It actually sounds like you don't understand how ship roles work rather than the formations not working how they should.  The ship's role is partly decided by the hull size, but in most cases its the equipment you put on a ship that will set its default role.  You don't need to learn how this part works because you can set the ship's role when you save the design.  The ship roles will dictate where ships spawn and their target priorities.

As for range, that is determined by the type of weapon and then by how you research.  The size of the hull has zero impact on how far they can fire.

No, he's not. 

There's a set of ship Roles which are determined when the ship is designed. Weapons give Threat, defenses give Fortitude, and things like carrier modules give Value.  Things with high fortitude will get shot at first, so include a few of those in any given fleet. Then your assault carrier is unlikely to get shot at.

I think you guys are missing my point.  I know the dreadnaughts are going to get shot at but the enemy should have to fly though all my ships to do so.  I am talking about formations.  Right now my carriers are behind my assault carriers.  I’m pretty sure in early patches this was not an issue.

The huge capital ships are super expensive and need to be protected at all costs.  This formation issue I am talking about will also help out A.I. players.

About 1:34 into the video the designer says every “A lot of you will see today will change drastically”.  This video was published in May 2014.

Does everyone else on this forum like their capital ships on the front line and to die long before the obsolete ones do?  

Am I suppose to redesign every ship to effect my battle formations?

 I admit I looked at the ship designer for a few minutes a while ago and did not want to be bothered.

Nothing has changed in the way battles work since launch. The only thing that might be different is if you are using the opt-in 1.4 patch and if the AI improvements have made it smarter at putting together fleets.

Clearly the issue is that you don't know how the battles work and in particular you don't understand ship roles.  Which isn't terribly surprising given the game is woeful at explaining it to new players.  Check out the article on the GC3 wiki.  Once you read this you should be able to see where you are going wrong.

Yes I am using default ship and roles.

I guess my next question then “before patch 1.4 “were assault carriers towards the front lines?

My memory says no but I did take a three month break from GC III.

I’ll go read GC III Wiki.

Thanks

Hmmm.  I just finished the game.  It was an old save.  Kind of sure the save was from at least 1.2.  That being said the last 150 turns was with the 1.4 patch.

I started to play the campaign.  The “capital ship” you start with is behind all other ships.  Yeah I’m sure they are escorts.