What's up with Ship Hitpoints?

Do you have Hit Point abilities selected that and the War Party increase hit points from the beginnig (this also is decreased if you lose control of the senate to the War Party.)

most of the hull upgrade tech line has hit point improvements.

some feedback please!! I hope this helped you.

Ships generally don't stay at the same HP level. Experience increases the max hitpoints greatly, so the higher ones can be explained from that. Also, there's a trade good (Xanthium Hull plating, as I recall) which increases max hp. And, for reasons unknown, there are often hitpoint discrepancies. For instance, a total hp value for a fleet may read much higher than the actual value of the ships put together, but during a battle, it has the actual value. I'm not sure what you mean by "advertised" so I'm afraid I can't help there.

No idea. I haven't done before and after looks at ships for that tech, usually by the time I research that the game is a done deal anyway.

Xinthian Hull plating the trade good adds 15%, if it 115 with a base of 100 that sounds right. Certain advanced techs add some too, I think only for new ships built after the tech is researched. Veteran status obtained by winning battles also adds. This last bit can add a lot. Use fleets to go after freighters or weak star bases and watch the hitpoints pile up.

I'm not sure what you mean by "advertised" so I'm afraid I can't help there.

Me thinks it's the base hit points of a ship in the shipyard when you design a ship the additional hit point percentage is not calculated with the design.

In the stats for your empire there will be one labeled Hitpoints. It will be a precentage. Take your base HP and then multiple by 1. (the precentage) and you should get your HP.

In theory, at least. I think I've seen some places where this isn't true. Don't know why. But it's a good 'general rule'.

When I create a ship at the shipyard, with some basic deflectors, chaff, armor, and some weapons, it always says 1hp, why is this? It's starting to tick me off as I send these things out and they get destroyed by seemingly inferior vessels.

That's because you are using cargo hulls. They always have 1 hp. Use one of the other hulls.

Ships will also gain hitpoints as their experience level increases - a level 10 Small hull will be tougher than a newly-launched medium hull (but not cost any more to maintain!)

Cherish your experienced ships!

@V1m... something I've never looked at is whether anything other than HPs go up with experience. Do you know?