i recently bought the game in all honesty i didnt know it existe untill a week ago
ive been really enjoying the game, the fleet design is simply amazing, i prefer to play with the swarm i just think they are cooler lol.
at first when i did the battles my swarm fleet design seemed to be doing the job properly but then i started the dark journey in the campaign.
i started building my fleet shadow force III, a few cruisers (attack cruiser mk1) the mainstay of my cruiser designs and some (horus frigates mk IV) the fast nimble frigates often replacing my fighters when they have been mostly destroyed in the half of the battle.
i conquered my first few planets without a problem but then i met the most evil inventions ever created.
it didnt matter wich race it was all seemed to field suddenly 4 or 5 invincible ships, my cruisers being destroyed before even haven done anything to the enemy, my frigates falling shortly after with no effect and my fighters just buzing around unable to penetrate the armour.
i was at a loss fleet after fleet of mine was wiped out by these super ships (tanks as i later found out), planet after planet fell, no matter how i adjusted my existing designs my ships seemed to be to vulnerable to there fire while not being able to penetrate there shields or armour.
it literally made me have some sleepless nights trying to figure out what i was doing wrong, trying to save my homeplanet from being overrun.
i looked on forums i googled (suprised that there arent many pages dedicated to it) i deleted my old designs and started from scratch experimenting with weapons shields and armour.
none did meet my satisfaction none would be able to beat these superships untill i decided to make one of my own i very reluctantly started adding armour and weapons instead of engines and shields, the first steps into creating the assault hive was made it was slow heavelly armed and modestly armoured it was a match for the superships but it used so much crew! it was so slow and the superships could still damage it easelly.
so the heavy assault hive was made by replacing most of it weapons with armour allowing me to use a smaller generator and less crew i made my own tank
with a value of 52 armour it was far from invincible but it did what it was supposed to do, allowing my other ships to come in range unharmed and open up with there rockets,missiles and plasma, the tank even provided perfect support for my very very very very slow torpedo bombers (i kid you not they are so slow they are just a bit faster then my tank its awfull)
so yea i am new and im saying hi 
i hope to be able to post some of my designs here some day and hopefully see some designs of other people here aswell
Welcome atlervetok! It’s always good to have new players finding their way to the forums. Glad to hear that you’ve been enjoying the game.
On the subject of “superships”, yes, there is a strong tendency for many players to use armor tanks and other similar tactical trickery within the game. Good to hear that you found a way around it without souring your experience of GSB. (Personally, I don’t like fighting tanks with tanks, which is why I don’t have the campaign.)
Wandering about the forums, you will find that we have a small but still active modding community that is continually producing extra material to enrich the GSB experience - races, ships, scenarios, you name it. We’re all pretty friendly around here (although a search of the forums is usually advisable before asking any questions, since many of the most common issues have been addressed one place or other).
Again, welcome to the forums!
Atlervetok, welcome to the GSB forums. Enjoy your stay with us!
I’ll add to the warm greetings Ace Palarum extended to you by saying that if there’s anything you’re in the least doubt about concerning our forums themselves, feel free to send me a Private Message. While it’s true that I do run a tight ship here and have zero tolerance for lulz/vulgarity/spam, I’m willing to meet a new member more than halfway if they’re having trouble in using the forum’s Search feature. All I ask is that they make an honest and persistent effort on their own to look for an existing topic of interest before creating a new thread about something discussed repeatedly since 2009. 
Armor tanks…so effective (at least at first), and highly annoying. 
A favoured tactic way back when was to design the most outrageously armoured cruisers possible (armor resistance of at least 65; above 73 is preferred) and stick them at the front of one’s formation as decoys – your own forces will use focus-firing ad nauseam to futilely attempt taking these decoys down, while the rest of the enemy fleet gets in your face & hands you a major beatdown.
If the tanks’ total armor rating is extremely high, not even the Proton Beam (armor penetration rating of 73) can burn them down; only the 3% random chance of a critical hit from weapons-fire of any kind. Rather a cheap move, but it often gets the job done. You’ll find MANY old challenges which use variations of that tanking theme.
Oh, and regarding this:
For all fighters, speed is life. Fighter armour is a joke, so pure speed is your true armour. The faster they are, the fewer the weapons which still have high enough tracking accuracy to lock-on and burn them down. Anything that slows your fighters down is to be avoided at all costs. This is one reason why fighter torpedoes are not used more often; the fighter laser is much lighter to carry, and not as ineffective as you might assume. Also, fighter lasers can be fired from within the radius of a target ship’s shield bubble! >:] BOOM.
For my part, I would be very reluctant to bring along a fighter/interceptor design that is slower than speed 2.00, or a torpedo bomber which is slower than speed 1.00.
You can find the Friendly Community Mod Squad and all of our modding goodies here.
my bombers dont have armour, they are due for replacement tonight i was thinking of some frigates they might actually be cheaper then bombers
Only if your bomber-replacing frigates can inflict approximately the same quantity of damage in exchange for you spending approximately the same quantity of credits that you previously did on bombers.
Also, if a “typical” bomber has (for example) 25 hit points, a full squadron of 16 of them has 400 HP total. That’s close to about 100 HP more than the total HP average which many frigates have. However, the bombers (despite being much slower than typical fighters) are going to be somewhat harder to kill due to another reason as well: 16 targets to isolate and fire at instead of just one. If the enemy didn’t bring any high-rate-of-fire, high-accuracy weaponry, then his life expectancy may be brief.
But unlike fighters, frigates have access to non-hopeless armour and (even better) some shielding choices, so even though (when it comes to evading incoming enemy fire) the frigates will not be much faster than enemy cruisers, at least they can – for a short while – shrug off a hit which would vaporize a torpedo bomber, and still continue to be mission-capable.
A full squadron of bombers means at least 16 weapons at your command – while unfortunately, nearly all frigates have a max of just four turret slots. Which type of unit will live long enough on the battlefield to cause enough destruction amongst the enemy as to pay for the cost of that unit’s presence in your fleet, and prove itself to be the “superior” choice? Hmmmm…
This is far from a complete or conclusive argument, of course; just pointing out a few things that you’ll need to be aware of. Such compromises and juggling of resources like this are a part of what keeps this game fun.