The Bejing

[Borealis4x (OP)]

One step forward...

[Borealis4x (OP)]

I don't understand how targeting computer range is calculated. I made one that had 40,000km range times 4 so 160,000km. With my railgun velocity tech, my max sized railguns of 30cm outranged that by quite a bit, so I decided instead of invest more research in extremely expensive tech I would make a 20cm gun that had a range of exactly 160,000km. However, when I actually put it on a ship the computer says....

Alexandria class Cruiser    3,600 tons     182 Crew     780.8 BP      TCS 72  TH 0  EM 0
1 km/s     Armour 1-20     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 56
Maint Life 1.43 Years     MSP 136    AFR 103%    IFR 1.4%    1YR 73    5YR 1099    Max Repair 105 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 1   

Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range N/A

Saeder-Krupp 20cm Railgun V4/C5 (8x4)    Range 160,000km     TS: 5000 km/s     Power 12-5     RM 4    ROF 15        4 4 4 4 3 2 2 2 1 1
Renraku Computer Systems  20 cm RG Fire Control S01 160-2500 H40 (1)    Max Range: 320,000 km   TS: 2500 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

That's twice as far as the design window told me it would be. Now it looks like I wasted my time developing that 20cm railgun when I could have made a 30cm one and I also have an inaccurately named fire control. Wish I could rename it. But anyways, why did my range double? Why didn't it show this in the design window?

Also, I took peoples advise and halfed the size of my targeting computer and tracking speed ability but it seems that now I have a gun that can out track it, limiting its potential. Why wasn't the tracking speed shown when I was making the gun in the first place?

[Borealis4x (OP)]

Also, how do I know how many power plants I need? The power draw of my various components do not make themselves terribly clear.

[Sheb]

The range in the design windows is tha range at which your firecon got 50% accuracy. Accuracy correlate linearly with distance, so it'll have 100% accuracy at 0km, 50% accuracy at 160,000 km, 25% accuracy at 240,000km and so on. At 320,000km, it hits 0% accuracy, so that's the max range at which you can fire, since over that you won't ever hit anything.

There is a "power needed" field in the class design window. Otherwise, your weapons will be able to use as much power as your capacitor tech can provide. In this case, your railgun needs 12 power to fire, and can get 5 power each turn due to capacitor tech. That's why you can fire once every 3 5-seconds increment (ROF 15). It also mean that each railgun need 5 reactor power per 5 second increment.

[Borealis4x (OP)]

Okay, at this point I feel the only way I will make any progress is actually building something and getting into a fight. So here is the final model that I am definitely now building.


Alexandria class Cruiser    30,000 tons     737 Crew     5354.6 BP      TCS 600  TH 1080  EM 0
3600 km/s     Armour 12-86     Shields 0-0     Sensors 44/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 28     PPV 192
Maint Life 2.08 Years     MSP 2008    AFR 399%    IFR 5.6%    1YR 621    5YR 9321    Max Repair 405 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 2 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 72   

Mitsubishi-Honda Consortium 540 EP Ion Drive (4)    Power 540    Fuel Use 115.74%    Signature 270    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 4,000,000 Litres    Range 20.7 billion km   (66 days at full power)

Twin Integrated Weapon Systems PLC Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (8x6)    Range 30,000km     TS: 16000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Saeder-Krupp 20cm Railgun V4/C4 (8x4)    Range 160,000km     TS: 4000 km/s     Power 12-4     RM 4    ROF 15        4 4 4 4 3 2 2 2 1 1
Renraku Computer Systems Point-Defense Fire Control S02 32-16000 H50 (1)    Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0
Renraku Computer Systems 20cm RG Fire Control S02 128-4000 H50 (1)    Max Range: 256,000 km   TS: 4000 km/s     96 92 88 84 80 77 73 69 65 61
Oshkosh Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor Technology PB-1.25 (1)     Total Power Output 45    Armour 0    Exp 20%

Aegis Dynamics Size 6 Box Launcher (12)    Missile Size 6    Hangar Reload 45 minutes    MF Reload 7.5 hours
CACI International Missile Fire Control FC138-R100 (50%) (1)     Range 138.6m km    Resolution 100

CACI International Point Defense Search Sensor MR4-R1 (50%) (1)     GPS 42     Range 4.6m km    MCR 503k km    Resolution 1
CACI International Active Search Sensor MR138-R100 (50%) (1)     GPS 12600     Range 138.6m km    Resolution 100
Rockwell Collins Thermal Sensor TH4-44 (50%) (1)     Sensitivity 44     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  44m km

ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

And the missile cruisers

Kyoto class Missile Cruiser    30,000 tons     781 Crew     5235 BP      TCS 600  TH 1080  EM 0
3600 km/s     Armour 12-86     Shields 0-0     Sensors 44/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 36     PPV 185.2
Maint Life 3.14 Years     MSP 2836    AFR 276%    IFR 3.8%    1YR 434    5YR 6504    Max Repair 405 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 2 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 60   

Mitsubishi-Honda Consortium 540 EP Ion Drive (4)    Power 540    Fuel Use 115.74%    Signature 270    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 4,000,000 Litres    Range 20.7 billion km   (66 days at full power)

Twin Integrated Weapon Systems PLC Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (8x6)    Range 30,000km     TS: 16000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Renraku Computer Systems Point-Defense Fire Control S02 32-16000 H50 (1)    Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0
Oshkosh Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor Technology PB-1.25 (1)     Total Power Output 45    Armour 0    Exp 20%

Aegis Dynamics Size 10 Missile Launcher (6)    Missile Size 10    Rate of Fire 75
CACI International Missile Fire Control FC138-R100 (50%) (1)     Range 138.6m km    Resolution 100

CACI International Active Search Sensor MR138-R100 (50%) (1)     GPS 12600     Range 138.6m km    Resolution 100
CACI International Point Defense Search Sensor MR4-R1 (50%) (1)     GPS 42     Range 4.6m km    MCR 503k km    Resolution 1
Rockwell Collins Thermal Sensor TH4-44 (50%) (1)     Sensitivity 44     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  44m km

ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

[Sheb]

Your missile cruiser could use more magazine, one salvo of 10 missiles isn't exactly impressive. Your railgun cruiser look much better now, no glaring mistake that I can see.

[MarcAFK]

Your missile cruiser has less magazine space than the other one. Go big or go home!

[Borealis4x (OP)]

Does the missile detection radar have to only have as much range as the point defense turret or is it better that its a little bit bigger?

[Borealis4x (OP)]

Silly me, I forgot to add an em sensor. DO I need one if I have an active search one?

[83athom]

Does the missile detection radar have to only have as much range as the point defense turret or is it better that its a little bit bigger?

You do get a bonus against missiles the longer you track them. Plus you want to seem them from further out so they don't go from beyond sensor range to hitting your ship in the same increment (that can happen, especially against higher tech enemies).

Another suggestion I have (which you don't have to implement until your next gen ships) is to increase the resolution of your ship detection sensor to 200-300, then create another sensor with a resolution of about 10-20. Despite having a smaller max range, the res 10-20 will see small ships (1000 tons and less) farther out than your current 100 res sensor can because of how detection works.

And you don't need an EM sensor, it just allows you to detect enemy active sensors and colonies with a high EM signature. Active sensors have a built in EM sensor that can only detect its own pulse.

[Borealis4x (OP)]

Putting missiles in the ships isn't going to make it heavier and slower, is it? And the game will know to use the point defense computer for the gauss turrets and the other for the railguns, right? Do I have to set the gauss turrets to behave as point defense or will they know to do it on their own? Can I make it so they will prioritize missiles but also fire on ships when they get close enough?

Also, how much sense does putting in a boat bay and a marine company barracks make? Modern day capital ships all have some form of small craft either to scout or to ferry important people and supplies, and while a single marine company might not be significant an entire fleet-full would be a good sort of landing party to secure a beachhead before the main army can arrive. Will have to create a captain army rank, though...

By emergency cryogenic pods does the game mean escape pods? How useful are those?

What is the feasibility of making a sort of Q-ship, that is a freighter that can protect itself? I want to make it so instead of relying on state owned craft that I have to maintain and upgrade constantly to do menial task like delivering automated mines, colonists, and infrastructure to planets I can contract that out to civilians, leaving the logistics corps with the single mission of ferrying troops and ammo and maintenance and such. Am I right to assume these items are small enough that cargo space can be sacrificed for protection? Should this type of vessel have a military engine?

And finally, what are the types of ships a typical navy should have (ones which would be classified as a military vessel by the game's standards)? I have my line cruiser already, but I suppose i should now work on a proper missile cruiser and a sensor flagship of some sorts.

[83athom]

Only the mass of the magazines will be added.
You have to set the weapons to the fire controls yourself in the combat overview window. And you have to set a point defense mode for the fire controls. If you target a ship with a fire control set to point defense, it will engage the ship unless there is a missile in range.
I like to put a small barracks on almost all of my ships at least. It does add some benefits like protecting against borders and such. And a boat bay does add some strike craft capability. But I prefer to leave those for either escort vessels or carriers.
Emergency cryo doesn't behave like a escape pod (while I believe it was talked about that it will in the future), its for picking up survivors in an emergency from an escape pod (lore is they are built in to life support mass for calculation).
Q-ships are currently not possible unless you want to make the freighters military (which is a pretty bad idea). You can, however, make an escort ship of some kind and make it follow a fleet/group of civilian ships.
Escorts/scouts, anti-ship, anti-missile/anti-smallship, stand-off ships, carriers, strike craft, and support ships (fuel, maintenance supply, ammunition).

[Borealis4x (OP)]

What is a "stand off" ship?

And for anti-missile/small ship do you think just having the gauss turrets will be sufficient for the small ships or should they have a main weapon of some sort?

As for strikecrafts, why use them when you can use missiles? What are some guidelines for building them? What are the different types I should make?

[AL]

If you use strikecraft launched missiles then you can redistribute more of the missile's mass towards things like more engine power or warhead, rather than fuel just to get a decent range. The strikecraft would usually be able to get in close before enemy fire control can lock onto them effectively, so you can drop range to just a couple million km instead of having it in the hundreds of millions.

[83athom]

What is a "stand off" ship?

Like the Beijing. Able to take hard hits while giving it back at close range.

And for anti-missile/small ship do you think just having the gauss turrets will be sufficient for the small ships or should they have a main weapon of some sort?

Gauss are good, but they would need a main weapon, like a pair of fast firing rails, a laser turret, or some small missile batteries.

As for strikecrafts, why use them when you can use missiles? What are some guidelines for building them? What are the different types I should make?

Extend the range of missiles, stealth attacks, etc. No armor, max power engines, as little cost as possible. You want 3 main types. Small missile armament (size 1-2), large missile armament (size 6+), and beam.