which, in your opinion, is better?
1 extra large ship (301+ pts) with 21 hab's (example is mauler sized)
2 cruiser class ships (201-300pt's) with 16 hab's each
3 destroyer class ships (150-200 pt's) with 6 hab's each

I've been able to design even the destroyer class ship with enough hold, mass scoops and factories to keep a fairly decent repair rate once it gets to 1 habitat (with 6 habitats in total so it can use the world it just colonized) well, all 3 of them do their job (being given enough time they can fully colonize an entire system off of one world with a cap of 5 or more in one go)

so I guess the real question is would it better to go with 1 larger ship, or 3 smaller ships...

on a side note I've found out you can only repair 1 hab per turn... lol, maybe I'll update my designs using this knowledge now

Barring some special cases, my colony ships have all been maulers- better range for the drones, and general efficiency.

I think it's personal choice so far.

I am waiting for killer designs - ie the one winning design for all situations. But I'm hoping that ship classes, ripcurents and ship class restrictions means it will never happen.

Player choice is the best, and hopefully that diversity is what we will now see.

hmm... I'm gonna have to actually find 2 similar systems and actually try this out... (same number of hab's needed to fully colonize and same number of planets I mean)

but mostly I've found the difference is that:
smaller ships:
- faster in speed, so don't need spindizzies at all
- they can also colonize a single world faster (3 drones going at 1 a turn then 1 a turn) however will go same rate if going at 3 worlds in same place (single ship can fire at all 3 at once)

bigger ship:
- not as many hab's wasted keeping ships afloat (1 hab needed to support 1 ship, not 3 supporting 3 ships)
- larger number of begginning hab's (on my ships this is 15 useable habs on 3 ships, 20 hab's on mauler, but could be more)
- can fire the shots at longer range and still reach the planet (so possibly no spindizzies needed either)

I'm sure I'm missing a couple facts on both sides... obviously if it came to surviving an attack, the single ship would survive more hits, but the 3 small ships could get to jumping distance faster

actually, my maulers typically fire 2-3 colony drones per turn, and always fire at least one colony drone the turn they set up the trade gate.

speed isn't a factor when you have range, and reserve spindizzies mean never having to say "I can't make jump range this turn."