First warships

[The Dutch Devil (OP)]

I started playing this game a few days ago and now I'm reaching my first warships;

The first is a Missile Boat I'll make different version of it (Stealth, jump etc. ):

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Archer class Missile Boat    4,850 tons     387 Crew     650.04 BP      TCS 97  TH 378  EM 0
3896 km/s     Armour 4-25     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 15
Annual Failure Rate: 188%    IFR: 2.6%    Maint Capacity 84 MSP    Max Repair 32 MSP    Est Time: 1.2 Years
Magazine 515   

Archer Engine  (6)    Power 63    Fuel Use 66%    Signature 63    Armour 0    Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 112.4 billion km   (334 days at full power)

Archer Class missile launcher (5)    Missile Size 3    Rate of Fire 30
Archer missile control (1)     Range 11.9m km    Resolution 10
Archer class missile  (172)  Speed: 20,000 km/s   End: 35.7m    Range: 42.9m km   WH: 4    Size: 3    TH: 66 / 40 / 20

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

And a heavier Destroyer class:

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Baltimore class Destroyer    8,850 tons     583 Crew     1167.54 BP      TCS 177  TH 175.5  EM 0
1322 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-38     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 12     PPV 55
Annual Failure Rate: 313%    IFR: 4.4%    Maint Capacity 3165 MSP    Max Repair 225 MSP    Est Time: 2.5 Years
Magazine 509   

Baltimore Class Jump Engine     Max Ship Size 9000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Nimitz Ion engine (4)    Power 58.5    Fuel Use 57%    Signature 43.875    Armour 1    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres    Range 53.5 billion km   (468 days at full power)

Twin Halcyon Guass Gun Turret (2x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 5000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 4    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Halcyon Fire Control (1)    Max Range: 96,000 km   TS: 5000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0

Archer Class missile launcher (3)    Missile Size 3    Rate of Fire 30
Archer missile control (1)     Range 11.9m km    Resolution 10
Archer class missile  (170)  Speed: 20,000 km/s   End: 35.7m    Range: 42.9m km   WH: 4    Size: 3    TH: 66 / 40 / 20

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
Any input on their shortcomings etc.  would be nice. 

[Rastaman]

The glaring mistake is that the missile control has a much shorter range than the missile. So you waste lots of range you would otherwise have. You can do this by decreasing resolution to 100 or 120, which many people use as a standard resolution for general use.

The best is to have a fire control that has some redundancy to make up for enemy ECM, like 30-40% higher FC range than missile range.

Your Archer also has only a short maintenance life. More engineering sections are in order.

The Baltimore has no real armour.

[Beersatron]

You will also need an active search sensor of the same resolution and range as the missile fire control.

The ASS detects the target and the MFC locks onto the target after it is detected.

[Hawkeye]

What is the mission of the Baltimore?

Is it supposed to ferry the Archer into a hostile system and then stay back at the jumppoint while the Archers go in slugging it out?
Then it doesn´t realy need the missile launchers/magazines and would be better served with some armor and perhaps some beam weapons, in case the jumppoint is defended.

Is it supposed to accompany the Archers to the enemy?
Then it desperately needs more armor, as it is your only way back home.


Both ships are basicly blind with neither active sensors (as Beersatron said, you need those to light up a target if you want to shoot it) nor passives (you want those, so you don´t have to run around with your actives on all the time, which announces your presence across half the system).
This will lead to your ships being killed without ever seeing the enemy.

[The Dutch Devil (OP)]

Ok, first of all thanks for the responses you probably saved me from a pretty humiliating loss. 

The glaring mistake is that the missile control has a much shorter range than the missile.  So you waste lots of range you would otherwise have.  You can do this by decreasing resolution to 100 or 120, which many people use as a standard resolution for general use.

The best is to have a fire control that has some redundancy to make up for enemy ECM, like 30-40% higher FC range than missile range.

Your Archer also has only a short maintenance life.  More engineering sections are in order.

The Baltimore has no real armour.

Ok, the new Archer fire control will look something like this:

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Active Sensor Strength: 33.6   Sensitivity Modifier: 60%
Sensor Size: 1.2 HS    Sensor HTK: 1
Resolution: 100    Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 60,480,000 km
Range vs 1000 ton object: 2,419,200 km
Range vs 250 ton object: 151,200 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 34    Crew: 6
Materials Required: 8.5x Duranium  25.5x Uridium


About the engineering; what would be a reasonable Est Time?

And about the armor; I'm thinking of scrapping the Baltimore redesigning every component will take to long.

You will also need an active search sensor of the same resolution and range as the missile fire control.

The ASS detects the target and the MFC locks onto the target after it is detected.

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Active Sensor Strength: 105   Sensitivity Modifier: 60%
Sensor Size: 3.75 HS    Sensor HTK: 1
Resolution: 100    Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 63,000,000 km
Range vs 1000 ton object: 2,520,000 km
Range vs 250 ton object: 157,500 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 105    Crew: 19
Materials Required: 26.25x Duranium  78.75x Uridium


So something like this?

What is the mission of the Baltimore?

Is it supposed to ferry the Archer into a hostile system and then stay back at the jumppoint while the Archers go in slugging it out?
Then it doesn´t realy need the missile launchers/magazines and would be better served with some armor and perhaps some beam weapons, in case the jumppoint is defended.

Is it supposed to accompany the Archers to the enemy?
Then it desperately needs more armor, as it is your only way back home.

The Baltimore was supposed to be a heavier version of the Archer but I failed miserably at the designing phase so I'll probably scrap it.

Both ships are basicly blind with neither active sensors (as Beersatron said, you need those to light up a target if you want to shoot it) nor passives (you want those, so you don´t have to run around with your actives on all the time, which announces your presence across half the system).
This will lead to your ships being killed without ever seeing the enemy.

I believe I got the ASS nailed down but what about the passive sensors?

[Hawkeye]

I believe I got the ASS nailed down but what about the passive sensors?

Think of your sensors as active and passive sonar on a sub.
Active sensors are your active sonar
EM-sensors see the EM emission from other ships, which is created by active sensors or shields
Thermal-sensors see heat radiation, created from engines
Yes, having your active sensor on will let you see your enemy out to 50 mkm, but if your enemy has good passives, he will see the EM-signatur of your active sensors from several hundred mkm.

All of my own ships have small Thermal and EM sensors, but those are just backup. The real eyes are on a fleet-scout or two, which will accompany any battlegroup (they also mount much much larger actives. As a rule of thumb: 1000t Res-120 active, 1000t Res-16 active, 500t Res-1 active, 750t EM passive, 750t thermal passive. As sensor tech advances, the Res-1 and Res-16 actives might get a bit smaller)

[Thiosk]

phew, you use much larger arrays than i do.  i thought i was choosing fairly large scan arrays at just a couple hundred tons.  maybe my AWACS-style ships are in need of a nice refit before i send them on their first sortie.

[Narmio]

The general rule that I operate on is that if a task group can't see to double its own engagement range, it is tactically pretty blind.  I don't tend to have active sensors much larger than that, even on a dedicated scout.  I have very, very large thermal passives, though, on dedicated sensor ships, to detect ships even further out in the 2-300mkm range.