Just as a sanity check I'm posting my first set of complete Newtonian-Motion sample combat ships here to see what, if anything, is missing, broken, unbalanced, or unrealistic even compared to everything else.
Changes so far:
HomoPolar Generators: Essentially a series of high-energy fly-wheels rotated in a powerful magnetic field, these devices offer higher density energy storage than capacitors with only a slightly slower discharge rate. The first three tech levels look to be 100 MJ/ton, 125 MJ/ton, 150 MJ/ton: but I may go revise this to scale faster. Any ship with direct-fire weaponry must have enough homopolar generator capacity to fire every weapon simultaneously.
Missile Launchers:
Standard Launcher: 10x missile size in mass, including mass-budget for one missile. This includes launch tubes, reinforced rapid-shutters to avoid armor weakening, and access corridors for reloading.
Magazines: As in aurora, but require a standard launcher to provide the hull openings to load the missiles.
Pylons: An external weapon mount. 2.5x missile size in mass, including mass-budget for attached missile. There is a 50% chance that if a ship takes damage sufficient to destroy a missile that any given attached missile will be lost. These may only be reloaded/rearmed inside a hanger or by maintenance facilities.
Box-Launcher: An internal launch tube that, by eliminating access corridors and internal reloading mechanisms, is only 50% the size of a standard launcher. Further technology improvements allow missile stacking to store multiple missiles inside the same launch tube rather than making a launcher even smaller.
Fire Control:
Direct beam fire control ranges reduced to 1/10th original suggestion. Even so, the ranges are still long enough I'll need to add some sort of bonus to make anything bigger than a minimal 10-ton fire control useful. Maybe a target tracking bonus based on time the fire control has been tracking a target.
I'll try to work out likely combat results on paper to see if combat has the right feel, but it could be a week before I get around to that. So for now, the sample ships for Tech Level-1, TL-2, TL-3.
Maybe their fighting over a sorium-rich gas giant with a habitable moon.
Barbarians: Tech Level 1
6x 2,000 ton Frigates: 2 Red, 2 Grey, 2 Coyote. A typical small fleet of specalists designs.
10% engine, 45% fuel, 5% armor, 15% overhead, 25% weapons and sensors
Wolf-Thermal Drive.
Size: 100 tons each. Thrust: 300 kN. 2.125 L/MN fuel usage
(2.5 base, 85% size mod, 100% power)->(4,616 s isp)
Red Frigate
Armor: 2x34 (50 MJ) Target Cross Section: 89
Twin Wolf-Thermal Drives.
Max Full Acceleration: 0.3 m/s. 76.5 L/minute at full thrust.
Fuel: 900,000 L Burn Time: 8.2 days DeltaV: 281 km/s
40 ton 80 MW Pressurized water Reactor.
160 ton 32 MW Active Scanner (Res 1) range = sqrt(160 ton * 0.2 active/ton * 0.1 passive/ton * 1 res)*2m km = 3.5 m km
160 ton 32 MW Active Scanner (Res 144) rang = 42m km
20 ton HomoPolar Generator [2,000 MJ]
40-ton Vanguard PD-FC. range = 40 * sqrt(0.2 * 0.1 * 0.5 res / 4x_missiles) * 0.1m km = 200k km
4x Misquito-Laser.
20 ton, 100 MJ, aperture: 5cm Minimum Divergence: 0.34 m/k km
Actual Divergence: 0.5 m/ k km Weapon Jitter: 1.0 m/k km
Max Range (5 MJ/m^2) 5k km. 25% efficient, 400 MJ to fire, 5 second cool down (rounded up from 4.5)
Grey Frigate
Armor: 2x34 (50 MJ) Target Cross Section: 89
Twin Wolf-Thermal Drives.
Max Full Acceleration: 0.3 m/s. 76.5 L/minute at full thrust.
Fuel: 900,000 L Burn Time: 8.2 days DeltaV: 281 km/s
2x 10Ton-Missile launchers (100 tons each)
150 ton 75% magazine (112 ton capacity)
100-ton Vengeance Fire Control (144 res, 4x missiles) range = 84.9m km
50-ton Valiant Fire Control (1 res, 2x missiles) range = 5m km
4x Doom Song 10-ton Nuclear Missiles
8x Scream 10-ton Fragmentation Missiles
Coyote Frigate
Armor: 2x34 (50 MJ) Target Cross Section: 89
Twin Wolf-Thermal Drives.
Max Full Acceleration: 0.3 m/s. 76.5 L/minute at full thrust.
Fuel: 900,000 L Burn Time: 8.2 days DeltaV: 281 km/s
3x 40 ton 80 MW water reactors
4x 20 ton HomoPolar Generators [4x2GJ]
2x Vanguard PD-FC
20-ton Passive EM Scanner
2x Gemini Gauss Cannons
50-ton, 1kg 250 MJ Muzzle Velocity: 22,360 m/s
Jitter: 1.0 m/k km 25% efficient, 1,000 MJ to fire, 7 second cool down (143 MW)
1x Apollo Scatter Rail
100-ton, 2kg (100x 15g +sabot) 500 MJ Muzzle velocity: 22,360 m/s
Jitter: 1.0 m/k km 25% efficient, 2,000 MJ to fire, 8 second cool down (250 MW)
Spread: 2.0 m/k km
Missiles: 10% warhead, 20% engine, 20% sensors, 50% fuel
Doom Song:
Engine: Rebel Red Warhead: 100 kTon nuke
Starting_Accell: 0.75 m/s DeltaV = 189.3 km/s, Reserve DV = 39.3 km/s
Max Burn Time: 2.1 days
Proximity Detonation: 150m Damage at PDR: 1,485 MJ/m^2
Guidance: Fire Control + Onboard
1.36 ton active scanner, Res 36, Range = 989k km.
0.14 ton reactor
Scream
Engine: Rebel Red Warhead: 1 ton filler w/ 1.0 MJ bursting charge
Starting_Accell: 0.75 m/s DeltaV = 189.3 km/s, Reserve DV = 39.3 km/s
Max Burn Time: 2.1 days
Proximity Detonation: 1.5k km Debris Cloud: 5 tons minimum, 14 m/s minimum expansion rate
Guidance: Fire Control + Onboard
1.36 ton active scanner, Res 36, Range = 989k km.
0.14 ton reactor
Rebel Red 125% power
Size: 2 ton, Thrust = 7.5 kN, 3.663 L/MN fuel usage
(2.5 base, 111% size, 132% power)->(2,678 s isp)
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TL2: A single large ship intended for long deployments. The Enterpirse carries the weapons and geology sensors, some sister class carries the jump drive and gravitational sensors.
10,000 ton 30% engine, 10% armor, 25% overhead, 35% weapons and sensors
Enterprise Life-Scout
Armor: 7x58 (80 MJ) Target Cross Section: 261
Triple Enigma Reactionless Drive
Size: 1,000 tons each: 3450 MW (including +15% size efficiency bonus)
Optimal Thrust: 100 kN --> Max Thrust: 200 kN Max Speed: 69 km/s
Enterprise Max Acceleration: 0.06 m/s
Triple 150 ton 450 MW pebble bed reactors
Triple 50 ton HomoPolar-II Generators [3 x 7.5GJ]
200 ton 48 MW Active Scanner (Res 1) range = sqrt(200 ton * 0.24 active/ton * 0.12 passive/ton * 1 res)*2m km = 4.8 m km
200 ton 48 MW Active Scanner (Res 25) range = 24m km
200 ton 48 MW Active Scanner (Res 400) range = 96m km
150 ton Passive EM Sensor (Strength 1,000 from 18m km)
150 ton Passive TH Sensor (Strength 1,000 from 18m km)
6x 100 ton, 500 MJ 'Phasors' GRASERS
aperture: 10cm Minimum Divergence: 0.16 mm/k km
Actual Divergence: 0.5 m/ k km Weapon Jitter: 0.7 m/k km
Max Range (5 MJ/m^2) 11k km. 30% efficient, 1,667 MJ to fire, 5 second cool down (rounded up from 4.8) (333MW)
2x White Rabbit Spinal Railguns
250-ton, 2kg 1,750 MJ Muzzle Velocity: 41,833 m/s
Jitter: 0.7 m/k km 30% efficient, 5,834 MJ to fire, 10 second cool down
3x 5-ton missile launchers (50 ton each)
3x 150-ton 80% efficient magazines (360 ton capacity)
15x Eraser Nuclear AMM
45x Jealous Fragmentation AMM
15x Killer Pumped-Laser ASM
2x 50-ton Zelda PD-FC. range = 50 * sqrt(0.24 * 0.12 * 0.5 res / 3x_missiles) * 0.1m km = 340k km
2x 100-ton Link M-FC. range = 100 * sqrt(0.24 * 0.12 * 1.0 res / 3x_missiles) * 1.0m km = 9.6m km
Missiles 30% warhead & guidance, 30% engine 40% fuel
General Fusion AMM-standard (250% power)
Size: 1.5 tons, Thrust = 15 kN, 13.3 L/MN fuel usage
(2.3 base, 112% size, 520% power)->(737 s isp)
Eraser Nuclear AMM
Mass: 5 tons
Engine: 1x G.F. AMM-Standard Warhead: 187.5 kTon Nuke
Starting_Accell: 3.0 m/s DeltaV = 38.4 km/s, Reserve DV = 8.4 km/s
Max Burn Time: 2.8 hours
Proximity Detonation: 409m Damage at PDR: 375 MJ/m^2
Guidance: Fire Control Range at 5 MJ/m^2: 3,539m
Jealous Fragmentation AMM
Mass: 5 tons
Engine: 1x G.F. AMM-Standard Warhead: 1.25 tons HMX
Starting_Accell: 3.0 m/s DeltaV = 38.4 km/s, Reserve DV = 8.4 km/s
Max Burn Time: 2.8 hours
Proximity Detonation: 400 m Debris Cloud: 3 tons minimum, 42,866 m/s minimum expansion rate
Guidance: Fire Control
Killer Pumped-Laser ASM
Mass: 5 tons
Engine: 1x G.F. AMM-Standard Warhead: 135 kTon Nuke
Starting_Accell: 3.0 m/s DeltaV = 38.4 km/s, Reserve DV = 8.4 km/s
Max Burn Time: 2.8 hours
Proximity Detonation: 1.5k km Damage at PDR: 0 MJ/m^2
Lasing Rods: 1 Rod Output: 708 MJ Jitter 7 m/k km
Beam at PDR: 3m wide, 100 MJ/m^2
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TL:3
Two identical light cruisers that made the mistake of trying to do everything.
2x 5,000 tons: 15% engine, 40% fuel, 5% armor, 20% overhead, 20% weapons and sensors
Rama Light-Cruisers
Armor: 3x46 (120 MJ) Target Cross Section 164
Single: Ion Core Drive (60% power)
Size: 750 ton. +1 level internal armor -> 35 ton armor, 715 ton engine
Thrust: 2,145 kN. 0.977 L/MN fuel usage (2.1 base, 72.2% size mod, 64.4% power)->(10,041 s isp)
Max Full Acceleration: 0.429 m/s. 125.74 L/minute at full thrust.
Fuel: 2,000,000 L Burn Time: 11 days DeltaV: 522.8 km/s
120-ton 38.4 MW Generalist Scanner range = sqrt(120 ton * 0.32 active/ton * 0.16 passive/ton * 9 res)*2m km = 14.9m km
100-ton 450 MW TL-3 Reactor
100-ton HomoPolar-III Generator [15 GJ]
50-ton Lightning Guidance range = 50 * sqrt(0.32 * 0.16 * 0.5 res / 3x_missiles) * 0.1m km = 461k km
30-ton Swarm Guidance (5x missile, Res 35) Range = 18m km
1x Tesla Laser
250 ton - 2,500 MJ
aperture: 15cm Minimum Divergence: 0.116 m/k km
Actual Divergence: 0.17m/k km Weapon Jitter: 0.5 m/k km
Max Range (5 MJ/m^2) 74k km. 35% efficient,
2x Iron Storm Scatter-guns
100-ton, 1kg (100x 7.5g +sabot) 1,000 MJ Muzzle velocity: 44,721 m/s
Jitter: 0.5 m/k km 35% efficient, 2,857 MJ to fire, 7 second cool down
Spread: 1.0 m/k km
10x 6-ton Missile Pylons [15 tons each]
10x Fast Neutron 6-ton missiles
ION Banshee (180% power)
Size: 2.0 tons, Thrust = 18 kN, 5.618 L/MN fuel usage
(2.1 base, 111% size, 241% power)->(1,746 s isp)
Fast Neutron
Mass: 6 tons
Engine: 1x ION Banshee Warhead: 100 kTon Nuke
Starting_Accell: 3.0 m/s DeltaV = 138.9 km/s, Reserve DV = 8.9 km/s
Max Burn Time: 10.7 hours
Proximity Detonation: 175m Damage at PDR: 1,091 MJ/m^2
Guidance: Fire Control