Posted by: xenoscepter
« on: August 23, 2019, 01:19:46 AM »
From an RP stand-point, 2 Strength shields is the difference between taking a 12cm Laser and going home, and taking a 12cm Laser and getting dead. It's the difference between a Size 13 (13mm) Gauss volley from another Sabre / Valkyrie hitting the hull versus just depleting the shields. Ultimately, it's a Defense Screen and designed to allow the ship to survive a hit that would kill it outright. Against a 10cm Railgun, it would be the difference between 4 hull damage w/o shields or just 2 w/ them. The Engineering Space is on account of the Sabre being a more expensive ship, featuring Electronic Hardening 1 on all of it's sensors and Fire Controls, so the little luxury of having ease of maintenance is considered an acceptable indulgence. The Sabre will never see large scale deployment, but rather will see use with elite fighter squadrons, so again the Engineering Space is considered an acceptable indulgence. 5,000 more litres of fuel would give me better range though.
The Sabre is a Starfighter, built to establish dominance over enemy fighters. It uses speed to chase down foes or flee from anything it can out shoot with it's twin Gauss (which admittedly is almost anything with a gun...), it's Size 5 missiles to out shoot most fighters while it's shields can help to weather the return fire, hopefully ending or severely damaging the enemy in one overwhelming missile strike. The Gauss, coupled with it's extreme speed, let's it move in for the kill on enemies which might have survived the initial volley, while it's shields could potentially let it survive long enough to close with a 12cm Laser or 10cm Railgun Fighter and deliver that final blow (assuming they weren't depleted in the first exchange)
The PVX Valkyrie (Project Valkyrie Experimental), is an Interceptor. It's designed to defend ships against enemy fighters and missiles, as such it's sensors are built around the idea that it will never stray too far from the fleet's sensor envelope. The three layers of armor let it tank a size 9 warhead, a 15cm Laser, or a 12cm Railgun... albeit not without needing a repair. Having 5 Spare Berths let's it serve as a short ranged shuttle for Xenology / Survey / Espionage Teams if need be. (I don't mind the micro of them...) Not having missiles let's it operate from a wider variety of vessels. The Valiant-Class Frigates can swap out two Set-Class Scouts for one and break even in both Hangar Space and Crew Requirements, allowing them to gain a means of PD and act as a means of transit for a team.
Basically, the Principality of Sidon is a Fighter-Centric navy. They take a lot of time to train their pilots and don't throw them away frivolously. They place a great deal of value on the lives of their citizens, hence the shields on their fighters. They also believe that in battle it is not the one who strikes first, but rather the one who strikes twice who is the victor. They believe it is better to have a half dead fleet return home then lose half a fleet in battle, since ships cost money. They believe in investing more in a ship rather than less, since a fleet of four is as good as a fleet of eight if every ship is worth two of the enemies. They believe a ship should be as fast as possible, as well defended as possible, but merely adequately armed for the task. Dead is dead, and dead is good enough. Crippled is fine too, but better the enemy then them; hence they often invest in Electronic Hardening. A blind ship is a dead ship, and weapons (adequate or otherwise) are useless if they can't be targeted. Thermal Reduction is another thing that is quite common on Sidonian ships, although admittedly not this early on, as it's always better to be a little harder to spot than the enemy. ECM / ECCM is another feature common on their later ships, as even just a slight edge in range / accuracy can mean all the difference. Their Fighter Craft are almost universally armed with at least one 25 Ton Gauss, as it's good to have something to shoot when your enemy has nothing. Most Sidonian fighters will have at least one Engineering Space - Fighter, as I fluff them to be mass dedicated to things like in-flight repair systems, system redundancies, bypasses for power / fuel as well as being designed for ease of maintenance by flight deck crews. The last part being reflected in the MSP.