Disclaimer: I could be wrong. Add salt to taste.
Ship sizes will have to be 20 ktons or less since anything higher makes Jump Drives infeasible. (21kton jumpdrive is already 14k RP, I have a 65%/60 lab PP researcher though)
This points me towards ships in specialized roles.
Unless all your ships will be 20-21 ktons, you should either let the large ships ferry the smaller ones or research more than one jump drive. The research cost may be high in the short run, but you'll save on ships in the long run.
Is it feasible to put giant sensors + heavy armour on one ship and no sensors on the others? (it can be my jumpdrive ship as well) I read that you need active sensors to lock onto targets, does it have to be on the same ship as the firecontrol?
How big a sensor is too big? I've looked up sensor range formulae and designed 4 active sensors at 1kton each across various ship sizes. Is that overkill or do I need bigger?
- The minimum detection range for the bands already outranges my laser at least 10 times. But the size of the circle makes me feel blind.
IMO all combat ships (except perhaps fighters/FACs) should have a small active sensor. It should ideally match or just exceed weapon range. Note that no beam weapon, regardless of its nominal range, can fire beyond 1400k km (largest possible beam fire control range).
Your sensor ship should probably have at least two sensor resolutions: 15-25 or so for FACs, 100+ for other ships (smallest NPR ships I've seen were about 6000 tons). A resolution 1 sensor for missile detection wouldn't hurt, but your other ships should have that covered.
As for size, it depends. They should outrange your missiles, but beyond that is up to you. Size 50 sensors are beastly in both range and cost. The bigger your sensors, the fewer ships will have them because of the expense. Also be aware that a strength N nebula will reduce sensor range by a factor of N, so you might want a little extra range if you plan on operating in one.
My laser weapons seem to have annoying short ranges, 400kkm is ridiculously short.
I have ultraviolet lasers already and researching more will take too long. And my firecontrols never seem to be good enough. Laser already outranges the firecontrol. =( Longer ranged firecontrol is also likewise infeasible.
EDIT: Also, do I have to research everything or is weapon specialization feasible? I would prefer to have say, Gauss Cannons for point defense, Lasers for killing and missiles for everything else. Rather than have to have an unmanageable mix of everything.
As I said, beam fire control range caps at 1400k km (at x4 size and max tech). Damage drops off linearly with range, so a 14000k km laser would deal 90% damage at max (1400k km) range. So range beyond your fire control will increase damage, but it won't increase your range. If you want actual long range weapons, use missiles.
As for weapon specialization, they all have their uses. However, I've never bothered with particle beams (photon torpedos in earlier versions), plasma carronades, or microwaves. I use gauss for PD (also fighters), meson for PDC (only beam weapon unaffected by atmosphere), lasers (penetration) or railguns (damage) but not both, and sometimes missiles (can be expensive, so they don't exactly form the backbone of my offense). But your mileage may vary.
Regarding warp blindness. Since you can't see directly after you jump, you can't shoot.
So I have a question, do you get to know what's on an enemy ship? If not, I could jump in a decoy ship that is simply a jumpdrive with ridiculous armour + tons of shields, then following up with my main fleet once they have wasted their shots. (Tug boats for in-system movement)
I can think of three ways to handle jump point assaults: send a massive tank to draw fire (NPRs often target the largest ship they see), send some small high-speed (so they're hard to hit) fighters to draw fire and lure the defenders away from the JP, or send the whole fleet if you're confident their armor and shields will hold out long enough (blindness lasts, what, 60 seconds tops?). In the first two cases, provided the initial ships survive, AFAIK their sensors should allow the rest of the fleet to fire as soon as they jump. Don't quote me on that. Also, squadron transit can help alleviate your worries, as it can buy you some extra time for the blindness to wear off.
As welchbloke said, the enemy may not run out of ammo since there's a good chance they'll have some beam weapons. Your decoy can draw fire (and maybe waste enemy missiles) and/or lure them away from the JP. A heavy decoy is better for taking hits in lieu of the rest of the fleet, even after they make the jump. A light decoy squadron is better for luring them away from the JP while they dodge enemy fire.
Can military engines go through a commercial jumpdrive? Or will my tugboat have to be military as well?
Commercial jump drives only work for commercial engines. Military jump drives only work for military engines. If you build a jump tender with both types of jump drives, it can ferry ships with either type of engine, but AFAIK it won't allow them to jump as a single fleet. The ships with commercial engines will have to jump as a separate fleet from those with military engines.
Can a jumpdrive transit a tractorbeamed ship? Does the tractorbeamed ship count to the tug's size or are they considered individually?
If indivudally considered, what's preventing me from dividing my fleet into tugboats (engines) and the actual business end of the ship? Apart from the fact that warp point assaults with that design philosophy will be a massive pain.
Also, I could do this for my support fleet at least. Maintenance modules, coillers, tankers and even carriers (see last question) could feasibly be using this.
None of that should be a problem if you're willing to put up with the micromanagement. I'm pretty sure every ship, including tractored ones, will count against the squadron transit limit. So your combat ships (assuming your tugs are not also combat ships) will be jumping in smaller groups.
I've noticed that engines get less efficient the more of them you put on a ship. What is a good engine to weight ratio? Is sacrificing efficiency for a better ratio worth it? I seem to have tons of fuel anyway.
Two engines burn twice as much fuel as one. They also require twice as much hull space as one, which increases weight both directly and indirectly (since armor weight increases with ship size). As you add engines, you should asymptotically approach a maximum speed. Find that max speed (try designing a ship with literally nothing but thousands of engines) and you should get a feel for how much is too much.
For reasonable speed, you might try having some percentage (e.g. 20%) of your ships be engine. Fuel-wise, I like to pick a fuel storage size (e.g. standard, tiny, armored) and have one for each engine. So a 5000 tonner might have 4 military engines plus 4 fuel storage units of whatever size. A few consequences of this approach include: a size X ship is exactly as fast and requires half as much fuel as a size 2X ship, and a task group made entirely of same-tech-level ships has no wasted engines (i.e. they're all going at max speed since none are faster than the rest).
