You might want to rethink this sentence!

And thanks to Darza in a negative way,

I would suggest reading

https://www.gog.com/forum/master_of_orion_series/moo_2_help_building_ships/post23

https://www.gog.com/forum/master_of_orion_series/moo_2_help_building_ships/post34

those two and ignoring anything else, again in a negative way thanks to Darza

And why do I say negative, then I suggest reading only my responses to Darza as they explain fully why.

This should bring you back on track. That fighters are overpowered. ;)

Another fun thing about telepathic is that capturing enemy ships gives you to immediate control to use their weaponry to help win the battle. So if you can send a commando raid to capture the starbase, you can then turn the starbase's own weapons on the remaining defenders to bombard the planet or take out enemy ships.

So Assault Shuttles and/or Tractor Beam with Neutron Beams and any ground troop tech improvements can be fun with Telepathic too (for the mid-game).

NO, computer is only needed for weapons but not for the carrier part.

2nd not sure, but don't think so

Whatever is (mostly) in target range, so getting a ship in range will ensure this (getting targeted, checking manually) and ruuuuning (while he rest is out of range, and just keeping another decoy i range and so forth)

Hv, heavy mount AP armor penetration, CO continues NR? AF? .....those two fail me in the moment as well.....

NR = no range dissipation, no dmg decrease with range
AF = Auto fire, weapon fires three shots with slightly lower chance to hit.

Beam attack value contributes to initaitive, so computers on missile or shuttle carriers may make sense
e.g. you wnat to protect other ship(s) from incoming missiles by moving in and trigger self destruction,
or move sufficiently maneuverable carriers asap away from enemy fire to reduce cth and dmg.

Since ship design also relies on participants tactics(although AI is ratehr predictable) and ship designs of opposing forces,
there is no 100% perfect default ship design.

In long games it pays for telepaths to concentrate on capturing enemy ships as they may provide some nice tech when you scrap them.
Btw go for assault shuttles and stasis field to capture antaran ships.
Also dont elimante the last colony of another race, especially cretives, unless you soaked up all their tech,
may even want to keep them as tech slaves in an offered system far away from other races.

So, it's a cruiser with 1 Heavy mount, armor piercing, continuous fire, no range dissipation, auto fire something?

Yes. ;)

1 Heavy Mount and 1 normal mount, both with all the mods (4x)
Electronic Computer, Battle Scanner, Extended Fuel Tanks
7 combat speed
Ship costs 348 and has 6 space left.
Because its AP, this one wrecks Star Bases, destroying its systems with first shot already.
Until some opponent gets Heavy Armor that is, coz the AP modded Laser cannot pierce it.

BTW, at that same tech level (250 RP Physics (Battle Scanner)) you can make:
3 Heavy Mount Fusion Beams
1 normal mount, Continuous Fusion Beam
6 combat speed
Ship costs 360 and has 0 space left.

or also:
2 Heavy Mount, Continuous Fusion Beams
1 normal mount, Continuous Fusion Beam
6 combat speed
Ship costs also 360 and has 0 space left.
Continuous helps if you intend to fight ships with it (+25 chance to hit)

I added the Fusion Beam designs so you can compare their effectiveness against Star Bases and against Ships.
The Fusion beam one is stronger at closer distance, but its early game and you ships are slow, Fusion ship even 1 speed slower than Laser and it needs to take down the Armor first, before it can inflict more serious damage.

I'm genuinely amazed that a ship armed with just two lasers can oneshot a starbase. What a difference this tea makes!

Well, it's not oneshot exactly, you need couple combat rounds, but as in first shot star base also takes internal systems damage, you cripple its offense/defense immediately protecting your CA from harm, while with an offense with interceptors or missiles (which is faster in a blitz coz you need to tech less) you need to use the hit-and-run tactic.

I must admit I have had a hard time in making this ship work.

In the first round I can't get in range to use the non-HV laser and when I do, it still takes several rounds, where i am woefully exposed to the nukes the star base is sending my way.

After some trial and error and by sacrificing a frigate I managed to take down my opponents first star base, but the next I encountered had lv1 shields and that did me in.

My CA design for an early beam-ship rush playing as Mrrshans:

2 Hv AP NR AF laser cannons
4 Pd AP CO NR AF laser canons
Extended Fuel Tanks
cost 337, 0 space left

I had +50 attk bonus from Mrshan racial picks, so I didn't need the Battlescanner, but I researched to that level anyways to get the miniaturization and AF weapons. Just sit back at long range and lob shots at the target. That ship can easily solo an early starbase (without heavy armor). For enemy Fighter garrisons and Missile Bases, add in a few FR or DE escorts with as many Pd AP CO NR AF lasers you can fit in.

For the mid-game, start researching deep into the Power tech tree: Fusion Bomb, Ion Pulse Cannon, Anti-matter Drive, Transporters. Once your Hv AP NR AF laser tech becomes obsolete, you can switch over your main weapon to AF Ion Cannons, and get much the same effect. Works vs Heavy Armor too. Add some bombs for taking out planetary defenses, and trade for some better armor. That should keep your beam fleet pretty much invincible against anything that doesn't have Class-V shields or better.

Ion cannons still useless against Antarian and monsters? They are nice but with that caveat.

A couple of of follow-up questions:

- For beam ships/mid-game: what weapon would be your choice to replace fusion beam/mass driver?

- In my current game the AI has researched heavily into missiles and are currently fielding Pulson missiles. What is my best defense against missiles?

To expand the question, should I opt for some point defense beam weapons, anti-missile rockets or perhaps fighters? Should I try to trade for ECM Jammer? Or would it be better to research ahead for more advanced technologies?

- Would a ship solely designed to take out enemy missiles be worth going for?

There is no simple answer to your questions. Mostly it depends on what techs the enemy is employing or not. Usually a particular weapon combo that works well against one enemy might not work well against another. SO you need to redesign your ships between wars in anticipation of the enemy weapons systems you expect to see in the coming battles. What works in one game doesn't necessarily apply every time.

As long as the enemy doesn't have Class-V shields yet, you can usually get by with any of the beam techs, although some work MUCH better than others against certain defensive tech configurations. The most effective designs of course take advantage of miniaturization and any available HV AF CO NR ENV AP upgrades. Personally I like AF Ion Cannons on a glass-cannon design or Neutron Blaster/Tractor Beam combo on a tanky ship design.

You probably should check out Gontzol's Weapons Calculation FAQ to see how the math works for the various weapons systems. That can help you decide whether it is worth improving your own fleet's accuracy or evasion techs.

If you are having problems damaging enemy ships with fusion beams, then there is no point in switching to fighters until you get Phasor tech.

The "best" mid-game anti-missile tech is probably Lightning Field, since it always activates and destroys 50% of incoming missiles, regardless of missile type. But if you have good targeting computers, a ship armed with a very large number of beam weapons can be effective at shooting down missiles too. AP doubles damage against missiles, and ENV quadruples damage.

Having one or more dedicated point defense ships that protect the rest of the fleet from any incoming missiles is definitely an option to explore, if that fits with your battle strategy. But the AI will often target the weakest link, so don't count on your point defense ships being missile magnets. They will likely have to aggressively position themselves so as to intercept missiles targeting other ships.