Role Types...

Because the AI only cares if the capitalship is a colony type or not. Early on the AI tends to build colony caps but then shifts to the other types. As the other types of capitalships do not have an economic role it doesn't care which type (battleship, carrier) they are.

And you are wrong, the AI gladly builds the nonstandard capitalships in several mods without being colony types.

Further, I advise that the Devs add custom map sharing to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.

My eyes don't lie.  I have Dreads from Maelstrom in my mod and the AI flat out refuses to build them (have been through NUMEROUS game sessions and trials to check out why).  It's not a fleet supply issue (already checked that route).

I wondered why the maelstrom mod maker set them up to be spawned vs. built, I know why now.

Maelstrom did it that way to force the AI to have them. As a normal capitalship there is only a 1-6 chance of them being built. I know the AI builds new Capitalships because they will build my Destroyers which are essentially another Battleship class.

So you're taking another modders work and trying to put it in your own mod without fully understanding what your dealing with. There are dozens of reason for why the AI won't build a certain ship, if you're starting with a ship that's already very different from Vanilla it could be virtually any reason. All I am saying is that plenty of mods get their AIs to build capitalships that are fairly different from vanilla with research requirements, different fleet supply costs and all sorts of other things correctly, without using the colony roletype. Thus that cannot be the sole reason.

Further, I advise that the Devs add custom map sharing to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.

I tied them to the starbase research of each race.  I don't see why that would be an issue for them to build them.  I've had it in for over 2 months.  Too many times I've seen them late in the game, rebuilding their fleet after a battle, and not producing said ship type.  Same thing goes for the trial sessions I've observed.  They only started to do it AFTER I switched the role type.

They're in there, too. 

Are you planning on producing a different model for the Plague Fortress ship?  Right now, you have it using one of the Plague labs, which looks fine, but I'm just curious.

It's a private compilation mod being used for my LAN group.  I'm not releasing it for the public.
It's an attempt to combine elements from multiple mods into one.  I'm doing it on their behest, not mine (trust me, I'm not doing all this work for my health).   On top of that, all the groups involved know I'm doing this.  Any serious issues that I cannot debug myself, because I can't name a single soul that has tried this before, I contact the respective authors for advice.  It's actually worked out well.  I've had fully playable builds that have been good.  The recent updates on Sins has been causing issues for me, though.  It's also time consuming on my end since I'm the only person doing it.

This is my first whack at doing a large scale project for Sins.  I have experience in working on mods for other games, just not this one.

The same rationale applies towards tracking the cause of minidumps.  All that I know is that I found a solution that isn't conflicting or hurting anything.  Why would I need to change it?

I can confirm this; the AI in SoGE beta does make Lucrehulk BBs and Providences, even though the Lucrehulk DCS is a colony capital.

Further, I advise that the Devs add custom map sharing to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.

I never released that as a playable ship and have hence backed off of it for various reasons.

I never once said that they wouldn't, I made this post after I had it working on my side.  I'm just venting on my issues.

What was the main reason?

I wasn't trying to accuse you of anything, I'm just saying you maybe out of your league with what you're trying to do, as you don't seem to really understand what the other modders were doing. I've always been of the point of view that you start with learning the basics off your own mods to the vanilla game before doing major changes to someone else's mod. IMO if you can't do what they've done if you had enough time, you probably shouldn't do it.

Of course I realize that might be a time commitment you don't have, but don't be surprised if you find a lot more things that might require "venting".

No reason at all, but in your OP you were making a claim that is simply incorrect. In case someone else sees this post we don't want them thinking that they have to make capitalships colony types for the AI to use them.

That said, there might be some secondary problems with using the colony method. If these dreadnaughts really don't have a colonize ability despite the AI thinking it does, the AI may not build colony frigates or the actual colony cap because it already thinks it has one, thus preventing it from expanding.

Further, I advise that the Devs add custom map sharing to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.

I spent half a year hammering out DS into the way my LAN group wanted it.  I'm fine.  If I had no playable builds or progress to show for my efforts, then, I wouldn't be bothering.  You speak to me as if I 100% don't know what I'm doing and haven't accomplished jack shit, while I have.  I have 7 fully functional factions in this mod.  Most of the work I'm doing now is balancing.

The only skill set I lack in is modeling.  I'll be dabbling into that later on.  Once the side project is done, I'm comfortable with modeling, I'll start pumping out original work.

I have no doubt there's other methods, but this seemed to work just fine.  If there is a problem using this method, I'll make sure to mention it.

Oh, and thanks for answering the question, even though, you have zero faith in my abilities.

Okay, fair enough, I did mean to put "I apologize if I'm underestimating your abilities" in my post but it seems that got delete when I was rewriting it. Its just a lot of people tend to try and do what you're doing with absolutely no modding experience whatsoever, and I had no way of knowing if you were any different.

I'm helpful, just a cynic, that's all.

Further, I advise that the Devs add custom map sharing to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.

Here's a little nugget for yah: I've been modding Stardock products since as far back as Stellar Frontier (hence, my join date for the board) in high school.  Those were good times.