Buying an M7D gives you the ship plus 4 drones.
Reverse engineering one gives you the blueprint of the ship & the corresponding drone of that race.
Mixing the carriers and the drones is allowed.

Each race differs in:

Argon/Terran - can transfer marines over long distance
Boron - 3 repair lasers (while all the others have 1)
Paranid - can launch disruptor missiles
Split - 3 IREs
Teladi - can mine
Yaki - can scan ships

Expectedly none of the drones are competent fighters especially in sector when they crash into each other due to having too much speed and not enough accel/decel.

M7D however will likely become a critical member of your fleet because how efficient (cost- and time-wise) drone repair is.

In vanilla FL 1.3, tell your dones to dock at the M7D. Clear their command once docked (will stuck at "dock at..."), then in the M7D's carrier manager tab change the roles of all the drones to "drone". From now on whenever you issue a drone-related command to the carrier, the drones will come out with an "M" symbol (being managed) and you lose direct control over them.





Also note that the Drone Command Software is meant for deployable drones and will not make your regular carrier into an M7D. Your M7D doesn't need this piece of equipment to function either.

New M5s:

Yaki Advanced Fujin
Terran Rapier Vanguard

Neither provides anything particularly eye-catching.

Notable changes:

Pirate Kestrel and Jaguar Raider has built-in triplex despite being S-class. Minor speed / cargo class changes everywhere. Overall Arrow is still the speed king, Starburst is Arrow except when you don't want autopilot to kill you. Advanced Kestrel for Triplex + M-class, while Pirate Kestrel is slightly faster but S-class.

No new M4s :<

The only notable changes I've noticed are:

Teladi Kite Vanguard is now 75MJ shield, 150m/s speed, PBG-compatible.
OTAS Solano is now 50MJ shield.

Kite Vanguard is now very bonkers as an M4 and takes its role as an interceptor extremely well. It can't chase down anything, but all it takes is one volley of 6x PBG.

Feel free to skip over all other M4s like you probably did in AP and TC :)

Two new ships:

NMMC Falcon miner, does exactly what you expect, and
Terran Cutlass prototype
186m/s, 150MJ, 2x front turrets now mounting MAML.
If you HAVE TO send fighters against a Xenon K this should probably be your choice, missiles not considered.

In fact, it's only one of the few fighters that can mount corvette-grade weapons on their front turret.

Atreus Chimera prototype - 1x IPG
Strong Arms Enhanced Chimera - 1x ISL
Pirate Advanced Eclipse (now 168m/s) - 1x PBG

The stat tweaks are too numerous to list. Overall, if you are a fan of fighters, you should be happy because they are more balanced & competent in FL. It's no longer just Aamon vs Fenrir. Having to a fighter to mass produce for my carrier actually gave me a few sleepless nights. If you are intereted in that matter, I might have another guide made later.

We have a couple here:

Kogarasu Maru
Atreus Hydra prototype
Boron Heavy Hydra prototype
Strong Arms Enhanced Heavy Dragon
Terran Katana Prototype
Pirate Marauder
Yaki Washi

Kogarasu Maru
175m/s, 1GJ, 3400XL, 1x fighter dock
8x main, 2x front(usual+PBC), 4x front(usual+EMPC), 2x rear(usual+PBG)
The devs were tired of Acinonyx vs Hyperion so they made a ship to dog them both :) This ship has the frontal power of Acinonyx, boarding pod compatibility (at 12 marines even), 1 docking bay for fighters and better cargo space than Hyperion.
Even mounts 2x PBC (laser tower) on its 2x front turrets that actually hit the entire frontal hemisphere even downward through the ship model. Not to mention 2x PBG on back.
With 2x PBC + 4x EMPC + whaever main guns it is incredibly energy efficient and kills larger capitals incredibly fast.
Well so when you are the main character, fly a ship that's like, the poster boy of FL.
Cannot mass produce (without exploits) due to limited resources required.

Atreus Hydra Prototype
166m/s, 400MJ, 2000XL
8x main, 1x rear
Your UT or HQ minor errant ship here. Produced under 2 hours.

Boron Heavy Hydra Prototype
150m/s, 600MJ, 1200XL
6x main, 2x front, 2x rear (all compatible with every non-capital weapon)
By every I mean every; from IRE to the trio of PRG/HEPT/PAC & EBC, to CIG/ISL/IPG, and the niche PBE/PBG/ID; all compatible, everywhere.
Massive upgrade from the OG Heavy Hydra, very versatile and a strong candidate for player ship... if the Acinonyx/Hyperion/Kogarasu trio doesn't exist.

Strong Arms Enhanced Heavy Dragon
173m/s, 400MJ, 800XL
8x main, 4x top (compatible with PALC/PBC/TBC)
I won't go into what having beam weapons means for capital ships (there's another guide I wrote on steam solely about that). Sadly the smaller-sized PALC is not usable at all due to the white beam effect completely obscuring your vision.
If you know what you are doing (of course you do, you are X3 veterans here playing FL), however, 4x PBC on a corvette opens up so many possibilities. Whether it's worth the tiny cargo space or the measly 400MJ shielding is up to you.

Terran Katana prototype
162m/s, 800MJ, 800XL
6x main, 2x left/right, 2x down
Sold away 200MJ of shielding for a big increase in speed, manuverability and laser recharge. It has the biggest laser recharge among corvettes even upsetting Kogarasu Maru. Too bad that, uhm, terran corvettes kinda don't care about laser energy :0

Pirate Marauder
111m/s, 600MJ, 2500XL
8x main, 1x left/right (PBC), 1x rear
Beam weapons are great except when it's 1x, sideway, and strapped onto a ship that crawls.

Yaki Washi
117m/s, 800MJ, 975XL, 1x fighter dock
6x main, 2x left/right, 2x rear
Practically a carbon copy of Argon Heavy Centaur except for the fighter dock. Not bad, not great.

I haven't noticed too many minor changes. Oveall the corvettes stay what they are from AP. Biggest change is probably marines capacity from 6 to 10 on every M6, 12 on Kogarasu.

Both Panther & Panther Raider exist in the game.

Split Panther is an M7D
169m/s, 1GJ, 3100XL, 14 fighter docks
PALC compatible excep front/rear.

Split Panther Raider is a regular M7
136m/s, 3GJ, 3100XL, 20 fighter docks
No beam weapon compatibility anywhere.

FYI M7Ds can dock regular fighters and behave like regular carriers, but non-M7Ds can never do drone-related commands.

Both Griffon & Griffon Raider also exist.

Argon Griffon (M7D)
110m/s, 3GJ, 3500XL, 9 fighter docks
2x PBC compatible up/down.

Argon Griffon Raider (M7)
135m/s, 3GJ, 3400XL, 9 fighter docks
No beam weapon compatibility anywhere.

The Yaki has an M7D too. Yaki Kariudo
100m/s, 3GJ, 8000XL, 10 fighter docks, 1430J/s laser recharge
6x main, 2x left/right, 2x top/bottom, 2x rear
Notable by being PSG/PBC/TBC compatible on left/right/top/bottom and a powerful laser to run them.

M7Ms now store 28 marines. Sirokos now store 50 and has main guns.

Other than that, a lot of M7s can now mount beam weapons and it changes the landscape of capital ships completely. Check this out.

No new ones :<

#Deca or the Khaak capital ships are not available. Aran is, but only one unless revese engineering / buying blueprint.

There are tons of minor stat changes for M1s & M2s. In general M2s are faster and beam weapon compatibility (or the lack of) is a more defining identity for these larger capital ships.

Notable changes for individual ships:

OTAS Boreas is even lighter than before, now bullying M7s but should not be able to trade 1 for 1 against other destroyers.

Split Pteranodon can now mount PPC on front and IBL on left/right in case you wanna go the boring way. PALC compatible everywhere still.

Pirate Brigantine can now fire boarding pods.

Xenon K ends up being probably the most buffed M2 with a 69m/s speed, beam compatible up/down/rear and 6000XL cargo.

Again, I already covered beam weapon compatibility in this guide so I won't repeat myself.

A new TS-HT Teladi Owl
48m/s, 400MJ, 27600XL

and its NMMC miner counterpart NMMC Owl miner XL doing exactly what you expect them to do.

A new class called TS-AT (armored transporter) is simply the best transporter ship money can buy, no ifs and buts.

For example, the best one being Split Mule
122m/s, 400MJ, 18250XL

So there's just no reason to run the good old OTAS Mistral or Split Drake any more? Yep, none, other than the cost.

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The TPs generally received a speed buff. Split Ocelot is now 260m/s. Even Split Iguana Vanguard is now 241m/s, though TP+ in general is still better because of the cargo space, with TP now storing 40 marines.

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As for TL, Pirate Mobile Pirate Station are a common sight in pirate sectors
135m/s, 3GJ, 44000ST, 25 fighter docks, cannot mount weapons
The docks are intereting but Atmospheric Lifter is still the king.

Another TL I wanna mention is Goner Ozias
112m/s, 1600MJ, 52500ST, 12 docks TS only
A great mobile mining base.

Check out Roguey's FL ship database[roguey.co.uk] for pictures and detailed stats. Though some info is wrong probably due to updates.

If in doubt, check in-game encyclopedia. Have a nice day!