My shiny newest warship designs!

[madpraxis (OP)]

So...this is sparked by a comment I left where someone was asking about how much damage it takes to take a queen down and my mental response of 'what? you got to be kidding, swarm is damn easy, even at low tech'. Of course, I dwell in nebula's...pretty much constantly...Where combat is hilarious fun when your enemies are slow as snails and their shields AND missiles don't work. Mind you, these are from my newest game after being afk for a few months and I have yet to take them wading into combat due to not being able to find anyone yet in my new game post hiatus....But what I can remember of last time I played ages ago this design should work just fine.

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Marcus Brutus class Destroyer Leader    10,000 tons     832 Crew     3735.5 BP      TCS 200  TH 475.2  EM 0
9900 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 16-41     Shields 0-0     Sensors 90/90/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 8
Maint Life 1.81 Years     MSP 700    AFR 266%    IFR 3.7%    1YR 266    5YR 3997    Max Repair 216 MSP
Flag Bridge   

J10000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 10000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E8.4 (18)    Power 110    Fuel Use 84%    Signature 26.4    Armour 0    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 340,000 Litres    Range 72.9 billion km   (85 days at full power)

25cm Railgun V5/C5 (1x4)    Range 250,000km     TS: 9900 km/s     Power 15-5     RM 5    ROF 15        5 5 5 5 5 4 3 3 2 2
Fire Control S04 192-5000 H50 (1)    Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 5000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 (1)     Total Power Output 8    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor MR54-R70 (1)     GPS 2520     Range 54.2m km    Resolution 70
Thermal Sensor TH5-90 (1)     Sensitivity 90     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  90m km
EM Detection Sensor EM5-90 (1)     Sensitivity 90     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  90m km

Compact ECCM-3 (1)         ECM 40

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
And following him like a loyal thane is 3-6 of these little fellows, depending on what measure of response is needed. Also, note the drop capacity Just because gosh darnit, I need a way to send presents to my friends in the nebula's...And presents are presented when you come to visit right?

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Gaius Octavian class Destroyer    9,950 tons     897 Crew     3652 BP      TCS 199  TH 475.2  EM 0
9949 km/s     Armour 16-41     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 24
Maint Life 1.96 Years     MSP 688    AFR 264%    IFR 3.7%    1YR 235    5YR 3531    Max Repair 216 MSP
Drop Capacity: 1 Company    Cargo Handling Multiplier 60   

Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E8.4 (18)    Power 110    Fuel Use 84%    Signature 26.4    Armour 0    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 350,000 Litres    Range 75.4 billion km   (87 days at full power)

25cm Railgun V5/C5 (3x4)    Range 250,000km     TS: 9949 km/s     Power 15-5     RM 5    ROF 15        5 5 5 5 5 4 3 3 2 2
Fire Control S04 192-5000 H50 (1)    Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 5000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 (2)     Total Power Output 16    Armour 0    Exp 5%

ECCM-4 (1)         ECM 50

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Yes, dinky sensors, especially with the effects of nebula's kicking them down....buuuut...I already know where they are in system due to the just plain wacky super sized thermal and em sensors on my jump scout who gets sent in to sit there while my grav/geo survey ship goes to town. So they are just backups in case I get nutty and move the ship that can passively detect them out of the system...that and they made great padding to hit 10k even
Only problem is the lack of a more powerfull fire control. Though at the 'I poke you in the eye' knife fighting range that you get in nebula its not that big of a deal, though getting another tech level up would make a good 20k difference in the range you could engage at and still hit something...Same problem with this PDC, for I have epicly bad meson tech due to staring at a wall for a few years until people really started complaining about lack of protection and my survey ship got shot down 2 systems out because I wanted it to finish surveying before engaging the enemy (brilliant idea there (But by god, he soaked up a good thousand lines of shooting at him, AND HE FINISHED THE SCAN...posthumous medal for that dude...He also destroyed 2 enemy ships and mortally wounded a third...without ever firing a shot...oh ya, my geo/grav ships? They are fast..fast+nebula=epic armour))

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PDC Alpha (N) class Planetary Defence Centre    28,250 tons     1562 Crew     2703 BP      TCS 565  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 8-82     Sensors 1/180     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 135.2
Hangar Deck Capacity 5000 tons     Troop Capacity: 5 Battalions   

Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range N/A
Quad R12/C5 Meson Cannon Turret (8x4)    Range 120,000km     TS: 5000 km/s     Power 24-20     RM 12    ROF 10        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Fire Control S04 192-5000 H50 (2)    Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 5000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 (20)     Total Power Output 160    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor MR324-R100 (1)     GPS 18000     Range 324.0m km    Resolution 100

ECCM-4 (2)         
This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 12 sections

And just because I needed something to hanger in the hangers that I felt any good PDC needs....some gunboats I puked out after finally figuring out a way to pack all the crap in AND go zip through the not very gaseous gaseous environs of a nebula

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Caligula class Fast Attack Craft    1,000 tons     75 Crew     493.5 BP      TCS 20  TH 52.8  EM 0
11000 km/s     Armour 13-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 2
Maint Life 1.75 Years     MSP 62    AFR 40%    IFR 0.6%    1YR 25    5YR 373    Max Repair 216 MSP

GB Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E84 (1)    Power 220    Fuel Use 840%    Signature 52.8    Armour 0    Exp 30%
Fuel Capacity 30,000 Litres    Range 6.4 billion km   (6 days at full power)

10cm C1 Far Ultraviolet Laser (1)    Range 150,000km     TS: 11000 km/s     Power 3-1     RM 5    ROF 15        3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1
Fire Control S04 192-5000 H50 (1)    Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 5000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1.1 (1)     Total Power Output 0.88    Armour 0    Exp 10%

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Mind you, main point of these little buggers is to act as a speed bump while my destroyer's get assembled, loaded up, and sent off. This PDC is mainly to make those damn annoying ass colonists shut the hell up already, that and to be planted on bodies next to tracking stations to guard/speed bump systems. Not to mention the 4 marine and 1 replacement battalions posted in each one so I have fresh meat puppets to fling at things.

I can hardly wait till I get the insanely high RP costing next levels of armour and engine done, I should be able to design a fighter with more offensive weaponry then flipping them the bird as I zip by...
And for kicks and wiggles, my terraforming ship...because I totally love devoting all my current building capacity for...er..what is it down to now...just shy of 3/4's of a year. But it sure as hell beats building a dinky ass shipx5 (or however many depending on how many terraformers you put on a ship for) a year, if you have all the slips to build them all at once that is...

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Megashaper class Terraformer    1,716,600 tons     14640 Crew     51739.5 BP      TCS 34332  TH 10560  EM 0
1281 km/s     Armour 2-1277     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 19    Max Repair 500 MSP
Habitation Capacity 50,000   
Terraformer: 50 module(s) producing 0.125 atm per annum

Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E0.84 (160)    Power 275    Fuel Use 8.4%    Signature 66    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 5,000,000 Litres    Range 62.4 billion km   (563 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as an Orbital Habitat for construction purposes
And yes, that is a lot of fuel....Because I forget things...A lot...and never build tankers....because I forget too...So in lieu of actually remembering to build tankers and remembering to send them out, I just stick lots of fuel storage on my ships usually...My current cargo/cryo ships have a measly range of over 200 BILLION klicks...I still feel I should of put more in...but it is damn nice to run your cargo routes for years in game before remembering to actually refuel them The current cargo ships also cost almost 5k BP too....needless to say there is some hearty subsidizing of trading company(ies) going on in my game(s)...

[MehMuffin]

This is much more of a matter of opinion, but I prefer to leave support ships like asteroid miners and terraformers and the like without engines, and keep an effective fleet of tugs to move such ships.  I find that it saves a lot of resources on engines and fuel, most of the time.

[xeryon]

Using tugs means additional ships to keep track of.  There is a strong positive to self powered craft, especially late game.  Taking a hint from madpraxis: my terraformers and asteroid miners tended to be in the couple of modules range with tonnage in the 50k range built at a shipyard.  Current designs getting ready to roll out are in the 500k range to start.

[madpraxis (OP)]

I'll say this, my asteroid miners/terraformers usually pack a lot of fuel and somewhat dinky speed compared to the rest of my civilian ships. I find that as you get on (at least for me), the logistics of tugs/tankers/cargo runs just is not really worth it. And with the size of the components involved here, packing in scads of extra fuel to make them go put put for years when I forget about them is totally worth it. Yes, it does take more resources, but I pretty much pop out what I can fit in my shipyards beginning of game till I get them upgraded, and while I'm doing that I'm usually converting/building automines and flinging them around the system, so I pretty much don't worry about resources. Actually, by the time I get around to building my mega terraformers I've usually got the whole system staked out automine/mass driver wise and at LEAST one other system shooting to a collection point with semi-regular runs to bring back loot to the homeworld. Of course, I end up networking mass drivers in systems with automines just to scrape out the few thousand tons in minerals found in total in the whole system...I'm rather sure the ROI on those operations is puking miserable But, damnit, those are MY minerals in MY system, so what if its a barren waste other then the literal handfull of minerals. MY minerals.

And I'll be honest...I pretty much never bother with asteroid miners...I usually puke out 5 and then they sit in the shipyard group till the end of time. I just find it much easier logistics wise when things get going to plop down a few autominers with a mass driver in lieu of sending ships out there, mining away, then sending more ships to pick up, over and over. Actually, the only time I actually ever recall using them is when there are pretty much no bodies in a system other then a dinky planet and some asteroids....And thats more of a not wanting to bother with shipping in mines and plopping a few mass drivers around the place...

[Garfunkel]

Agreed with AMs. Used to love them but then I did some thinking and realized that putting down a Mass Driver and a 100 Auto-Mines is far more efficient. Now I won't even bother with AMs at all.

[Sloshmonger]

All my asteroid miners have enough cargo space to haul a mass driver around with them.  Makes it easy to swing them from place to place.

[Nathan_]

"Using tugs means additional ships to keep track of."
There is no reason to detach the tug from its orbital if you're doing that, everything will still function, and it avoids a lot of micromanagement. One only need to switch out the tug if you want to upgrade the engine.

Also this latest game that I'm playing I won't use orbitals for anything other than their intended purpose(habitation), they get somewhat cheesy when you've got 2 Billion fuel stacked up in each system thanks to 10 Fuel harvester orbitals, planets being terraformed in 5 days, and so on.

[ExChairman]

If you are going to build one tug for each mission/unit it will be more expensiv than putting on a cople of engines from the beginning... On the other hand it will be easier to uppgrade the tug.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Just slap a tractor module on a superfreighter or large colony ship and there's no need to bother with specialized tugs.  A 50kt-100kt colony ship is perfectly capable of hauling around small orbitals or fuel harvesters in the early game.  And it dramatically cuts the costs of building orbitals/FHs. Orbitals are barely worth the price as is...

[xeryon]

Yes, but the mammoth orbits are a fun RP element.  With a little good fortune Steve will be adjusting the practicality of orbital bases for 5.7.

[madpraxis (OP)]

Yes, orbitals barely worth it...though senor shoe, I wouldn't be able to implement your colony ship suggestion...I pretty much only ever build one, if I build one at all. I <3 civilian shipping. If they are going to be there messing up my plans, I might as well get some use out of them right?

[Theokrat]

Nice designs, but for my taste too little anti-missile capacity. Of course 16 armour can absorb quite a bit, but only for so long.

Also it would be nice to see slightly faster firceontrolls. Right now they stadn at 5,000 km/s, while the ships move at nearly twice that rate. If you encounter anyone faster than 5,000km/s, you are likely better of using faster FCs.

Lastly the destroyer-leaders weaponry can not deal much damage (only one railgun), but still takes away quite some space (primarily due to one FC being used for a single railgun). This gives a much worse damage_dealt / weight ratio that with the destroyers. Yet the destroyer leader is crucially important to the battle, as its your only source of sensors, and hosts a flag bridge. So I think it would be prudent to drop the unimpressive weaponry in favour of even more active or passive defense.

[xeryon]

Theokrat, I shall speak for madpraxis here:  He only plays in nebulae.  He doesn't need fast fire controls or missile defense.  Since his opponents are largely unarmed at that point  he needs very little armament otherwise.  Just a non-missile weapon that out ranges what they have.

[madpraxis (OP)]

Ayup. I <3 nebul..nebulia? nebulas (doesn't look right...)?
The fastest NPC ship on record for this game in my gaseous homelands so far is...er..what was it..2500 or so
Basically all I have to do is stay out of the range of whatever non-missile armament they have, and with the inherent nebula sensor degredation combined with even half ass ECM, its rather easy. And the only reason for the destroyer leaders existence is the sensors
Just in case I go bug nuts and move my jump spy eye out of system (max thermal and em sensors...which aren't THAT effective in a nebula, but they get the job done most of the time). Also, the excessive speed is really hand for boarding operations 1 leader, 5 followers, works out well for splitting marines up.
I spend so much time playing nebula starts that I seriously was boggled at the fact that people had problems with the swarm. Seriously. My mind was 'eh wot?'. Swarm is easy Precursors almost as easy
I get bored sometimes when I finally find the edge(s) of the nebula and there is someone there I build  50k (or however as big as my largest ship yard, since I tend to keep them 2x above my largest design size) ton or so engineless behemoth with a jump drive, and then pack it full of insanely long range sensors and missile fire controls. Add 30k tons of missiles and launchers, then tow to jump point and jump across....Then laugh when I jump back out of the way of their missile salvos seconds before they hit...then laugh even harder as their missile armed ships jump across and are defenseless before my pew pew onslaught.
As for operations in space where you can actually drive, I tend towards small fleets of beam armed FAC's at 1k tons backing up a few long range missile launchers. Which I found usually works pretty well, the missiles usually end up being fast enough that a few salvos hit before the FAC's get there, causing much happy happy joy joy. Oh, and of course the FAC's have boarding parties I notice a trend here...Also, a handy thing for boarding is to pack on a 2,3 missile box launcher onto your boarding craft (or even 1) and arm it with a pumped laser warhead. Nothing like getting your boarding crews on that ship without them having to waste time blasting down. And since you are launching from literally right on top of them, interception is a 'meh' thing, plus if they don't make it...so what