Aurora 4x
VB6 Aurora => Bureau of Ship Design => Topic started by: Cavgunner on June 19, 2011, 12:38:49 PM
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Since my empire is still quite small and can't really support more than one full-fledged task group, I have decided to build some fast attack craft to provide a modicum of defense for some of my outlying colonies. Please rate. :)
Moccasin class Fast Attack Craft 1,000 tons 50 Crew 246.9 BP TCS 20 TH 64.4 EM 0
9200 km/s Armour 3-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 6
Annual Failure Rate: 32% IFR: 0.4% Maint Capacity 39 MSP Max Repair 80 MSP Est Time: 1.26 Years
Magazine 40
FAC Magneto-plasma Drive E65 (1) Power 184 Fuel Use 650% Signature 64.4 Armour 0 Exp 36%
Fuel Capacity 70,000 Litres Range 19.4 billion km (24 days at full power)
Size 2 Box Launcher (20) Missile Size 2 Hangar Reload 15 minutes MF Reload 2.5 hours
Missile Fire Control FC49-R20 (FTR) (1) Range 49.6m km Resolution 20
Starflash Size 2 Anti-ship Missile (20) Speed: 31,200 km/s End: 24m Range: 45m km WH: 4 Size: 2 TH: 208 / 124 / 62
Active Search Sensor MR51-R100 (FAC) (1) GPS 4725 Range 52.0m km Resolution 100
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
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Looks good :)
Only two things to think about, IMO
1. Fuel
If this is intended to protect small colonies in other systems than your homesystem, I donĀ“t think you can spot hostiles so far out, that the 19.4 billion km range is needed.
I am assuming, the FACs are ferried to those colonies by some form of carrier.
2. Active sensor.
Personally, I prefere to have either a dedicated FSC (Fast Scout Craft) with a squadron of FACs or, for colony protection, a heavily armored sensor outpost on the colony (prefabed on my homeworld and assembled there). This allows the FACs to be build without an active, stay silent during their run and hope not to be picked up by the bad guys, until the missiles start to rip them appart.
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Thanks!
My transport capability is currently non-existent so these FACS will indeed be required to get to their "post" on their own. However I did rework the design based on your suggestions:
Moccasin class Fast Attack Craft 1,000 tons 39 Crew 195.9 BP TCS 20 TH 64.4 EM 0
9200 km/s Armour 3-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 9
Annual Failure Rate: 32% IFR: 0.4% Maint Capacity 31 MSP Max Repair 80 MSP Est Time: 1.11 Years
Magazine 60
FAC Magneto-plasma Drive E65 (1) Power 184 Fuel Use 650% Signature 64.4 Armour 0 Exp 36%
Fuel Capacity 30,000 Litres Range 8.3 billion km (10 days at full power)
Size 2 Box Launcher (30) Missile Size 2 Hangar Reload 15 minutes MF Reload 2.5 hours
Missile Fire Control FC49-R20 (FTR) (1) Range 49.6m km Resolution 20
Starflash Size 2 Anti-ship Missile (20) Speed: 31,200 km/s End: 24m Range: 45m km WH: 4 Size: 2 TH: 208 / 124 / 62
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
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I second using a PDC as the active sensor.
I generally go for a 2-section PDC that has the active sensor and maybe a couple of size 1 launchers for point defense of the colony and maybe enough barracks for a marine company.
The launchers and barracks are more for role playing - flying the flag and all that.
Be sure to have maintenance facilities on the planet with a stock of missiles, otherwise you will not be able to reload locally.
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Ferret class Planetary Defence Centre 4,650 tons 205 Crew 701.2 BP TCS 93 TH 0 EM 0
Armour 5-24 Sensors 1/280 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 6
Hangar Deck Capacity 250 tons Troop Capacity: 1 Battalion Magazine 126
Sparrow Missile Launcher (6) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 10
Sparrow Fire Control II (2) Range 21.2m km Resolution 1
Sparrow II (126) Speed: 57,600 km/s End: 0.9m Range: 3m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 307 / 184 / 92
Seer Detection System II (1) GPS 56000 Range 554.4m km Resolution 200
Sparrow Targeting System II (1) GPS 140 Range 19.6m 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 Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 2 sections
Just rustled this up from my existing components.
- Small Barracks for either some Marines Companies and a Boat Bay for an Assault Shuttle that they would use.
- Couple of launchers, really only for the PPV value which is what keeps unrest down.
- My largest ship based sensor that normal only goes on fast scout craft, could maybe make it bigger and with a lower resolution.
- Tried fitting in an EM and TH sensor but it pushed me to 3 sections. So instead I would put 5 planetary sensors down - since they do not require population.
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Rule of thumb I use of for Gunboats: Make sure the 'Maint Capacity' is at least equal to the amount of parts needed to repair the engine, once. Very annoying to have the drive suffer a maintenance failure and not be able to repair it, leaves gunboats littering space while you scramble a tender to pick them up.
I also have the same attitude about gunboats that I do about fighters, don't bother armoring them, if they take hits they will die. I have had some gunboats survive fleet combat, but its pretty rare. Either they never get targeted or they go *boom*. In the case of the Moccasin, since you have the spare room, and a decent speed/throw weight, no reason not to have the armor.
Tossing in a tanker gunboat helps when running gunboat squadrons around on their own. I haven't used a point defense gunboat enough to decide if its worth it, but I've had fights where I ended up splitting off point defense destroyers to escort gunboats on attack runs when I didn't have them.
My current gunboat squadrons run about 20 attack boats, 2 'command' boats (ASS, decent thermal sensor, additional fuel, probe launcher), 2 or 4 tankers (strip the launchers and MFC, stuff in fuel). I make a tender for fleet operations, the same size as the fleet destroyer (which is normally 6000 tons), at least the same speed as the fleet, give it a jump drive, enough hanger space to dock one gunboat, and fill the rest with missile reloads, spare parts and fuel. This lets me send a gunboat squadron + tender off to do commerce raiding.
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Thanks!
My transport capability is currently non-existent so these FACS will indeed be required to get to their "post" on their own. However I did rework the design based on your suggestions:
<snip>
You've stumbled across one of the many 'upgrade errors' to be found in Aurora. To wit, your revamped FACs mount thirty box launchers but only twenty missiles, as you most likely have not yet updated the standard loadout for the class.