that use Cruiser thrusters and Volumetric Armor. Cruiser thrusters are effective between 100-350m/s and Volumetric armour begins to be effective at around 75m/s, though Heavyweight can be chosen at the slower end depending on how much the player values having a smaller hitvolume. Solar Panels are lighter and thus more effecient on Cruisers than reactors, but they also contribute to a larger hitvolume so players may prefer reactors. Ships that are in the overlap zone and mix Battleship and Cruiser parts are Battlecruisers.
Fighters[]
Fighters are small ships that use Scout or Fighter Thrusters, minimally at 100m/s but typically more than 250m/s. They often use light weapons such as light beam, autocannon, EMP, torpedo, point defense, or sidewinder. Usually battery powered but sometimes with solar panels or light reactors. Typically less than 100$ and effective in numbers.
Speed Torp/Speed Sidewinder[]
Uses lightweight speed coils and fighter thrusters to intercept enemy fighters at range and control territory. Usually light reactor or solar powered.
Mine[]
Uses cloak and sometimes jump, usually with sidewinder or ring. Uses lightweight fighter parts to cloak efficiently, rather than to be fast. Stays cloaked and intercepts enemy ships that try and get close.
Scout[]
A cheap unarmed ship used for capturing undefended points, setting off explosives, poking cloaked ships, and drawing fire. Sometimes cloaked.
Multi Weapon
a fighter consisting of 2 or more weapons usually using ultralight or volumetric armor and fighter thrusters though some people may "rarely" use interceptors they are mainly used to contest zones in 2v2 and 1v1 due to their superior firepower compared to other fighters
Examples: CubeCollective scout.
Interceptor[]
Ships that use the Interceptor Afterburner, typically over 350m/s and powered almost entirely with batteries. Can use Ultralight armour, which starts to become effective at 350m/s. Other parts typical of this class include jump drives and cloaking devices. There are a wide range of ship classes in this category and they are usually refereed to by their sub-type. Some ships in the cruiser speed range use Afterburners occasionally, but they really function as cruisers.
Bomber[]
A fast alpha-strike ship, with damage modded fusion rings or phase bombs. Often cloaked and with jump drives, designed to attack heavier ships with high burst damage at close range.
Corvette[]
Similiar to a bomber but typically focusing on stacks of 30 degree mounted autocannons. Has more anti-fighter capacity than a bomber, and sustained damage rather than burst, and often uses Stasis instead of cloak to intercept enemy bombers.
Godslayer[]
A fast usually entirely battery powered ship usually with a heavily reload modded weapon designed to very quickly dump sustained damage into a target. Typical weapons are Fusion Ring, Heavy Beam, Tesla and Flamethrower. A ship that uses six reload mods around a fusion ring is typically called a 'Godslayer' for its obscene high damage output.
Kites[]
'Kiting' is a strategy, which envolves getting just within one's range and doing constant damage to the enemy, while avoiding damage to onself. Kites, or kiters, are those type of ships that carry out this method. They usually have 360 degree mounts for doing constant damage, and have shields (heavy shield/shield capacitor) that can tank damage withought losing hp. Kites are rather weak on their own (having less hp than battleships, and less speed than cruisers). Therefore, kites are usually clustered together, forming a 'kiteball'. When the kiteball gets to a critical mass, they pose a great threat to emeny ships.
Heavykites[]
Heavykites, or hkites, are the most commonly used kites. They use heavyweight armour, and usually use one heavy shield combined with several shield capacitors. Their hp could range from 500 to 1k, and their shield hp could range from 61 (just enough to tank a plasma shot) to 150 or more. Normally, their speed is around 80m/s, but fast ones could approach 100m/s, and they all use bulk thrusters. Due to having to fire and maintain their shields at the same time, they have a great amount of energy generation, whch rises their cost to atleast 800. Plasma, missle, ranged heavybeam and orb are among the weapons that are commonly used on hkites. Weapons are usually fully modded, using a combination of rangemods and reloadmods, with other mods as well. The number of turret mounts could alter from 2 to 4, and their range from 1800m to 3000m (usually 2000m).
Shieldkites[]
These kites are smaller in size and have less hp and range than hkites, but their great motability makes them harder to get hit by the enemy. Unlike hkites, their shields only composes of shield capacitors, but the shield hp are far greater than that of hkites, from atleast 200hp to almost 400hp. Because of the great amount of money used for shields, they could only afford 2 weapons at the most, which have a range from 1000m to 1500m. Using mainly cruiser thrusters, they have speeds ranging from 120m/s to 180m/s, and have moderate turnrates. However, they could be hard-counterd by ranged heavybeam, which has greater range and could do instant damage to pierce their shields.