My own conspiracies

[rubikscube]

Do ships have people in them?

I believe that there is only 1 person in the game and that is YOU.
No seriously, 1 person in the home command station on a computer controlling all the ships with tactics, just as you would.
Everything else is robots that do things by themselves. ex: spacedocks uses machines that follow an specific order so that they only create things, they don't "think".
( I believe AI is just a more complicated response system. ex: if this happens, then we do that, only "this" has a few infinite possibilities and robots has only a few possibilities)

Why do we have ship caps?

I believe that YOU the commander has a bad computer that can't handle so much processing( can't control that many ships at once)

What is knowledge?

I believe knowledge is "time" we can start researching things, though this "time" needs new information to actually "invent" or "discover" new things.  What's in the knowledge i suppose it's physics and engineering new skills( which is why i believe that if you parasite a ship, you can research it and capture that technology)

How do we know what we can unlock?

I believe we either have a psychic commander, or we seen this type in the ai, and we know the basic information about it.

Why don't we need plutonium for nukes?

To answer that, you must understand we can just use a lot of metal and crystal to make nuclear fission or fusion happen.
my serious answer is we use hydrogen or anti matter for super explosions.

Why is there co op?


Cause you have some pal that wants to have some fun, so you , the commander decides that you will let your friend destroy your whole army by nuking you and by creating alliances with the ai,

Why  can't we upgrade our ships when we are finish building it?


upgrading requires way way too much time compared to just building an mk 2 or 3

[vince0018]

  In the manual I believe it says something about many human commanders from the human race being awakened from some sort of stasis sleep. They're supposed to be the smartest and most skilled commanders among humans. For co-op I believe that your ally is supposed to be other remnants from the human race whom you were previously at war with, but since your AI and your allies AI teamed up against you both and almost wiped you from the galaxy you and whatever other humans you could ally with join forces to take out a common enemy.
 The Scout Drone seems to be just that, a drone, but whether your entire/most of your fleet is auto-piloted, I have no clue. Might wanna ask x that one.
  For knowledge maybe it's a combination of two things. 1) The AI is far more brilliant and is coming up with vast amounts of new technology which you attempt to steal by knowledge raiding or having research stations above planets, so you are using parts of AI technology. 2) Technology which has been lost due to the war is being re-learned. Maybe there's also a little human innovation in there, but I doubt it, otherwise humans would have ships that the AI doesn't.
 How do we know what we can unlock? I believe this in a gaming sense is a form of a cut to micromanagement. Instead of choosing a technology and having it progress/research over time we choose it instantaneously with our hard-earned points, while theoretically we have been striving to learn/create it for a long time.
  Why don't we need plutonium for nukes? This may lie in micromanagement as well. If there were 'real' resources for every ship, building, turret, missile, then the game would be far more overwhelming then it is now.
  Why can't we upgrade our ships after they're built? This lies in the physical structure of the ships themselves. Were you to design a MkI ship it would have MkI lasers/hull/armor/possibly shields, etc. These weapons/items have been specifically tuned and weighted to match the MkI hull, in order to fit a MkII laser onto a MkI hull is simply inconceivable. It would be too heavy for one thing, the turret sockets wouldn't match up with the energy 'plugs' And the onboard 'battery' wouldn't be able to keep up with the more advanced weapon. So why not replace the hull, battery, etc. Hello? That's called buying a new ship.

EDIT: I apologize if I sound rude, it was not my intent whatsoever. Just get carried away sometimes.

[Buttons840]

We all like to think up a lore to bring ourselves into the game.  Otherwise I suppose most game would be colored dots moving around on a blank white background.

[raptor331]

I think that the ships are computerized...mainly because there is a ship cap which mean there are a limited amount of servers to be able to function as a pilot for that ship...

[Ruges]

I believe the ships are computerized too. While they are not fully under an AI's control, all the commands are given via a remote signal. I say this becouse no pilot would take his lonely fighter that is at 10 percent health and go up against a capital ship if he was siting inside it. Nore would they sit around waiting for some tug to come get them when they get below 33 percent health to head back to the repair platform. I am pretty sure if a crew was sitting inside it they would be saying hmm maybe I should go back for repairs.

[Ozymandiaz]

I hope they are computer controlled (probartly with a toned down AI, since humans made the AIs they got some serious AI knowledge), because I bet the pilots would rebel against me since I far too often send them to their deaths . Or send one fighter through a WH only to have it killed so I gain a brife look at the defences ^^.

[vonduus]

Funny, all my ships are manned. Even the scout drones (but they carry only one pilot). Turrets are unmanned, but almost all other ships have crews. The Flag Starship carries 3000 space cadets, and a Spire has a crew of at least 10.000. When I go to war, I have literally millions of people under my command .

The reason why there is ship caps has to do with communication bandwith. Bluetooth was never meant for galaxy-wide communication.