Posted by: xenoscepter
« on: May 17, 2019, 04:11:40 PM »@Michael Sandy
That information is about FCS configruation is helpful, thanks for that.
@Everyone
Wow, there are a lot of good suggestions here! Below is a more in-depth breakdown of the design philosophy; perhaps some of you could give me some more insights based on this information? With regards to doctrine, this a generalist cruiser, built for facing an unknown threats that could have any kind of capabilities. Role-Play wise, the Confederate-Class was engineered to counter as many different kinds of threats as could be thought up by the Confederate Intelligence Service within the confines of current Sidonian technology while maintaining the highest possible efficiency in dealing with the threats that it was supposed to counter. So, to put it another way, the ship was made to counter as many threats as possible at the highest efficiency possible to counter them. The vessel's mission profile could be considered, "attack the enemy, protect itself, protect the confederacy."
This class of cruiser isn't equipped with Commercial Engines, they are 2,500 Tonne Internal Confinement Fusion Drives w/ 50% Thermal Reduction, 0.75x Power and 0.5 litres per power hour of consumption. They are meant to be general purpose military engines, not too fast but not too thirsty either while also being modestly stealthy for their size and output. Two of these are equivalent in power to one and a half drives of comparable tonnage, while being more fuel efficient than one engine of comparable tonnage with a 1.50x power boost or two drives with a 1.0x power output. Their combined Thermal Signature is only two thirds of a pair of engines with 1.0x Power Output at the same tonnage, while being half the Thermal Signature of a single drive with 1.50x Power Output of the same tonnage.
They were built from the word go with a "middle of the road" approach, although I'm not sure how the speed stacks up at Internal Confinement Tech being only 6,000 km/s. As to the Beam FCS, I get what you are saying, and I hadn't really thought to arrange it that way. My layout was meant to be robust and multi-purpose; with all three of the ship's Fire Control Systems being able to stand in for one another, while the addition of a third FCS was to compensate for the lack of specialization with the ability to engage two salvos at once if needs be. The ECCM and ECM are there to help mitigate the speed disadvantage of the cruiser by affecting the enemy's range, thereby forcing them to close or else devote tonnage to offset the ECM. The ECCM would likewise help the generalist FCS units mitigate enemy shipboard or missile ECM, furthering the gap and forcing enemies to either close or devote tonnage to countering it.
That's where the shields come in, actually... With the generalist engines, the shields serve to force the enemy to divvy up their mission tonnage between having enough speed to close and enough firepower to overwhelm the cruiser's defenses. This is exasperated by the ECM / ECCM, of which a compact version is only 50 Tonnes or 1/3rd of a standard version as well as the range of the 15cm lasers. At closer ranges, the 10cms in their harder to knock out armored turrets serve to help out-shoot ships that try to close, while the Railguns can be divvied up into their own FCS group to focus on PD only. With the 240,000 km range on the 15cm lasers ands the added damage at 120,000 km, the cruiser can out range what it can't outrun and out shoot what it can't out range all while using the shields to effectively weather leakers in it's PD and the fire of smaller Beam Fighters and FACs. It's a generalist design, not particularly good at anything, but adequate at just about everything.
That information is about FCS configruation is helpful, thanks for that.
@Everyone
Wow, there are a lot of good suggestions here! Below is a more in-depth breakdown of the design philosophy; perhaps some of you could give me some more insights based on this information? With regards to doctrine, this a generalist cruiser, built for facing an unknown threats that could have any kind of capabilities. Role-Play wise, the Confederate-Class was engineered to counter as many different kinds of threats as could be thought up by the Confederate Intelligence Service within the confines of current Sidonian technology while maintaining the highest possible efficiency in dealing with the threats that it was supposed to counter. So, to put it another way, the ship was made to counter as many threats as possible at the highest efficiency possible to counter them. The vessel's mission profile could be considered, "attack the enemy, protect itself, protect the confederacy."
This class of cruiser isn't equipped with Commercial Engines, they are 2,500 Tonne Internal Confinement Fusion Drives w/ 50% Thermal Reduction, 0.75x Power and 0.5 litres per power hour of consumption. They are meant to be general purpose military engines, not too fast but not too thirsty either while also being modestly stealthy for their size and output. Two of these are equivalent in power to one and a half drives of comparable tonnage, while being more fuel efficient than one engine of comparable tonnage with a 1.50x power boost or two drives with a 1.0x power output. Their combined Thermal Signature is only two thirds of a pair of engines with 1.0x Power Output at the same tonnage, while being half the Thermal Signature of a single drive with 1.50x Power Output of the same tonnage.
They were built from the word go with a "middle of the road" approach, although I'm not sure how the speed stacks up at Internal Confinement Tech being only 6,000 km/s. As to the Beam FCS, I get what you are saying, and I hadn't really thought to arrange it that way. My layout was meant to be robust and multi-purpose; with all three of the ship's Fire Control Systems being able to stand in for one another, while the addition of a third FCS was to compensate for the lack of specialization with the ability to engage two salvos at once if needs be. The ECCM and ECM are there to help mitigate the speed disadvantage of the cruiser by affecting the enemy's range, thereby forcing them to close or else devote tonnage to offset the ECM. The ECCM would likewise help the generalist FCS units mitigate enemy shipboard or missile ECM, furthering the gap and forcing enemies to either close or devote tonnage to countering it.
That's where the shields come in, actually... With the generalist engines, the shields serve to force the enemy to divvy up their mission tonnage between having enough speed to close and enough firepower to overwhelm the cruiser's defenses. This is exasperated by the ECM / ECCM, of which a compact version is only 50 Tonnes or 1/3rd of a standard version as well as the range of the 15cm lasers. At closer ranges, the 10cms in their harder to knock out armored turrets serve to help out-shoot ships that try to close, while the Railguns can be divvied up into their own FCS group to focus on PD only. With the 240,000 km range on the 15cm lasers ands the added damage at 120,000 km, the cruiser can out range what it can't outrun and out shoot what it can't out range all while using the shields to effectively weather leakers in it's PD and the fire of smaller Beam Fighters and FACs. It's a generalist design, not particularly good at anything, but adequate at just about everything.