After someone keyed me into the fact that you could use tractor beams to simulate modules on ships, I went ahead and did just that - and I have to say its worked out rather well, though I've yet to test these in combat!
Firstly, the 'core', containing the engines and passive sensors.
Type 28 Modular Combat Vessel class Modular Vessel Core 6000 tons 561 Crew 1087.8 BP TCS 120 TH 540 EM 0
9000 km/s Armour 2-29 Shields 0-0 Sensors 22/22/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 57% IFR: 0.8% Maint Capacity 567 MSP Max Repair 45 MSP Est Time: 6.12 Years
Type 23 M/IE Engine (18) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 30 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 350,000 Litres Range 131.3 billion km (168 days at full power)
Type 13 SQR Passive Thermal (1) Sensitivity 22 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22m km
Type 13 SDR Passive EM (1) Sensitivity 22 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22m km
This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes
In addition to this, I designed 3 different kinds of module to attach to the core;
Type 28 Mission Module - Laser class Mission Module 4000 tons 385 Crew 783 BP TCS 80 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 2-22 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 26
Annual Failure Rate: 42% IFR: 0.6% Maint Capacity 367 MSP Max Repair 240 MSP Est Time: 2.19 Years
Tractor Beam
Type 25 Twin Laser Turret (T24 15cm/R10 N-UV) (2x2) Range 180,000km TS: 10000 km/s Power 12-6 RM 3 ROF 10 6 6 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 1
Type 24 SPG/L Laser FCS (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 9000 km/s 95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Type 24 P4.5E5 GCF Reactor (3) Total Power Output 13.5 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Type 17 SPY Area Search (1) GPS 4800 Range 52.8m km Resolution 20
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
Type 28 Mission Module - ASM class Mission Module 4000 tons 349 Crew 677.4 BP TCS 80 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 2-22 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 18
Annual Failure Rate: 64% IFR: 0.9% Maint Capacity 212 MSP Max Repair 128 MSP Est Time: 1.79 Years
Magazine 408 Tractor Beam
Type 15 S4R Missile Launcher (6) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 80
Type 17 SPG/M Missile FCS (1) Range 52.8m km Resolution 20
Type 21 RGM Harpoon (102) Speed: 18,700 km/s End: 32.5m Range: 36.5m km WH: 4 Size: 4 TH: 131 / 78 / 39
Type 17 SPS Active Search (1) GPS 5120 Range 56.3m km Resolution 40
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
Type 28 Mission Module - AMM class Mission Module 4000 tons 324 Crew 731.4 BP TCS 80 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 2-22 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 12
Annual Failure Rate: 42% IFR: 0.6% Maint Capacity 343 MSP Max Repair 100 MSP Est Time: 3.51 Years
Magazine 396 Tractor Beam
Type 20 S1R Missile Launcher (12) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 10
Type 20 SPG/M Missile FCS (3) Range 2.1m km Resolution 1
Type 20 RIM Stinger (396) Speed: 24,000 km/s End: 1.6m Range: 2.3m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 176 / 105 / 52
Type 20 SPD Missile Detection (1) GPS 96 Range 1.1m km Resolution 1
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
These 'latch' onto the core ship, dropping its speed to 5400km/s, still well above the speed of my main fleet units (4000-4500km/s). This probably means I could have gotten away with a smaller tug, or bigger mission section, but its a work in progress.
I built them with the tractor on the module rather than the ship for flexibility - this way if needed, I could stick these onto existing units for extra oomph, move them along with commerical traffic, or as Ill mention later, put several on one ship.
Advantages I can see this having;
-I can drop off modules at planets to act as orbital defences.
-I can swap out modules for overhauls and repairs.
-I can swap out modules as needed for mssion.
-I can transfer maintenance and even fuel, etc. between modules and the core, so in this sense its no worse than a single ship.
-My ships have an smaller TCS than a similar 'one-part' ship.
-I can build these as a joint project in a smaller yard.
-If overwhelmed, I can drop the module and run for it. With 9000km/s speed, this would have saved some of my ships from a bunch of 10000km/s 800ton gunboats a few years back.
Disadvantages include;
-Having to sacrifice 500tons for the tractor
-Shields/armour wont combine
-Have to build various components, and theyre a pain to track on the ship screen.
-As this is 'several' ships, jump drives need to handle larger squadron sizes.
Other ideas for components include a 'hangar module', a 'tanker module' and a 'survey module' with suitable equipment. Another possibility is a 'commercial' variant of the tug, which means that it needs no maintenance.
After I had combined one ship, I had what I thought was the bright idea to stick two of them onto one ship. We'll, it worked, and I found a bug as a result, so I guess I should go report it in the right place. The problem is that the whole combination retains the same speed as before the 'combination', regardless of how many I attach. This might be resolved by allowing only a single device to attach to a ship at a time.
So in the end I had 30,000tons of ship moving around at 5400kps. The rest of my fleet began to wonder when they would be scrapped.