Odd duck designs

[Hawkeye]

One thing I'm noticing from all these carriers and fighters is that they have enough fuel for up to 5 years, but only have the berthing for 12-24 month deployment. If your deployment time is large, then the only thing to worry about is a top up from a tanker every couple of months.

Also, you have to remember that the carrier will refuel its fighters every time they return. And fighters burn fuel like there is no tomorrow

[sublight]

I'd guess doing a fighter/carrier survey of a system would take slightly less micromanagement than conducting a single fighter-bomber attack run with an equivalent number of squadrons.

I didn't have hanger tech at the time, so I scraped all of my fighters to recover their grav-survey sensors once they finished Sol. For my Sol survey I gave each fighter survey orders and a conditional refueling order when it was built then forgot about it until the no-remaining survey location errors started coming in.

[Jikor]

Also you could have a colony somewhere that could "fix" the deployment issue without having any fuel there. As well the Carriers have to be able to refuel their fighter squadrons.

[bean]

My oddest design:

BSPDC-1 class Planetary Defence Centre    6,950 tons     1324 Crew     463.4 BP      TCS 139  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 5-32     Sensors 1/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 128

15cm C1 Plasma Carronade (32)    Range 60,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 6-1     RM 1    ROF 30        2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PDC Fire Control S00.2 37.5-10000 (2)    Max Range: 75,000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     60 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Solid-core Anti-matter Power Plant Technology PB-1-16 (2)     Total Power Output 32    Armour 0    Exp 5%


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 3 sections

The point of the design was to get the most PPV for my buck.  The population of a planet I'd captured were restless, so I built some of these.

[Prince of Space]

That's actually kind of brilliant, byron. And I love the solid-core antimatter power plant juxtaposed against the capacitor recharge rate of 1. It's like when they rebuilt Fort William Henry as a tourist attraction in the 1950's, complete with live fire cannon demonstrations. You just need a gift shop module for the school kids who show up on field trips. 

[bean]

That's actually kind of brilliant, byron. And I love the solid-core antimatter power plant juxtaposed against the capacitor recharge rate of 1. It's like when they rebuilt Fort William Henry as a tourist attraction in the 1950's, complete with live fire cannon demonstrations. You just need a gift shop module for the school kids who show up on field trips. 

The power plant was my standard size 1.  The recharge rate was to get the cheapest possible carronades.  After all, the civilians who come out to tour it just want to see a lot of big guns.  They don't care how fast they fire.

[SteelChicken]

The power plant was my standard size 1.  The recharge rate was to get the cheapest possible carronades.  After all, the civilians who come out to tour it just want to see a lot of big guns.  They don't care how fast they fire.

Just to refresh my understanding, non-meson weapons generally degrade substantially in atmosphere, yes?

[bean]

Just to refresh my understanding, non-meson weapons generally degrade substantially in atmosphere, yes?

Yep.  Doesn't matter to the population, though.  I know the design is totally ineffective in combat.  But it fulfills its intended role nicely.  Said role, of course, is to provide PPV at the cheapest possible price.  The costs involved are ludicrously skewed.  For example, the two fire controls cost just about as much as the carronades. 

[SteelChicken]

Yep.  Doesn't matter to the population, though.  I know the design is totally ineffective in combat.  But it fulfills its intended role nicely.  Said role, of course, is to provide PPV at the cheapest possible price.  The costs involved are ludicrously skewed.  For example, the two fire controls cost just about as much as the carronades. 

Thought so, just checking.   I usually create Hangar PDC's and dump obsolete fighters in them.

[bean]

Thought so, just checking.   I usually create Hangar PDC's and dump obsolete fighters in them.

I actually did the math on this, and I'm pretty sure that so long as you don't actually care about the effectiveness of the platform, this is the cheapest way.  Plus, it was fairly early in the game, so I didn't have a lot of obsolete fighters laying around.
Edit:
I checked your plan, and mine still wins.  Here are the two alternatives (both in 6.2, while the earlier version was from 5.5):

BSPDC-1 class Planetary Defence Centre    7,500 tons     282 Crew     433.6 BP      TCS 150  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 5-34     Sensors 1/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 136
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 2   

Brewster Plasma Carronade, 15 cm, Mk1 Mod0 (34)    Range 60,000km     TS: 12500 km/s     Power 6-1     RM 1    ROF 30        6 3 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
Raytheon FWG-501 (1)    Max Range: 75,000 km   TS: 12500 km/s     87 73 60 47 33 20 7 0 0 0
Westinghouse RASC-2 (1)     Total Power Output 2    Armour 0    Exp 20%
Westinghouse RASC-16 (2)     Total Power Output 32    Armour 0    Exp 5%


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 3 sections

BSPDC-2 class Planetary Defence Centre    6,600 tons     95 Crew     669.5 BP      TCS 132  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 5-31     Sensors 1/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 2   
Hangar Deck Capacity 6000 tons     


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 3 sections

Even if the fighters are "free", the cost for the storage space for them is greater than the cost of the carronade design.

[Theodidactus]

I like the idea of geosurveys being conducted by small craft dispatched from a larger science vessel. It's probably not the most efficient way to do things, but it's fun: when I arrive at a large gas giant with many many moons, my aurora class science vessel disgorges a half dozen of these:

Seer class Survey Corvette 500 tons     13 Crew     313.5 BP      TCS 10  TH 82  EM 0
8200 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 24/1/0/2     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 10.26 Years     MSP 196    AFR 4%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 3    5YR 51    Max Repair 150 MSP

UN-MC Fighter Engine (1)    Power 82.5    Fuel Use 7200%    Signature 82.5    Armour 0    Exp 50%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 5 billion km   (7 days at full power)

U.N. Second Generation Naval Scanner (1)     GPS 48     Range 11.5m km    Resolution 1
Improved Geological Sensors (1)   2 Survey Points Per Hour


It's also useful to dispatch 1 or 2 toward an interesting planet while en route to a gravitational survey point.

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

I actually did the math on this, and I'm pretty sure that so long as you don't actually care about the effectiveness of the platform, this is the cheapest way.  Plus, it was fairly early in the game, so I didn't have a lot of obsolete fighters laying around.
Edit:
I checked your plan, and mine still wins.  Here are the two alternatives (both in 6.2, while the earlier version was from 5.5):
Even if the fighters are "free", the cost for the storage space for them is greater than the cost of the carronade design.

Your BSPDC-1 provides 136 PPV for 433.6 BP, or 0.314 PPV/BP.  Good, but I think we can do better.

Code: [Select]

PDD Dummy x24 1 class      1,500 tons     4 Crew     36.6 BP      TCS 30  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 5-11     Sensors 1/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 24
Intended Deployment Time: 0.0001 months    Spare Berths 103   
Magazine 24   

ICBM Silo (1)    Missile Size 24    Rate of Fire 43200


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 1 sections


Code: [Select]

Components
ICBM Silo x1
Conventional Armour x5.8
Crew Quarters - Tiny x1

11.85x Duranium
0.75x Mercassium
This design provides 0.656 PPV/BP, or slightly more than twice as cost efficient.  It also doesn't require any Tritanium or research in its construction.  This means it is available at turn 0 even on Conventional start.  I am not sure about the consequences of not having a Bridge, but it is buildable.  The ~4 minute deployment time should prove entertaining too. 

But I still think we can do better.

Code: [Select]

PDD Dummy x768 1 class      41,100 tons     107 Crew     875 BP      TCS 822  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 5-106     Sensors 1/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 768
Intended Deployment Time: 0.0001 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 768   

ICBM Silo (32)    Missile Size 24    Rate of Fire 43200


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 17 sections


Code: [Select]

Component Summary
ICBM Silo x32
Conventional Armour x53
Crew Quarters - Tiny x1

106.25x Duranium
0.75x Mercassium
This design provides 0.878 PPV/BP, while only costing more Duranium.

I am currently building a 240 point unit to test it.

[Starfyre]

Well, my most recent game is me mucking about with a conventional start, so I thought it worthwhile to pass on what's the culmination of years of research and design efforts to facilitate my exploration of neighboring systems, instead of years of efforts to expand any of my slipways past 1000 tons.  I'm going to have to do something about that though.  this thing can't even get to more than two of sol's JPs.  Maybe a tanker fighter should be next.

Code: [Select]

Beyonder-I class Jump Tender    1 000 tons     36 Crew     71 BP      TCS 20  TH 8  EM 0
400 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 6.61 Years     MSP 44    AFR 8%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 2    5YR 26    Max Repair 33 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Spare Berths 4   

Lorentz-I Mil3k Jumpdrive     Max Ship Size 3000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Corona-I NPE Scoutfighter Engine (1)    Power 8    Fuel Use 99%    Signature 8    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 20 000 Litres    Range 3.6 billion km   (105 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

This is my first time really messing with conventional starts, and I am doomed if another NPR trips over me right now.  I've only recently gotten defenses more potent than the missile bases you start with, and it's 2043.

[joeclark77]

Well, my most recent game is me mucking about with a conventional start, so I thought it worthwhile to pass on what's the culmination of years of research and design efforts to facilitate my exploration of neighboring systems, instead of years of efforts to expand any of my slipways past 1000 tons. 

I tend to start with civilian designs for my geo and grav survey ships.  Civilian shipyards start at 10000 tons and it's easy enough to make a civilian survey ship with two scanners, a jump drive, and plenty of fuel, that's under 5000 tons.  (Grav survey ships are marked "military" for maintenance purposes, and they will have breakdowns, but otherwise they function the same as geo survey ships.  They can use civilian jump drives and I think you can make them at the civilian shipyard, too.)  Civilian survey ships are also far more fuel efficient and can have very long ranges even with nuke-thermal technology.

[Starfyre]

grav ships, being marked military, have to use military jumpdrives on their hulls and all compenents suffer from military failure rates, even stuff that would normally be civilian drives.  Sadly.  Though that might not still be true.  last time I really mucked with that was 5.x.

Honestly, I've had a lot of luck with dippy 1kton survey ship designs.  They're dirt cheap, have a failure rate of basically zero with any engineering spaces at all, can still get excellent range if you make a small engine tuned for efficiency, and their thermal and active scanning cross sections are so small that they can just waltz right through occupied systems without being spotted.  And to top it all off, with a couple ranks in jump efficiency I can cram a jumpdrive on top of all that.  Problem is, that's 15k or so research in jumpdrive efficiency that I really can't spare from the rush to noncrud engine and missile tech levels, thus the stopgap.