Alpha Centauri Fleet Challenge

[Nightstar]

I believe the question was about the cost of ground units, which is in 'training points' instead of build points for some reason. I would also guess that 1 BP = 1 TP for the purposes of this challenge.

(http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Ground_Units see table)

[sublight (OP)]

I believe the question was about the cost of ground units, which is in 'training points' instead of build points for some reason. I would also guess that 1 BP = 1 TP for the purposes of this challenge.

(http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Ground_Units see table)

Oh! Thats logical. Yah, 1 BP = 1 TP sounds fair. Arguably TP should be more expensive when comparing the 100 training points from a 2400 bp training center to the 10bp production from a 120 bp factory, but I'll call it at 1:1.

[Nightstar]

So I was making a few quick designs to test against....

x6 Cannon
x1 Eye

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Cannon class Cruiser    9,100 tons     185 Crew     901 BP      TCS 182  TH 320  EM 0
1758 km/s     Armour 1-38     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 60
Maint Life 2.55 Years     MSP 248    AFR 165%    IFR 2.3%    1YR 53    5YR 800    Max Repair 160 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Spare Berths 2   
Magazine 720   

320 EP Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 320    Fuel Use 3.54%    Signature 320    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 55.9 billion km   (367 days at full power)

Size 6 Missile Launcher (50% Reduction) (20)    Missile Size 6    Rate of Fire 450
Missile Fire Control FC212-R10 (1)     Range 212.5m km    Resolution 10
Size 6 Missile Stage (120)  Speed: 8,000 km/s   End: 600m    Range: 291m km   WH: 0    Size: 6    TH: 26/16/8

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


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Eye class Fleet Scout    4,750 tons     105 Crew     669 BP      TCS 95  TH 320  EM 0
3368 km/s     Armour 1-25     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.33 Years     MSP 352    AFR 45%    IFR 0.6%    1YR 88    5YR 1324    Max Repair 480 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Spare Berths 5   

320 EP Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 320    Fuel Use 3.54%    Signature 320    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 53.5 billion km   (183 days at full power)

Active Search Sensor MR212-R10 (1)     GPS 4800     Range 212.5m km    Resolution 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


Artillery's going to win this. No contest. That's >5k damage total, limited autotargeting capability, and waves of 480 missiles. I didn't even optimize.

[Rolepgeek]

Unless someone puts decoys out. Also, your missile stage is size 6, but you don't have a second stage.

[chrislocke2000]

Each size 6 missile has four size 1 second stage missiles per the summary at the very bottom. Have been testing this a bit myself, its very succcessful. I've been using 25% size 16 launchers to seriously good effect.

[Rolepgeek]

Didn't notice those, sorry.

I'm doing the assault shuttle design not because I think it'll be incredibly effective, but because I want to see how well it will work. A box launcher size 40 missile design is what I would use otherwise.

As for your design, it has very good offense, but it will die to any sort of fire that can survive it's attacks, or has a longer range. I've made a fleet of 25% size 12 launcher frigates with a 6000 km/s speed meant to dance in and out of their 250 million km range to keep from being targeted, and they'd slaughter you. No offense. You can easily fit in some defensive measures after all, since they're not too expensive.

Just that I noticed that at most, you can kill 36 ships if you expend all of your ammunition and don't have collies, and the remaining assault shuttles will be able to reach you(if I use like fifty of them in a wave) and if they board the sensor ship, you're doomed. If anything kills the sensor ship, you're doomed. Me too, in a way, but most of my small craft have sensors too that I can deploy.

[Charlie Beeler]

First, I'm guessing that Sublight would like to keep the trash  talk to a minimum.

Second, Nightstar stated that the ships are intended to test against.

Third, I'm presuming that Sublight would prefer fleets be privately submitted.  Complete with supporting data on researched tech and components.  ie itemized expenditures or RP's and BP's to validate complance with the challenge rules. 


Nightstar a query about this benchmark fleet...

How is the research broken out?  My reverse engineering shows about 201k for systems leaving nothing for component development. 

[Nightstar]

RPG>
Obviously it's got zero defense. That's rather the point. If it has to use defenses, it's probably out of missiles, and the ships are just dead weight anyway. There are a number of ways to beat mass MIRV tactics, but they generally require expensive components or research, meaning such fleets will likely lose more than they win. You're not quite right about the 36 ship limit by the way. It is possible to fire less than a full volley at a time, and even if it weren't, that's what the sensors on the missiles are for.

CB>
Critical techs:
24k -- Const/Ordnance/Mining 14
29k -- 6x MSP warhead
56k -- MP drive
30k -- Max engine power x2.5
29k -- EM 14
168k total
Less critical:
1k -- Min engine power x0.4
7k -- Fuel consumption 0.7
3k -- half size launchers
2k -- launcher reload 2
6k -- Grav 16
19k total
About 8k in components (mostly the sensor and MFC)
A bit less than 5k left unused.

[Bremen]

Obviously it's got zero defense. That's rather the point. If it has to use defenses, it's probably out of missiles, and the ships are just dead weight anyway. There are a number of ways to beat mass MIRV tactics, but they generally require expensive components or research, meaning such fleets will likely lose more than they win. You're not quite right about the 36 ship limit by the way. It is possible to fire less than a full volley at a time, and even if it weren't, that's what the sensors on the missiles are for.

Unless it goes up against something with longer range missiles, or have more armor than your design has missiles, or has AMMs with a range greater than 4.3m km. In any of these cases your design would be completely massacred. What you've created is a super-specialized design; it works great against targets its specialized against and is completely helpless against others.

[Rolepgeek]

Unless it goes up against something with longer range missiles, or have more armor than your design has missiles, or has AMMs with a range greater than 4.3m km. In any of these cases your design would be completely massacred. What you've created is a super-specialized design; it works great against targets its specialized against and is completely helpless against others.

What makes it work is that it's targets happen to be most designs...

[sublight (OP)]

So far Rolepgeek, Nightstar, and myself have pledged fleets. I'm assuming Bremen and Charlie Beeler will also be sending in a fleet, but I still need to know their themes to avoid repetition if I design filler fleets. That leaves us in need of 2 more fleets.

Nightstar, I think you have been challenged. Do you have time to whip up a somewhat optimized Artillery fleet to submit along side your planned Tank fleet?

Rolepgeek, congratulations. I think you were the first person to finish their challenge fleet. If you want to submit a 2nd more traditional fleet using one of the archtypes go ahead. If not we'll leave that fleet slot open for any late arriving challengers, and if it is still unclaimed August 1st I'll fill it with whatever archtype is least represented.

[Rolepgeek]

If no one else joins, I think I will make another fleet. It would be a Sniper fleet. I am redesigning my assault fleet though, and have gone through some eleven games making it; I make a new one whenever I screw up badly enough. My latest mistake was forgetting to design a high powered microwave until I had a mere 100 RP left.

[Bremen]

I think I'll have to back out. Things have been busy, and I wasn't able to make my planned concept work well for this set of rules.

[Elouda]

Would like to enter this pair of designs, for a fleet based around long-range AMMs that will also fill the anti-ship role;

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Invincible class Frigate Leader    3,000 tons     91 Crew     878.1 BP      TCS 60  TH 204  EM 0
3400 km/s     Armour 1-18     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/11/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.27 Years     MSP 366    AFR 36%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 96    5YR 1436    Max Repair 630 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 0    

204 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 204    Fuel Use 39.63%    Signature 204    Exp 8%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 30.3 billion km   (103 days at full power)

S30 Area Search (1)     GPS 630     Range 69.3m km    Resolution 1
EM Detection Sensor EM1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Illustrious class Frigate    3,000 tons     87 Crew     587.1 BP      TCS 60  TH 204  EM 0
3400 km/s     Armour 1-18     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 10
Maint Life 2.18 Years     MSP 122    AFR 72%    IFR 1%    1YR 34    5YR 517    Max Repair 210 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 0    
Magazine 190    

204 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 204    Fuel Use 39.63%    Signature 204    Exp 8%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 30.3 billion km   (103 days at full power)

Size 1 Missile Launcher (10)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10
S2 FCS (1)     Range 13.9m km    Resolution 1
S10 FCS (1)     Range 69.3m km    Resolution 1
S1 Dagger (155)  Speed: 48,000 km/s   End: 7.5m    Range: 21.6m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 240/144/72
S1 Hammer (25)  Speed: 40,000 km/s   End: 7.9m    Range: 19.1m km   WH: 2    Size: 1    TH: 133/80/40

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 initial setup is 2xInvincible and 9xIllustrious, with reinforcements either 1xInvincible and 2xIllustrious or 4xIllustrious with a reduced ammunition load.

Still a little sketchy on how I want the 'heavy' missile to look like - 6.3's option for 0.01 size increments for missile engines would really help.

I have a detailed RP and BP breakdown, I can send it if desired.

[Rolepgeek]

Whelp, making the traditional fleet is a hell of a lot easier, partially because instead of some dozen ship classes, I only have to deal with four. Sneak peek for ya at the command ship.

Speaking of which, I really wish that there was a mechanic so that having a flag bridge mattered.

EDIT: By the way, this is preliminary. I ignored the RP limit for this game beccause I needed to research and test different designs. Gonna make a new game with proper allocation and naming things.

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Victory class Cruiser    4,000 tons     120 Crew     1016.4 BP      TCS 80  TH 480  EM 0
6000 km/s     Armour 1-22     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.63 Years     MSP 476    AFR 42%    IFR 0.6%    1YR 97    5YR 1459    Max Repair 420 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Spare Berths 1    

Lorentz Plasma Drive (1)    Power 480    Fuel Use 56%    Signature 480    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 20.1 billion km   (38 days at full power)

Low-Res Gravity Flux Scanner (1)     GPS 2100     Range 73.0m km    Resolution 10
Long Range Gravity Flux Scanner (1)     GPS 21000     Range 326.7m km    Resolution 50

ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Snipering at it's finest.