Where the new 'Corvette' ship class stands, what to expect?

You're on the right track. As to what will differentiate them, you'll find out in time.

I gather they are being called as 'highly maneuverable' ships.

That made me think that maybe the corvettes, instead of using the fly-to-the-front-of-the-enemy-and-stops-like-a-sitting-duck, it could use the fighter-like fly-by behaviour.

That would be an interesting cross-breed between frigates and fighters, and the smaller corvette ships could give a hard time for the bigger ships to target them, depending on how targeting works.

Make them phased out vessels.They would perform the function of stealth ships.Low damage,good sabotage buildings,starbases and Titan class ships.

Corvettes really sound a lot like how scouts were used in 1.18.  Certainly a 2 command unit would satisfy the "smaller than (most) frigates, bigger than strike craft" status.

The capital escort Idea was much interesting wouldn't you say?

*hears loud chicken sound in the background*

THE HOLY PROPHETS OF STARDOCK HAVE SPOKEN!

*bows repeatedly*

Seriously though, that's awesome. But the waiting! It's so difficult.

In homeworld corvettes were larger than fighters and could still dock on carriers. I would say like fighters they will operate in squadrons.

Would be cool if the new corvettes would be like a faster version of the existing light frigs, and frigates in general would become a little bigger. More weapons, hulls and fleet supply.

A frigate class ship that just sits there in battle should have more guns imo. 

Hound, I really like that idea.  If you could choose a squad of corvettes as an option instead of strike craft that would allow for some interesting customizations of carrier cruisers, cap ships, starbases, and hangers.  Maybe cost 2 strike craft slots for 1 corvette option.  I'd love to see this implemented.

       Did I read somewhere that corvettes might have fighter style movement? I like the idea that they could be docked in a carrier. Maybe we finally have a use for the dock/undock button............

The developers hinted that strikecraft-styled movement, a la their role in Homeworld, was 'on the right track' for the new corvette ships.  Well, maybe not precisely... But still, given their role in Homeworld, and the ties between Homeworld and Sins, I think you might see strikecraft movement from them.  It should be the new preferred view for watching big fights on replays of recorded games, with the awesome battle music playing in the background.  

As for the dock button, I use it sometimes when I have fighters around and the enemy has flak.  No sense getting them all gutted in seconds.  Bombers can usually hold their own and be left out at all times. 

You also have to wonder what corvettes will counter, if anything.  bombers and lrm's are what most people talk about right now.  if they can counter lrm's, that could take the pressure off of lf's to go after enemy carriers (and let capital ships live longer) and free up the fighters to concentrate on the bombers.

Their speed might enable them to close the distance with lrm's quickly and might not be targetable by them if they move like strikecraft.  but then, what counters corvettes?  flak? lf (to give them more to do)?

However, if they are launched by Titans the way caps and carriers launch fighters, then that could be a whole different can of worms.

To tell truth, we really don't know enough about corvettes to say what they would counter or what kind of attributes they have.

In Wing Commander I and II, Corvettes were small, fast ships that operated as something akin to a super-heavy bomber. They Were as fast as the bombers, but packed more firepower, and were excellent at anti-bomber, anti-freighter (trade ships), and anti-light-cruiser (Support/LRM, anyone?) - and they were vulnerable to heavy cruisers, cap-ships, and fighter-craft. Frequently deployed in pairs or trios.

Which sounds sort of like a light frigate that's decent at killing LRMs and moves faster

Edit: bolded for giggles.

I will guess/vote for corvettes to move in combat like fighters, instead of standing still, have special abilities like frigates, and have shields, but no jump drives, so they must be docked on carriers to go to another gravwell.

Corvettes are always smaller than frigates and generally specific purpose built.  This has been true in navies in real life and most space games.  Lighter, smaller, faster, less armed, specific purpose.

Generally, it's likely a safe bet to assume that the new corvettes will be faster and more maneuverable than anything that isn't a strike craft.  It also seems very likely that there will be corvette chassis for specific roles, which gives the possibility of each corvette chassis having it's own unique ability.  Given that this class of ship is certainly larger than a strike craft and more than likely below the size of a frigate, and very likely will not have a frigate's antimatter reserves, it seems likely to me that corvette chassis will not be jump capable on their own, which probably makes one of the new capital ships a dedicated corvette carrier.  If such is the case, this implies that corvette chassis ships will operate in squadrons as strike craft do, though understandably of smaller number.  I'm personally thinking that, if this is the case, a corvette squadron of a faction could be a third the size of their strike craft squadron, but with significantly greater firepower and armor as befitting their size.

Also, it seems to me that at least one chassis of corvette is likely to be a dedicated frigate killer, and/or designed to tie up the attention of enemy frigates, allowing one's other ships to pound them into free-drifting, smoldering scrap.  Or perhaps even worse, a chassis to kill those pesky flak and long range frigates, allowing one's strike craft and perhaps a general damage corvette chassis to mop up enemy strike craft with near-impunity before  really putting the hurt on enemy frigates and capital ships.

It suddenly occurs to me that there isn't exactly a 'privateer' class of ship for preying specifically on trade ships, or in other words, commerce raiding.  Nothing says naval warfare like making your enemies -very- protective of their fragile merchantmen, especially if you're stealing the money and resources they're shipping.  Ergo, it makes sense to me that we might finally get to see a ship chassis designed for disrupting supply lines and stealing every bit of loot they can in the bargain.

There's also yet to be 'stealth' craft in the game.  Perhaps there might be a corvette chassis to address that, with say, an ability to close to much greater range before being 'detected' by enemy ships, which leads me to believe that this could cause an even greater reliance on scout frigates if they're one of the few if only ships that can spot corvettes ghosting towards your fleet before something starts eating holes in it.  I can admit after all that when it comes to late game combat, I only have very few scout frigates in my fleets in case I run into a minefield.  How much worse would it be to fly unwary right into the middle of a small swarm of corvettes that tie up the attention of your ships before they even get within range of that enemy planet or fleet or starbase, while said fleet or starbase begins carving your ships apart?

More thoughts later.  I'm tired and crave unconsciousness.

Pulpy, I'd like to point out that there is a "stealth" ship: the Vasari Jikara Navigator.

Admittedly, it's a high(er)-tier researchable ability, but the ship does have an ability that allows it to "phase out" and sit there and watch stuff. Not quite what you're thinking, I'm sure, but it is a stealth craft.

I think though, that the commerce raider is a much more interesting idea. I rather like it. Though I'll note that a Corvette Squadron that consists of 33% of an SC squadron would be, well, very small.

As in 1 corvette/squadron for a Vasari corvette squadron. Obviously it'd be more for Advent, but they tend to have high numbers of SC/squad anyways.

the corvettes will be armoured out and be ramming ships.  with boarding parties..

mayby titans ships could produce corvettes sqaudrons because they are bigger so they could produce bigger ships it's just like a capital ship produceses a sqaudron strike craft a titan coeld produce corvettes in sqaudrons or not it would olso fun if you could control the corvettes just like the rest of a fleet but you just need a titan to produce and transport

I would guess Corvettes come in squadrons, but are not married to a mothership or capital vessel. If anything there would be a new class of dedicated tender to see to their needs (repair, resupply). They act as a purely attrition unit, or something that still wreaks havoc with capital ships, but is too large for anti-fighter guns to swat and too small for capital weaponry to hit effectively. 

Given that there is a standard for corvettes, which even sci-fi has managed to follow quite well, above is the only real question. I imagine that they would have to be independent, like frigates, both in order to function in a significant way (probably as affordable skirmishers) and because marrying them to a capital vessel would demote them to the status of 'gunship', an idea already explored in mods. Although I can see Titans potentially manufacturing them, and even frigates, I do not see them being married to Titans.

More importantly, what variety of corvettes will be available? This has already been discussed to some degree. Corvettes can potentially have forward firing weapons designed to skirmish with frigates and cruisers, turreting weapons to sweep strikecraft, slower firing guns for capital ship harassment, and any number of support systems.

I would concur. Although there are no certainties, it remains reasonable that corvettes would be used for their raw strength in numbers, although the aforementioned gunships have broken this mold and might have influenced the developers.

I would generally disagree, but this is a gray area, at best. We have little to go on concerning the subject, but the developers might find it a new challenge for players to have a vessel which requires docking for stellar transport, but are unmarried to a capital vessel, and thus do not auto-dock.

Although not necessarily, it is a consideration. They could be made one at a time and require manual docking or have an order which ties it to a capital vessel, causing them to auto-dock when the capital vessel is given orders to jump. This could be the same case even if they are made in numbers, as with Homeworld 2. There are a myriad of possibilities.

Most certainly agree.

I forget which, but I know there is a capital vessel that can do this. It's not completely unexplored, but could use some more development. The difficulty lies in the lack of open areas to do the task. There are large areas of the ocean that go unpatrolled. Here, the phase lanes are areas of neutral activity and gravity wells are usually well defended. Even still, corvettes with the appropriate speed and strength to strike quick and hard at smaller vessels while accumulating wealth would be nice.

Whiskey is right, but you have an intriguing idea. I support it, but only if it is balanced out properly. That depends on the developers.

Considering that the aim for mines was cloaking, I rather doubt corvettes will do it.

My guess would be that they are like the corvettes in Homeworld 2 -Oversized fighters that come in smaller squadrons. As to their purpose, I wouldn't be surprised if they filled some existing class role. With titans added, there will probably be some changes to ship roles in general.