Dirt cheap jumpgate sensor platform

[Llamageddon (OP)]

I've come up with what I think is a pretty unconventional sensor platform design. A few people have been saying buoys can be annoying and clutter up the place I was wondering if there is any reason not to deploy these as towable buoys:

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Anubis class Sensor Platform (P)      69 tons       5 Crew       13.3 BP       TCS 1    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      No Armour       Shields 0-0     HTK 1      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 120    Max Repair 10 MSP
Midshipman    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   


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

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Space Station for construction purposes

I think it's a cheap and small as I can make it at ~10x the cost of an equivalent active sensor buoy. Would this detect almost anything coming through a jumpgate?

Range is 4.1m km for 5000 tons, 256k km for 250 tons.

Is it worth putting any other sensors or equipment on it? Is a more heavy duty sensor platform probably more worth my while?

I can design a micro-tug to move them if I need to, or as my borders expand, and upgrade them with new sensors as my tech advances. Would making a version that also can give out some emergency supplies or fuel make them a bit more conventional, or adding a small hanger with some jumpgate defense related fighter/s in it perhaps? (I'm not sure what the restrictions of a commercial hanger are).

Edit: I suspect a carrier is the better option for deploying these but out of curiosity I just did some calculations (i.e. used ship optimiser utility) and this cute little thing could tug up to 500t about 100bn km at approx. 4000km/s. Interestingly this is about as tiny as you can make commercial a tug with my current tech without the range having to drop off precipitously. Going down to 2000t means engine+fuel+tractor beam leaves only enbough space for fuel to take you about 40bn km.

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Weeble class Tug      2,073 tons       32 Crew       208.5 BP       TCS 41    TH 200    EM 0
4825 km/s      Armour 1-14       Shields 0-0       HTK 14      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 62    Max Repair 100 MSP
Tractor Beam     
Midshipman    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   

COM C7 P50 Magneto-P Drive  EP200.0 (1)    Power 200    Fuel Use 7.83%    Signature 200    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 111 billion km (266 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

[Barkhorn]

I like it.  I'd consider making the sensor resolution 1 so it could spot missiles as well.  I would also consider making a similar platform with passive sensors instead; there is no chance this could go undetected, while a passive sensor platform might.  Maybe consider including a diplomacy module.  But these are just personal preference, it's fine the way it is.

As for moving these around, you should put them in a hangar; a single hangar module could move 14 of them.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

I not exactly sure what Max Squad Jump radius is, I was worried if I went lower on the resolution that some small ships might be able to jump in past my sensor range. If I am mistaken then it makes sense to go even smaller, or if it doesn't spoil the cheapness aspect then a second missile detection sensor for 5 tons could be an addition. Thanks for the tip on making a passive one too. Am I right in thinking it would be best to place that a few 100k km away from the exact jump point entry to maximise it's chances of going undetected? Diplomacy module is a really interesting idea too.

[Barkhorn]

That's a good point about the squad jump radius.  It's really up to you whether you go with res 1 sensors or not.  You could go with even worse resolution, like res 100, which would make your outpost even cheaper, since its pretty unlikely they'll be jumping with anything smaller than 5000 tons.  I don't think you could go wrong with any of these choices.

[Norm49]

I am late to see this but one problem with using ship is if a enemy fleet place it self on the jump point they will destroy the ship but if you place a buoy the probably wont see it then you can get inlet and it can save your fleet. That the ways i went in my last game, I was defeated anyways but my fleet manage to live a other 50 yeas because of this.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

Good point. I can't think of any reason you wouldn't want to keep a sensor buoy active on a jump point, and you would lose a low ranked officer and some crew every time one of these was destroyed. This design still does achieve the goal of avoiding having permamanent, undeleteable sensor buoys placed though. If you have lots of lower ranks sitting around it might be a good way of giving them all a posting on a ship. Pretty boring work though; you could post officers who have dishonoured themselves to these platforms as punishment.

[Michael Sandy]

For a jumpgate sensor platform, you definitely want a res 1 sensor on the empire side, to detect anything that transits.  You pretty much only need the range to cover the jump engine range, although having more range helps on the offchance something would move completely through the range in a subphase.

It is also good to have an EM or TH variant on the frontier side.  You don't want actives that reveal its presence on the frontier side, but you definitely want passives.  I prefer EM because detecting the anti-ship sensors gives you a significantly greater warning time for a given cost of sensor platform.

[Froggiest1982]

For a jumpgate sensor platform, you definitely want a res 1 sensor on the empire side, to detect anything that transits.  You pretty much only need the range to cover the jump engine range, although having more range helps on the offchance something would move completely through the range in a subphase.

It is also good to have an EM or TH variant on the frontier side.  You don't want actives that reveal its presence on the frontier side, but you definitely want passives.  I prefer EM because detecting the anti-ship sensors gives you a significantly greater warning time for a given cost of sensor platform.

I always have sensor buoys on my end of the jump in every system. I am already paranoid with dormant JP, I cannot really sleep well if I add up not knowing what is jumping and where on the known database.

[ExChairman]

Dont place it right on top of jumppoint, I almost always build a small buoy with TH or EM or both... But 9 out 10 on the JP gets destroyed, usaly within 30 seconds after a hostile jumps in... You will get the warning but...
I started placing them some x10k (usaly around 40-60kfrom the JPs center away from normal routes and they starts to survive...On the other hand, the info you get can be depressing... In my last game 1.11 I had been at war for so.e 10 years when he(it) jumped in a fleet of some 300 ships...🥶🥵

[Michael Sandy]

If you are worried about it being destroyed, have one on top of the Jump point to get the best information, and one a bit further out to get you that OH so valuable information about what killed the first one.  You probably won't get useful information on the range of the enemy weapons.

Designing frontier security like this really drives home what absolute ninnies a lot of space aliens are in science fiction.  I mean, sending the mother ship in range of the target planet?  WHY?!  There is SO much utility in having multiple craft monitoring each other from a distance.  Any potential enemy that gets close enough to eliminate all the sensor posts simultaneously would be communicating their intentions by their movements long before they could attempt it.

[QuakeIV]

Woah, I didn't know size-1 actives counted as civilian.  I thought that only worked for passive sensors.