Railguns

[Silverkeeper (OP)]

Is this viable? should i try to cram in main engineering or something else?

Constellation class Cruiser      19 997 tons       489 Crew       2 777.9 BP       TCS 400    TH 600    EM 0
3000 km/s      Armour 8-65       Shields 0-0       HTK 133      Sensors 36/36/0/0      DCR 8      PPV 108.63
Maint Life 1.74 Years     MSP 1 138    AFR 376%    IFR 5.2%    1YR 460    5YR 6 894    Max Repair 225 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Morale Check Required   

Eurojet M-300 Nuclear Pulse Engine (4)    Power 1200    Fuel Use 70.60%    Signature 150.0    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 1 260 000 Litres    Range 16.1 billion km (61 days at full power)

15cm Railgun V30/C3 (8x4)    Range 90 000km     TS: 3 000 km/s     Power 9-3     Accuracy Modifier 100%     RM 30 000 km    ROF 15       
Twin Gauss Cannon R300-100 Turret (3x6)    Range 30 000km     TS: 12000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 30 000 km    ROF 5       
Beam Fire Control R48-TS12000 (2)     Max Range: 48 000 km   TS: 12 000 km/s     79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0
Beam Fire Control R96-TS3000 (1)     Max Range: 96 000 km   TS: 3 000 km/s     67 59 52 44 36 28 20 12 5 0
Improved Pebble Bed Reactor R74 (1)     Total Power Output 74.1    Exp 5%

SA-50 Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 7200     Range 54.4m km    Resolution 100
Active Missile Search Sensor (1)     GPS 48     Range 9.6m km    MCR 1m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH6-36 (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  47.4m km
Large Electromagnetic Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  47.4m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

[Silverkeeper (OP)]

Constellation 2 class Cruiser      19 997 tons       579 Crew       2 693.2 BP       TCS 400    TH 600    EM 0
3000 km/s      Armour 6-65       Shields 0-0       HTK 133      Sensors 36/36/0/0      DCR 9      PPV 96
Maint Life 1.90 Years     MSP 1 157    AFR 355%    IFR 4.9%    1YR 414    5YR 6 217    Max Repair 225 MSP
Magazine 594   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Morale Check Required   

Eurojet M-300 Nuclear Pulse Engine (4)    Power 1200    Fuel Use 70.60%    Signature 150.0    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 1 140 000 Litres    Range 14.5 billion km (56 days at full power)

15cm Railgun V30/C3 (6x4)    Range 90 000km     TS: 3 000 km/s     Power 9-3     Accuracy Modifier 100%     RM 30 000 km    ROF 15       
Beam Fire Control R96-TS3000 (2)     Max Range: 96 000 km   TS: 3 000 km/s     67 59 52 44 36 28 20 12 5 0
Improved Pebble Bed Reactor R9 (6)     Total Power Output 55.8    Exp 5%

Supernova Missile Launcher (10)     Missile Size: 6    Rate of Fire 25
FC-20 Missile Fire Control (1)     Range 24.3m km    Resolution 100
Meteor Anti-Ship Missile (99)    Speed: 13 967 km/s    End: 25.3m     Range: 21.2m km    WH: 9    Size: 6    TH: 65/39/19

SA-50 Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 7200     Range 54.4m km    Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH6-36 (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  47.4m km
Large Electromagnetic Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  47.4m km

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

[Father Tim]

The only way to know is to try it and find out.  Nine times out of ten Aurora battles are decided before the first shot is fired by how many of which ships with what tech shows up.

So until you know if those ships are faster than your enemy, and/or if they can see the enemy at decent range, and/or if they are outranged by enemy beam weapons, and/or if they can stop enough enemy missiles. . . well, at least there are no glaring errors, and the Constellations are unlikely to blow up on their own.

[clement]

Are Father Tim said/implied speed will be a deciding factor in your first ship. With no missiles, you must be able to close with the enemy ship. If you are not faster than the enemy then you can only run and hope you can shoot down all their missiles. If they have laser equipped ships they can follow you and snipe you to death.

The second ship is much better in my opinion. I would drop 2 more rail guns and double the number of launchers personally. Although I am not yet sure of what volley size is needed with all the new mechanics.

Test it out and you will learn quickly.

[Jorgen_CAB]

While sniping at distance is a valid tactic it is not as powerful as it used to be as you will run out of supplies eventually and targeting from a great distance might not be able to do enough damage before that point.

If you want to rely mainly on beam weapons it is important to understand the limitations others pointed out. The most important part is usually speed...  if you can dictate the range you also have the opportunity to run away if the odds are not in your favour. The other thing is information... knowing the capabilities of the opponent are key, but that is equally true for any type of strategy.

There are ways you can use an inferior fleet to trap a more technologically advanced but smaller fleet. You can outwit them and place your fleet on a jump point the will need to get through to get back to safety. If you are able to weather their long range fire... either through armour or better yet shields... you can simply win through attrition.

There is no optimal beam ship design as every design is entirely based on the context which it finds itself in.

In general beam weapons are mainly a defensive weapon as it rely on you for the most part having a technological advantage in beams, fire-control and engine technology.

[Gabethebaldandbold]

sniping is a thing you do with particle beams and particle lances, you can do it in a pinch if you have lasers, but I wouldn't use that as your main tactic with them.
Depending on the enemy you are facing, taking all the missiles to the face is not only viable, but often your only option, depending on their range, even with a significant speed advantage, meaning that if you dont risk losing anything important by being outmanouvered, say you already controll the jump points to the rest of your empire pretty solidly, you can affor that disadvantage, if it means you can bully them out of your sistem. if you are going to use beams, make sure your point defense is solid enough that you can weather their AMM storms without taking significant damage. Railguns are great on your faster ships, because you can pack a lot of point defense capability and a lot of raw dps for relatively low values, but I personaly prefer using lasers and GC, with maybe a little microwaving to make things interesting, but railguns are always a solid choice, even the bigger ones, and it allows you to focus your research a bit more on engines.

[macks]

While sniping at distance is a valid tactic it is not as powerful as it used to be as you will run out of supplies eventually and targeting from a great distance might not be able to do enough damage before that point.

If you want to rely mainly on beam weapons it is important to understand the limitations others pointed out. The most important part is usually speed...  if you can dictate the range you also have the opportunity to run away if the odds are not in your favour. The other thing is information... knowing the capabilities of the opponent are key, but that is equally true for any type of strategy.

Maybe that just means a change in design perspective. If youre a tech behind in engines, you could still dedicate a larger percentage of your ship's total tonnage in exchange for something else. Armor tech, or more armor, also helps tank the difference in engine tech or beam fire control tech as well.

[Michael Sandy]

Railguns make a poor main gun because of their short range.  However, if you built that ship with size 10 railguns, and no gauss, it would be a lot cheaper.  "Rail gun barges" is a ship philosophy of building ships that are cheaper than the missiles it would take to kill them.  You go with minimal armor, lots of cheap rail guns, and maybe eventually you upgrade the fire controls, but their purpose is to cheaply soak long ranged enemy missiles.

So it would be a defensive beam weapon ship.

If you want an offensive ship, keep in mind that if you want it to be competitive with a higher tier engine tech, you need a massive amount of engines and boost.  And that also makes it expensive to refit.  If most of the ship is engines, refitting involves taking half the ship apart.  A defensive missile defense ship you can keep around, it slows you down, but you can separate once you have bled off the enemy missiles.

But an offensive beam ship, you basically have to scrap as new engines become available.

[Suxxor]

Have you thought about splitting Railguns and Gauss cannons and AMM to three different ships?

Railgun ship
Engine
Railgun
Railgun FC
Mid range active sensos (such as 100 m km vs 9000 tons).

Flak ship
Engine
Gaus cannon turret
Gaus FC
AMM active sensor (size 10+, resolution 1)

AMM ship
Engine
Missile launcher
AMM active sensor (size 10+, resolution 1)

You'd save mass per ship and increase speed. I'd drop passive sensors from purely offensive ships and move them to support class.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Have you thought about splitting Railguns and Gauss cannons and AMM to three different ships?

Railgun ship
Engine
Railgun
Railgun FC
Mid range active sensos (such as 100 m km vs 9000 tons).

Flak ship
Engine
Gaus cannon turret
Gaus FC
AMM active sensor (size 10+, resolution 1)

AMM ship
Engine
Missile launcher
AMM active sensor (size 10+, resolution 1)

You'd save mass per ship and increase speed. I'd drop passive sensors from purely offensive ships and move them to support class.

You would not really save much in mass (if any at all) as you still want a certain amount of fire-controls for redundancy anyway. It is very dangerous to put too many weapons in the hands of too few fire-controls anyway and you also save logistics with being able to build all ships in the same yard with multiple slipways if you want to produce many of them.

At this size specialisation start to become a liability for many other reasons, especially in beam combat but even for anti-missile duty.

[Father Tim]

Have you thought about splitting Railguns and Gauss cannons and AMM to three different ships?

Railgun ship
Engine
Railgun
Railgun FC
Mid range active sensos (such as 100 m km vs 9000 tons).

Flak ship
Engine
Gaus cannon turret
Gaus FC
AMM active sensor (size 10+, resolution 1)

AMM ship
Engine
Missile launcher
AMM active sensor (size 10+, resolution 1)

You'd save mass per ship and increase speed. I'd drop passive sensors from purely offensive ships and move them to support class.

But then Silverkeeper would be building AMM ships, and why taint the empire with that sort of disgrace?