Tonnage is a limiting factor of ship design. It restricts the amount of Modules that may be placed on one ship.
This prevents ships from mounting excessive levels of equipment.
Although to ideally avoided, Capacity can be improved by Applications Research, or by the addition of Modules (which require extra ).
Considerations[]
Typical considerations with tonnage are between high-level Modules (which provide more stats per ton) and low-level Modules (higher , but require less ). Adjusting to compensate is essential to ensure that your is always fully used.
While the combat triangle often provides the bulk of a ship's , other considerations include Engine Boosts and Support Modules must be included. It is recommendable to base your ships around one central role (for example, a Corvette class survival role might include armor and repair, according to its bonus, to allow it to use kinetics; while a Missile ship might include extra engines to aid its manoeverability and ability to find undefended targets) and then add on Modules accordingly.
Avoid adding support such as plating or engines to ships unless their role specifically requires that it be able to take damage, as the Corvette example above. Specialist vessels are always much more effective than counterparts that are "balanced", as you have precision control of your units and the situations that each vessel are placed in, and adapted to.
Especially avoid using multiple ranged weapons - use a versatile type, beams, instead of using both guns and missiles. When one system is fully utilised, the other is useless; compared to beams being reasonably effective at all ranges.
Optimisation Formula[]
The formula for deciding the optimum placement of modules is an algebraic formula. To maximize space or stats, the formula is rearranged. Typically, this formula is of the form nX+nY=T, where n1+n2=W. This can be rearranged and substituted as nX+n(W-Y)=T to find the maximum value of T. Alternatively, by restricting T, the optimum value of W can be calculated.
Applied Sciences has several techs that enhance your ability to increase tonnage. These techs, in the order they can be acquired, are Extreme Metallurgy, Advanced Simulations, Tectonic Engineering, Self-Replicating Structures, Quantum Substrates, Black Hole Mining, and Quantum Robotics.