New tech - Missile pods

[MWadwell (OP)]

I've just had an epiphany (don't worry - it doesn't hurt too much.... )

What about a new tech - missile pods.

They are single shot launchers (although at higher tech, you could add the ability to have a second or third salvo), towed by the ship.

I'd imagine that the _main_ usage would be by beam armed ships, to give them the ability to reach out and touch enemy ships before closing to beam range.

The pod would have a weight, and so would slow the ship down until the pod was cut loose. (To balance the tech, you could make the pods non-jettisonable, and so the speed penalty would be permenant (or at least until the sheilds are dropped, allowing crewmembers to go EVA).)

Similarly, the fact that most beam armed ships have shorter ranged fire control systems would mean that the beam armed ship would need longer ranged fire control (or missiles that have their own firecontrol) (- again something that can be used to balance the tech).

Comments?

[Erik L]

Why not use small, slow reload launchers?

[MWadwell (OP)]

Why not use small, slow reload launchers?

Well, I was thinking of an optional system that doesn't need to be built into the ship.....

[Erik L]

Look this over.

Code: [Select]

Hunter class Cruiser    4200 tons     535 Crew     1205.6 BP      TCS 84  TH 228  EM 150
2714 km/s     Armour 1     Shields 5-200     Sensors 8/6/0/0     Damage Control 1-3     PPV 28
Magazine 60    Replacement Parts 5    

Magneto-plasma Drive E9 (3)    Power 76    Efficiency 0.90    Signature 76    Armour 0    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres    Range 342.8 billion km   (1461 days at full power)
Alpha R200/10 Shields (5)   Total Fuel Cost  50 Litres per day

R15/C6 High Power Microwave (2)    Range 150,000km     TS: 2714 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 15    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Fire Control S08 80-9600 (1)    Max Range: 160,000 km   TS: 9600 km/s     94 88 81 75 69 62 56 50 44 38
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 AR-0 (1)     Total Power Output 8    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Box Missile Launcher 06-600 (10)    Missile Size 6    Rate of Fire 600
Missile Fire Control S01-030 H70 (1)    Range: 300k km
SM-6 (10)  Speed: 8,000 km/s   Endurance: 40 secs    Range: 320k km   Warhead: 2    Size: 6

Active Sensor S12-R40/70 (1)     GPS 480     Range 4.8m km    Resolution 40
Thermal Sensor TH1-8/70 (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  8m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-6/70 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  6m km

Fires a salvo of 10 missiles. Get 4 or 5 of these ships and you've got a 40-50 missile salvo. That's enough to cripple or outright destroy most ships in Aurora. And as an internal system, just reload at a collier and do it over.

[MWadwell (OP)]

Look this over.

Code: [Select]

Hunter class Cruiser    4200 tons     535 Crew     1205.6 BP      TCS 84  TH 228  EM 150
2714 km/s     Armour 1     Shields 5-200     Sensors 8/6/0/0     Damage Control 1-3     PPV 28
Magazine 60    Replacement Parts 5    

Magneto-plasma Drive E9 (3)    Power 76    Efficiency 0.90    Signature 76    Armour 0    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres    Range 342.8 billion km   (1461 days at full power)
Alpha R200/10 Shields (5)   Total Fuel Cost  50 Litres per day

R15/C6 High Power Microwave (2)    Range 150,000km     TS: 2714 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 15    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Fire Control S08 80-9600 (1)    Max Range: 160,000 km   TS: 9600 km/s     94 88 81 75 69 62 56 50 44 38
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 AR-0 (1)     Total Power Output 8    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Box Missile Launcher 06-600 (10)    Missile Size 6    Rate of Fire 600
Missile Fire Control S01-030 H70 (1)    Range: 300k km
SM-6 (10)  Speed: 8,000 km/s   Endurance: 40 secs    Range: 320k km   Warhead: 2    Size: 6

Active Sensor S12-R40/70 (1)     GPS 480     Range 4.8m km    Resolution 40
Thermal Sensor TH1-8/70 (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  8m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-6/70 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  6m km
Fires a salvo of 10 missiles. Get 4 or 5 of these ships and you've got a 40-50 missile salvo. That's enough to cripple or outright destroy most ships in Aurora. And as an internal system, just reload at a collier and do it over.

I was thinking about it this morning, and realised the same thing - that by making missile launchers with a huge reload time, you get a pseudo-pod.....

[Valhawk]

You could always create a parasite that was nothing but missiles.

[SteveAlt]

You could always create a parasite that was nothing but missiles.

That's a really interesting idea. You could create something with slow reload missile launchers, a fire control system and not much else. No shields or spares needed, no engines or fuel, no bridge if you keep it below 1000 tons and minimal crew. It could be dropped by a mothership during a battle or even deployed near a jump point and then picked up again after use. I am not at home at the moment or I would run a few test designs. In a general battle situation it might be more effective building the systems from a pod directly into a ship but the tactics around dropping pods that may not be detected by an enemy before they fire (because of the relatively small size) makes them useful in combat and as a "minefield" near a jump point.

At the moment, I am reworking the Precursors from earlier versions of Aurora but instead of having "monsters" with different rules, I am working on a AI to control normal Aurora ships. Precursor ships are just the same as player ships with all the advantages and disadvantages therein. As part of the combat code, they need to assign weapons/ECCM to fire control systems, load appropriate missiles and select targets. They use the same sensors as player ships and react to contacts according to the their own role and the type of contact. One side benefit of the AI code might be the ability for players to create automated ships that do not require a crew but would be under computer control. Pods in some type of "minefield mode" might fall under that category and would use the transponders added in v2.6 to determine friend from foe.

Steve

[Erik L]

Thinking about the design I stuck up here...

It has a magazine capacity of 60 and uses size 6 missiles. With 10 launchers, it fires the mag dry in one salvo. Now, if you have close colliers, how does the 600 second refire time affect reloading? I.E. it takes 60 seconds to reload (for example), do the ships need to wait another 540 seconds to fire? Or will their launchers fire immediately?

[Valhawk]

If you really wanted a missle pod ala HH you would need some option under the launcher research screen to create a preloaded laucher with no reload.  Then you would not need a magazine either.  Also some sort of thing to allow zero crew perhaps a fire control link with a small receiver on the pod and a larger transmitter on the ship.

[idahobeef]

Howdy, I invented some HH style missile pods wayyyy back in the day. If you want my final copy, feel free to email me. I also finalized my TL16-20 3rd Edition weaponry for my Armageddon War story. If you guys want a summary of my tech list, shoot me an email as well. Damon

[Steve Walmsley]

If you really wanted a missle pod ala HH you would need some option under the launcher research screen to create a preloaded laucher with no reload.  Then you would not need a magazine either.  Also some sort of thing to allow zero crew perhaps a fire control link with a small receiver on the pod and a larger transmitter on the ship.

I have been toying with the idea of changing fighters so they are designed on the Class window. I would create a tiny engine along the lines of the FAC engines (but at only 1 HS or even less) plus components such as cockpit, fire control systems, etc. To make that work, the launch rails of the fighters would be replaced by an option to build missile launchers that are single shot and no reload, perhaps at 1/5th normal size. There is no reason why this couldn't be used on ships too so my concern is that it might be unbalancing. However, there is no real reason why fighter rails couldn't be used on ships so perhaps this would address that inconsistency. If this new launcher option was included, it could also form the basis for missile pods that were effectively fighters with no engines

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

I have been toying with the idea of changing fighters so they are designed on the Class window. I would create a tiny engine along the lines of the FAC engines (but at only 1 HS or even less) plus components such as cockpit, fire control systems, etc. To make that work, the launch rails of the fighters would be replaced by an option to build missile launchers that are single shot and no reload, perhaps at 1/5th normal size.

I should also note that I haven't really figured out the exact mechanics for this. One option is to treat fighters just like any other ship, which would make many things in the game a lot easier as from a programming perspective as fighters would no longer need rules catering to a separate category of unit. On the other hand, it would then make targeting harder because fighters would be targeted individually rather than as a squadron, as they are now. There would also no longer be the concept of a squadron identity and fighters would be commanded individually. On the gripping hand, many of the restrictions around fighters would be removed and they could fire and move individually as required with the same flexibility as a ship.

Perhaps a combination of the two might be a possibility. A "fighter" would be identified as such by using a fighter engine. If you could create squadrons as an administrative entity, they could have names, etc. Each fighter could be assigned to a squadron and then when you want to launch fighters from a ship (from parasite hangars, not the current hangar bays), you could instead launch a squadron name and all fighters from that squadron would launch together and form a single fleet. "Fighters Squadrons" would still be fleets in all but name and would receive orders on the fleet window. To solve the targeting issue, perhaps another option would be for any shots against fighters that are already destroyed to be re-allocated to any other fighters within a certain radius (perhaps using the anti-fighter PD mode that was suggested in another post)

I have added some auto-assign options for fire control in v2.6 where the computer figures out what fire control and weapons you would likely assign to one another. This would make assigning weapons, etc for small craft such as fighters much easier.

Comments welcome on this idea.

Steve