Actually, I think this idea would be good: Sacrificing a level 10 cap to get a super-cap. Guarantees that it will be a late-game ship, and said ship will be vulnerable at level 1 (Crew needs to get used to the ship, of course).

And there is the problem of creating an upgraded version of all 15 caps...

Also provides a reason to buy more capital ship slots. Starbase style upgrading (more upgrades than points) would be nice for specialization.

I can certainly think of some upgrades -> Buy a level or two of stuff upon colonization (like Planet Defense and the tax drain), as well as longer-range versions of the old abilities, and (at least) 15 squads of strikecraft with the max squads upgrade. Elite squads. Only the best will be on these caps. Perhaps some ablilities could be mobile versions of some buildings (Ship construction, dropping a temporary culture node/trade node/sensor beacon/phase gate building). And anti-strikecraft weapons in addition to the extra squads. Any upgrade that does faster jumps would not be good unless it also affects ships jumping with it. May make that a building? And how could a super-marza possibly top missile barrage?

Damage shouldn't top a starbase's, shouldn't destroy game balance... I see no way to actually implement this without mucking with something...

Being a late-game option I believe it should a level 8 military tech research to be unlocked. Tech level 8 usually has a single thing in the tech tree... should have more

To even it out, everyone else wil have their own. two of those ehemoths throwing slugs at each other would be a clash of titans. I believe the upshot in special skills would be more in terms of shorter cooldown / more antimatter with faster replenishment  modest damage bonus maybe. If you upgrade the offensive systems (upgrade slots), hten you would get additional bonuses, which would make you more of a threat.

Say the ship by default gets initially 20% higher stats than the vanilla cap ship. each offensive upgrade slot (you can get up to 2 upgrades) get you an additional 15% more antimatter / faster regen+cooldown. dedicating both upgrades to offensive upgrades would get you 50% more effective in plain weapons systems and special skills. your missile barrage gets 50% more powerful than the 'vanilla' MB, and you can cast it twice as often. It means that by the time a single Mazra is prepping to launch a second MB, the 'Grand Mazra' would have dished the equivalent of 3 vanilla MB and would be ready for the 4.5th. That makes the offensive power of the fully offensively upgraded Grand Mazra 2.25 times more powerful than the plain Mazra, unless my math skill are too simplistic to get the picture.

Remember this ship would also cost at least 100 military unit slots, and 2 cap ship crew. This is just an off-the-top-of-my-head pretty numbers, don't know if there would be a severe imbalance with those settings. Since it's likely that the other side will be gearing up their Grand Capital Ships too, I believe it would find a matching foe. Meeting a fully upgraded Starbase would still not be pretty.

I don't know if it should get extra fighters for free, the starbase gets none. It is a combat ship though, they make sense. If were to give it any, it would be depending on the original ship. Combat/Siege Capital ships would get 1 extra fighter slot, support capships would get 2, and carrier capships would get 3 or 4.

I kinda of like the idea of tying the availablity of super capships to already gained experience, but I'd like some different mechanics. maybe instead of the lvl 10 capship returning to shipyard for a revamp, have it unlock the new shipclass altogether. or the reseach for it if you will. my ideal concept would be the following: there is some high lvl tech on the one hand, like "superstrucuture assembly" that unlocks basic buildability. next to that, you make it dependent on experience gained by your existing capships and super capships. I wouldn't want to punish someone who chose 2 lvl 6s rather than a single lvl 10 or some other combo. no, for every 3000 or 5000 or whatever, experience you gather, you gain the ability to build ( not to field, so when it's gone, it's gone) one super capship. make a small meter in the resource section or whereever and off you go. sounds like a nice option and different enough for me to warrant overcoming my otherwise resent for uberships.

that said, I doubt that a ship that is merely as strong as two capships is such an attractive option. with focus firing you can basically bring everything down fairly quickly, so would it really be worth the expense. if anything, it would have to be far more powerful than 'just' two capships in one. and there is the question how you position it. is it a frigate killer? a capship killer? a starbase killer? I'd personally like a system where you could pick your strenghts, similar as in starbases (where were done imo excellent, capships should have been more like that too). so you could have extra weapons banks effective against hordes of units, a uber gun for massive dmg against single units, a planet killer module, anti figher module and some defensive modules. but you could never have all of them. but then, that would only be a relative weakness. even without the special module, the ship would be something of a threat to those attackers.

It would actually be cooler if we could actually assign the flagship title to a capship of our choosing, in return for bonuses for  the rest of the flee depending on that capship that scale with its lvl

It could also give that ship increased firepower and surviveability and stuff. This would cost resources as to not be spammable.

The units would get more benefits while they are in the same grav well, a lesser one while they are outside it and if the flagship dies, every ship suffers a penalty.

  You have to research it as Brazilan_Joe suggested level 8 of course.

You have to get the capital ship up to level 10, and when you get the Admiral ship its reset back to level 1, because what your trading in is the crew really and they have to adjust to the ship. Also Brazilian_Joe's thing.

For the stats of the ship i sugest that we take the average of starting fire power, sheild, hull points, ectra of all the Capital ships and mulitply them by 4 or 5. The ship would have all the wepons, TEC example: Auto cannons, Lasers, Missles, Beams. It would carry around 4 strike craft. The stats would increase the same as the capital ships do every level, I think its like 5% - 10%.

What it would look like would kind of be a cross between all Capital ships or just a totaly new desgin all to gether, and would be twice as long.

And for the customzation. When you chose the abbilities you get to chose it from the teirs of any ship, and once you pick it you continue to upgrade it. What I mean by teirs is this: another TEC example.

Teir 1 Guass Rail Gun, Colinzation, Radiation Bomb,Sheild Restore.

Teir 2 Flak Cannon, Ion Cannon, Raze Planet, EMP Bomb.

Tier 3 Addaptive Sheild, Incedeir Shells, Magnatize.

Teir 4 The one you get at level six Final Hour, Armisitce, Missle Barrage.

Thats my composit of my ideas and others, I think it would be cool to have the Admiral ship idea in general as the third expansion. 

I apoligise to Brazilain_Joe, I think I kind of stole his thred.

About the fleet admiral thing...

About the fleet admiral approach.

I believe it's a different idea, and is not incompatible at all with the Grand Capital Ship idea. Let me explore it.

I am supposing it's possible to use a structure with a skill which can 'buff' a cap ship with a permanent bonus. It could only be activated by research a high level research. I believe it makes no sense to buff a smallish fleet and give nothing to another fleet in the same gravwell if there is an Admiral commanding the action. therefore, the area of effect of an admiral should be the entire gravity well the capital ship is in.

The skill needs a high level research, a high level cap ship (6 or higher), and a tactical structure (Strategic HQ). It works like a passive skill bonus. For each Strategic HQ (info about its resorce cost later) you will be able to buff a single capital ship, which will have this bonus until it is destroyed.

The upgrades would be paid for on the Strategic HQ, but the bonuses will take effect on the 'buffed' ship - the buff IS the Admiral.

The admiral would give a base set of bonuses - like +5% everything - range, speed, cooldown, shield/hull/antimatter regeneration.

We will then be able to pick and choose the extra bonuses the Admiral is able to give. Like the starbase, you have more options than levels available, so you must pick and choose the ones you want. If the ship with the Admiral dies, it will take some time (3-15 minutes) for a new Admiral to be available.

As for limiting the number of strategic HQs, There are a few possibilities I can think of:

1) It is a structure with a huge tactical slot cost, enough to guarantee that no more than 1 can be built on a planet. Probably expensive enough to guarantee that an asteroid (2 tactical slot upgrades) can never host one.The tactical capacity will be crippled, so it is a tradeoff and must be protected accordingly.

2) Or it can be a starbase. So you place it, but it has only the 'basic' level of defenses. The upgrades go all to the Admiral. It is a reasonably strong defense asset, but no nearly as strong as a fully upgraded SB. That makes it a more vulnerable target, which needs to be protected.

3) Stars can have up to 4 starbases. If the number of 'starbase slots' a starbase uses can be altered, so that a 'super starbase' can be designed, we can make a starbase which can only be placed on a system star, taking up 2, 3 or 4 starbase slots. That ensures that very rarely more than one admiral will ever be present (per race) in any game. In this case, since the Strategic HQ is such an important asset, it should have strong defenses by default, like a level 6 starbase probably (2 offensive - 2 defensive - 2 strike craft upgrades) at its base level. It will be alone in the star, with no tactical structures available to help it. Maybe it could take 3 starbase slots to allow for one additional starbase companion to help it fend off enemies. I would make it cost a LOT, start strong, take a very long time to finish constructing, and be a 'no-weakness' fortification. Which means, weapons with range long enough to take out Ogrovs. It is a Strategic HQ after all. Only sheer military might could bring it down.

I would also make it take a percentile of the Empire's income, much like the fleet size does. It should take a huge amount of resources to make the Intelligence running, So I would give a 3-10% percent economy impact.

oh thats much better than what I was blabering about

not sure if anyone's already said this, but you CAN reassign the 'flagship' designation. With multiple caps on hand, it just goes to the one with the highest experience level/points.