Ship Type

Different ships do different kinds of damage. Some are particular to certain races, others are shared by them all. A ship's damage is applied to the target's armor, determining the amount of ships that are affected. The effect is determined by the type of damage.

Normal

Kill ships, or normal ships, do normal damage to other ships. Traditionally Terran and Xandathrii have only normal ships. Generally Cathaar and Zikonian normal ships have been weaker than their Terran and Xandathrii counterparts, but that isn't always the case.

Astropod

Arguably the most important ship type of the game, astropods capture enemy asteroids.

Structure Killers

A Structure Killer is a ship that targets structures.

EMP

EMP ships generally have low initiative and hold enemy ships for a tick of combat rather than kill them. Held ships are not able to fire that tick, but can be killed if normal ships fire on them later in combat. After round 5 only Cathaar ships have had the EMP ability. Previously everyone could build some EMP ships, and some were reserved for an exclusive technology branch called Science. (Its counterpart, War, gave access to powerful kill ships.)

Subversion

A ship that does subversion damage borrows enemy ships for the remainder of the tick. The ship is borrowed from the beginning of the next stage of initiative (or at the end of this stage). Ships that have previously been held are freed up and control is transfered. Subverted ships are immune to further damage (normal or otherwise) while being controlled.

Steal

During some previous rounds there were ships that could steal ships permanently; this feature has been put back in the game for round 13