Rail-Gun Fighter Evaluation

[Thorgarth (OP)]

The Braudal Design Bureau, historically known for their excellent quality of farm related machinery has submitted the following design for consideration as a anti-fighter/anti-missile fighter.  

Hammerhead class Attack Craft    340 tons     50 Crew     123 BP      TCS 6.8  TH 54  EM 0
7941 km/s     Armour 1-4     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3
Annual Failure Rate: 9%    IFR: 0.1%    Maintenance Capacity 23 MSP    Max Repair 34 MSP

FTR Magneto-plasma Drive E720x (1)    Power 54    Efficiency 72.00    Signature 54    Armour 0    Exp 50%
Fuel Capacity 30,000 Litres    Range 2.2 billion km   (3 days at full power)

10cm Railgun V4/C5 (1x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 7941 km/s     Power 3-5     RM 4    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S00.5 20-5000 H50 (FTR) (1)    Max Range: 40,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     75 50 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Stellarator Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 AR-0 (1)     Total Power Output 3    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor S20-R1 (50%) (1)     GPS 20     Range 200k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a fighter for production and combat purposes

Anything I need to improve/change/delete?

Thank you...

[mavikfelna]

The Braudal Design Bureau, historically known for their excellent quality of farm related machinery has submitted the following design for consideration as a anti-fighter/anti-missile fighter.  

10cm Railgun V4/C5 (1x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 7941 km/s     Power 3-5     RM 4    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S00.5 20-5000 H50 (FTR) (1)    Max Range: 40,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     75 50 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Stellarator Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 AR-0 (1)     Total Power Output 3    Armour 0    Exp 5%

This design is classed as a fighter for production and combat purposes

Anything I need to improve/change/delete?

Thank you...

You need 2 turns to charge your railgun because of improper capacitor matching. Drop the capacitor to a C3 and it will work correctly. Right now, you must charge your capacitor with 5 points of power before you can fire even though you only need 3 power for the gun.

Also, you could go with a slower tracking speed on your fire control. Unless your races base tracking speed is 20k, you only need a TS of 8k since the TS is limited by the ship speed or base TS researched.

--Mav

[Brian Neumann]

Fighters get a x4 modifier on their base fire control speed.  This can be modified by putting in a larger fire control which will get even faster tracking speeds.  Personally I would have gone with a 3hs (50% accuracy) gauss cannon in a turret as long as the rate of fire was 4 or better.  This would give a better chance of hitting missiles and fighters than the rail gun does.  The extra space for the turret would be handled by not needing a power plant.  This also means there is one less system that can explode for additional damage.

Brian

[Thorgarth (OP)]

Interesting comments.  I've changed the rail package to match the recharge rates.  I'll have to research Gauss4, but it won't be too long.

I've created a meson model and a rail model with better armor, as I have a class 7 Nebula with hostiles inside it.  Are Gauss weapons effective in nebulas? Or, hould I keep it in the standard fleet?

[Brian Neumann]

Interesting comments.  I've changed the rail package to match the recharge rates.  I'll have to research Gauss4, but it won't be too long.

I've created a meson model and a rail model with better armor, as I have a class 7 Nebula with hostiles inside it.  Are Gauss weapons effective in nebulas? Or, hould I keep it in the standard fleet?

Missilles and shields do not work in a nebula.  All of the beam weapons do work however.  The main drawback to gauss weapons is there size, relitively short range, and the reasearch cost of higher rates of fire.  In a nebula the meson will work quite well, but it is going to be hard to armor them up enough to get any decent speed out of them.

Brian