The introduction of the new raiders has given me a few dilemmas that I have not had to consider before, mostly due to me abusing my knowledge of the AI to only provide protection where I knew it was needed. This meant often sending infrastructure, installations, and colonists to far away colonies without protection, simply because I knew it was in a line of systems where aliens most likely would not bother me.
Now things are entirely different. First change was of course to begin colonisation by sending ground units with STO's to make sure that the raiders simply would not destroy or invade the newly established colony and for more established colonies to send maintenance facilities and a patrol fleet to ensure that a larger fleet of raiders would not go on a rampage unobstructed.
However, most recently I ran into a different problem. A fleet of tugs and ark modules was attacked and destroyed in one of the two empty systems that are between my main planet and the new colony. Fortunately I had a fleet heading back in the same system at that time and managed to deal with the raiders easy enough, but since some of these tugging fleets move extremely slowly, there is a very high chance that a new raider fleet will spawn in a system where a fleet of tugs already is and then they are absolutely helpless. And even if I have a patrol fleet either passing through or stationed at a deep space population, it is unlikely that they will arrive in time to prevent the destruction of colonists or cargo - even if they might depose of the raiders afterwards and thus prevent further damage.
So, I have two questions. One is specific feedback on an escort ship, that I expect to start sending out together with every long distance cargo/colonist fleet. I would be very interested in seeing other designs for similar purposes and get a feeling of whether this would do the job. The idea is that they will primarily serve to scare off the lone raiders, so they don't get a free pass on unprotected fleets, and also be able to draw fire and defend themselves against smaller raider fleets. I don't expect that defence against a full raider fleet is a realistic goal for these kinds of escorts (though I may be setting the bar too low here). In that scenario they just need to do enough damage to either scare off the remaining raiders or buy time for the main patrol fleet. I also don't expect that they will need to chase down fleeing raiders, so speed is not a primary concern, but fuel efficiency is, since they need to travel many many kilometers.
I am aiming for 20k ton total, so there is a bit of room left.
Pegasus class Civilian Escort (P) 19,332 tons 419 Crew 3,054 BP TCS 387 TH 750 EM 10,200
1939 km/s Armour 8-64 Shields 340-425 HTK 125 Sensors 22/0/0/0 DCR 18 PPV 57.7
Maint Life 5.32 Years MSP 5,789 AFR 374% IFR 5.2% 1YR 343 5YR 5,138 Max Repair 153.0 MSP
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG AUX ENG
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Morale Check Required
Commercial Ion Drive EP375.00 (2) Power 750 Fuel Use 4.33% Signature 375 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 350,000 Litres Range 75.2 billion km (449 days at full power)
Epsilon S85 / R425 Shields (4) Recharge Time 425 seconds (0.8 per second)
31.250cm C5 Soft X-ray Laser (1) Range 256,000km TS: 4,000 km/s Power 26-5 RM 60,000 km ROF 30
Single 25.0cm C5 Soft X-ray Laser Turret (2x1) Range 256,000km TS: 5000 km/s Power 16-5 RM 60,000 km ROF 20
Single 20cm C5 Soft X-ray Laser Turret (4x1) Range 256,000km TS: 5000 km/s Power 10-5 RM 60,000 km ROF 10
Beam Fire Control R256-TS5000 (2) Max Range: 256,000 km TS: 5,000 km/s 96 92 88 84 80 77 73 69 65 61
Magnetic Mirror Fusion Reactor R18 (3) Total Power Output 54 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS12-R20 (1) GPS 112 Range 12m km Resolution 20
Thermal Sensor TH2-22 (1) Sensitivity 22 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 37.1m km
ECCM-1 (1) ECM 10
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes
The second question concerns more general strategies. A ship like this can do nothing against civilian shipping lanes. It would be way too much micromanagement to actually follow the civilian fleets around, but because combat is so fast, it is almost impossible to get there in time, even if a ship is nearby already. This is especially a problem in empty systems, where there aren't even any colonies with the standard set of patrol crafts ready for dispatch.
What have you so far found to be useful working strategies? Do you use strategically placed deep space populations with maintained patrol fleets for quick dispatch in all systems? Do you have patrol fleets that fly constantly along shipping lanes to important colonies? Is it possible to fortify a system to such an extent that raiders are less likely to spawn there? Do you have a developed system of deployed to discover them before they reach the shipping lanes and catch them with a fast fleet?