By the time I realized how damage cap was calculated, I was already over 5000 decks. I allowed myself to get as high as 5999, and then stopped. For the last several months I've been dumping a module whenever I need to make room for more toys. My question is, is it worth it or have I already gone past the point where size matters?

I've been going with the idea that a "Large" ship build would still do better in PvP than a "Very Large" build. By now I've uninstalled all basic scan and cloak modules, and am now removing shields when I need room. But I am starting to think it's not worth the slightly smaller damage cap. Has anyone noticed a difference when fighting large ships vs huge ships?

How big can you get before there's no point in restricting size?

At the end of the day, it's not how big you get, it's how much hull and defense you have. If you have 200 decks with minimal defense and only sport 1200 hull+shield you'll still get stomped. The galaxy is littered with the corpses of poorly built SSBs...

Of course, it's not like ship size is irrelevant: you can't debuff a damage cap like you can defense/shields... but generally speaking hull and defense is more important than the size of your ship. And at the end of the day, you generate hull/defense through AP... so I'd just play like you want and worry more about AP/Hour than than the size of your ship.

Because of the way damage is calculated, there's always a reason for lowering damage cap... 6k decks will take on average 20% more damage than 5k decks. The difference is that 100 to 200 decks is double the damage, while 5000 to 5100 decks is only a small increase in damage, but in both cases you can get the same set of shiny new modules on.

I'd say always limit as much as possible (keeping on modules that give scan/cloak/percent bonus, things you can't get from AP), but I'm biased since I enjoy my MSB. You could run the math, or you could just do whatever makes you enjoy the game the most

When you have added so many decks that you die in 1 shot.

Smaller is better once you have gotten all the ability/% modules/scan/cloak modules there is no need for more decks. The rest of the stats you can get from ap shipments.

I am running 6400 which fits all the stuff I want, but my hull:deck ratio is really high so I think that's the main thing. It would take at least 50 hits even if I was massively debuffed. For one it'll trigger traps almost guaranteed. But also I usually notice it (timer refresh) and repair/trap up.

I had contemplated this as well in regards to the damage cap forumla, here is my thoughts, please correct any factual error I may list.

so the way i understand it is damage cap is
decks/2
or
rank + 19

whichever is greater

which means, using me as an example :

I have 4750 decks >> decks / 2 >> 2375

rank 2375 -19 >> 2356

for me decks will no longer matter at rank 2356 assuming I keep the same deck space.

To answer the metaphorical question of the thread :
ship size no longer matters when you are happy with your junk hauler.

the secondary equation for dmg cap is (rank+19)/2

Maybe around rank 7k! would not matter much if u have a big ship. But for me it's more Hull and ship size. I dont care for ssb. but I want to make you have to click alot. If you have 500k hull will a 7,500 deck ship matter to much?

Size ALWAYS matters. Or so I'm told...

I keep enough decks to have all modules on my ship. Everything is top of the line on my ship All modules. Hull is insane for a ship my rank. My ship is a pain in the arse to disable and currently only folks around 500+ ranks above me are the only ones that bother. Most other hack or tap and move on. I have more damn Ship bots piling up in my cargo hold then I know what to do with.

I'm beginning to think Dan needs to make a theory lab discovery that gives a temporary buff to hull. Say 24 hours or something. So we can use the damn things up. Since I am currently not using Ship bots to add decks to my ship the damn things are multiplying like rabbits in my cargo hold.