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[Sapling]

Hello.
I am totally into min-maxing, but doing a deep stat analysis of every ship combination is something I do not have time for. I was hoping  that more experienced members would be able to answer this question.
I am basically looking for a simple fleet meta. The most practical fleet per supply and fuel cost and firepower.

Currently I have 2 damage dealers along my flagship, a medusa and a phase destoyer. Then I use 3 carriers, with 3 fighter bays, with one carrier carrying only claws and the other two carrying talons. This seems to be pretty efficient so far.
Additionally I also have a colossus freighter and a phateon tanker, both equiped with extended cargo and crew capacity. Seems to be more efficient than bigger freighters.
When it comes to ship mods and weapons, I usually stick to hardened shields and dedicated targeting core when possible. Extended range can really turn the tide of the battle from my experience.
I always prioritize energy weapons, anti matter blasters as first, IR pulse as second or ion cannons, then if possible I either equip pulse laser or autopulse laser (Which I replace with plasma cannon if possible), or high intensity laser (Combined with tac lasers and graviton beam, but that only works on paragon).
As for missiles, I usually use Annihilator rocket pod, or MRM pods for finishing damage.

As for the flagships, I always try to get medusa first, then either aurora or apogee and then jump to paragon.

[goduranus]

Drovers only. Drovers beat everything. They are far more fuel and supply efficient than cruisers or capitals, and depending on how many of them you deploy, then can handle anything from occasional run-ins with pirates, bounty hunting, to farming AI cores.
https://sectorloadouts.info/view/EAYxwcBdjNR9YfwrG
Start by shopping at Tri-tachyon and Persean league stations for Drovers, get at least 5 Drovers each with 1 Broadsword + 1 Talon, controlled by cautious/steady AI officers with carrier skills. This will be enough to take down pirate bounties up to 100k. Then add more Drovers as you find or salvage them. About 20 Drovers should be enough to take down any bounty fleet even without any officers or skills. Then hunt down redacted fleets to salvage their Spark fighters, which are the best fighters for the Drovers.

A fleet of 10 officer controlled Drovers and 1 player controlled Astral will comfortably handle any bounty mission. Recommended bounty hunting setup is 10 Spark Drovers +1 Longbow/Cobra Astral + 1 Phaeton + 2 Colossus

Note, do not deploy a warship with the Drovers, as there is an AI issue that causes your carriers send all fighters to escort the warship instead of using them for strikes. Also, Drovers are no good vs starbases, if you want want to take on a starbase, you should manually pilot a Heron or Astral with bombers, as long as it's not a warship, cuz then you will run into the fighter escort problem.

Proof of effectiveness, 20 Drover fleet destroying pirate starbase and 616 pirate ships:


Additional recommendations:
Get the Coordinated Maneuvers and Electronic Warfare skills so the Drovers can more easily stay out of range of enemy gunfire;
Get the Fighter Doctrine skill to improve fighter replacement rate and reduce crew losses;
Get the Industry skills that improves equipment salvage rate and ship salvage rate, so you can save money by salvaging enemy Drovers and fighters
Have a crew transport ship with your fleet until you have equipped all Drovers with Spark fighters, as Drovers don't have much spare crew capacity, and fighter losses will result in crew being understrengthed if you do not bring spare crew;
When you are near the endgame, and don't care about fuel consumption any more, bring 10 of Paragons just to boost your fleet deployment points.

[Sapling]

Really interesting.
Would that also work if I kept my aurora and 2 of my other ships and replaced the rest of them with drover spam?

[Megas]

Aurora is a warship.  It would cause fighters to escort it if deployed with the carriers.

[Thaago]

In terms of fleet meta: It depends on the stage of the game.

Early game, SO ships dominate - a player piloted Hammerhead with a few distractions will get you through 150k bounties and pirate stations. Say 1 Hammerhead, 2 Wolves or equivalent, small fighter complement (Condor or 2 Shepherds). Coincidentally, this is the kind of fleet you can have out of the tutorial, though getting 2 Assault Chainguns may be a bit of a matter of luck depending what Ancyra and the pirates have on sale.

Mid/late game, SO Dominator plays the same role and will get through all but the largest bounties with a mid sized fleet backing it up (a few destroyer carriers, a cruiser or two, a few destroyers). The main purpose of the fleet is to take care of small threats and give a bit of a 'safe zone' for the Dominator to duck back to and lose flux. This probably can take out every threat, as an SO dominator chews through enemy capitals in very short order, but I got kind of bored playing it and started a new game before doing the 5+ undamaged faction capital fleets.

Drover spam has a very slow start, but once it gets going its unbeatable - the ease which 20 Drovers cut through the largest fleets is amazing. They are also fast, fuel and supply efficient.

[Goumindong]

Thaago is generally correct with the exception that far lategame the Odyssey takes over as the ideal player ship when not fighting top tier stations.

Re: drovers. While fighter spam is strong if you want to avoid (i think) the AI bug then the AI will not escort your player warship if it has bombers fit(any number)

Regarding your fleet composition:

Consider mixing the fighter types between bomber/fighter/interceptor. The fighters on a carrier always act as a unit* and so setting up combinations lets you define how each set of fighters engages, in which order and so on. The old standby of “broadsword + dagger” is a good example as is “gladius + talon”. The talons can keep up with the gladius and protect it as it does anti-fighter/small ship work. The broadswords clear a path of pd with their flares and deal shield damage in advance of the daggers torpdeo barrage.

*with the exception of xyphos which will stay with their home carrier if given an attack order.