Normally you aim for either a combined size (MSP) of 1. 0 for an Anti missile missile (AMM) or 3. 0 - 5. 0 for an Anti Ship missile (ASM). We also don't want a size 3. 5 missile since launchers come in integer size (3 or 4), launching a smaller missile is possible but somewhat of a waste.
The first step is to design a missile engine. You want maximum engine power mod to make it as fast as possible and normally want to devote around half of you missile for engines (so 0. 5 size for AMM and 1. 5-2. 5 size for ASM).
Once you have a missile engine designed and researched you can go into the design of the missile itself. You allocate Missile size points (MSP) to things that are required for a simple offensive missile and those two things are primary "Warhead Strength" and "Fuel Capacity".
To get as much as possible out of your size points you can either play around with allocations and watch the "value" change, or calculate how much you need. To get for example 4 "value" for your damage you can calculate that you would need 1. 333 MSP allocation on warhead if your technology for warhead is "Strength 3 x MSP" (Implosion Fission Warhead).
To start out with you don't really have to worry about many other things, but later on you generally want to start adding Agility to at least AMMs.
You missiles don't need any sensors, they are guided by the Missile fire control of the launching ship.
Once you have a design of a missile finished and researched you can start production in your Ordnance Factories.
To design a magazine is more straight forward. Both technologies affecting it you always want the latest one, but for starting out you can just make sure you have the basic level of both and design a working magazine. The Magazine Size you want can be calculated based on how many reloads you want to bring on your ship. If you have five size 4 ASM launchers and want to bring 8 reloads you want magazine(s) with a total capacity of 5*4*8 = 160
So, having come back to this (particular bit of the game - I've been busy terraforming Mars and now need to get PDCs up and a defense fleet before poking my nose into a neighboring system), some more questions
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I'm trying to design a PD anti-missile with Stellarator Fusion Reactor and Magneto-plasma tech researched. Fuel consumption is at 0. 6 liters / engine power hour. fwiw I have gas-cooled fast reactor technology. And I come up with the following 0 agility 0. 5 fuel capacity 0 active sensor design.
Missile Size: 1. 2 MSP (0. 06 HS) Warhead: 1 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 6700 km/s Engine Endurance: 216. 1 hours Range: 5 213. 2m km
Cost Per Missile: 0. 35
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 67% 3k km/s 20% 5k km/s 13. 4% 10k km/s 6. 7%
Materials Required: 0. 25x Tritanium 0. 1x Gallicite Fuel x1250
Development Cost for Project: 35RP
It's too big (at 1. 2 MSP), and it's classed as an anti-ship missile.
I need to decrease MSP by . 2, increase speed, decrease endurance, increase maneuverability. . . . and. . . I'm scratching my head
. I'm either missing something / omitting something on the research front, or not understanding the design approach.
tx in advance
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Scratch