Ships of the United Earth Republic

[Cavgunner (OP)]

By the end of the 21st century plagues, famine, and the bitter conclusion of World War III meant that there were only 500 million humans left alive on Earth.  Humanity finally came to the collective realization that in order to survive the petty differences of the past had to be put aside.  A single, unified global government was formed:  The United Earth Republic.  This consolidation of Earth's leadership and remaining resources led (unexpectedly) to the discovery of Trans-Newtonian Theory in 2149.  A host of incredible new technologies soon revolutionized humanity's ability to ply the stars.  By 2210 the Republic's first scout ships had already explored several neighboring stars, and by 2231 the Republic included the following populated worlds:

Sol

• Earth: 1.1 billion.  Center of research, industry, and shipbuilding.
• Mars: 147 million.  Earth's main trading partner and a growing power in its own right.
• Titan: 23.4 million.  Determined terraforming has improved Titan's surface to "hostile" instead of "instantly fatal."  Major center of ore extraction within the Sol system.

Procyon  

• Last Chance: 18.9 million.  Barren desert world with massive extractable reserves of certain T-N materials badly needed by Earth, particularly Gallicite.  

Kruger 60

• Astra: 13 million.  Terraforming melted Astra's global ice sheet, causing a 40 degree jump in temperature.  This mild, pleasant world is now entirely covered by water, and is a major destination for colonists and cruise liners alike.
  
• Haven: 12.5 million.  Of all the worlds known to the Republic, Haven is the most like Earth.  The planet was originally to be named Heaven, but the planet's founding fathers decided not to tempt fate.  

Proxima Centauri

• Arcadia: 9.7 million.  Arcadia is the only world the Republic has yet encountered that required no terraforming.  However there was one other, slight problem: its base gravity was 2.29 times that of Earth, which made it totally unsuitable for regular humans.  As a consequence the Republic developed the first officially sanctioned genetically altered humans: Homo Sapiens Gravis.  Although this program unlocked Arcadia as a successful colony, the Arcadians themselves tend to distrust the central government.

AD Leonis

• Carmel Cityi: 6.9 million.  Carmel Cityi is is named after the Carmel Cityi Dominion, an ancient (and now extinct) alien civilization.  Over 700 abandoned installations were found in the world's partially intact cities.  After the Army of the Republic fought off numerous ground attacks from reawakened sentinel robots, Army engineers were able to put 125 of these installations back into working order.  Despite its potential the colony's growth has been hampered somewhat by a Class II Black Hole, the Roiling Vortex, that sits in the only navigable path between AD Leonis and Sol.

And now on to the ships!  Please note that I have selected to have Jump Gates on all jump points.  

My design philosophy is based on a first-strike, knock out blow mentality.  Republic ships do not idly fling small barrages of small missiles at the enemy.  The Fletcher destroyer shown below can throw up to 40 size-6, WH-9 missiles at the enemy all at once.  In several engagements with hostile robotic ships this strategy has ensured that each Fletcher in a given fleet is virtually guaranteed to kill at least one ship of equal or lesser mass.  When two or more Fletchers fire in unison, any reasonable level of point defense is simply overwhelmed.  While this means I cannot make use of a fleet collier and must reload at a planet instead, it has been the case in two engagements so far that a Fletcher's missile strike destroyed the target while several enemy missile salvoes were still in transit, thus causing the remaining missiles to self-destruct.  Indeed, this focus on a single, knockout missile strike has meant that the Republic's magazine technologies were stagnated until the development of the Essex carrier, and missile reload technology is still being developed for a future generation of planetary defense bases.  With 8 vessels currently in service the Fletcher is the backbone of the Fleet.

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Fletcher class Destroyer    9,000 tons     560 Crew     2160.8 BP      TCS 180  TH 309.12  EM 0
7155 km/s     Armour 5-38     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 14     PPV 54.37
Maint Life 3.03 Years     MSP 600    AFR 162%    IFR 2.2%    1YR 98    5YR 1471    Max Repair 115 MSP
Magazine 240    

Magneto-plasma Drive E6.5 (14)    Power 92    Fuel Use 65%    Signature 22.08    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 153.8 billion km   (248 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (1x6)    Range 30,000km     TS: 12000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S03 32-12000 (1)    Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0

Size 6 Box Launcher (40)    Missile Size 6    Hangar Reload 45 minutes    MF Reload 7.5 hours
Missile Fire Control FC111-R80 (1)     Range 111.6m km    Resolution 80
Long Lance II (40)  Speed: 32,000 km/s   End: 50m    Range: 96m km   WH: 9    Size: 6    TH: 117 / 70 / 35

Active Search Sensor MR103-R80 (1)     GPS 8400     Range 103.3m km    Resolution 80

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

After several difficult battles with hostile drone ships the New Orleans class Destroyer was created to provide point-blank zone defense from missile swarms.  This is accomplished in a very direct fashion: the ship throws up a veritable wall of gauss cannon fire.  Theoretically the ship’s weapons would also be deadly against other warships at short range, but this situation has yet to occur.

Although there has been some talk of developing an additional point-defense class armed with Size 1 missiles instead of guns, the “N. O.” has been so successful that these plans are currently on hold.  The Republic currently fields 3 ships of the New Orleans Class.  Since it was put into service no Republic ships have been lost to enemy missile fire.

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New Orleans class Destroyer    9,900 tons     692 Crew     2341.6 BP      TCS 198  TH 309.12  EM 0
6505 km/s     Armour 5-41     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 14     PPV 69.82
Maint Life 1.66 Years     MSP 591    AFR 196%    IFR 2.7%    1YR 255    5YR 3827    Max Repair 216 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E6.5 (14)    Power 92    Fuel Use 65%    Signature 22.08    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 139.9 billion km   (248 days at full power)

Quad Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (2x12)    Range 30,000km     TS: 12000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S03 32-12000 (2)    Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0

Active Search Sensor MR57-R80 (1)     GPS 6400     Range 57.2m km    Resolution 80

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

The Seeker is an unusual ship in that it has the mass of a cruiser, but it is classified as a Frigate due to its function and weak armament.  Simply put, the Seeker is designed to be the eyes and ears of a fleet.  The main sensor arrays are a triumph of human engineering that can detect a target over 1 billion kilometers away.  Unfortunately, the extreme cost of the ship combined with the need to allocate its shipyard to construction of the future Essex class carrier means that only one vessel has been produced to date.  

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Seeker class Sensor Frigate    14,650 tons     1231 Crew     4799.4 BP      TCS 293  TH 463.68  EM 0
6593 km/s     Armour 5-53     Shields 0-0     Sensors 44/44/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 18.37
Maint Life 0.94 Years     MSP 1819    AFR 429%    IFR 6%    1YR 1941    5YR 29119    Max Repair 1050 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E6.5 (21)    Power 92    Fuel Use 65%    Signature 22.08    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 94.5 billion km   (165 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (1x6)    Range 30,000km     TS: 12000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S03 32-12000 (1)    Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0

Active Search Sensor MR115-R1 (1)     GPS 1050     Range 115.5m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR1155-R100 (1)     GPS 105000     Range 1,155.0m km    Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH4-44 (1)     Sensitivity 44     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  44m km
EM Detection Sensor EM4-44 (1)     Sensitivity 44     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  44m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

It would be highly impractical to station capital ships at each of the Republic’s worlds.  Given the current military situation, it is also unnecessary.  However, the Republic recognizes that it is nonetheless prudent to ensure that each colony system has a basic level of self-defense capability, and that nearby colonies can quickly aid each other in the event of an alien attack (which fortunately has yet to happen).  Enter the Moccasin class patrol boat.  The Moccasin uses the same electronics, launchers, and warheads as the larger ships of the Fleet.  This greatly simplifies supply issues.  More importantly the Moccasin can quickly close with a target, fire off its missiles, and return to base for a reload.  Its smaller size makes it much harder to detect as well.  Current doctrine calls for 4-6 Moccasins and 1 Wild Weasel to be stationed in each colony system with 10 million or more inhabitants.  20 Moccasins have been produced.

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Moccassin class Missile Boat    1,000 tons     45 Crew     242.2 BP      TCS 20  TH 44.16  EM 0
9200 km/s     Armour 1-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 8.1
Maint Life 17.17 Years     MSP 151    AFR 8%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 1    5YR 15    Max Repair 92 MSP
Magazine 54    

GB Magneto-plasma Drive E65 (1)    Power 184    Fuel Use 650%    Signature 44.16    Armour 0    Exp 36%
Fuel Capacity 140,000 Litres    Range 38.8 billion km   (48 days at full power)

Size 6 Box Launcher (9)    Missile Size 6    Hangar Reload 45 minutes    MF Reload 7.5 hours
Missile Fire Control FC111-R80 (1)     Range 111.6m km    Resolution 80
Long Lance II (40)  Speed: 32,000 km/s   End: 50m    Range: 96m km   WH: 9    Size: 6    TH: 117 / 70 / 35

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

The Wild Weasel is the companion ship and “spotter” for the Moccasin patrol boat.  It also serves as a fleet sentry in larger engagements.  Although it is not designed as a tanker, it does have a limited capability to refuel friendly craft when needed.  5 Wild Weasels have been produced.

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Wild Weasel class Fleet Scout    1,000 tons     62 Crew     375.3 BP      TCS 20  TH 44.16  EM 0
9200 km/s     Armour 1-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 22.66 Years     MSP 235    AFR 8%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 1    5YR 13    Max Repair 105 MSP

GB Magneto-plasma Drive E65 (1)    Power 184    Fuel Use 650%    Signature 44.16    Armour 0    Exp 36%
Fuel Capacity 380,000 Litres    Range 105.2 billion km   (132 days at full power)

Active Search Sensor MR103-R80 (1)     GPS 8400     Range 103.3m km    Resolution 80

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

The first Essex class carrier is currently in construction, and when it is completed it will be the largest warship in use.  Unlike the other ships of the fleet the Essex has no integral sensors and no weapons at all except for two CIWS-160 point defense cannons.  Instead the Essex features enough hangar capacity to support 40-45 fighter craft, typically 36 Warhawks, 3 Hawkeye AWACs, and 3 Mercury space control tankers.  

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Essex class Carrier    33,750 tons     1726 Crew     6521.2 BP      TCS 675  TH 839.04  EM 0
5179 km/s     Armour 5-93     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 20     PPV 0
Maint Life 3.29 Years     MSP 3208    AFR 911%    IFR 12.7%    1YR 448    5YR 6713    Max Repair 150 MSP
Flag Bridge    Hangar Deck Capacity 11000 tons     Magazine 1740    

Magneto-plasma Drive E6.5 (38)    Power 92    Fuel Use 65%    Signature 22.08    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 2,250,000 Litres    Range 184.6 billion km   (412 days at full power)

CIWS-160 (2x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Harpoon II (870)  Speed: 38,000 km/s   End: 11.8m    Range: 27m km   WH: 4    Size: 2    TH: 164 / 98 / 49

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Although it has been in service for nearly 10 years the Warhawk has yet to see combat due to the lack of a carrier.  In theory the Warhawk should be able to approach a target undetected, fire off its small but powerful Harpoon II missiles, and return to its carrier to reload.  An entire squadron would be able to release 72 strength-4 missiles, virtually guaranteeing destruction of all but the toughest targets.  Currently there are 5 squadrons of Warhawks with 12 fighters each.

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Warhawk class Fighter    245 tons     6 Crew     61.9 BP      TCS 4.9  TH 13.2  EM 0
11224 km/s     Armour 1-3     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 1.8
Maint Life 28.91 Years     MSP 32    AFR 2%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 1    Max Repair 21 MSP
Magazine 12    

FTR Magneto-plasma Drive E650 (1)    Power 55.2    Fuel Use 6500%    Signature 13.248    Armour 0    Exp 60%
Fuel Capacity 20,000 Litres    Range 2.3 billion km   (55 hours at full power)

Size 2 Box Launcher (6)    Missile Size 2    Hangar Reload 15 minutes    MF Reload 2.5 hours
Missile Fire Control FC30-R20 (1)     Range 31.0m km    Resolution 20
Harpoon II (6)  Speed: 38,000 km/s   End: 11.8m    Range: 27m km   WH: 4    Size: 2    TH: 164 / 98 / 49

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes

The Hawkeye serves as the main sensor platform for Warhawk squadrons as well as the Essex class carrier itself.  On certain far-flung listening posts a Warhawk squadron’s Hawkeye might represent the only active sensor platform in the system.  There is currently 1 Hawkeye per Warhawk squadron, for a total of 5 units.

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Hawkeye class AWAC    270 tons     9 Crew     100.5 BP      TCS 5.4  TH 13.2  EM 0
10185 km/s     Armour 1-3     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 20.77 Years     MSP 70    AFR 1%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 5    Max Repair 63 MSP

FTR Magneto-plasma Drive E650 (1)    Power 55.2    Fuel Use 6500%    Signature 13.248    Armour 0    Exp 60%
Fuel Capacity 25,000 Litres    Range 2.6 billion km   (69 hours at full power)

Active Search Sensor MR30-R20 (1)     GPS 1260     Range 31.0m km    Resolution 20

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
The very high fuel consumption of fighter craft means that they are effectively incapable of traversing the very long distances between colonies by themselves.  That being the case, the Mercury is a very low-cost solution that ensures a Warhawk squadron can extend its operational range to about 4.6 days at full power.  This is more than enough to perform effective fighter operations from any carrier or planet.  Like the Hawkeye, one Mercury is assigned to each Warhawk squadron for a total of 5 produced so far.

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Mercury class Space Control Tanker    340 tons     8 Crew     76.5 BP      TCS 6.8  TH 13.2  EM 0
8088 km/s     Armour 1-4     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 24.11 Years     MSP 28    AFR 4%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 0    5YR 1    Max Repair 18 MSP

FTR Magneto-plasma Drive E650 (1)    Power 55.2    Fuel Use 6500%    Signature 13.248    Armour 0    Exp 60%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 20.4 billion km   (29 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
The Pathfinder II is the Republic’s primary deep-space exploration vessel.  The advent of Magneto-Pulse engine technology allowed for a significant upgrade over the Pathfinder I; the Pathfinder II is faster, more reliable, and has longer range than its predecessor.  The Pathfinder is completely unarmed, and relies on its relatively small size and speed for defense.  On one notable occasion a Pathfinder was able to successfully disengage from an unidentified hostile ship’s active sensor sphere, despite having taken heavy damage from several missile strikes.  10 vessels of this class are currently in service.  An additional ship was lost with all hands while exploring an uncharted system.

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Pathfinder II class Deep Space Survey Ship    5,000 tons     472 Crew     1331 BP      TCS 100  TH 172.8  EM 0
7200 km/s     Armour 3-26     Shields 0-0     Sensors 44/44/1/1     Damage Control Rating 19     PPV 0
Maint Life 14.78 Years     MSP 1498    AFR 22%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 13    5YR 193    Max Repair 100 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E5 (9)    Power 80    Fuel Use 50%    Signature 19.2    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 450,000 Litres    Range 324.0 billion km   (520 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH4-44 (1)     Sensitivity 44     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  44m km
EM Detection Sensor EM4-44 (1)     Sensitivity 44     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  44m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour
Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


[Cavgunner (OP)]

Although it is technically not a warship, the Overlord is the largest vessel in active service with the Fleet.  The vessel is designed solely for the transportation of up to a full-strength Army Division in one lift.  The Overlord proved vital during the pacification of Carmel Cityi, when the Gibraltar transported the entire 61st Mobile Infantry Division and a total of twelve Engineer Brigades to the world.  For obvious reasons current doctrine states that the Overlord should avoid space combat, but with respectable armor protection and two CIWS arrays it can defend itself if needed.

Two ships of this class are in service.

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Overlord class Troop Transport    112,150 tons     1451 Crew     6304 BP      TCS 2243  TH 3220  EM 0
4101 km/s     Armour 5-207     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 35    Max Repair 100 MSP
Troop Capacity: 21 Battalions    Cargo Handling Multiplier 75    

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.65 (40)    Power 230    Fuel Use 6.5%    Signature 80.5    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 123.4 billion km   (348 days at full power)

CIWS-160 (2x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
The Callisto class Tanker is designed to support deep-space refueling operations, either by directly supporting ships in action or by providing logistical support to outlying colonies.  A single Callisto can accommodate up to 5,000,000 litres in fuel. To put that in perspective, Earth’s entire yearly fuel production is 8,700,000 litres.

The Callisto is not a combat vessel by any stretch of the imagination, and it will generally use its high speed to avoid enemy contact.  However if the Callisto is forced to enter a combat area for some reason its thick armor and twin CIWS arrays grant it a basic level of protection.

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Callisto class Tanker    30,000 tons     776 Crew     3278.4 BP      TCS 600  TH 1368.5  EM 0
6516 km/s     Armour 5-86     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 68    Max Repair 100 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.65 (17)    Power 230    Fuel Use 6.5%    Signature 80.5    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 5,000,000 Litres    Range 4614.9 billion km   (8197 days at full power)

CIWS-160 (2x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
From time to time a Republic ship will be lost to enemy action, a hostile ship will be destroyed, or a mysterious abandoned derelict will be found in an uncharted system.  On such occasions the Scavenger class salvager will be called in to recover the remains of the vessel.  It was directly due to the recovery of such alien wrecks that the Republic was able to vastly improve its sensor technology in recent years.

An uncomplicated design, the Scavenger is essentially a Star Galleon class freighter that mounts salvaging equipment and a single CIWS system in addition to the usual equipment.  Two vessels are currently in service.

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Scavenger class Salvager    77,900 tons     1063 Crew     4138.6 BP      TCS 1558  TH 2415  EM 0
4428 km/s     Armour 4-162     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 33    Max Repair 200 MSP
Cargo 25000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 5    
Salvager: 1 module(s) capable of salvaging 500 tons per day

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.65 (30)    Power 230    Fuel Use 6.5%    Signature 80.5    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 177.7 billion km   (464 days at full power)

CIWS-160 (1x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

The Gaia II is an upgrade of the Gaia class terraformer.  Although the old Gaia class was very effective, and is in fact still in use, it was also very slow, with a top speed of only 1129 km/sec.  This meant that the class could not transit the Class II Black Hole known as the Roiling Vortex separating Sol from the unexplored systems coreward of Earth.  This effectively cut off half of the most desirable terraforming targets.  The Gaia II thus replaced the Gaia’s twelve Ion drives with thirty Magneto-Pulse drives.  Seven Gaia IIs have been produced, and twenty of the older Gaia class remain in service as well.

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Gaia II class Terraformer    114,750 tons     1425 Crew     4920.4 BP      TCS 2295  TH 2415  EM 0
3006 km/s     Armour 1-210     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 27    Max Repair 500 MSP
Terraformer: 3 module(s) producing 0.006 atm per annum

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.65 (30)    Power 230    Fuel Use 6.5%    Signature 80.5    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 120.6 billion km   (464 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

The Star Galleon is the most recent enhancement to the venerable Galleon series of freighters, and replaces the old Ion drives with Magneto-Pulse drives.  The Star Galleon is a relatively swift vessel designed to overcome the time-consuming legs of trade runs to and from Earth, particularly transit of the massive Sirius system and the Roiling Vortex.  A total of 15 Galleon and 2 Star Galleon vessels are in service with the government and civilian shipping lines.

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Star Galleon class Freighter    64,300 tons     854 Crew     3373.2 BP      TCS 1286  TH 2415  EM 0
5365 km/s     Armour 1-142     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 33    Max Repair 100 MSP
Cargo 25000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 10    

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.65 (30)    Power 230    Fuel Use 6.5%    Signature 80.5    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres    Range 172.3 billion km   (371 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
The Mammoth class Superfreighter is the largest spacecraft ever constructed by humankind.  It is designed primarily to quickly and efficiently transport terraforming installation and research lab components to the sites where they are most needed.  One vessel is currently in service, with a total of 4 planned.  The eventual 4-ship task group would be able to transport an entire terraforming installation or research lab in one lift, or jump-start a new colony by transporting 20 other installations.  

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Mammoth class Superfreighter    234,000 tons     2319 Crew     9753.4 BP      TCS 4680  TH 6440  EM 0
3931 km/s     Armour 3-338     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 26    Max Repair 100 MSP
Cargo 125000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 25    

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.65 (80)    Power 230    Fuel Use 6.5%    Signature 80.5    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 1,100,000 Litres    Range 130.2 billion km   (383 days at full power)

CIWS-160 (1x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

The World Founder series of ships is the Republic’s primary deep-space colonization vessel.  The most recent version, the World Founder II, uses the same frame as the Star Galleon freighter but replaces the cargo bays with cyrosleep facilities for 100,000 colonists.  13 World Founder and 3 World Founder II vessels are in service.

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World Founder II class Colony Ship    64,300 tons     929 Crew     4323.2 BP      TCS 1286  TH 2415  EM 0
5365 km/s     Armour 1-142     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 42    Max Repair 100 MSP
Colonists 100000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 10    

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.65 (30)    Power 230    Fuel Use 6.5%    Signature 80.5    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres    Range 172.3 billion km   (371 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
The New Horizon class colony ship was designed as a low-cost alternative to the World Founder II.  It was conceived during a time that the Republic was going through a period of national debt and was therefore unable to subsidize civilian shipping companies.  By reducing all components to a bare minimum on the smallest ship possible it was hoped that the inexpensive New Horizon would help the struggling shipping companies to continue their expansion of colonization efforts.   The resulting design was a striking success, with 9 vessels currently in civilian use.

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New Horizon class Colony Ship    9,250 tons     161 Crew     694.2 BP      TCS 185  TH 402.5  EM 0
6216 km/s     Armour 1-39     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 47    Max Repair 100 MSP
Colonists 10000    

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.65 (5)    Power 230    Fuel Use 6.5%    Signature 80.5    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 299.4 billion km   (557 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
The Monarch II is an upgrade to the highly successful ion-powered Monarch class of passenger liners.  Like its predecessor the Monarch II can transport up to 1250 passengers in safety and comfort.  The ship features several restaurants, health spas, exercise areas, shopping areas, and numerous other amenities.  While 5 Monarchs are in service with the Republic’s civilian shipping lines, the Monarch II has yet to find any buyers.

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Monarch II class Passenger Liner    51,800 tons     1339 Crew     3834 BP      TCS 1036  TH 2415  EM 0
6660 km/s     Armour 1-123     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 46    Max Repair 100 MSP
Passengers 1250    Cargo Handling Multiplier 10    

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.65 (30)    Power 230    Fuel Use 6.5%    Signature 80.5    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres    Range 213.8 billion km   (371 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
The Emirate class luxury liner is exclusively designed to cater to the needs of the Republic’s most wealthy individuals.  Where the Monarch treats its passengers to comfort and convenience, the Emirate class pampers its 250 passengers in absolute luxury.  Two ships are currently in civilian operation.  The lead ship of the class, the Terra Nova, is the personal yacht of Matthew Page, president and CEO of Page Container Group.  

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Emirate class Luxury Liner    9,300 tons     256 Crew     709.2 BP      TCS 186  TH 402.5  EM 0
6182 km/s     Armour 1-39     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 48    Max Repair 100 MSP
Passengers 250    

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.65 (5)    Power 230    Fuel Use 6.5%    Signature 80.5    Armour 0    Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 297.7 billion km   (557 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

[Cavgunner (OP)]

Comments welcome...

[dgibso29]

No time to look over it all, but I am highly upset that you stole the empire name I have been using in my as-yet un-posted fiction for the last two months

[Shininglight]

What the?... Grr i put a long drawn ut analysis a little while ago where'd it?.... Anyways, I don't have time to retype all of it, it's 1 am here so i'm already alot groggy so i'll just summarise.

I'm a noob so don't take this to heart, Beam FC tracking speed is to slow, focus on upgrading that tech, good rule of thumb is that you should be able to track your own missiles, your missiles are a bit on the big side, with a size 3 or 4 missile you can fire'em off faster and fire more. You need more specialisation in designs, you have two destroyers. One has missiles the other doesn't, I'd replace the gauss on the one with missiles with a few size 1 AMM launchers. I'd also replace the gauss with lasers so that it'll be more effective against enemy ships if any get too close, have one all beam ship and one all missile ship. In my experience an unspecialised ship isn't as good at either role and will get murdered by a ship that is good at the given role.

ANyways good luck with this... Im extremely tired so i'll clean this post up tomorrow.

[Cavgunner (OP)]

No time to look over it all, but I am highly upset that you stole the empire name I have been using in my as-yet un-posted fiction for the last two months

Sorry, but I haven't read any of your stories.

[Theokrat]

The Fletcher has only a singled missile fire controll. Damage to this one component would mission-kill the entire ship. It would seem very prudent to install some redundancy here and add a second FC. This would also have the extra benefit of being able to divide the devastating alpha blow between more hostile ships. (imagine a large fleets of small hostiles).

Also note that the one firecontroll you have is resolution 80 (for 4,000t ships). What would happen if you encountered an enemy FAC, with a mass of 1,000t? The effective range of the FC would drop to (1/4)²*111.6mkm=7m km. This is a very short range, indeed shorted than most combat missiles will go. So you are very vulnerable to FAC attacks, in particular if the FACs are faster than your ships. They could close in, launch their missiles, withdraw, rearm, re-engage… And you would never even get a shot at them… So overall you might want to add a second MFC, with resolution 20. This would allow some redundancy (see above), while also adding flexibility.

Lastly, large overwhelming strikes deliver a maximum amount of damage at the earliest possible time, while sacrificing the ability to for sustained fire. This is very effective as they overwhelm enemy PD easily and outrightly destroy the larger part of the enemy fleet (and thus his ability to retaliate).
However, they also pose a challenge in target designation. One target might be dead after 9 hits, while another target of the same class might absorb 19 hits and still remain afloat (example from my game yesterday). So there is some uncertainty in how many missiles should be assigned to each target. This certainly gets worse if intel about the target is very limited (first encounter?). Without knowledge about their tactical role, their armour or PD measures, its hard to assign the right number of missiles. “Normally” one can observe the effect the missiles are having on the enemy and shift fire accordingly, allowing for a graduated attack. This is not true for an alpha strike, due to the lack of sustained fire.
I very much suspect that what you are doing is holding back some missiles for a clean-up second strike. This would explain why you have some mediocre amour and a small gaussgun arrangement on your ships. Not enough to deal with any full enemy missile salvo, but sufficient to deal with the missiles that travel towards you after 80% of the enemy fleet has been destroyed.
However, this is a bit inefficient. Firstly, by holding back a proportion of your missiles you water down the effect of the alpha strike, which must be overwhelming. Secondly the Gaussguns and associated firecontroll take up a sizeable proportion of your ship. Maybe 10% of the mass or so? This is actually quite large in that your chosen strategy is not tuned to compromises. If the alpha strike is not devastating enough, you are toast and using a small defensive weapon bank will hardly change that. So really, you should strive to make the alpha strike ever more lethal. But of course droping the gausguns would make you more vulnerable to the retaliation of the enemy’s residual ships (i.e. the ones that survived because of luck and/or imperfect target designation). 
Long story short: A solution might be to use self-guided missiles. Even a small sensor would allow your missiles to search for a new target once their original target has been destroyed. This avoids all troubles with target designation; you could actually fire all missiles at one target, and still destroy the entire enemy task force. Active sensors have the disadvantage of giving a clear warning to the attacked fleet due to the emissions which are nearly always picked up by EM sensors, so I tend to use passive thermal sensors. The disadvantage is that it wont kill ships that don’t have any engines any more, but then again these ships are also the ones possessing the least thread. This measure would greatly reduce the retaliation strike of your enemy, thus reducing your need for PD, hence allowing your strike to become more deadly by scrapping the gaussguns of the fletchers.
Moreover, you would really want your missiles to strike the enemy before his missiles strike you. I would thus suggest increasing the range (by a tiny bit), and the speed of the missile (quite a bit), so you can be sure to kill him before his missiles arrive. As you noted, when the launching ship is destroyed, the missiles self-destruct in mid-flight. With more missile-space devoted to the engine, sensors, and fuel, some part of the missile would have to become smaller and I suggest using smaller warhead. Yeah, WH9 is pretty nice, but your first priority should be hitting the enemy fast, before hitting him hard…

The New Orleans is bigger than the Fletcher, but has the same number of engines, resulting in a lower speed. It will thus slow down the whole fleet. Also, given that it is a PD ship, it should really have a resolution-1 sensor to spot incoming missiles, not resolution 80.

The Moccassins have a maintenance of 17 years, but a fuel capacity for 48 days. At the same time they do not have twice the max repair requirements. So something is off here.

I think the Mammoth would deserve slightly better cargo handling facilities. They are not that expensive, while the capital costs of a superfreighter are enormous.

[Cavgunner (OP)]

What the?... Grr i put a long drawn ut analysis a little while ago where'd it?.... Anyways, I don't have time to retype all of it, it's 1 am here so i'm already alot groggy so i'll just summarise.

I'm a noob so don't take this to heart, Beam FC tracking speed is to slow, focus on upgrading that tech, good rule of thumb is that you should be able to track your own missiles, your missiles are a bit on the big side, with a size 3 or 4 missile you can fire'em off faster and fire more. You need more specialisation in designs, you have two destroyers. One has missiles the other doesn't, I'd replace the gauss on the one with missiles with a few size 1 AMM launchers. I'd also replace the gauss with lasers so that it'll be more effective against enemy ships if any get too close, have one all beam ship and one all missile ship. In my experience an unspecialised ship isn't as good at either role and will get murdered by a ship that is good at the given role.

ANyways good luck with this... Im extremely tired so i'll clean this post up tomorrow.

Yeah there are definitely some gaps in my tech.  Beam tracking is about as good as it's going to be for the moment as I'm focusing on economic technologies in order to fight off the 8-year recession that seems to be hanging over my empire's income level.  I'll definitely take the suggestion about replacing the guns with size 1 missiles into consideration, but I just don't consider a vessel to be a proper warship unless it has at least one gun. 

[Cavgunner (OP)]

8

The Fletcher has only a singled missile fire controll. Damage to this one component would mission-kill the entire ship. It would seem very prudent to install some redundancy here and add a second FC. This would also have the extra benefit of being able to divide the devastating alpha blow between more hostile ships. (imagine a large fleets of small hostiles).

Well that’s true about losing the FC… perhaps I will install a small short-range backup just in case.  But tbh that shouldn’t (emphasis on shouldn’t) be a problem unless I am somehow ambushed at close range without a chance to get my missiles off.  Also, it was my understanding that if I wanted to attack multiple targets that I could first fire some missiles at Target A and then change to Target B in the next tick, and both salvoes of missiles would continue to their targets independently.  Or is that not the case? 

Also note that the one firecontroll you have is resolution 80 (for 4,000t ships). What would happen if you encountered an enemy FAC, with a mass of 1,000t? The effective range of the FC would drop to (1/4)²*111.6mkm=7m km. This is a very short range, indeed shorted than most combat missiles will go. So you are very vulnerable to FAC attacks, in particular if the FACs are faster than your ships. They could close in, launch their missiles, withdraw, rearm, re-engage… And you would never even get a shot at them… So overall you might want to add a second MFC, with resolution 20. This would allow some redundancy (see above), while also adding flexibility.

Good points, I suppose I could make the backup FC mentioned earlier to be a res-20 array.  Honestly I haven’t encountered any FACs yet so this hasn’t been a problem. My fighters do have res-20 FC so they will eventually the ones that I intend to be used as FAC killers once I get a few carriers going.

Lastly, large overwhelming strikes deliver a maximum amount of damage at the earliest possible time, while sacrificing the ability to for sustained fire. This is very effective as they overwhelm enemy PD easily and outrightly destroy the larger part of the enemy fleet (and thus his ability to retaliate).
However, they also pose a challenge in target designation. One target might be dead after 9 hits, while another target of the same class might absorb 19 hits and still remain afloat (example from my game yesterday). So there is some uncertainty in how many missiles should be assigned to each target. This certainly gets worse if intel about the target is very limited (first encounter?). Without knowledge about their tactical role, their armour or PD measures, its hard to assign the right number of missiles. “Normally” one can observe the effect the missiles are having on the enemy and shift fire accordingly, allowing for a graduated attack. This is not true for an alpha strike, due to the lack of sustained fire.
I very much suspect that what you are doing is holding back some missiles for a clean-up second strike. This would explain why you have some mediocre amour and a small gaussgun arrangement on your ships. Not enough to deal with any full enemy missile salvo, but sufficient to deal with the missiles that travel towards you after 80% of the enemy fleet has been destroyed.

I’m not going to mince words about it, this is a pure brute-force strategy and missiles do get wasted.  Assuming I am fighting full-size warships, most of the time I will simply have Fletcher 1 fire all missiles at Target 1, Fletcher 2 fire all missiles at target 2, and so on.  In the battles I’ve had to so far that usually means that I have 3 or 4 destroyers plus my FACs holding their missiles in reserve.  If for some reason a target is not destroyed (which has only happened once), I fire another barrage at it. 

With their overlapping gauss arrangement my fleet setup of 8 Fletchers and 3 New Orleans class can swat down sustained medium-sized barrages of comparable tech missiles pretty well.  In a full-on fleet battle, however, yes, things would probably get dicey.  Then again, since I have no NPR neighbors at the moment this is a distant scenario.

However, this is a bit inefficient. Firstly, by holding back a proportion of your missiles you water down the effect of the alpha strike, which must be overwhelming. Secondly the Gaussguns and associated firecontroll take up a sizeable proportion of your ship. Maybe 10% of the mass or so? This is actually quite large in that your chosen strategy is not tuned to compromises. If the alpha strike is not devastating enough, you are toast and using a small defensive weapon bank will hardly change that. So really, you should strive to make the alpha strike ever more lethal. But of course droping the gausguns would make you more vulnerable to the retaliation of the enemy’s residual ships (i.e. the ones that survived because of luck and/or imperfect target designation).

Yes.  The gauss arrays are an unhappy compromise.  However it was either them or lasers.  I don’t plan on getting close to the enemy, and in previous games I noticed that lasers couldn’t shoot down missiles fast enough.  So I think I’m stuck with Gauss for now.  Plus at the time I built these ships, I hadn’t researched any Reload Rate techs yet, so AMM’s were out as well.

Long story short: A solution might be to use self-guided missiles. Even a small sensor would allow your missiles to search for a new target once their original target has been destroyed. This avoids all troubles with target designation; you could actually fire all missiles at one target, and still destroy the entire enemy task force. Active sensors have the disadvantage of giving a clear warning to the attacked fleet due to the emissions which are nearly always picked up by EM sensors, so I tend to use passive thermal sensors. The disadvantage is that it wont kill ships that don’t have any engines any more, but then again these ships are also the ones possessing the least thread. This measure would greatly reduce the retaliation strike of your enemy, thus reducing your need for PD, hence allowing your strike to become more deadly by scrapping the gaussguns of the fletchers.

Very strong points.  My size 6 missiles do feature a small thermal sensor.

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Long Lance II Anti-Ship Missile
Missile Size: 6 MSP  (0.3 HS)     Warhead: 9    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 11
Speed: 32000 km/s    Endurance: 50 minutes   Range: 96.0m km
Thermal Sensor Strength: 0.055    Detect Sig Strength 1000:  55,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 5.53
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 352%   3k km/s 110%   5k km/s 70.4%   10k km/s 35.2%
Materials Required:    2.25x Tritanium   0.055x Uridium   3.11x Gallicite   Fuel x4000

Development Cost for Project: 553RP

Moreover, you would really want your missiles to strike the enemy before his missiles strike you. I would thus suggest increasing the range (by a tiny bit), and the speed of the missile (quite a bit), so you can be sure to kill him before his missiles arrive. As you noted, when the launching ship is destroyed, the missiles self-destruct in mid-flight. With more missile-space devoted to the engine, sensors, and fuel, some part of the missile would have to become smaller and I suggest using smaller warhead. Yeah, WH9 is pretty nice, but your first priority should be hitting the enemy fast, before hitting him hard…

While I do like the big warheads, those are again good points.  However such changes would have to wait for the next generation of ships.  It would take quite a lot of effort to change layout, production and logistics for the current gen.

The New Orleans is bigger than the Fletcher, but has the same number of engines, resulting in a lower speed. It will thus slow down the whole fleet. Also, given that it is a PD ship, it should really have a resolution-1 sensor to spot incoming missiles, not resolution 80.

True.  Couldn’t really make the Orleans faster at the time since I was already at my max shipyard capacity for that yard.  I actually thought about adding a few more launchers to the Fletcher to slow it down, lol.  Also, correct me if I’m wrong but since the Orleans only needs to see missiles that are at very short or point-blank range, anything detected beyond that is a moot point.  To be honest the res-80 sensor was plugged in solely because I didn’t feel like waiting around while a PD sensor of questionable value was researched and produced.

The Moccassins have a maintenance of 17 years, but a fuel capacity for 48 days. At the same time they do not have twice the max repair requirements. So something is off here.

 

They aren’t meant to travel far or have long deployments.  Maint life wasn’t the goal.  With 2 small engineering spaces, they have just enough to allow them to repair their largest component once, and have some left over. 

I think the Mammoth would deserve slightly better cargo handling facilities. They are not that expensive, while the capital costs of a superfreighter are enormous.

Yeah you’re probably right about that.

Thanks again for the comments.

[Nathan_]

Damage Control can repair the FC, though it might take a few hours, so you really don't have to worry too much about a lucky shot nailing the FC. Your civ fleet is loaded up with engines, but the blackhole is probably responsible for that.

[Theokrat]

Well that’s true about losing the FC… perhaps I will install a small short-range backup just in case.  But tbh that shouldn’t (emphasis on shouldn’t) be a problem unless I am somehow ambushed at close range without a chance to get my missiles off.

But “should not” does of course not equal “will not”. There might be that freak day, when just a lot of your gaussguns fail and one enemy salvo gets through. Technically all of this might not be much of a problem, since even if one FC would be rendered out of action, you could still transfer all ordnance of the damaged ship to an undamaged one. Although personally I would not do that with box-launcher ships for roleplaying reasons.

Also, it was my understanding that if I wanted to attack multiple targets that I could first fire some missiles at Target A and then change to Target B in the next tick, and both salvoes of missiles would continue to their targets independently.  Or is that not the case? 

Your understanding is correct; you can engage multiple targets by launching at a different target every 5s. However, the drawback is that your salvos will then also arrive during different intervals, which allows enemy PD installations multiple shots against your missiles. This could double the enemies PD-effectiveness. Might not be a huge difference in the large picture, but on the other hand the additional costs for a second FC are also quite small.

Good points, I suppose I could make the backup FC mentioned earlier to be a res-20 array.  Honestly I haven’t encountered any FACs yet so this hasn’t been a problem. My fighters do have res-20 FC so they will eventually the ones that I intend to be used as FAC killers once I get a few carriers going.

Keep in mind though the FAC tend to appear in large numbers when they do. More importantly FACs have superior speed, low detection profile and tend to be encountered in enemy populated systems where they are supported by planetary sensors. Consequently a FAC-equipped enemy will know where you are long before you know where he is, and then be able to engage your fleet. So a fleet without carrier support could not choose to withdraw from an unfavourable FAC battle – they would only realize the danger too late, and then be outrunned by the FACs. You would hence be forced to have a carrier in your taskforce at all times. Not only is that an inconvenient crucial element, but your carrier is also significantly slower than the rest of the fleet, and much easier to detect (larger, more thermal emissions), reducing the performance of the entire fleet.

But even when a carrier is present, that might not be sufficient. Your first indication that the FACs are even there at all would be a sensor contact 100m km away (from the AMM sensors on the Seekers)– which would be combat range of even your own FACs. Put differently, your own FACs could close to combat range on your fleet and launch their missiles before your fighters even had any reason to be launched. And at that point it would be already too late to launch the fighters for them to engage the enemy FACs…

I’m not going to mince words about it, this is a pure brute-force strategy and missiles do get wasted.  Assuming I am fighting full-size warships, most of the time I will simply have Fletcher 1 fire all missiles at Target 1, Fletcher 2 fire all missiles at target 2, and so on.  In the battles I’ve had to so far that usually means that I have 3 or 4 destroyers plus my FACs holding their missiles in reserve.  If for some reason a target is not destroyed (which has only happened once), I fire another barrage at it. 

Well, whatever works is fine. Yet it does sound as though you were in a superior position to begin with. That is of course very nice, and a nice reward for the strategy that brought you up to that point. However I like to design fleets with “tough” battles in mind, i.e. the ones that I can just marginally win (if at all). Basically because in this game at least you never really know your foe. Even so, missile production can be an important constraint in prolonged campaigns (as opposes to single skirmishes) and conserving ammo is a (secondary) objective.

True.  Couldn’t really make the Orleans faster at the time since I was already at my max shipyard capacity for that yard.  I actually thought about adding a few more launchers to the Fletcher to slow it down, lol.  Also, correct me if I’m wrong but since the Orleans only needs to see missiles that are at very short or point-blank range, anything detected beyond that is a moot point.  To be honest the res-80 sensor was plugged in solely because I didn’t feel like waiting around while a PD sensor of questionable value was researched and produced.

You get a hit-chance bonus based on the time you had an active sensor contact with the missile before they hit. It is capped, depending on technology and not a reason to get excessive about missile search sensors, especially for beam-defence ships. Yet there are two more advantages to smaller-resolution sensors on the Orleans:
Firstly, you could get the same missile-detection range with a smaller sensor. Sensors are expensive, and smaller means cheaper so this could be cost-saving.
Secondly, lower-resolution sensors have vastly lower active emissions. Take a look at the Seeker- the R1 sensor has a GPS of 1050, while the R100 sensor has a GPS of 105,000 – a hundred times as much. This means the larger-resolution-sensor can be spotted from a hundred times (!) the distance. It also means that it is viable to have a fleet running around with a low-resolution sensor turned on all the time, without announcing ones presence to everyone in the system. This avoids nasty ambushes and mine fields, while preserving an intel advantage. Note that you could not do this with the Seeker alone, as you can only turn on all sensors on a ship at the same time. Hence, the advantage in having a small resolution-1 sensor on the Orleans.

[Shininglight]

Yeah there are definitely some gaps in my tech.  Beam tracking is about as good as it's going to be for the moment as I'm focusing on economic technologies in order to fight off the 8-year recession that seems to be hanging over my empire's income level.  I'll definitely take the suggestion about replacing the guns with size 1 missiles into consideration, but I just don't consider a vessel to be a proper warship unless it has at least one gun. 

Missile boats are the best in the game in my experience, If i'm actually paying attention the enemy only get's through my missiles rarely, that's why proportionally i tend to have more missile ships than energy ships usually 1 1/2 missile boats for each energy boat. 2 energy ships = 3 missile ships and so on.... actually i think i'll post my newest designs However if you want take out a few of the s6 launchers and don't add as many s1 AMM launchers and add a 15 cm laser or a parti beam for close action. As for the economy.... How many colonies do you have? my advice is to colonise everything with a less than 3 col cos and terraform. The amount of money i'm gettign from 6 startup colonies and my financial centers is giving me a profit of.... let's see $5206 per month.... not bad if i do say so. Admittadley almost all my tech is at 40k rp at the moment. Anyways good uck with the crunch i'm sure you'll pull out of it.