Testing this thing out

[Theodidactus (OP)]

Here is my first warship.  I'm wondering exactly how the ship design works, so tell me if everything's square here:

If I'm reading this right, this ship has 2 big railguns that are long ranged, 2 small railguns that are short ranged, and a gauss turret that's long ranged.  The gauss turret is for point defense.  I realize the values are low (2,000 KPS for speed and a maximum turret attack of 4,0000)

but tell me if it all works



Chicago class Corvette    4,550 tons     571 Crew     513. 2 BP      TCS 91  TH 189  EM 0
2076 km/s     Armour 2-24     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 13     PPV 38
Annual Failure Rate: 12%    IFR: 0. 2%    Maint Capacity 916 MSP    Max Repair 82 MSP    Est Time: 12. 74 Years

Hawkins Ion Engine (3)    Power 63    Fuel Use 110%    Signature 63    Armour 0    Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 18. 0 billion km   (100 days at full power)

Twin Legion Gauss Cannon R2-100 Turret (1x6)    Range 20,000km     TS: 5000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Caesar 12cm Railgun V1/C1 (2x4)    Range 20,000km     TS: 2076 km/s     Power 6-1     RM 1    ROF 30        2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pharo 20cm Railgun V3/C1 (2x4)    Range 80,000km     TS: 2076 km/s     Power 12-1     RM 3    ROF 60        4 4 4 3 2 2 1 1 0 0
Vonnegut Fire Control S08 40-4000 (1)    Max Range: 80,000 km   TS: 4000 km/s     88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
Gideon Gas-Cooled Reactor (1)     Total Power Output 14. 17    Armour 0    Exp 7%

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

[Thiosk]

So you're going to get all the same complaints that most people give, but what I would really like to see is for you to try to field your navy-- nothing will give abetter idea of how your ship will perform than to watch it get blown to smithereens.

The biggest problem I see is that you have an obnoxious amount of repair capacity.  Way too many engineering spaces.  Remove enough to bring it down to like, 3 years Est Time rather than 12.7.  

Add more fuel, and add more ion engines in that space.  Its also got paper thin armor.  Think of armor like rows of boxes.  armor 1 is one row of boxes, esentially 1 point of damage will pop one row.  So what a laser beam does is it cuts through several rows before hurting the inside.  armor=2 will provide no protection against beam weapons-- they'll cut right through.

Turrets are fantastic for shooting fast things.  I'd just say up the speed of the ship to 4000 and use regular guns, or set the turrets to track 10,000 km/s objects and put a separate fire control for that.

Otherwise you've got a reactor, guns... but i'm not seeing fire control or sensors.  Yeah, THATS the biggest problem.  You'll be able to build a sensor ship so your corvette doesn't need sensors, but you must have a firecontrol or you will sail up to an alien and then realize there is no control panel to let you shoot the guns.

[Erik L]

Your turrets have a range of 20,000 km. Not exactly long range (though neither is 80,000km).

As Thiosk said, you'll need fire control, otherwise you ship will just sit there.

Sensors... You can mount them on this ship if you expect it to operate by itself, or design a dedicated SWACS ship to operate with the ship and provide the eyes. Caveat there is, if the SWACS gets popped, your fleet is blind.

[Thiosk]

Your turrets have a range of 20,000 km. Not exactly long range (though neither is 80,000km).

This is one thing thats really hard for an unseasoned player to wrap their head around.  What are the engagement distances?  How long should sensor ranges be to be useful?  How many different resolution sensors do you need?  Once you start putting the fire control in there, it gets really complicated.  And the answer is, theres no right answer: it all depends on the aliens you are trying to shoot at.

However, once you take a fleet out and it gets crushed, you get an idea of what needs to be fixed.  "help I couldn't get close enough to shoot" means you need to work on speed.  "help missiles blow me up" means you need to develop viable point defense, both anti-missile-missile technology and turrets.  And so forth.  So what I had to get over was that I spent all this time building ships and designing them on the forum, and I used them maybe once before starting a new game.  



For an example of how important engagement distance is, I had a fairly primitive fleet-- but my missiles were long range and my ships were very fast.  I found a more technologically advanced alien, with an ENORMOUS population, but they couldn't get close enough to shoot me.  So I would pick them off one by one from a distance, then I bombed their planet and invaded, and then stole all their technology.

Twas glorious.

[Beersatron]

I always play a new game as if it is the first time, trying not to bring what I learned from the last one into it.

Pretty much just role-playing the space age of the race, they do not know what they are going to run into but they guess and sometimes that guess is correct and other times they get spanked

[Erik L]

I always play a new game as if it is the first time, trying not to bring what I learned from the last one into it.

Pretty much just role-playing the space age of the race, they do not know what they are going to run into but they guess and sometimes that guess is correct and other times they get spanked

This is what I try to do also. Build my research up based on what I know. Build defenses to counter my own offenses. When I run into someone with better offense/defense, then it is time to re-evaluate designs and philosophies.

[orfeusz]

Everyone here have their own strategies in general and to fight a specific enemy. I still learn to play but i can give You some advices.

1. Use missiles  Offensive beam weapons are short ranged. Some of Your enemies will use missiles and they can have big range like 80M km so Your 80000km range is not even close enough.
2. If You want to use beam weapons, then have faster ships. I just fight carrier that was doing 4000km/s so You will never catch it up.
3. You need good armor. Actual number of layers depends on enemy weapons, Your defences and many others. For combat ship i never go with less then 6.

[Theodidactus (OP)]

I did seem to think I had too many engineering bays, but after 5 years, everything breaks unless you have a bunch.  Is there something to maintenence that I'm not getting. 

[Din182]

The only reason you would need more than 5 years worth of engineering supplies is if you want the ship to stay far away for many years on end.  That only really happens if you want them to defend a jump point or if the enemy is really far away.  But if they are really far away, they won't be much of a threat.

[Thiosk]

Well, you know the maintenance clock, right, at your big planetary maintenance facilities, you can order the ships to "begin overhaul"  This will rewind that clock.  I neurotically try to keep my clocks minimized-- they routinely get overhauled at resupply and refuel runs, but I'm happy with anything on the clock under 3 years.

[Steve Walmsley]

Everyone here have their own strategies in general and to fight a specific enemy. I still learn to play but i can give You some advices.

1. Use missiles  Offensive beam weapons are short ranged. Some of Your enemies will use missiles and they can have big range like 80M km so Your 80000km range is not even close enough.
2. If You want to use beam weapons, then have faster ships. I just fight carrier that was doing 4000km/s so You will never catch it up.
3. You need good armor. Actual number of layers depends on enemy weapons, Your defences and many others. For combat ship i never go with less then 6.

A word of caution on missiles. Offensive beam weapons have tactical limitations unless you are faster than your opponent or can find another way to engage at close range, such as defending a jump point. Missiles have strategic limitations. They are very effective weapons but you have to build them and carry them to your ships. In a major war you will run through them very quickly and your missile ships could end up as nothing but expensive targets. A balanced fleet with a range of different capabilities will allow a lot more flexibility when you don't know what you may encounter.

Steve

[orfeusz]

Right. Thats why professionals study logistics Always have some spare missiles floating somewhere behind fleet.

My second - just being designed generation of warships utilize the idea of beam support. Like 30% of all armament.

[Theodidactus (OP)]

I'll post new fleet information soon and you can tell me what I'm missing.
Thanks for the help!

[Father Tim]

Well, you know the maintenance clock, right, at your big planetary maintenance facilities, you can order the ships to "begin overhaul"  This will rewind that clock.  I neurotically try to keep my clocks minimized-- they routinely get overhauled at resupply and refuel runs, but I'm happy with anything on the clock under 3 years.

Bah, forget overhauls!  Just keep your maintenance supplies topped up and time on your clock is nigh-irrelevant.  I have ships with 20 and 25+ years on their clocks.  Sure, something breaks on them every week, but it gets fixed right away and life goes on.  My survey ships have enough fuel and supplies for twelve-year missions.

Plus supplies are used to repair battle damage - at double the cost.  It's wise for a warship to have a pile of maintenance supplies.