Technology

Energy:

In the future, as now, energy is the major restraint on any civilization.  In 4500, humanity has entered the Singularity Age as part of the Galactic Alliance.  This means harnessing the capabilities of black holes as technology, the applications of black holes are various, from power sources to weapons, Singularity technology defines the Galactic time period.

Energy is the major bottleneck of any ship (Besides Mass), power therefore is drawn from where ever possible.  Solar energy is utilized as much as possible, as well, energy beamed from lasers stations can power up/speed up the ship.  Fuel of any kind is a precious resource, Nuclear, Fusion or Antimatter can be used to power ship systems and weapons, the highest tech source of power is a radiations emitting singularity, though it makes energy silence difficult (Because it is a continuous source which cannot be turned off).


Warship Design:

Warships must include both Hab type cylinder environments and 0 G infrastructure, during prolonged travel (sometimes for many years), the Hab environments are utilized.  During combat all crew is strapped down for high G maneuvers.

All Warships must include a massive central drive section capable of accelerating/decelerating the ship.  During acceleration, Lasers are used to accelerate the ship from the home world, but when attacking hostile territory, no lasers can be utilized to slow down, so drives are necessary, as well for combat maneuvers.

To maximize stealth, Warships slow to attack speed well before reaching an enemy system, drifting in "cold" until the last moment to avoid alerting defenses.  The maximum journey a crew might be experiencing is at most 200 years (That would be travelling from one end of known space to the other.)  Crew would split time between living in Hab (to maintain gravity strength)((Genetic engineering might negate the need for gravity strengthening)), utilizing various VR systems for mental health, and time in 0G doing work in the super structure of the ship.

Most Warships would be massive (As massive as possible) long, low frontal profile ships.  Inside the many kilometer thick armor, there are many rotating cylinders which provide gravity to the Hab units, these have living environments with plants, animals and structures.

A Warship must also have the capacity to set up a base camp in a remote system.  With travel requiring possibly more than 100 years, if arriving at an enemy system, the invaders realize they are unequipped to handle the situation, they cannot afford to waste the time calling back for help, they must instead deploy infrastructure and create the required logistics themselves.

Weapons:  

Kinetic Dumb - Mass charge shot without guidance system, cannot be maneuvered but capable of much higher acceleration than smart weapons.  If accelerated close to light speed can achieve near Nuclear weapons damage.

Kinetic Smart - Mass charge with a guidance system, can maneuver but has lower acceleration capacity.

Laser-  Highest velocity weapon, cannot be maneuvered but versatile defense/offence weapon.

Maser-  Microwave laser, slower speed than laser but still very effective.

Chemical Warhead - can detonate with lower velocities, useful for mines ect.

Nuclear Warhead -  Like a Chem warhead but more powerful

Antimatter Warhead - Like a Nuclear warhead but more powerful

Singularity Warhead - Like an Antimatter warhead but more powerful

Ramming is also incredibly useful to the degree that most warships are designed to ram along the frontal axis and pack a sharpened ramming spike.