ship design

[alexwildstar (OP)]

I am just wondering in general what size of missles and other weapons you guys use.  

I was building a 16k ton ship and could only fit three missle launchers and five dual 20 or 30 cm laster turrets or maybe it was rail gun.  

 But in general I just trying to figure out what is normal and  am i building to small or two big of stuff.     So what is kind of the norm you guys have found

[Erik L]

20cm - 30cm dual turrets are just bloody huge. Five of them is just... wow.

For missile sizes, I tend to go Size 1 for Anti-missle (AMM).
For ship-killers, Size 3-4 is a Light Missile, 5-7 is Medium, 8-12 is Heavy. Size 12+ are reserved for capital ships and/or PDCs.


I also tend to build specialized ships. Missile ships will have at most 1 5 sec recharge quad turret for PD. Beam ships will have no missiles at all.

The "Enterprise" method of shipbuilding does not lend itself well to Aurora. This method is each ship should be self-sufficient and shoot beam, missiles and PD with equal facility.

Turrets really should be relegated to a purely PD role (in my opinion), which means usually nothing larger than a 10-12cm bore. The 15+cm are hull mounted.

I hope these ramblings help you.

[alexwildstar (OP)]

Thanks alot that does help.    I was just sitting down to build some some stuff and playing with the system.   I completely cheated and gave myself a bazzilion reasearch points     so i have research up to 40 cm laster with all the goodies.

 Is it a good idea to put one or two missle on a beam heavy ship.

Also on my 16k toon ship i was having a tough time getting it annual break down below thirty percent   without just throwing on ton of enginering. this is my big boy atm    any major flaws


Test1 class Cruiser    16000 tons     2571 Crew     13117 BP      TCS 320  TH 1500  EM 60
4687 km/s     Armour 1-56     Shields 2-300     Sensors 66/66/0/0     Damage Control Rating 92     PPV 169
Annual Failure Rate: 33%    IFR: 0.5%    Maintenance Capacity 32760 MSP    Max Repair 1800 MSP
Magazine 4    

Gas Core Anti-matter Drive E2.5 (6)    Power 250    Efficiency 0.25    Signature 250    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 22.5 billion km   (55 days at full power)
Delta R300/6.25 Shields (1)   Total Fuel Cost  6 Litres per day

Twin 10cm C16 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (6x2)    Range 150,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 6-32     RM 5    ROF 5        3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1
Twin 25cm C16 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (5x2)    Range 800,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 32-32     RM 5    ROF 5        16 16 16 16 16 13 11 10 8 8
40cm Railgun V8/C16 (3x4)    Range 960,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 36-16     RM 8    ROF 15        12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 10 9
Fire Control S04 600-20000 (2)    Max Range: 1,200,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     99 98 98 97 96 95 94 93 92 92

Size 1 Missile Launcher (4)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10

Active Search Sensor S240-R63 (1)     GPS 15120     Range 151.2m km    Resolution 63
Thermal Sensor TH6-66 (1)     Sensitivity 66     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  66m km
EM Detection Sensor EM6-66 (1)     Sensitivity 66     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  66m km

ECCM-5 (1)         ECM 50

[alexwildstar (OP)]

This is a carrier design I am looking at



   President class Carrier    18400 tons     1961 Crew     8231.5 BP      TCS 73.6  TH 1500  EM 60
4076 km/s     Armour 1-62     Shields 2-300     Sensors 66/66/0/0     Damage Control Rating 171     PPV 65
Annual Failure Rate: 38%    IFR: 0.5%    Maintenance Capacity 19854 MSP    Max Repair 1800 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 6000 tons    

Gas Core Anti-matter Drive E2.5 (6)    Power 250    Efficiency 0.25    Signature 250    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 19.6 billion km   (55 days at full power)
Delta R300/6.25 Shields (1)   Total Fuel Cost  6 Litres per day

Twin 10cm C16 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (5x2)    Range 150,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 6-32     RM 5    ROF 5        3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1
Gauss Cannon R5-100 (5x5)    Range 50,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Accuracy Modifier 100%     RM 5    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S04 600-20000 (1)    Max Range: 1,200,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     99 98 98 97 96 95 94 93 92 92
Fire Control S04 150-80000 (1)    Max Range: 300,000 km   TS: 80000 km/s     97 93 90 87 83 80 77 73 70 67

Thermal Sensor TH6-66 (1)     Sensitivity 66     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  66m km
EM Detection Sensor EM6-66 (1)     Sensitivity 66     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  66m km
Cloaking Device: Class cross-section reduced to 20% of normal

ECCM-5 (1)         ECM 50

[Erik L]

Thanks alot that does help.    I was just sitting down to build some some stuff and playing with the system.   I completely cheated and gave myself a bazzilion reasearch points     so i have research up to 40 cm laster with all the goodies.

 Is it a good idea to put one or two missle on a beam heavy ship.

Also on my 16k toon ship i was having a tough time getting it annual break down below thirty percent   without just throwing on ton of enginering. this is my big boy atm    any major flaws


Test1 class Cruiser    16000 tons     2571 Crew     13117 BP      TCS 320  TH 1500  EM 60
4687 km/s     Armour 1-56     Shields 2-300     Sensors 66/66/0/0     Damage Control Rating 92     PPV 169
Annual Failure Rate: 33%    IFR: 0.5%    Maintenance Capacity 32760 MSP    Max Repair 1800 MSP
Magazine 4    

Gas Core Anti-matter Drive E2.5 (6)    Power 250    Efficiency 0.25    Signature 250    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 22.5 billion km   (55 days at full power)
Delta R300/6.25 Shields (1)   Total Fuel Cost  6 Litres per day

Twin 10cm C16 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (6x2)    Range 150,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 6-32     RM 5    ROF 5        3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1
Twin 25cm C16 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (5x2)    Range 800,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 32-32     RM 5    ROF 5        16 16 16 16 16 13 11 10 8 8
40cm Railgun V8/C16 (3x4)    Range 960,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 36-16     RM 8    ROF 15        12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 10 9
Fire Control S04 600-20000 (2)    Max Range: 1,200,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     99 98 98 97 96 95 94 93 92 92

Size 1 Missile Launcher (4)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10

Active Search Sensor S240-R63 (1)     GPS 15120     Range 151.2m km    Resolution 63
Thermal Sensor TH6-66 (1)     Sensitivity 66     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  66m km
EM Detection Sensor EM6-66 (1)     Sensitivity 66     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  66m km

ECCM-5 (1)         ECM 50

55 days is REALLY short legged. With your fire control, you can target 2 targets at once, and the range is way over-done for the weapons. Your magazine can hold 4(?) missiles, and you have no corresponding fire control. Your shielding will stop 2 pts of damage and then they are down. And take 5 minutes to regenerate. The armor is also paper thin. Any decent shipkiller missile will do internal damage on the first hit.

Think of what role you want the ship to perform. Long range missile platform? Point-defense escort? Heavy assault ship? I personally would class this ship as a beam escort for missile ships, and strip out the missile launcher. Possibly add another FC or two. And definitely increase the fuel capacity. I'd cut the maintenance in half, if not more. 32k maintenance supplies, that's a lot of spare parts. Increase the shields to 5-10 or more, pump the armor to 5+. Maybe re-engineer some of the electronics to be smaller.

You'd need to develop a design philosphy. Heavy armor, middling shields, weapon x for PD, weapon y for direct fire, missile size a/b/c with corresponding launchers. And then pick a system, and build a ship around it. 10 missile of size b. 15 weapon x PD systems. 10 weapon y batteries. And so on.

Your carrier has some of the same issues as the cruiser. Not enough shields and armor. Not enough fuel. I personally feel that a carrier's main weapons are the fighters. Any ship-mounted systems are pure PD class. You don't specify your fighters, so no idea what size they are, but you can only carry 12 500 ton heavy fighters. If that is okay with your Bureau of Ship Design and the Admiralty, then go for it. Mine would not stand for it though

[welchbloke]

I concur with Erik, your passive defences (shields and armour) will not stand up to any concerted attack.  I find it helps to think of my warships as part of a fleet.  So it think of the fleet rather than ships eg
The Fleet needs short range missile defence - build some ships with fast tracking PD turrets and tracking sensors to match.
The Fleet needs long range missile defence - build ships with Anti-missile missile launchers and sensors to match.  Make sure they have enough magazine space to fire at least 20 volleys (this would be defined by your design philosophy).
The Fleet needs long range missile capability - build some long range missile firing ships
etc etc

As Erik has mentioned pick a design philosophy and build your fleet around it (don't forget that your technology will be a major driver as well).

[Hawkeye]

Test1 class Cruiser    16000 tons     2571 Crew     13117 BP      TCS 320  TH 1500  EM 60
4687 km/s     Armour 1-56     Shields 2-300     Sensors 66/66/0/0     Damage Control Rating 92     PPV 169
Annual Failure Rate: 33%    IFR: 0.5%    Maintenance Capacity 32760 MSP    Max Repair 1800 MSP
Magazine 4    

Gas Core Anti-matter Drive E2.5 (6)    Power 250    Efficiency 0.25    Signature 250    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 22.5 billion km   (55 days at full power)
Delta R300/6.25 Shields (1)   Total Fuel Cost  6 Litres per day

Twin 10cm C16 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (6x2)    Range 150,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 6-32     RM 5    ROF 5        3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1
Twin 25cm C16 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (5x2)    Range 800,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 32-32     RM 5    ROF 5        16 16 16 16 16 13 11 10 8 8
40cm Railgun V8/C16 (3x4)    Range 960,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 36-16     RM 8    ROF 15        12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 10 9
Fire Control S04 600-20000 (2)    Max Range: 1,200,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     99 98 98 97 96 95 94 93 92 92

Size 1 Missile Launcher (4)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10

Active Search Sensor S240-R63 (1)     GPS 15120     Range 151.2m km    Resolution 63
Thermal Sensor TH6-66 (1)     Sensitivity 66     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  66m km
EM Detection Sensor EM6-66 (1)     Sensitivity 66     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  66m km

ECCM-5 (1)         ECM 50

Ok, lets see.

As allready mentioned, your passives are pathetic, endurance is pretty low and missile launchers without reloads are not worth anything.

Given your engine tech, your ships also seem to be on the slow side of things (this is, of course, just IMO, but I have encountered several precursors and they regualarly pull 6000+ km/s). Being slower than the enemy is a serious tactical drawback!

Small Turrets:
Your PD-Turrets (assuming that is the role you intend for the 10cm turrets) have too slow tracking speed, as 10.000km/s will not be nearly enough. You usually want that as high as you can get.
The guns, you are mounting in them are also way over-engineered, as your are using capacitator tech level 16. You need only level 3 to reach the maximum ROF of 5 sec/shot, this makes your turrets unnecesarily expensive
There also doesen´t seem to be a dedicated PD targeting system. You want to match the PD targeting system to match the performance of your PD weapons as closely as possible, to utilise that performace in an optimal way, without wasting space and money on something that won´t help anyway (i.e. matching tracking speed and range)
With 6 turrets, I´d suggest at least 3 PD targeting systems.

Large Turrets:
Also allready mentioned, mounting heavy weapons into turrets will bring up weight and cost enormously. What are you going to engage with those beasts? The tracking speed is too slow for enemy missiles and probably enemy fighers as well (and be serious overkill anyway) but very likely too fast for anything else.
I don´t have a problem with the targetings systems range being 150% of the heavy lasers range, as enemy ECM can reduce the range of it, but the tracking speed of 20.000, when the turret can only track 10.000 is definitely wasted.
I just realized, your Railguns can track at 20.000km/s even being hull mounted. This means, you have researched 20.000km/s tracking speed. This in turn means, mounting your lasers into turrets the way you have, you have spent a lot of weight, minerals and money on a turret, that actually slowes your tracking speed down by 50%
I can´t tell from the top of my head, but capacitator tech-level is very likely also unnecessary high, so get it down to where you are just bearely able to shoot all 5 seconds.

Railguns:
Nothing to critizize here, realy

Missile launcher:
Those fire size-1 missiles, so they are probably used in a PD role.
Check the reload tech. Given the tech level of your other gadgets, it might be much higher than what is needed to reach minimum reload speed (10 second)
There is no missile fire control, so you can´t fire the missiles you have, which is all of 1 shot for each launcher.
You need to design magazins and put them on. You need tons and tons of PD-missiles!

Sensors:
You´ve got very good sensors.
Now, that´s not something bad, but if you intend to mass produce this baby, and put a bunch of them into a single squadron, it´s a lot of wasted mass, minerals and money. A dedicated scout or two per squadron and only just adequat sensor coverage on the combatants is probably the better way


Following are my current 3-class family of cruisers. Now, they are definitely not perfect, but they work (at least they do against the precursors I have encountered so far).

Code: [Select]

Bayern VI class Escort Cruiser    8000 tons     703 Crew     1920.92 BP      TCS 160  TH 338.8  EM 0
6050 km/s     Armour 4-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 24/16/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 19
Annual Failure Rate: 128%    IFR: 1.8%    Maintenance Capacity 600 MSP    Max Repair 168 MSP
Magazine 391    

MTU Typ 88 Magnet-Plasmatriebwerk (mil) (11)    Power 88    Efficiency 0.84    Signature 30.8    Armour 0    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 53.6 billion km   (102 days at full power)

Krupp 100mm L30/R5 Mesonenkanone 67 Zwillingsturm (1x2)    Range 30,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Zuse AR 40/20 Feuerleitsystem (1)    Max Range: 40,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     75 50 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Siemens Typ 6 Fusionsreaktor (1)     Total Power Output 6    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Mauser Typ 1 Wespenflug ARR-Werfer (10)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10
Zuse RFL-1,9B Anti-Raketen Feuerleitsystem (2)     Range 1.9m km    Resolution 1
Moskito IV ARR (391)  Speed: 32,800 km/s   End: 2.6m    Range: 5.1m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 371 / 223 / 111

Telefunken Zugspitze III Raketen Suchradar (1)     GPS 168     Range 1.7m km    Resolution 1
Telefunken Matterhorn II Suchradar (1)     GPS 8000     Range 80.0m km    Resolution 50
Bosch Typ 24 Wärmesensor (1)     Sensitivity 24     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  24m km
Bosch Typ 16 EM Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 16     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  16m km

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
Note the 391 missiles, this cruiser can carry. And I have run dry on on several encounters with precursors when I brought 3 or 4 ot those facing a similar amount of precursor missile cruisers!

Code: [Select]

Heidenheim III class Cruiser    7950 tons     895 Crew     1809 BP      TCS 159  TH 308  EM 0
5534 km/s     Armour 7-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 11/11/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 48
Annual Failure Rate: 126%    IFR: 1.8%    Maintenance Capacity 569 MSP    Max Repair 144 MSP

MTU Typ 88 Magnet-Plasmatriebwerk (mil) (10)    Power 88    Efficiency 0.84    Signature 30.8    Armour 0    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 53.9 billion km   (112 days at full power)

Rheinmetall 250mm L250/R25 Magnetkanone 71 (6x4)    Range 250,000km     TS: 5534 km/s     Power 15-3     RM 5    ROF 25        5 5 5 5 5 4 3 3 2 2
Zuse AS 320/6 Feuerleitsystem (1)    Max Range: 320,000 km   TS: 6000 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Siemens Typ 6 Fusionsreaktor (3)     Total Power Output 18    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Telefunken Weser III Suchradar (1)     GPS 2100     Range 21.0m km    Resolution 50
Telefunken Hesselberg III Suchradar (1)     GPS 21     Range 210k km    Resolution 1
Bosch Typ 11 Wärmesensor (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km
Bosch Typ 11 EM Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km

ECCM-1 (1)        
Note: Magnetkanone = Railgun

This is a dedicated close-in-brawler and the armor shows it!
This design is not tested in combat yet, so I can only hope the armor lives up to the promises of Krupp, which produced it


A mix of 6 combat cruisers and 4 to 6 escort cruisers has worked for me, so far.
I will usually not mix close in brawlers with missile cruisers. They might be in the same task force, but will be put in two different squadrons
Each squadron will have at least one, preferably two scouts and I have been forced to accompany those squadrons with fuelers several times, because of their rather limited range of about 50 billon km.

[alexwildstar (OP)]

thanks guys right now i can develop a philosopy as I just trying to figure out how to design ships.   thank ya for your input now i can figure out how to fix those things.  Also what size of antena do you guys use for point defense and ship to ship combat.     I am going with the speed around 20k because that is what the computer auto designed for my pre generated ships so I figure that probally a base line for me.

   How do add more armor
   For my engine tech what is a good speed.
    What does annual faiulure rate mean  I have loaded up a ton of enginering section to try and get it below 40 is that needed.

Ok this is my latest piece of work.   I have taken some of your guys input and hopefully got a ship that is closer to leaving the designing board.  
Do rail guns work off of missle fire control ?   I know it low on armor but that just because i have not found where the armor is stashed in the ship designing que.   The ten smaller lasers are for missles and fighter defense.    Basically to serve the same role as 5 inchers did in WW2

Nautilus class Cruiser    21100 tons     2533 Crew     23574.7 BP      TCS 84.4  TH 8100  EM 900
19194 km/s     Armour 1-68     Shields 30-300     Sensors 48/48/0/0     Damage Control Rating 21     PPV 170
Annual Failure Rate: 3561%    IFR: 49.5%    Maintenance Capacity 698 MSP    Max Repair 2625 MSP
Magazine 250    

Plasma Core Anti-matter Drive E2 ARM-3 (27)    Power 300    Efficiency 0.20    Signature 300    Armour 3    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 700,000 Litres    Range 298.6 billion km   (180 days at full power)
Xi R300/10 Shields (6)   Total Fuel Cost  60 Litres per day

Twin 10cm C1.25 Soft X-ray Laser Turret (5x2)    Range 180,000km     TS: 250000 km/s     Power 6-2     RM 6    ROF 15        3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1
45cm Railgun V7/C25 (10x4)    Range 350,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 48-25     RM 7    ROF 10        16 16 16 16 16 16 16 13 12 11
Fire Control S04 175-100000 (1)    Max Range: 350,000 km   TS: 100000 km/s     97 94 91 89 86 83 80 77 74 71
Plasma-core Anti-matter Power Plant Technology PB-1 AR-0 (5)     Total Power Output 120    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Missile Fire Control FC100-R1 (30%) (1)     Range 3.0m km    Resolution 1

Active Search Sensor S600-R1 (1)     GPS 600     Range 6.0m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor S600-R83 (1)     GPS 49800     Range 498.0m km    Resolution 83
Active Search Sensor S50-R1 (30%) (1)     GPS 50     Range 500k km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH6-48 (1)     Sensitivity 48     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  48m km
EM Detection Sensor EM6-48 (1)     Sensitivity 48     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  48m km
Cloaking Device: Class cross-section reduced to 20% of normal

ECCM-9 (1)         ECM 90

[Hawkeye]

thanks guys right now i can develop a philosopy as I just trying to figure out how to design ships.   thank ya for your input now i can figure out how to fix those things.  Also what size of antena do you guys use for point defense and ship to ship combat.     I am going with the speed around 20k because that is what the computer auto designed for my pre generated ships so I figure that probally a base line for me.

   How do add more armor
   For my engine tech what is a good speed.
    What does annual faiulure rate mean  I have loaded up a ton of enginering section to try and get it below 40 is that needed.

Ok this is my latest piece of work.   I have taken some of your guys input and hopefully got a ship that is closer to leaving the designing board.  
Do rail guns work off of missle fire control ?   I know it low on armor but that just because i have not found where the armor is stashed in the ship designing que.   The ten smaller lasers are for missles and fighter defense.    Basically to serve the same role as 5 inchers did in WW2

Nautilus class Cruiser    21100 tons     2533 Crew     23574.7 BP      TCS 84.4  TH 8100  EM 900
19194 km/s     Armour 1-68     Shields 30-300     Sensors 48/48/0/0     Damage Control Rating 21     PPV 170
Annual Failure Rate: 3561%    IFR: 49.5%    Maintenance Capacity 698 MSP    Max Repair 2625 MSP
Magazine 250    

Plasma Core Anti-matter Drive E2 ARM-3 (27)    Power 300    Efficiency 0.20    Signature 300    Armour 3    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 700,000 Litres    Range 298.6 billion km   (180 days at full power)
Xi R300/10 Shields (6)   Total Fuel Cost  60 Litres per day

Twin 10cm C1.25 Soft X-ray Laser Turret (5x2)    Range 180,000km     TS: 250000 km/s     Power 6-2     RM 6    ROF 15        3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1
45cm Railgun V7/C25 (10x4)    Range 350,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 48-25     RM 7    ROF 10        16 16 16 16 16 16 16 13 12 11
Fire Control S04 175-100000 (1)    Max Range: 350,000 km   TS: 100000 km/s     97 94 91 89 86 83 80 77 74 71
Plasma-core Anti-matter Power Plant Technology PB-1 AR-0 (5)     Total Power Output 120    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Missile Fire Control FC100-R1 (30%) (1)     Range 3.0m km    Resolution 1

Active Search Sensor S600-R1 (1)     GPS 600     Range 6.0m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor S600-R83 (1)     GPS 49800     Range 498.0m km    Resolution 83
Active Search Sensor S50-R1 (30%) (1)     GPS 50     Range 500k km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH6-48 (1)     Sensitivity 48     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  48m km
EM Detection Sensor EM6-48 (1)     Sensitivity 48     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  48m km
Cloaking Device: Class cross-section reduced to 20% of normal

ECCM-9 (1)         ECM 90

Boy this thing is FAST!
Never got that far on the tech tree . Tracking speed from both, turret and targeting system should be similar, because what counts is the slower of the two.

As for your active sensors. Holy hell, those got an awful lot of range!!!

For a purely beam armed ship, I would consider this serious overkill.

For PD Work, I usually try to put an active sensor capable of seeing out 3 to 4 times the pd-weapons range (with beam turrets in mind). As I mentioned in my above post, there will allways be a scout or two with longer ranged anti-missile-sensor around.
And your anti-ship-active...if only I could mount one of those in one of my scouts
Usually, I go for an active range, that reflects somewhat the range of my weapons. What´s the point, if my close in brawler can see an enemy from a range more than 1000 times that of my longest range weapon?
10 to 20 times weapons range for brawler, 2 to 3 times for missile ships seems more reasonable. Such a massive sensor on a scout, however, would be worth its mass in gold!
You also have to be aware, that the stronger your actives are, the longer the range an enemy with EM sensors can see you, once you go active. With this massive active sensor, you could probably be seen in earth orbit from Pluto.

Just out of curiosity, what IS the mass of this active sensor?

Oh, and it seems you are short on power.
Each of your railguns requires 25 power per 5 second increment
Each of your turrets requires 2 power per 5 second increment (you realy should have used capacitator 3 there to get ROF 5)
Total power use per 5 second increment: 260
Total power output from generators: 120
This means, on average, your weapons will fire slightly less than half as often as they could otherwise.

[Erik L]

Twin 10cm C1.25 Soft X-ray Laser Turret (5x2) Range 180,000km TS: 250000 km/s Power 6-2 RM 6 ROF 15 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1

I do hope that tracking speed is a typo. 250k tracking speed is just... way wrong.

[alexwildstar (OP)]

doh tthat not a typo i was going for a tracking speed of 25k   and accidently made it 250k when i was doing it

The active sensor  is size six.  I can not get into my reasearch page atmto look up it tonage     It seems that sometimes when i exit the game i can not get back into my research page but I can open my ship design page an all my other tab except for the economy/pop/production one      any ideas

[welchbloke]

For any missile ships definately NB what Hawkeye said about using the largest magazines you can get away with.  I've just fought a battle against an NPR who threw 51 ships at me.  Fortunately, they were a lower tech than me and their designs were much slower (3125 km/s against my 7000 km/s).  That allowed me to break contact with my missile ships and go and replenish them.  Which was just as well as they had copious magazines (so I thought) and I still had to fill up from my colliers twice!  Just as well the battle didn't last any longer as I pretty much emptied the colliers as well.  Oh well back to the drawing board for the support vessels  

[Erik L]

If you are running the latest version of Aurora, create a new game, and let Aurora generate ships for you. Then analyze those designs. That should give you a good idea of one design philosophy.

I think most of us here adhere to the "naval" doctrine of shipbuilding, i.e. each ship is designed for a specific role; as opposed to the "Enterprise" doctrine, which holds that each ship should be equally capable in ALL situations.

[Paul M]

There is nothing wrong with building a multi-role ship but generally speaking it needs to be a good size.  Building specialized ships is only acceptable if you have the fleet size to support it, so if your fleet is small you are far better off having multipurpose ships then specialized vessels.  The bigger your fleet is in numbers the better able you are to support specialization.

The internal failure chance on that ship is huge...that means you could potentially loose ships to explosions, I've had 2 of my freighters explode on me playing so far.  Also there is a huge mismatch between your max cost of a repair in maintenance and your onboard maintenance.  Those ships will be "yard dogs" easily.  Military ships can't afford such massive disparities if you intend to send them on long duration operations since it doesn't matter if there is a support ship with the maintenance around, if the failure occurs and you can't repair from onboard stocks then it will take 2x as many (which probably means it can't be done) to repair using damage control.  Warships do very well to have at the minimum spares equal to max spares, but more is better.

Missile fire control controls missiles and only missiles.  You need a few more fire controls on this puppy.  4+ rail gun controls and 3-5 turret controls to allow you maximum flexibility.  Also note your turrets are fast...probably far faster then you need (unless the 250K km/s is a typo).  The fire controls can and should be different since the rail gun ones need range but not speed while the turret controls need speed but not range.  Right now you can engage one (1) target...its likely to die but...

Also you 5 reactors, is that the minimum you need to run your ship?  If so you should consider a few spares to allow you to continue after combat losses and armouring them is very very sensible.  

I would suggest haveing a few search sensors, one with long range and low resolution, then one with shorter range and higher resolution and then your final one being a anti-missile search sensor.  This gives you the best of all worlds and means that things like fighters don't show up at point blank range on you.

Also is the speed a requirement?  If not you are putting a lot of effort going fast for a ship this size.  Reducing your speed to 10,000 km/s would save you a lot of mass and probably drop your failure chances.

[Charlie Beeler]

Some things to keep in mind when designing beam weapons suites.  

Non-turreted weapons max possible tracking speed is the same as baseline speed of the fire control. Even if you install a beam fire control that 2-4X larger for faster tracking hull mounted beams are still limited to the baseline.  To use the faster/multiplier speeds the beam must be turret mounted.  

Turret mounted beams can't use tracking speeds greater than the max tracking speed of the fire contol assigned.  Anything fastere is wasted mass and hull space.  Keep in mind that the mass of the turret tracking gears goes up segnificantly once you go past the best turret tracking speed researched.

When designing a beam for point defense (hull or turret) consider how your planning to use it.  How fast do you expect incoming missiles too be?  What is your best ROF for the selected beam?  Can you realisticly expect multiple shots at incoming salvos? (ie can missiles cross the beams fire envelope before a second shot can be made?)  How accurate is your fire control at max range vs point blank?  

Assume expected enemy missiles with speeds around 30k(I've met Precursors using these).  With the tech in your various examples you should be able to design a laser with at least a range of 180k km with a ROF of 5.  Quad turret instead of twin with a tracking speed of 30k.  Dedicated fire control with a 50% range of at least 180k km and tracking speed of 30k.  And an active sensor with res 1 and at least 500k km detection range.  This installation should come in well under the mass of what your example show and be more effective.  

Don't forget the reactors.  I design mine on a one for one basis, as in one reactor that has just enough output to supply the capacitor needs of the turret for a single 5 second increment.  Until you start using internal armor they don't cost any more mass then one massive reactor supplying all demands.  It also reduce the chance of taking all weapons off line with a lucky reactor hit.