As everyone is already aware the regular sins capital mechanics have been commandeered to portray Freelancer 'ACE' pilots.
This means some other method was required for dealing with the actual Capital Ships of the Sirius sector.
Originally I had intended to use the starbase code for capital ships. This would mean that all capital class ships would be able to choose 'upgrades' like default sins starbases (each would have unique upgrades) would be able to be given names (from a seperate list of the Ace pilots too) and all of them would be mobile like the Vasari Rebel's starbase.
However a problem occured due to the Developers attempt to balance VR. They implemented a hardcode that prevented a starbase from jumping to a grav well already occupied by a starbase even if the starbase limit had not been reached. (early testing prior to the chance altered all grav well limits to about 100 and it worked great.)
Since not many people have access to the retail version of Rebellion it means most of you can't roll back to the original code (I can because I am awesome)
So plans had to be changed.
Instead now I've decided to give each faction a 'Flag Ship' version of their Battleship which will operate as a 'Starbase'. They start with regular stats that can be improved, will able to be named (plus have random names from a seperate pool to the ACE pilots) and be fully mobile. However only one at a time will be able to be present per grav field.
Each Flagship will have an 'upkeep' cost associated with it (the amount yet to be determined).
There is no way currently to display this upkeep in the economy overview, so you will have to pay attention to see if you can afford the cost required.
All flagships will have access to upgrades, which will have various effects from reducing upkeep, adding new weapons/abilities, improving hull/armor/shields or preventing the loss of the planet it is orbiting. Some may even have the ability to deploy a group of fighters.
Regular Battleships and other classes (Cruisers, Destroyers and Gunboats) will be regular ships in a sense, though will have the appropriate stats for their class. These lesser capitals will use the normal 'supply' requirements and so are only limited by your 'fleet supply' research.
These 'Flagships' will hopefully also be compatible with the Last Flagship Standing rule though I will need to test it further.
The other exception of course is the Artifact/Titan ships which were mentioned in a prior update. Titan/Artifact ships are not affected by any of this and use the usual titan rules.
Final Note: IF the Devs do reverse their hardcode restriction on starbases I will probably revert to my older method as naming Capital Ships is fun and I had a lot of cool ideas for conditional upgrades on gunboats and cruisers.
this is so cool :D you are awesome. cant wait for the release of this