It appears that you have not registered with Aurora 4x. To register, please click here...
VB6 Aurora > Aurora Suggestions
External Hangars/Docking Ports
Adseria:
A hangar component, which is much smaller than the normal hangars, but it can't be used to repair parasites or reload box launchers. It still allows crews and survivors from parasites to use the mothership's crew quarters, though. Basically, I'm thinking the same genre as a box launcher, in that it's a much smaller component, but a much more limited one.
Of course, since it's external, the max size limit would be much higher per size of "hangar." I'm effectively thinking of a docking port that allows fighters to dock with the ship and then enter the ship via a hatch. It would still have a size limit (after all, a big parasite would break away from a docking port if the mothership tried to move while they were docked), but it would be a much bigger limit (since it doesn't have to fit in the physical confines of the hangar bay itself).
Rich.h:
Struggling to grasp the use of such a compenent, it seems as though the only thing a mothership is then offering a parasite craft is the ability to make use of the crew berths (since any craft in the same task group location can swap fuel/supplies/ordinance). Since if you ever build larger vessels that make use of recreational facilities then I can only think of one possible ship design for this. A craft that has an incredibly short deployment time, but does not need to concern itself about rearming or repairs., not sure ho useful such a ship is in any situation.
Adseria:
--- Quote from: Rich.h on October 07, 2018, 05:06:06 AM ---Struggling to grasp the use of such a compenent, it seems as though the only thing a mothership is then offering a parasite craft is the ability to make use of the crew berths (since any craft in the same task group location can swap fuel/supplies/ordinance). Since if you ever build larger vessels that make use of recreational facilities then I can only think of one possible ship design for this. A craft that has an incredibly short deployment time, but does not need to concern itself about rearming or repairs., not sure ho useful such a ship is in any situation.
--- End quote ---
True. Maybe a small survey command ship? Then you can fit lots of survey "fighters" on a single mothership, and they need very limited crew space on board, so they can be extremely small, and with the small size of both the docking port and the "fighters", you could fit a huge number of "fighters" on each mothership.
And don't forget that box launchers can only be reloaded inside a hangar or at a maintenance facility. It would allow a fleet carrier to carry a large, single use strike that hits all at once, rather than multiple smaller strikes with the strike craft rearming in between. A sort of "first strike" weapon, with huge alpha damage, but only one attack.
Maybe also have one (or more) ship with docking ports operate alongside one (or more) regular carrier(s). The docking-port carrier launches it's strike craft first. Then, as those fighters are returning, the regular carrier launches it's own strike group, and the first wave lands in the carrier. They reload while the second wave is attacking, then launch as the second wave returns. Presumably, the docking-port carrier would also have fuel (and ammo, if needed) for the fighters it carries (or separate tankers/colliers), and transfers it to the fighters or the regular carrier as needed. Of course, you wouldn't need a second ship; just put the docking ports on the regular carrier. It would be kind of like a real life "deck park," where planes are kept on the flight deck long-term, adding aircraft capacity without increasing the size of the carrier (much). And, using this system, there's nothing stopping you from launching all fighters, from both the docking-port carrier and the regular carrier, all at once, for the alpha strike I was talking about earlier. Then, some of them refuel/rearm, while others wait, either on docking ports or just staying nearby, and reloading when the first group is done. It would increase the reload time of the full strike group, but it would also increase the size of the group. And, if you need the fighters in the air now more than you need one big strike, you can go back to the rolling waves system. It just adds more fighters to the group, improving flexibility while increasing the size of the ships far less than the same system would need using the hangars alone.
I'm only very early in my first game, so I don't know how effective this technique would be (rolling waves vs first strike), but I imagine it would work quite well, based on what I've seen. In particular, it would allow you to maintain a larger CAP, because you can have a full group in the air at all times (instead of half airborne and half refuelling). Again, not sure about the usefulness of CAP vs interception, but surely it's useful in some scenarios, like increasing the range of the sensor net?
And if you have a carrier that has, say, 20 fighters with missiles, and they go and strike the enemy carrier (possibly coordinating with ship-launched missiles, to overwhelm point-defences), and then return, rearm-refuel, and then do it again, imagine if, while they were refuelling, another group of twenty is launching their attack. And, if you want, you can just have forty fighters attack all at once, just with a bigger turnaround. Or start with a wave of forty, and then go back to waves of twenty. And, normally, a carrier of a similar size might only have 22 or 24 fighters (less than with docking ports, but because you don't have docking ports, you have room for a little bit more hangar space, so more than the twenty-fighter capacity of the hangar on the hybrid docking/hangar carrier).
I'm not saying it would be better than regular carriers in the late game, but in the early/mid game, when you don't have the shipyard capacity or jump drive tech to operate larger carriers, it would allow larger strike groups at the expense of only being able to rearm part of it at a time. And we can build docking ports IRL, and we've been able to for years (after all, a docking port was a vital part of the Apollo moon landings, and stations like the ISS are built and resupplied using docking ports), so it wouldn't be much of a leap to allow ships with parasites carried externally. In fact, I'd say it's almost less of a leap than internal hangars, because we already do it IRL. Therefore, it would be a pretty early tech (maybe 5000 RP or less, as a benchmark?), but it would slowly become obsolete as your shipyards got bigger and your jump drives more efficient, allowing you to have larger ships using large numbers of regular hangars. It would never be completely obsolete (after all, more fighters in the same space is never a bad thing, right?), but as ships get bigger, the space saving becomes less important.
TMaekler:
ATM wheight for ship speed calculations is based on total tonnage, independent of if a hangar or whatever is full. Such a docking System would break that calculation system.
Adseria:
--- Quote from: TMaekler on October 07, 2018, 07:42:04 AM ---ATM wheight for ship speed calculations is based on total tonnage, independent of if a hangar or whatever is full. Such a docking System would break that calculation system.
--- End quote ---
So change the system. It's stupid anyway.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version