if you're running up against the fleet limit, I'd love to know why that is.
Junkfleets is where it hits me.
Spoiler
First, building your fleet using salvaged ships means you cannot always 'up-scale' your ships when you like in order to face a bigger threat. The only way you can do this is by bringing more ships. Which may not be possible due to the cap.
Or forces you into a dilemma where you need to bring more fighting ships, but if you do so you won't have enough civilian ships to support them for long enough to get them there.
Not so much of a issue for colony defence, but bounties can sometimes be a problem as they can spawn quite some distance away. And 'red' systems can be literally anywhere.
Then there's the previously mentioned battle chains, which are especially rough on junk ships smaller than thier targets as they have to use things like SO to fight at anywhere close to parity. So multiple ships for replacement in-battle may be something that you have to consider in your fleet.
Frigates are useful in any fleet as fast support ships, and especially if you find yourself in the role of the pursuer.
But to be useful you'll need at least 4 (2 for each side of a pursuit) otherwise they can't really do anything other than scoot around and vaguely poke at things.
It this worth 'spending' 13% of your total fleet on? I don't want to say no, but I can't say yes.
Recovering assets as mentioned in the OP is another big hit for the industry focused player, as thier fleet is likely going to be made up of a larger number of damaged ships. And not being able to recover useful random floating ships when the opportunity arises is less than ideal.
And then there's the whole reason some players are out exploring the fringes of the sector; finding somewhere to settle.
This involves lot of travelling, so you'll need lot of fuel. And a half-decent amount of speed - burn 7 is the lowest speed that still allows you outrun 'heavy' fleets and travel around in a reasonable timeframe.
But the whole point of being out there is to find somewhere to develop, so all ships that can spare the OP will have survey gear on them. And all ships will definitely have efficiency overhaul just to make supplies/fuel go a little further. Which means you can't use speed boosters, which in turn means you can't use big transports (it's at this point I really wish there was a cruiser-scale fuel tanker).
So the only way to increase cargo/fuel capacity is to add more ships. And you'll need all the capacity you can get as you're carrying most of what you own with you so you field refit salvaged ships into useful configurations without having to backtrack into the core.
A 'typical' long range salvage fleet at this stage might be built around 5x pheaton + 5x collossus, that's a third of your fleet. And it's quite easy to need more than that.
Constant salvaging and surveying also means constant crew loss which means you'll need to bring a fairly large surplus of crew on your trip.
Efficiency overhaul plus most ships having more crew space than they need is usually enough to accomodate this, but sometimes you'll have a particularly rough spell and end up getting close to your crew 'floor' which means taking on any savalaged ships will impact the performance of your whole fleet. Bringing a crew transport would be a solution, but....
This is also a concern if you use a fighter-heavy fleet, which after a pitched battle can have quite a noticably negative impact on the fleet. I've found that crew attrition is one of the more prominent limiters for exploration, even with all the mitigation I can afford to equip. The only way to get around this entirely is to use drone fighters exclusively.
The concept of the previous logistics system was superior to a hard cap.
Spoiler
You have a number of 'points' in your fleet. Every ship is worth a different number of points, which can then be extended to cover mechanics which did not exist then.
Bigger ships are worth more than smaller ones. Military ships are worth more than civil ones. Pristine ships are worth more than damaged ones. Etc.
Just because the previous implementaion was not good doesn't mean the idea behind it was not good.
But no cap is superior to any cap.
I'm trying to not change the cap in my current game, and it's an experience.
One thing I've found I'm doing a
lot is constantly counting my ships like some kind of obsessive to make sure I always have enough room for 'new' ones, because there is nothing to tell me how 'full' my fleet is.
A possibility could be linking fleet limits into colony industry, so as your industrial capacity expands so does your capability to field ships.
Even if nothing else changes, a big coloured number on the fleet screen to say [current # of ships]/[maximum allowed # of ships] would be helpful.
