The idea of unique moves would be interesting, but I think you could finely tune the ships to unique abilities much more easily. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I see it there are basic classes of ships:
Medical/Triage
Transport
Colony
Scout/Surveyor/Probe
Frigate/Destroyer/Attack Ship
Heavy Destroyer
Escort
Cruiser/Battle Cruiser (Early command?)
Heavy Cruiser/Warhawk
Tactical Cruiser
Command/Explorer/Dreadnought/Warbird/Attack Cruiser/Battleship
Transport and colony ships I wouldn't bother with, except perhaps to add them as a negative to fleet speed. The others I would figure you could specialize by using different values for the following stats:
Maneuverability-chance to avoid incoming enemy weapon's fire, decreases attack accuracy when evading
Damage Reduction-reduces fleetwide damage or casualties
Accuracy-pretty self-explanatory, the chance to hit an enemy ship
Firepower
Shield Strength
Sensor Range-ability to detect enemy ships further away, earlier warning
Interception-chance to intercept and prevent a ship from escaping
Recharge rate-shields and weapons, although possibly split into two categories
Point-blank fire-ability to attack ships within say 500 meters
Ranged assault-attack from further away
Coordination-slight boost to all stats fleetwide
This way, you'd have it easily able to balance out and have specifics for your different ships. The figures would look something like this:
Medical/Triage-reduce fleet casualties/damage in battle by 15% at level 1, 20% at level 2, can be cumulative up to say 50%, balances out because these ships have essentially no firepower and weak shields
Transport-if anything, maybe a fleetwide damage reduction or increase to the chance to capture/salvage ships in combat, same percentages as medical
Colony-nothing in battle, except maybe drop fleetwide speed by 20% at level 1, 15% at level 2, 10% at level 3, same speed penalty could apply to Medical and Transport
Scout/Surveyor/Probe-minimal shield and firepower, maneuverability 3, recharge rate 2, sensor range 6
Frigate/Destroyer/Attack Ship-maneuverability 6, recharge 3, sensor range 3, interception 6, point-blank 7, shield and weapon strength 3, coordination 1, accuracy 2
Heavy Destroyer-maneuverability 8, recharge 5, sensor range 4, interception 8, point-blank 9, shield and weapon strength 4, ranged 2, coordination 1, accuracy 3
Escort-maneuverability 10, recharge 5, sensor range 3, interception 9, point-blank 11, shield and weapon strength 5, ranged 3, coordination 2, accuracy 2
Cruiser/Battle Cruiser (Early command?) man. 3, recharge 5, sensor range 3, interception 4, point-blank 3, shield and weapon strength 5, ranged 5, coordination 3 (5 if this is a command ship), accuracy 4
Heavy Cruiser/Warhawk-man. 5, recharge 7, sensor range 2, interception 3, point-blank 2, shield and weapon strength 7, ranged 7, coordination 1, accuracy 5
Tactical Cruiser-man. 6, recharge 8, sensor range 2, interception 4, point-blank 3, shield and weapon strength 8, ranged 6, coordination 0 or 1, accuracy 5
Command/Explorer/Dreadnought/Warbird/Attack Cruiser/Battleship-man. 2, recharge 10, sensor range 5, interception 5, point-blank 3, shield and weapon strength 7, ranged 5, coordination 6, accuracy 5
Of course, the coordination could only be cumulative to a certain extent, say 2 or maybe 3 command ships worth. The variable could alter a bit as the ships rise in tech level, like I mentioned with the medical, and the values I put in just came out of thin air. The point is simply to illustrate what each ship type would naturally be better at. Destroyers and the like would sacrifice accuracy, sensor range, and shield/weapon strength for maneuverability and close-quarters fighting strength whereas the larger ships would have greater accuracy, recharge, ranged attacks, and shield/weapon strength at the expense of maneuverability and close-quarters fighting. And, of course, you'll always want to have a command ship or two to grant the extra boost in coordination to your fleet. The noncombat ships I also added in as a means of reducing casualties and perhaps damage at the expense of fleetwide speed/maneuverability since your attack ships will need to protect these fragile ships.
Does this idea sound more balancing/acceptable, and I would think this would be a LOT easier to program than unique maneuvers for each ship or ship class.
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