Ship Doctrine of the City of Light

[misora (OP)]

So, these are the current untested ship designs of my current play-through of Aurora which is also in the fiction forum, I was wondering what input you guys might have on them as my tech isn't exactly the best it could be, and the tech involved in some of these is all over the place, the PDC is positively ancient being 10 years old.

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Tennessee class Frigate    7 550 tons     274 Crew     2343 BP      TCS 151  TH 1600  EM 0
10596 km/s     Armour 3-34     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 48.52
Maint Life 1.53 Years     MSP 582    AFR 152%    IFR 2.1%    1YR 283    5YR 4245    Max Repair 400 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 8 months    Spare Berths 1   

Nelson-Pope Drive Systems IFD (2)    Power 800    Fuel Use 45.26%    Signature 800    Exp 20%
Fuel Capacity 600 000 Litres    Range 31.6 billion km   (34 days at full power)

Twin Esquivo Laser Turret (4x2)    Range 120 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 12-8     RM 2    ROF 10        6 6 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 1
Nouveau Plasma Beam FC (2)    Max Range: 320 000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Intebar Reactor (3)     Total Power Output 54    Armour 0    Exp 5%

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Paladin class Planetary Defence Centre    50 700 tons     319 Crew     2935.5 BP      TCS 1014  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 18-122     Sensors 100/168     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 40
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 3   
Troop Capacity: 10 Battalions    Magazine 940   

Old Guard Missile Launcher (10)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 120
Paladin Missile Fire Control (1)     Range 144.0m km    Resolution 100
Iron Heart Missile (235)  Speed: 9 000 km/s   End: 246.5m    Range: 133.1m km   WH: 2    Size: 4    TH: 45/27/13

Planet Killer Detector (1)     GPS 16800     Range 134.4m km    Resolution 100
Asteroid Detection Sensor (1)     GPS 36     Range 2.9m km    MCR 314k km    Resolution 1
Alber Thermal Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 100     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  100m km
Alber EM Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 100     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  100m km


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Kyoto class Battlecruiser    17 550 tons     438 Crew     4259.6 BP      TCS 351  TH 3200  EM 0
9116 km/s     Armour 8-60     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 8     PPV 50
Maint Life 1.22 Years     MSP 1214    AFR 308%    IFR 4.3%    1YR 847    5YR 12711    Max Repair 672 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 8 months    Spare Berths 2   
Magazine 1400   

Nelson-Pope Drive Systems IFD (4)    Power 800    Fuel Use 45.26%    Signature 800    Exp 20%
Fuel Capacity 1 250 000 Litres    Range 28.3 billion km   (35 days at full power)

Broadside BSML (10)    Missile Size 5    Rate of Fire 30
Mirav Missile Fire Control (1)     Range 1 008.0m km    Resolution 100
Entropy-1 ASM (280)  Speed: 19 200 km/s   End: 801.4m    Range: 923.2m km   WH: 4    Size: 5    TH: 83/50/25

Mirav Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 67200     Range 940.8m km    Resolution 100

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Elector class Cruiser    8 950 tons     280 Crew     2477.4 BP      TCS 179  TH 1600  EM 0
8938 km/s     Armour 6-38     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 30
Maint Life 1.16 Years     MSP 519    AFR 213%    IFR 3%    1YR 393    5YR 5901    Max Repair 400 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 8 months    Spare Berths 0   

Nelson-Pope Drive Systems IFD (2)    Power 800    Fuel Use 45.26%    Signature 800    Exp 20%
Fuel Capacity 1 500 000 Litres    Range 66.6 billion km   (86 days at full power)

Gatineau Plasma Beam (5)    Range 200 000km     TS: 8938 km/s     Power 7-4    ROF 10        3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Nouveau Plasma Beam FC (1)    Max Range: 320 000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Intebar Reactor (2)     Total Power Output 36    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Triestrieme System Defense Sensor (1)     GPS 19110     Range 331.8m km    Resolution 65
Mirv Detection Sensor (1)     GPS 84     Range 11.8m km    MCR 1.3m km    Resolution 1

[MarcAFK]

Overall they look like good designs, however the warhead and speed of your missiles is rather bad.
Are you using the highest multiplier engines you have available? I suspect that if you are, then It might be fuel chewing up all your missiles space, using custom engines exactly the correct size for each missile is essential to maximise missile effectiveness, you'll save massively on fuel with long ranged missiles.
For comparison here are my nuclear pulse tech missile designs:

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Super Sparrow MK III (1)  Speed: 15,600 km/s   End: 6.8m    Range: 6.4m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 52/31/15
Maverick Mk III (32)  Speed: 13,800 km/s   End: 84.2m    Range: 69.7m km   WH: 7    Size: 6    TH: 46/27/13Compared to:

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Iron Heart Missile (235)  Speed: 9 000 km/s   End: 246.5m    Range: 133.1m km   WH: 2    Size: 4    TH: 45/27/13
Entropy-1 ASM (280)  Speed: 19 200 km/s   End: 801.4m    Range: 923.2m km   WH: 4    Size: 5    TH: 83/50/25
At internal fusion I would expect missiles to be doing 30-40k/s , also even at my tech level I'm managing to reach warhead slightly higher than the missile's size, while I realise your missiles are extremely long range, I expect I could manage 200 million kilometres and still get 6 points of warhead on a size 6 missile.
Edit: I was right, I can bring the range of my Maverick upto 180 million for the loss of one warhead point. I should note that the reason I don't have longer ranged missiles is that I can't afford the search sensors, the weight and research cost is heavily restrictive at my tech level.

[Haji]

If you're writing a story than starting with (relatively) bad designs and then improving them through experience is a good story in and of itself. As such when I role-play I never try to build optimized designs from the start.
Also in order to have good designs you need to know what you'll use them for. Are your ships supposed to operate alone or in groups? Are they to be specialized or not? Are they supposed to be a quick response vessels, attack ships or general purpose workhorses?
With that said, there are some problems with your designs. MarkAFK already posted one of those problems - the missiles speeds. Generally an offensive range over three hundred million kilometers is rarely required, unless you have certain, specific doctrine in mind. Not only that, but please remember the enemy ships may be moving away from you, which will cut the effective missile range. For example your Iron Heart missile is slower than your frigates and battlecruisers, which means those ships can just run away from your shipkillers. Entropy can catch them, but if Tennessee is moving directly away from them, the effective range is reduced to four hundred and thirteen million kilometers.
Second, if I read it correctly, the beam fire control on your ships is optimized for much greater tracking speeds than your turrets. For example Tennessee lasers can track at ten thousand kps (less than the speed of your ship, which completely defeats the point of turreting weapons) while your FC can track them at sixteen thousand kps. Either improve tracking speeds on your turrets or adjust fire controls.
Third, your ships have different speeds. If they are supposed to operate independently, that's fine, but if you intend them to operate in groups, then a lot of the speed is wasted. In such a case it would be best to adjust it, so all the ships have more or less than same speed. Again, that's only true if you want your different designs to operate in unison.
Fourth I'm not sure I would use passive sensors on PDCs - tracking stations are much better, although probably more expensive.
Other than that I'm not sure I would use vessels with only eight months of deployment time, but that's a personal preference.

[misora (OP)]

The Entropy missile is part of Hope's  defense doctrine it's meant to provide cover for the beam ships as they close in, and... um... I feel kind of bad about missing the fact that the Tennessee could outrun its own fire control on the turret. I am going to fix that immediately. Also I don't understand how you guys are able to pump so much speed out of missiles and still keep them small.

[Haji]

Also I don't understand how you guys are able to pump so much speed out of missiles and still keep them small.

I think it comes down to the engine power modifier you're using. Unless I want lots of range due to specific reason, I just use maximum power modifier available (minimum 3.5 or I just don't build missiles) add enough fuel until I feel I have reasonable range (50-100 million kilometers for small craft like fighters or gunboats, 100-200 million for warships) and then add warheads and maybe sensors. Here is my version of a long range missile using internal confinement fusion drive (tier 5 drive, the one after magneto-plasma drives) and power modifier 3.75

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Missile Size: 6 MSP  (0.3 HS)     Warhead: 8    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 31200 km/s    Engine Endurance: 278 minutes   Range: 520.7m km
Cost Per Missile: 4.3438
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 312%   3k km/s 100%   5k km/s 62.4%   10k km/s 31.2%
Materials Required:    2x Tritanium   2.3438x Gallicite   Fuel x4750
The engine size is 2.5, fuel is 1.9 and warhead is 1.6. It should be noted, that the missile is quite slow for the technology and quite large, but made specifically for range due to the doctrine used. As a comparison here is "standard" ranged missiles using size 2 internal confinement fusion drive but with power modified 4.0 (the size is out of whack due to new and not yet implemented reactor technology, it should be size 4)

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Missile Size: 3.971 MSP  (0.19855 HS)     Warhead: 9    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 40300 km/s    Engine Endurance: 82 minutes   Range: 198.8m km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.297   Sensitivity Modifier: 180%
Resolution: 160    Maximum Range vs 8000 ton object (or larger): 670 000 km
Cost Per Missile: 4.7255
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 403%   3k km/s 130%   5k km/s 80.6%   10k km/s 40.3%
Materials Required:    2.25x Tritanium   0.1785x Boronide   0.297x Uridium   2x Gallicite   Fuel x1967.5

This one has better warhead technology, so engine size is 2, fuel is 0.787, warhead is 0.9 and the rest is sensor and reactor.

[83athom]

I had an extremely long range (1b-2b km) missile in an old game that cruised around at about 0.4C with a damage of 12.

[MarcAFK]

I always design and build a full fleet using conventional engines, for roleplay reasons, It's kind of odd when you replace your 100km's missiles with the first vastly superior nuclear thermal designs though. So sometimes I'll restrict myself to making a tier of handicapped nuclear thermal designs with half the speed I should attain with optomised designs. Then replace that later.