Is this Railgun FAC any good?

[Llamageddon (OP)]

I've been reading that railguns make good early tech weapons. I've not used them before and haven't designed anything with beam control since VB6. Is this any good for my first military offensive ship? It's mostly to build a bunch to look a bit scary to a neighbouring NPR so they don't bully me.

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Amphitreite class Fast Attack Craft (P)      1,000 tons       35 Crew       119.1 BP       TCS 20    TH 100    EM 0
5001 km/s      Armour 4-8       Shields 0-0       HTK 7      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 5
Maint Life 0.58 Years     MSP 7    AFR 80%    IFR 1.1%    1YR 12    5YR 180    Max Repair 50.00 MSP
Midshipman    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Morale Check Required   

C7 P125 Magneto-P Drive EP100.00 (1)    Power 100.0    Fuel Use 172.94%    Signature 100.00    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 97,000 Litres    Range 10.1 billion km (23 days at full power)

12cm Railgun V20/C1 (1x4)    Range 30,000km     TS: 5,001 km/s     Power 6-1     RM 20,000 km    ROF 30       
R20 S12 Beam Fire Control R30-TS5000 (1)     Max Range: 30,000 km   TS: 5,000 km/s     67 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Stellarator Fusion Reactor R1 (1)     Total Power Output 1    Exp 5%

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Fastest fire control I can get is 5000m/s at 4x size. I only need 10bn engine range to get to my nearest colonies. If I loose the armour it goes down to 862 tons, should I try and put on an active sensor or make a seperate FAC with active sensors to work with these, or field them with a much larger sensor ship?

Edit 2: I edited out my incorrect assumptions about power draw.
Edit: I hope I've understood power draw and rate of fire correctly. How do I increase rate of fire? Does that come with capacitor recharge rate?

I also just realised my Railgun and Fire Control range can get up to 40,000. Is it worth losing one point of armour to get the extra 10,000 firing range?

[Barkhorn]

You need an active sensor somewhere in your fleet to be able to fire at all.  You can't shoot at something that's not on active sensors.

Personally, I would cut deployment time some; why have 3 months deployment when you only have fuel for less than a month?

Your railgun has power 6-1, which means it needs 6 power to fire, and charges 1 power per 5 second increment.  So it can shoot once every 30 seconds.  You can improve this with higher capacitor tech, but then you'll also need a bigger, or a boosted power plant.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

Thanks for the reply and advice. I was thinking of 1 power every second, forgot the game always calculates over 5 second increments. For some reason I thought that going below 3 months made no difference to tonnage, not sure where I got that idea. I'm assuming it's always best to go with maximum range when possible.

[xenoscepter]

 - I agree with what Barkhorn has said, however I would also like to point out that your MSP is only 7, so you're going to suffer for that. Long-short of it is that when stuff breaks it eats into MSP, your max repair is 50.00 MSP so your going to be in a lot of trouble if that component is your engine because you can't fix it. Also, firing weapons now uses MSP, except for missiles, so your gun will eat into that too.

 - I'd suggest losing a layer or two of armor, but that's more a preference thing. I don't really armor my FACs... then again I really don't build FACs and when I do they're usually considered expendable or non-combat so YMMV.

[Barkhorn]

It depends what you mean by maximum range.  Maximum range on the gun is the distance beyond which it would do less than 1 damage per hit.  Maximum range on the fire control is the range beyond which it is no longer possible to hit your target.  Firing near your FC's max range, your accuracy will be very poor, so it can be advantageous to have more FC range than weapon range; it will still improve your accuracy.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

Thanks again, I'm glad I asked here. What do you think is the best MSP solution for a short deployment craft in this situation?

-For 7t I can cover engine repairs with MSP 60 but AFR of 200%
-For 10t I can get MSP 13 but AFR of 40%

I really don't know about armour, I feel the need to use up that extra 100t with some armour and make it a nice round 1000t for the range. I feel like armour might be helpful as I am only going 5000km/s but I don't really know. It's almost 20 BP cheaper without armour, either way I can fit a tiny active search sensor on it and hope something else is doing the main spotting.

How do either of these look

Mk II - Long(er) range with 1 armour and high MSP for likely repairs on longer journeys.

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Amphitreite LR class Fast Attack Craft (P)      1,000 tons       38 Crew       96.3 BP       TCS 20    TH 100    EM 0
5002 km/s      Armour 1-8       Shields 0-0       HTK 8      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 5
Maint Life 1.68 Years     MSP 60    AFR 200%    IFR 2.8%    1YR 25    5YR 381    Max Repair 50.00 MSP
Midshipman    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Morale Check Required   

C7 P125 Magneto-P Drive EP100.00 (1)    Power 100.0    Fuel Use 172.94%    Signature 100.00    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 188,000 Litres    Range 19.6 billion km (45 days at full power)

12cm Railgun V20/C1 (1x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 5,002 km/s     Power 6-1     RM 20,000 km    ROF 30       
R20 S12 Beam Fire Control R40-TS5000 (1)     Max Range: 40,000 km   TS: 5,000 km/s     75 50 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Stellarator Fusion Reactor R1 (1)     Total Power Output 1    Exp 5%

S12 E6 Active Search Sensor AS4-R20 (1)     GPS 24     Range 4.1m km    Resolution 20

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Or shorter range with armour and more engineering space to reduce chance of failure in the first place:

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Amphitreite SR class Fast Attack Craft (P)      1,000 tons       40 Crew       111.7 BP       TCS 20    TH 100    EM 0
5004 km/s      Armour 3-8       Shields 0-0       HTK 6      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 5
Maint Life 1.60 Years     MSP 13    AFR 40%    IFR 0.6%    1YR 6    5YR 89    Max Repair 50.00 MSP
Midshipman    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Morale Check Required   

C7 P125 Magneto-P Drive EP100.00 (1)    Power 100.0    Fuel Use 172.94%    Signature 100.00    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 96,000 Litres    Range 10 billion km (23 days at full power)

12cm Railgun V20/C1 (1x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 5,004 km/s     Power 6-1     RM 20,000 km    ROF 30       
R20 S12 Beam Fire Control R40-TS5000 (1)     Max Range: 40,000 km   TS: 5,000 km/s     75 50 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Stellarator Fusion Reactor R1 (1)     Total Power Output 1    Exp 5%

S12 E6 Active Search Sensor AS4-R20 (1)     GPS 24     Range 4.1m km    Resolution 20

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


[Llamageddon (OP)]

It depends what you mean by maximum range.  Maximum range on the gun is the distance beyond which it would do less than 1 damage per hit.  Maximum range on the fire control is the range beyond which it is no longer possible to hit your target.  Firing near your FC's max range, your accuracy will be very poor, so it can be advantageous to have more FC range than weapon range; it will still improve your accuracy.

Ahh, that is interesting, so it might be worth considering the next step up of 60,000km for for my FC, I could lose some armour, as xenoscepter suggested, to make that happen. Thanks for all the feedback, I'm learning a lot.

[Barkhorn]

The second one is dead if the engine breaks down, 13msp can't fix a 50msp engine.  Both are dead if the engine is knocked out in battle; battle damage takes double msp to repair.

The active sensor is weird.  What good is it to get an active sensor contact 4 million km away, when you can only shoot 60,000km?  And at resolution 20, you will never see missiles.  The first time you'll hear about missiles is when your ships all explode.  I would make a resolution 1 active sensor so you can spot missiles, and I would make a FAC leader with no weapons, but big passive sensors so you can find the enemy.

4 armor may as well be no armor against particle lances.  Lasers will also punch right through if you are close enough to shoot back.  It's pretty good against similar tech railguns, and not horrible against missiles though.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

Okay, I think I'm almost ready to start production after all this good advice . Active sensor was me just thinking about ships rather than missiles, though is there much this can do against missiles at only 5000km/s tracking and engine speed? Fac leader and smaller sensors sounds perfect. Just double checking, if my max railgun range is 40,000km then a 60,000km beam control will actually help? I won't be wasting shots sitting at 60,000km and not hitting anything? I've not actually seen combat in Aurora yet since VB6 and have forgotted most of the details.

Edit Re: MSP. I was sort of hoping on just not being deployed long enough to risk low MSP, thinking if an engine was taken out I was probably dead anyway but that might be a better fighter mentality than for use with FAC.

[Barkhorn]

If your railgun range is 40,000km and your FC is 60,000km, you still can't fire past 40,000km.  But you will have better accuracy than if you used a 40,000km FC.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

Thanks for all your help

Unfortunately having a slightly higher FC range isn't viable with my current tech, even with no armour or MSP the extra 100 tons is too much for me to get the range to reach my neighbouring colonies. I decided to go with the extra armour rather than range for now but I'm sure there will be many iterations. 100 MSP was viable too so I can repair an engine damaged in battle, in theory... it sounds like firing my weapon will immediately not make that possible, I need to read up on this. I decided to go 1 HS higher with the search sensor as a 20,000 km/s missile could have crossed nearly all of the smaller ASS's range in 5 seconds, I hope this was the correct choice.

You saved me a lot of mistakes and head-scratching, thanks for your time. This is what I am putting into production for now if you are interested in the final prototype:

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Barkhorn class Fast Attack Craft (P)      1,000 tons       38 Crew       112 BP       TCS 20    TH 100    EM 0
5002 km/s      Armour 3-8       Shields 0-0       HTK 6      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 5
Maint Life 2.22 Years     MSP 100    AFR 200%    IFR 2.8%    1YR 27    5YR 409    Max Repair 50.00 MSP
Midshipman    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Morale Check Required   

Pragmatic C7 P125 Magneto-P Drive EP100.00 (1)    Power 100.0    Fuel Use 172.94%    Signature 100.00    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 89,000 Litres    Range 9.3 billion km (21 days at full power)

12cm Railgun V20/C1 (1x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 5,002 km/s     Power 6-1     RM 20,000 km    ROF 30       
Compromise R20 S12 Beam Fire Control R40-TS5000 (1)     Max Range: 40,000 km   TS: 5,000 km/s     75 50 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Stellarator Fusion Reactor R1 (1)     Total Power Output 1    Exp 5%

Macroscope S12 E6 Active Search Sensor AS2-R1 (1)     GPS 3     Range 2.1m km    MCR 192.7k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
When I make a maintenance supply craft I think I will name it xenoscepter .

[Desdinova]

Don't be afraid to go faster than your max fire control speed. For a FAC, speed is armor.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

Just posting an update, I think the Mk II ticks all the boxes. Traded armour for speed, extended the FC range for better accuracy and added enough MSP to repair engine in combat with some left over for firing (Not sure how big a effect that has on MSP use).

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Barkhorn Mk II class Fast Attack Craft (P)      1,000 tons       40 Crew       148.8 BP       TCS 20    TH 151    EM 0
7563 km/s      Armour 1-8       Shields 0-0       HTK 7      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 5
Maint Life 3.28 Years     MSP 169    AFR 80%    IFR 1.1%    1YR 24    5YR 356    Max Repair 75.60 MSP
Midshipman    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Morale Check Required   

C6 P150 Magneto-P Drive  EP151.20 (1)    Power 151.2    Fuel Use 208.31%    Signature 151.20    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 110,000 Litres    Range 9.5 billion km (14 days at full power)

12cm Railgun V20/C3 (1x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 7,563 km/s     Power 6-3     RM 20,000 km    ROF 10       
Beam Fire Control R64-TS7000 (1)     Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 7,000 km/s     84 69 53 38 22 6 0 0 0 0
Stellarator Fusion Reactor R3 (1)     Total Power Output 3    Exp 5%

Macroscope S12 E6 Active Search Sensor AS2-R1 (1)     GPS 3     Range 2.1m km    MCR 192.7k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

[SevenOfCarina]

That's kinda slow for a Magnetoplasma Drive FAC. It's not unusual to have mainline warships moving that fast around that tech level; I tend to opt for around 6,000 km/s. I would aim for >10,000 km/s, but you appear to have range constraints, so that might be problematic. Two layers of armour is also generally a good idea if the hostile forces have missiles, since the AI tends to opt for 5 or 6 strength warheads that manage two layers of penetration. Even if they don't, paper-thin armour is not conducive to getting within railgun range.

Honestly, if I were in your position, I'd opt for missile boats with box-launched ASMs and AMMs. If that's not to your taste, though, I'd recommend splitting the current design into an escort variant with a pair of 10cm railguns and a fast-tracking fire control, and an anti-ship variant with a strength-2 particle beam and a long-range fire control. You'll be able to engage at significantly greater range, and you won't need to sacrifice point-defence capability to do that either.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

Interesting. I could always just give up on Railgun FAC at my tech level and put them on a bigger ship. There were some discussions that Railguns were a good early tech to use on ships and one of the best non-missile weapons to use on fighters so I thought I'd give it a go. I could vastle drop the range as I am about to get hangars at last. That might let me get them up to a better speed and maybe have some space for armour.

Do you think mounting some railguns on turrets and putting them on a much larger and more resistant vessel might be better use of this tech at my current level? These were originally built in a panic as I had no navy and had bumped into a NPR two systems from my homeworld.