Musings of an Aurora Noob

[Verek (OP)]

I apologize in advance for the long post, but the complexity of Aurora requires a little more verbosity.   

So, I've been fiddling around with Aurora for the past few days or so, and after much trial and error, wiki and forum searching, I think I'm finally starting to get a grasp of how things work.  In my first serious game, It's 2047 and I've been completely isolated for the first 22 years, though there was a long, slow period in which it seemed a couple of NPRs were engaged in some heavy action.  It wasn't until recently that my survey team discovered the wrecks of some of that action.  Obviously, I want to get some salvage vessels out there as soon as possible, but it's going to take awhile, as I have other things I'm actively trying to deal with.  Sol, unfortunately for me, did not turn out to be particularly mineral rich, and my Geological Team is taking their sweet time practicing on asteroids due to low skill, leaving me flying by the seat of my pants in terms of minerals. 

At the same time, however, I want that salvage, but since there are some fairly large hulls amongst the wreckage, I'm obviously worried about the same fate befalling my own ships, so I want to establish a military presence in the system just in case.  Now, up until this point I've completely neglected my military, because I just wasn't sure what to put on my ships.  I had plenty of ideas for roles, but was unclear on how to realize them, despite having a somewhat-well defined naval doctrine in mind.

Currently, I've decided to build all capital ships with a displacement of 34k tons (the size of my largest naval shipyard), with escorts of 6-8k (the sizes of my other shipyards).  I intend to use every bit of that 34k, because it seems to me that with my current jump engine tech, I can make much more effective warships by omitting the jump engine on the escorts, and even on capital ships, and creating purpose-built fleets of 5 (max jump squadron size).  That way, I figure I can combine fleets for larger actions more easily if necessary.  Since I'm still waiting on a few techs to finish before I commit to and actually build particular designs, I wanted to get some critiques and advice from other players.

I've envisioned my first 5-ship fleet as something like this (keep in mind, I have no idea what sort of ships I may potentially be fighting in the future):

1x34k ton Jump Battleship or Carrier.  I'm leaning toward carriers at the moment, despite the threat of more micromanagement.  Such is my love of carriers.  Not sure what else I'll put on this.  Lots of hangars if it's a carrier, tons of beam and missile weapons if it's a Battleship.  I have a few potential fighter designs in mind, but since NPRs don't field fighters, I won't need fighter/bomber interceptors.  I plan on developing a multi-role fighter first and redesigning it to fit other roles.  Whether BB or CV, this ship's role in the fleet is Power Projection. 

1x?k ton Command Ship.  This is the ship I'm planning on designing around active sensor arrays.  Since I want to protect the meatbags in the Flag Bridge, this will probably be an 8k ton displacement class for extra armor.  Will not have offensive weapons, and defensive arrays may be confined to CIWS.  Designed to stay close to the capital ship and provide fire support for the whole fleet.  The size 5 active and passive sensor arrays I've designed should do the job nicely. 

2x8k ton Missile Defense Escorts.  The only ship I have a tenative design for:

Code: [Select]

Resolution class Escort    7,900 tons     731 Crew     1392 BP      TCS 158  TH 199.5  EM 0
3607 km/s     Armour 4-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 11/11/0/0     Damage Control Rating 25     PPV 26
Annual Failure Rate: 33%    IFR: 0.5%    Maint Capacity 1652 MSP    Max Repair 70 MSP    Est Time: 11.41 Years
Magazine 112   

Rage Ind. 'Chemical Burn' M-I E6.3 ARM-1 (10)    Power 57    Fuel Use 63%    Signature 19.95    Armour 1    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 90.4 billion km   (290 days at full power)

Quad R6/C3 Meson Cannon Turret (1x4)    Range 12,000km     TS: 15000 km/s     Power 12-12     RM 6    ROF 5        0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Aegis Mk II CIWS-160 (1x4)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Point Defense Beam Fire Control Mk I (1)    Max Range: 12,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
General Electric GCFR PB-0.95 AR-0 (3)     Total Power Output 12.82    Armour 0    Exp 4%

Guardian Mk I Anti-Missile Missile Launcher (10)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10
Military PD AMMFC Mk I (2)     Range 3.5m km    Resolution 1
Sparrow Mk I (112)  Speed: 30,000 km/s   End: 1.4m    Range: 2.6m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 220 / 132 / 66

Military Mk I TH1-11 (70%) (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km
KrathulTek EM1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
The Resolution class is designed as a hardy anti-missile platform, capable of long tours on station with minimal logistic support.  The design needs some revision, as far as I'm concerned, because I'm worried the Meson turret won't have a chance to fire on faster missiles, as they could easily transit its short range in seconds.  I've considered dropping the turret, the CIWS, and the armor and adding more missiles, but I'm not really comfortable with the idea of combat ships with only one type of weapon, and I'd like to equip all my ships with at least one CIWS 'just in case'.  But, since the design has no actives, and is unlikely to be engaged except at close range, there's probably no reason I shouldn't just completely specialize it as an anti-missile ship.  And I do plan on squeezing all 8k tons out of the design, as well.

The fifth ship in the fleet design is still up in the air.  I've considered a second, non-jump engine armed capital ship for offensive fire and staying power, an anti-ship missile ship, or a fast beam weapon ship.  Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.


And also, I've had sort of a niggling question about logistics task groups and task groups with logistics ships in them.  Early on, I designed my survey ships to operate with a long range Jump Tender/Tanker/Supply ship in fleets of 1xJT, 2xSS.  If set to refuel/supply at nearest tanker, they would do so, until the tanker started to run low on fuel, at which point the task group would freak out.  Conversely, if set to refuel/supply at nearest colony/tanker, it would always go to the nearest colony first, and would often run out of fuel, even if the tanker was full of fuel.  So do logistics ships need to be in their own task groups to function properly, and must they be manipulated by the player so that they are in the right system? Because if that's the case, logistics fleets really should be able to receive automatic fuel/supply requests from ships running low on them.  That way, fleets could easily be set to refuel/supply at the nearest tanker, and logistics fleets could be set to do so at colonies, and there would be a little bit less micromanagement. 

 

[Anarade Relle]

2x8k ton Missile Defense Escorts.         The only ship I have a tenative design for:

Code: [Select]

Resolution class Escort    7,900 tons     731 Crew     1392 BP      TCS 158  TH 199.5  EM 0
3607 km/s     Armour 4-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 11/11/0/0     Damage Control Rating 25     PPV 26
Annual Failure Rate: 33%    IFR: 0.5%    Maint Capacity 1652 MSP    Max Repair 70 MSP    Est Time: 11.41 Years
Magazine 112    

Rage Ind. 'Chemical Burn' M-I E6.3 ARM-1 (10)    Power 57    Fuel Use 63%    Signature 19.95    Armour 1    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 90.4 billion km   (290 days at full power)

Quad R6/C3 Meson Cannon Turret (1x4)    Range 12,000km     TS: 15000 km/s     Power 12-12     RM 6    ROF 5        0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Aegis Mk II CIWS-160 (1x4)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Point Defense Beam Fire Control Mk I (1)    Max Range: 12,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
General Electric GCFR PB-0.95 AR-0 (3)     Total Power Output 12.82    Armour 0    Exp 4%

Guardian Mk I Anti-Missile Missile Launcher (10)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10
Military PD AMMFC Mk I (2)     Range 3.5m km    Resolution 1
Sparrow Mk I (112)  Speed: 30,000 km/s   End: 1.4m    Range: 2.6m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 220 / 132 / 66

Military Mk I TH1-11 (70%) (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km
KrathulTek EM1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
The Resolution class is designed as a hardy anti-missile platform, capable of long tours on station with minimal logistic support.         The design needs some revision, as far as I'm concerned, because I'm worried the Meson turret won't have a chance to fire on faster missiles, as they could easily transit its short range in seconds.         I've considered dropping the turret, the CIWS, and the armor and adding more missiles, but I'm not really comfortable with the idea of combat ships with only one type of weapon, and I'd like to equip all my ships with at least one CIWS 'just in case'.         But, since the design has no actives, and is unlikely to be engaged except at close range, there's probably no reason I shouldn't just completely specialize it as an anti-missile ship.        And I do plan on squeezing all 8k tons out of the design, as well.         

For your Resolution I'd recommend dropping the Meson cannon and bringing your launchers up to 15 at the very least, and increase your magazine space *alot* just because hit-rates, unless your interceptor missiles are vastly faster then enemy missiles (which you can't trust on), you'll be expending quite a few missiles per single interception.     You can make up for a low magazine by having a collier in the fleet, however.      But that just adds another ship to defend.    The most glaring flaw is the lack of a Resolution 1 Active Sensor.        Without one you can't target enemy missiles.       Even if your going to put one on your command ship your anti-missile escorts should all have one since you'll never know if your command ship will be lost or they'll be forced to operate without one.    In my experience having a anti-missile active on every ship is a good idea.      11 years worth of maintenance is quite a bit; I'd drop it down to 4-5 at most to make space for more missiles.       Same with fuel.       Maybe move that down to 150,000 liters.      You can get away with relatively modest fuel bunkerage in small ships by deploying tankers, which you can build on commercial slipways and stick a commercial jumpdrive on if they exceed the size of your military jumpships.     

You can't rely on anti-missiles alone.    You must assume that there will almost always be leakers.   Your right in your worries about your meson cannon; hit rates with beams aganist missiles can be pretty low even when you have a good setup.    The answer to this is to have as many beams in your fleet set to point defence.    Two quad meson emplacements in your fleet won't catch many leakers as it is, althrough they'll eat up enemy ships fairly decently.    So to complement the Resolution you should develop a beam armed escort.         

Essentially stuff like 4 PD Fire control systems on them and then as many lasers/mesons/railguns as you can fit so you can drop the quad turret to make room for missiles, launchers, etc, on the Resolution.    If you really want to keep a non-missile weapon on it I'd recommend throwing on a smaller weapon.     A double meson turret or maybe a a turreted gauss cannon which has the advantage of being able to put alot of flak into the air in a short time and don't require power plants; I find having multiple types of beams/kinetic weapons in a fleet helps.    So I end up having two different gun-escort designs.        One with only 12cm or 10cm lasers and then another with lasers and a big gauss turret.     Gauss and railguns to fire at point blank wth their impressive ROF and then lasers/mesons to fire at longer ranges.      If 12,000 is the max range of your meson your going to want to have alot of mesons (or other guns) just because you'll be getting basically one chance to fire at leakers.       So for your fifth ship you should definitely make that beam-armed escort.      And you should mass produce them.   
For a 7900-ton ship you can't really afford too many "extras" in its design so IMO you have to adopt a "all or nothing" design ethnos.     I mean either its a AM escort or its a beam armed escort.    Once you hit 9-10,000 tons you can start to multi-purpose your ships better, in terms of escort capability.   My escort ships at that point usually end up having a solid set of lasers or railguns to add to fleet PD, but in your tonnage range I never do it just because I think its more efficient to go fully into a role.   But that's basically my design style, so take it as you will. 

If I were making a AM Escort at at 7900 tons it'd look like this:

Code: [Select]

B-Class AMS class Escort    7,950 tons     695 Crew     1349.4 BP      TCS 159  TH 736  EM 0
4628 km/s     Armour 3-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 6/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 7     PPV 20
Annual Failure Rate: 72%    IFR: 1%    Maint Capacity 743 MSP    Max Repair 140 MSP    Est Time: 3.34 Years
Magazine 600   

Lenginrad Plasma Drive E6.5 (8)    Power 92    Fuel Use 65%    Signature 92    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 69.7 billion km   (174 days at full power)

CIWS-120 (1x2)    Range 1000 km     TS: 12000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
S-1 MISSL (20)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10
MFC Anti-Ballistic Missile System MK-1 (4)     Range 10.8m km    Resolution 1
ABM-2 (600)  Speed: 39,000 km/s   End: 6.4m    Range: 15m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 130 / 78 / 39

SS Ballistic Missile Search Rader 1120 (1)     GPS 140     Range 11.2m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  6m km

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

1x34k ton Jump Battleship or Carrier.      I'm leaning toward carriers at the moment, despite the threat of more micromanagement.        Such is my love of carriers.        Not sure what else I'll put on this.        Lots of hangars if it's a carrier, tons of beam and missile weapons if it's a Battleship.        I have a few potential fighter designs in mind, but since NPRs don't field fighters, I won't need fighter/bomber interceptors.        I plan on developing a multi-role fighter first and redesigning it to fit other roles.        Whether BB or CV, this ship's role in the fleet is Power Projection.       

One point of interest is that at 34k a 34k jump drive is going to take up alot of space on your ship.     Assuming JD Efficiency 5 that's 7000 tons of jump engine (or 6000 or 4250 at JDE 8- at which point its not crippling) which is a big amount of tonnage set aside.     I think your best bet is to make a jump carrier rather then a jump battleship.    Generally at this point you have two choices for your carrier.     Either you make it a eggshell with a large number of fighters and supplies or you accept a most modest air wing in exchange or inherent protection and perhaps some PD weapons on the carrier.     For both you'll need a good number of escort ships, both beam and AM escorts, considering how big an investment the carrier is.     And since your leaning towards the Hangers = many option.       .       .     

[UnLimiTeD]

With the recent version taking out R0 sensors, it is quite an option to have long ranged Anti-Missile Sensors on an extra ship, because R1 for anti-missile tend to be overly large for small escorts.
However, always have a shortranged backup on your ships.