General Pointers for Beam Turrets

[nightlord84 (OP)]

I'm looking to make a beam escort with 10cm focal size laser turrets for close-in AM defense of my fleet.  I know that my FC's tracking speed should match my Turret's tracking speed, but I'm not quite sure how to design my turrets.  For point defense should I go with quad turrets or some other configuration? How much should I increase the turret's size (to increase tracking speed)? Enough to match the best FC I can construct (4x size 4x range)? Should I armor my turrets? What should anti-ship 15cm focal size laser turrets look like? All of my design attempts so far have resulted in turrets that are so big that I can only fit one or maybe two on an 8000 ton escort destroyer. . .  Help please!

[orfeusz]

All of my design attempts so far have resulted in turrets that are so big that I can only fit one or maybe two on an 8000 ton escort destroyer. . . 

Welcome in the Club 

[Hawkeye]

For PD-turrets, you don´t realy need x4 range firecons. 4 x speed yes, but not 4 x range. Also, you might want to use twin turrets. Link two twins to a single firecon, and you won´t have more mass than with one quad, but a lucky hit will not take out you only turret and you can fit three or five turrets on some designs --> more versatile.

You realy don´t want to skimp(Sp?) on tracking speed for PD, no, you realy, realy don´t want to skimp on that one.


If you want to turret 15cm and larger lasers to fill a dual role (i.e. PD _and_ anti ship work) I´d go with single or twin turrets at max. and one FC per 4 or even 6 barrels.

[metalax]

Quad turret verses 2 twin or 4 singles is mainly a matter of preference. You get a somewhat improved likelyhood that you won't lose all your weapons to a single hit with more turrets but the bonus reduction to gear size in turrets with more weapons means that the quad turret may take less space.

For AM turrets you should increase the gear size to match a 4x speed fire control. Don't bother making increased range FC as you are unlikely to get off more than 1 extra long ranged and hence inaccurate shot compared to a smaller control.

Armouring turrets is personal preference. My view is if my anti missile turrets are getting hit, then I obviously didn't have enough of them and as such shouldn't be making them bigger with armour resulting in even fewer on a ship.

For anti ship weapons you should only think of using them in turrets if the enemies speed is significantly higher than your own, as otherwise you are just spending space unnecessarily. If you do need to do so then make them much the same as with your AM turrets.

Even with releativly low tech levels you should be able to fit 3-4 quad turrets on an 8000 ton escort.

[nightlord84 (OP)]

Thanks guys! I see that I've been over-engineering my fire controls (4x range and 4x tracking speed).  If I cut down on the size it should save lots of space .  Two more questions:

1.  I think I read somewhere that its good to have a faster (tracking speed-wise) fire control than your turrets.  Should I try to aim for that or just stick to an exact match?

2.  For an anti-ship laser battery would dual 15cm laser turrets with 2x tracking speed and 4x range be alright? I don't plan to have a beam fight with fast enemies (Precursors mainly), but I still want the ability to track faster moving ships (maybe FACs or just somewhat quick enemy cruisers).  Is 2x tracking speed good for this? I've considered going the completely non-turreted route, but I've only got beam tracking speed 2000, which seems way too slow even against normal ships. . .

[Charlie Beeler]

A lot depends on what tech you have.

It used to be that 2 twin turrets massed the same a a single quad, but that is no longer the case.  When the roundup for calculating turret gears was removed an 'efficiency' was added to multi mounts (5% for twin, 7.5% for triple and 10% for quad). 

It used to be that quad 10cm laser turrets were 20hs but now they are 16.32hs with twins at 8.28hs.  Those numbers assume that the turret tracking speed is 4x the current turret tracking speed tech.  Additionally that assumes that the fire control tracking tech and turret speed tech are at the same research level and the turrets are intended to be optimized to used with 4x speed fire controls. 

Which beam fire control range multiplier to use is also influenced by the tech researched.  Fire control range dictates the tohit chance percentages.  At level 1 50% is just 10,000km.  By selecting 2x the range 10k/km changes dramatically improves to 75% with 3x netting only another 8% to 83% and 4x being 88%.  A cheap tech jump to level 2 has 50% 16,000km giving 69% at 10k/km with 2x/84%, 3x/90%, and 4x/92%.  Level 3 has 50% at 24,000km giving 79% at 10k/km with 2x/90%, 3x/93%, and 4x/95%.  Level 3 is only 6,000rp investment above starting TN level 1.  The best "bang for the buck" is 2x range BFC. 

I've discussed the tohit chances at 10k/km since the original post was concerning missile point defense.  Unless you have a beam fire control and beam that can reach missiles at greater ranges than 5 seconds missile flight set the PD mode to final defense with a range of 1(10,000km) and keep your formations tight for mutual support.

[Brian Neumann]

For the tracking speed of your turrets you want the turret speed to at least mach the fire control speed.  If there is extra space available once you get there (ie partial hull space total turret size) then I will often try to increase my turret tracking speed somewhat.  This is not nessesary, but I find that I can sometimes (depending on tech levels) get my turret tracking speed up close to where the beam fire control speed will be with the next tech level.  For tripple or quad turrets this may take an extra hull space but I usually consider it to be worthwhile.  When you go to upgrade your design the turrets can stay while the fire control and frequently the engines are the only things being changed.  It can make a big difference on the refit cost compared to the little bit extra you spend when you build the ship to start with.

Brian