Hello everyone. . . new player that just stumbled over this absolutely intriguing game. It reminds me of all those lost hours playing Harpoon ages ago. . . Grin
Now, over to some easy question for you about two things I would like to have clarified.
Welcome. Will try to do my best to answer.
Planetary scanners (Deep space tracking stations) are suppose to give me eyes into space. Now I activate the "Active" (and passive) sensors on the "sensors" tab in the "System Map view" but I don't see any bauble effect so I can now it's approximate range, am I even suppose to see this?
It would be good to know how far my planetary scanners will be able to see things.
Planetary sensor arrays (Deep Space Tracking Stations) are passive only, and detect both Thermal and EM emissions. You can see their strength on the "Colony Summary" page (F2). To get an idea of their range, you can activate "Signature Detection Range" under "Sensors" on the System Map (F3). This is the range at which something with a thermal or EM emissions strength of that number will be detected by your passive sensors, including planetary ones.
Another thing which I don't seem to understand completely is how the "fire controls" really work with in "point defence" mode. How many fire controls do you need on a ship (obviously depending on the number of PD turrets on it). How many missiles/fighters can ONE fire-control engage during a 5 second turn.
Each fire control is able to target one thing at a time. This means one individual ship, including fighters, or one 'salvo' of missiles (meaning all the missiles launched from 1 fire control in a 5 second turn). Each fire control can have any number of launchers assigned.
In point defence mode, the firecontrol will fire at incoming missile salvos, and try to match the enemy missile number in the specified manner (so in 5v1 mode, it will launch 5 missiles for each 1 in an enemy salvo - so if the enemy salvo is 6 missiles, it will fire 30 at that salvo).
Also, how fast would the regular ASM be during the early and middle game (I'm currently starting with a conventional start)?
The reason for this question is so that I understand how to design "area defence PD guns", that is, how long range they will need to have. I suppose that they need to have a range at least greater than five times the speed of a missile to be able to shoot at it more than once, right?
With this in mind are there much difference in a gun with 10. 000km and 40. 000km range who tries to hit a missile travelling at 10. 000km/s (given my ship is not moving)?
The conventional start is actually the 'hard' or 'advanced' start, as you need to research EVERYTHING. I'd suggest the Trans Newtonian one for your first few games.
Most early game (first 2 engine techs) ASMs will probably be in the 10,000-15,000km/s speed range. As you deduced, this means they will move 50,000km per 5 second 'turn' in the case of the 10,000km/s missiles. Area defence PD will try to engage them on the first increment they are in range, so if your guns have a range of over 50,000km, they will get 1 shot in if they are ready. As early game beam weapons are slow to reload, area defence PD is generally not practical. Final Defensive PD will always engage the missiles just before they hit if the guns are ready.
There would be no difference between those weapons in final defensive mode, though in area defence both would be unreliable (missiles might just go from 45,000km to 0km in 5 seconds), though the one with 40,000km range would obviously have better chances of catching them in range.
My last question is about the CIWS system. Exactly what does the "Beam Fire Control Distance Rating", "Fire Control Speed Rating", "Active Sensor Strength" and "Turret Rotation Gear" do?
They don't seem to change the basic to hit chance of the system, it also don't increase its range since that is always 1000km. Some of these make it more expensive, bigger or smaller etc. . . so how does this effect the CIWS system as a whole?
Fire Control Speed will increase the maximum tracking speed of the CIWS, meaning it can hit faster missiles.
Fire Control Distance will extended the maximum 'firecontrol' range (NOT firing range), making it more accurate up close (atleast this is how it works for regular weapons when FC range > weapon range, not 100% sure on CIWS).
Active Sensor Strength and Turret Rotation Gear will reduce the size of the mount, due to better technology meaning you can get the minimal detection etc from smaller devices.