Absolute-Class Light Cruiser

[macks (OP)]

Here's my new CL, its job is to poke at things with its 300mm lasers, and rapidly close in with the 150mm lasers that cycle every 5 seconds. 33% of her displacement is engines, so she can rapidly close distance between enemies. For defense, there's 5 layers of armor, 4 twin gauss cannon turrets firing 5 shots every interval at 25% accuracy, two turrets per short range beam fire control for multiple missile launches. Also included is an improved damage control, which can repair things I'm told. There's two reactors and two engines for added redundancy. Her place in the fleet is something resilient with enough firepower to hold its own while being able to protect others somewhat as well. The fleet doctrine includes fast tanker/supply ship hybrids which supplement the lacking maintenance supply and range. Let me know what you guys think!

Absolute class Light Cruiser      10 000 tons       320 Crew       3 409 BP       TCS 200    TH 2 475    EM 0
12375 km/s      Armour 5-41       Shields 0-0       HTK 80      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 25      PPV 57.96
Maint Life 4.50 Years     MSP 5 205    AFR 160%    IFR 2.2%    1YR 416    5YR 6 245    Max Repair 618.75 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Central Engineworks Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1237.50 (2)    Power 2475.0    Fuel Use 45.51%    Signature 1237.50    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 1 000 000 Litres    Range 39.6 billion km (36 days at full power)

Optics Division 300mm C6XR Laser (2)    Range 480 000km     TS: 12 375 km/s     Power 24-6     RM 70 000 km    ROF 20       
Optics Division 150mm C6FU Laser (4)    Range 300 000km     TS: 12 375 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 50 000 km    ROF 5       
Twin Rheinmetall GC Turret Block II (4x10)    Range 50 000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 50 000 km    ROF 5       
Optics Division LRBFC Block II (1)     Max Range: 480 000 km   TS: 9 375 km/s     98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Optics Division SRBFC Block II (2)     Max Range: 120 000 km   TS: 25 000 km/s     92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Central Engineworks MCF Reactor R20 (2)     Total Power Output 40.4    Exp 5%

Raytheon AMMS16-R1 Block II (1)     GPS 48     Range 16.6m km    MCR 1.8m km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

[Jorgen_CAB]

It is generally a good design but it is a bit of a glass cannon. Five levels of armour will not be very effective at this level of technology if you faced off against someone your own calibre. You have no shields so you can't use hit and run very effectively and are very susceptible to microwave weapons. The weak armour also make you weak against Meson weapons.

The ship is very fast so you are likely to be able to dictate the engagement but have very little in the the way of point defence so will have to rely on some escort for that, will they also be this fast?!?

The ship also have a bit more Maintenance life than I think is necessary for a ship with only a 6 month deployment time.

[Gabethebaldandbold]

just remember this cruiser is light, and light things dont fare well against big guns. overall its very good, and considering you are puting this together with supply ships and tankers, I have to put in check your 6 months deployment time... you will not run out of supply or fuel on these 6 months. this ship could actually cruise for quite the while, and fare well even in 1 year deployments, if it stays put and doesn't burn all the fuel. unless you are exploring far with these boys, in which case well done, this is pretty good. If you bring along a "carrier" with the hangar space to fit this in you can even repair it on the spot.

[rainyday]

two turrets per short range beam fire control for multiple missile launches

In case you aren't aware, you don't necessarily need multiple point defense beam fire controls to engage multiple salvos anymore in C#.  That was a big deal in VB, but now a single beam fire control can engage as many missile salvos as you have weapons.  It's not bad to have an extra one for redundancy but good to know if you get around to building dedicated point defense ships.  You can save a LOT of space.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I also noticed that you have no ECM or ECCM... that could actually be a huge problem at this level of technology.

[macks (OP)]

What should I remove to make space for shields/armor/ECM/ECCM? Also, I'm not certain how shields work. How should I design shields for something this size?

[Father Tim]

Your long-range beam fire controls have only three-quarters the tracking speed of your lasers, while the short-range beam fire controls have five-quarters the tracking speed of your gauss turrets.  Having a better fire control than your current weapons can be a useful way to build in upgrade potential, but with the split you're definitely wasting resources on at least one of them.

[Desdinova]

The weak armour also make you weak against Meson weapons.

Kind of off-topic, but nothing's weak against mesons. After 4,000 research points spent on armor retardation tech, you can build a meson that has a 19% chance of penetrating 5 layers of armor, or put those points into laser focal size and build a laser that has a 100% chance. Dump a cool million research points into armor retardation tech and you can max out your chances at just under 70%.

About the only use case for mesons is if an enemy invests a stupid amount into massive, fast-charging shield generators and no armor.

[Gabethebaldandbold]

The weak armour also make you weak against Meson weapons.

Kind of off-topic, but nothing's weak against mesons. After 4,000 research points spent on armor retardation tech, you can build a meson that has a 19% chance of penetrating 5 layers of armor, or put those points into laser focal size and build a laser that has a 100% chance. Dump a cool million research points into armor retardation tech and you can max out your chances at just under 70%.

About the only use case for mesons is if an enemy invests a stupid amount into massive, fast-charging shield generators and no armor.

I see it as having a role similar to Gauss Canons as secondary weapons, more to maim than to kill, allowing for boarding actions and etc. make some holes with the lasers, slow it down with some mesons, so you dont need to mind the shields, and then land your marines.
but then again, by this point you might as well just keep the shields down with some fire, and blast it with gauss untill your marines can get in safely so...

[Jorgen_CAB]

The weak armour also make you weak against Meson weapons.

Kind of off-topic, but nothing's weak against mesons. After 4,000 research points spent on armor retardation tech, you can build a meson that has a 19% chance of penetrating 5 layers of armor, or put those points into laser focal size and build a laser that has a 100% chance. Dump a cool million research points into armor retardation tech and you can max out your chances at just under 70%.

About the only use case for mesons is if an enemy invests a stupid amount into massive, fast-charging shield generators and no armor.

You will have to approach rather close for most lasers to penetrate the armour though. A Meson could do that at a much greater distance and safety.

You most likely are not going to use Meson beams as the only weapon either if you have them.

[macks (OP)]

Well that's the point of this particular cruiser, it can't sustain itself very long outside of laser range so its purpose is to use the mass where a meson could go as more engine power to rapidly close the distance and destroy things from 100,000km or so where those 150mm lasers hit maximum damage.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Well that's the point of this particular cruiser, it can't sustain itself very long outside of laser range so its purpose is to use the mass where a meson could go as more engine power to rapidly close the distance and destroy things from 100,000km or so where those 150mm lasers hit maximum damage.

The problem is that it is too thinly skinned to approach that close against anything with a decent penetration power itself, at least if it is up against something even close to it's own technology level.

I would give at least about 8 levels of armour at this technology level for a ship of this type and at least some shields as a defence against microwaves if those are around.

[Person012345]

What should I remove to make space for shields/armor/ECM/ECCM? Also, I'm not certain how shields work. How should I design shields for something this size?

This is probably the closest design I have in my current game, though it's a slightly lower weight class and has a different role, with yours I might be tempted to go with larger shields:

Cerium class Destroyer      7,127 tons       177 Crew       2,107.8 BP       TCS 143    TH 1,600    EM 4,230
11226 km/s      Armour 16-32       Shields 141-528       HTK 40      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 4      PPV 16
Maint Life 3.39 Years     MSP 1,539    AFR 102%    IFR 1.4%    1YR 203    5YR 3,050    Max Repair 400 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Morale Check Required   

Small Standard Magnetic Fusion Drive (2)    Power 1600    Fuel Use 68.69%    Signature 800    Explosion 16%
Fuel Capacity 750,000 Litres    Range 27.6 billion km (28 days at full power)
Medium Standard Gen 7 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 528 seconds (0.3 per second)

25cm Heavy Railgun (2x4)    Range 300,000km     TS: 11,226 km/s     Power 15-4     Accuracy Modifier 100%     RM 60,000 km    ROF 20       
Beam Fire Control R320-TS10000 (1)     Max Range: 320,000 km   TS: 10,000 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor R10 (1)     Total Power Output 10    Exp 5%

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

This is supposed to take on more of a bouncer role to protect the carrier fleet, it's supposed to be deployed in reasonably large numbers alongside a smaller corvette design to buy time in case the core fleet becomes threatened. I haven't had to use it in it's intended role yet so I can't tell you how well it functions (though I did use it's fleet group to finish off an ailing spoiler ship whilst taking fire from their STOs). But it's definitely tough enough to take a few hits and get into the fight. It was also specifically designed to do this role in relation to the aformentioned spoilers and their particular ship design so take that for what it's worth. For your ship it probaby makes sense to sacrifice the level of protection I put in for more firepower, but it's an idea.

[macks (OP)]

I'm currently designing a heavy cruiser and for shields I placed a 750t generator with level 3 regen I think. How much power do shields draw?

[Rastaman]

I'm currently designing a heavy cruiser and for shields I placed a 750t generator with level 3 regen I think. How much power do shields draw?

They have their own internal power plants. Everything does except beam weapons.