Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition

[brondi00]

I've got into battle with aliens and it turns out my Laser Destroyers are better at PD than my PD Cruiser. Why is that? Can anyone explain that to me? MY PD Cruiser has a chance to hit of 7-8% while my Laser Cruiser has a chance to hit of 119%. The enemy missiles move at 32.650 km/s.


PD Cruiser:

Point Defence Cruiser Mk. II-I class Area Defence Cruiser      6 199 tons       159 Crew       1 397.8 BP       TCS 124    TH 1 500    EM 0
12100 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 4-30       Shields 0-0       HTK 39      Sensors 14/0/0/0      DCR 43      PPV 12.55
Maint Life 5.22 Years     MSP 1 222    AFR 102%    IFR 1.4%    1YR 75    5YR 1 122    Max Repair 150 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Military Jump Engine Mk. II (PD) J6300(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 6300 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Military Engine Mk. II Internal Fusion Drive  EP300.00 (5)    Power 1500    Fuel Use 82.67%    Signature 300    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 1 150 000 Litres    Range 40.4 billion km (38 days at full power)

Point Defence Turret Mk. II Quad Gauss Cannon Mk. II Gauss Cannon R600-8.00 Turret (5x24)    Range 60 000km     TS: 40000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 60 000 km    ROF 5       
Point Defence BFC Mk. II-I Beam Fire Control R60-TS40000 (1)     Max Range: 60 000 km   TS: 40 000 km/s     83 67 50 33 17 0 0 0 0 0

Point Defence Sensor Mk. I Active Search Sensor AS2-R1 (1)     GPS 4     Range 2.4m km    MCR 215.4k km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor Mk. I Thermal Sensor TH1.0-14.0 (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


Laser Destroyer:

Laser Cruiser Mk. II-I class Assault Ship      9 346 tons       310 Crew       2 969.1 BP       TCS 187    TH 1 500    EM 0
8025 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 4-39       Shields 0-0       HTK 63      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 36      PPV 51.52
Maint Life 5.46 Years     MSP 2 791    AFR 116%    IFR 1.6%    1YR 157    5YR 2 357    Max Repair 960 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Military Jump Engine Mk. II (Laser) J10200(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 10200 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Military Engine Mk. II Internal Fusion Drive  EP300.00 (5)    Power 1500    Fuel Use 82.67%    Signature 300    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 1 000 000 Litres    Range 23.3 billion km (33 days at full power)

Laser Turret Mk. II Twin Laser Mk. I-I 15.0cm C4 X-Ray Laser Turret (4x2)    Range 420 000km     TS: 40000 km/s     Power 12-8     RM 70 000 km    ROF 10       
Laser BFC Mk. II Beam Fire Control R480-TS40000 (1)     Max Range: 480 000 km   TS: 40 000 km/s     98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Power Plant Mk. I Stellarator Fusion Reactor R12 (4)     Total Power Output 49.6    Exp 5%

Laser Sensor Mk. II Active Search Sensor AS12-R100 (1)     GPS 480     Range 12.8m km    Resolution 100

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

As was just said, the gauss ship is, in fact a better PD ship than the laser ship.  Sure the individual shots are less accurate but it also gets 15 times as many shots.  While being cheaper to boot.

[Caesar]

I just read somewhere that you need cargo shuttles to supply your parasites. I also read that hangars can take care of the supplying of parasites by themselves elsewhere. It seemed a bit counterintuitive that you'd need cargo shuttles to supply a ship that is inside a hangar, so I didn't include them in my design, but I fear that I might have messed up doing so.

Did I make a terrible mistake?

[Borealis4x]

Do ships not provide security for planets anymore? I thought I could train some 1000 ton FAC with simple Gauss Cannons to keep unrest from rising throughout all of Sol but it isn't working.

[Zap0]

What does it say for their PPV value in the ship design screen and colony summary?

If the guns are below 1HS they probably don't count.

[Borealis4x]

I still don't get how sensors work on missiles. If I want my bombers to fire their missiles and then turn off their actives immediately does it mean I need missiles with sensors to seek their own targets or will they continue to seek the targets marked for them by the bomber's actives even after they're turned off?

[Kamilo]

I've got into battle with aliens and it turns out my Laser Destroyers are better at PD than my PD Cruiser. Why is that? Can anyone explain that to me? MY PD Cruiser has a chance to hit of 7-8% while my Laser Cruiser has a chance to hit of 119%. The enemy missiles move at 32.650 km/s.

The chance to hit is per shot, the gauss ship gets 120 shots, the laser ship only gets 8.  The laser ship will get 8 kills per round, while the gauss ship will average 8.4-9.6 per round.  Additionally you can build 2 gauss ships for about the cost of your laser ship.  So for straight point defense  the gauss is a better option.  the laser gives you addditional range and can be used against ships and fighters.  I would build a few of each. 

I would also look at the speed of my fleet, the gauss ships do not need to be faster than the fleet they are protecting.  If your fleet speed is 8000km/s, maybe cut an engine or two.  The laser ship definitely needs to be faster than the enemy fleet, and usually faster than the rest of your fleet so that it can control the range.  I assume the jump drive on every ship is a role playing choice.

The jump drive on every ship is not a role playing choice. I do it because I like to think that it is better to have one on each ship if SHTF and the group gets dispersed and because I dont know how to do it better. Tips are welcomed!

[Squigles]

I just read somewhere that you need cargo shuttles to supply your parasites. I also read that hangars can take care of the supplying of parasites by themselves elsewhere. It seemed a bit counterintuitive that you'd need cargo shuttles to supply a ship that is inside a hangar, so I didn't include them in my design, but I fear that I might have messed up doing so.

Did I make a terrible mistake?

Current version of the game your carrier needs a cargo shuttle bay to supply MSP to its’ parasites. In the upcoming version the hangar bays will take care of that themselves.

[Squigles]

I still don't get how sensors work on missiles. If I want my bombers to fire their missiles and then turn off their actives immediately does it mean I need missiles with sensors to seek their own targets or will they continue to seek the targets marked for them by the bomber's actives even after they're turned off?

Missiles would need their own sensors in that situation.

If you’re familiar with real world weaponry, imagine a missile in Aurora is an AIM-7. It is guided by a radar signal being reflected off the target, beamed at the target by the launch platform. If the launch platform stops painting the target.....the missile is lost and has no means of acquiring the target on it’s own.

With a sensor onboard the missile, it’s much more similar to an AIM-120. The missile will accept data from the launch platform to guide it to the target. However, if it loses guidance from the launch platform it will engage it’s own radar/sensors to locate the target.

As to what target the missiles will go for, I am fairly certain they will continue on to the initial target if the onboard sensors could see the target when the launch platform went dark. Take that with a grain of salt though, I’ve not toyed around with missile sensors a lot in this version.

[nuclearslurpee]

The jump drive on every ship is not a role playing choice. I do it because I like to think that it is better to have one on each ship if SHTF and the group gets dispersed and because I dont know how to do it better. Tips are welcomed!

Jump drive on every ship is hugely crippling for ship performance, especially early on when a jump drive plus requisite crew and armor can take up over a quarter of a ship's tonnage by itself. Even at higher tech levels putting a jump drive on every ship is still causing you to have several fewer weapons per ship than you could otherwise. You're just going to struggle to put out firepower regardless unless you massively out-displace the enemy.

A better approach is to design your fleet with squadrons so that each squadron has several optimized combat ships and a single dedicated jump ship which can be detached before any battle that is not a JP assault. Each of these becomes a subfleet in a larger battle fleet, which means you still have several jump-capable ships in any fleet if SHTF and one or more get blown up. Likely you will have fewer SHTF moments because your actual ships will perform better.

[captainwolfer]

The jump drive on every ship is not a role playing choice. I do it because I like to think that it is better to have one on each ship if SHTF and the group gets dispersed and because I dont know how to do it better. Tips are welcomed!

Personally, how I do it is I organize ships into squadrons of 4, for every 3 ships I have a 4th ship with a jump drive.

Example:
Cruiser Squadrons (CruRon)
1x 24,000 ton Jump cruiser with jump drive and Gauss cannons
3x 24,000 ton Cruisers with missile launchers and a few Gauss cannons

[Kamilo]

I managed to put one Jump Tender into my fleet and it works like a charm.

[Rince Wind]

My JumpShips usually stay back at the jump point in dangerous sectors. And they have their own sensors, so they can see incoming hostiles/missiles and jump out if necessary.

[Borealis4x]

I still don't get how sensors work on missiles. If I want my bombers to fire their missiles and then turn off their actives immediately does it mean I need missiles with sensors to seek their own targets or will they continue to seek the targets marked for them by the bomber's actives even after they're turned off?

Missiles would need their own sensors in that situation.

If you’re familiar with real world weaponry, imagine a missile in Aurora is an AIM-7. It is guided by a radar signal being reflected off the target, beamed at the target by the launch platform. If the launch platform stops painting the target.....the missile is lost and has no means of acquiring the target on it’s own.

With a sensor onboard the missile, it’s much more similar to an AIM-120. The missile will accept data from the launch platform to guide it to the target. However, if it loses guidance from the launch platform it will engage it’s own radar/sensors to locate the target.

As to what target the missiles will go for, I am fairly certain they will continue on to the initial target if the onboard sensors could see the target when the launch platform went dark. Take that with a grain of salt though, I’ve not toyed around with missile sensors a lot in this version.

So if it has active sensors, the missile will guide itself to the target its ship originally pointed it while if it has EM or Thermals it will hit the ship that is the largest source, correct?

[Barkhorn]

Missile retargeting is currently bugged and does not work.  In VB6, missiles without an MFC lock would target whatever had the strongest signal.  Missiles with EM would hit the ship with the biggest EM signature, missiles with TH would hit the ship with the hottest engines, and missiles with active sensors would go for the biggest active sensor contact; typically that'd be the largest ship but cloaking could make it weird.

[Borealis4x]

Missile retargeting is currently bugged and does not work.  In VB6, missiles without an MFC lock would target whatever had the strongest signal.  Missiles with EM would hit the ship with the biggest EM signature, missiles with TH would hit the ship with the hottest engines, and missiles with active sensors would go for the biggest active sensor contact; typically that'd be the largest ship but cloaking could make it weird.

So since retargeting is bugged, are MIRV missile not possible since the sub-munition needs to acquire its own targets?