Odd duck designs

[Omnivore (OP)]

Post your oddest, ugliest, duckling designs here.   Odd but functional or just plain weird enough to do the job.

I'll start off with this tiny 'carrier' that actually turns out to be rather handy at times:

Trapdoor class Light Carrier

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Trapdoor class Light Carrier    500 tons     9 Crew     61.5 BP      TCS 10  TH 10  EM 0
1000 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 23.94 Years     MSP 38    AFR 4%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 0    5YR 2    Max Repair 5 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 120 months    Flight Crew Berths 1   
Hangar Deck Capacity 250 tons     

10 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (1)    Power 10    Fuel Use 138.35%    Signature 10    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 20,000 Litres    Range 5.2 billion km   (60 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes


[ThatBlondeGuy]

Out of interest, what do you put in that carrier?

[Omnivore (OP)]

Until I get some better tech, this is sitting in that spot:

Spider class Light Fighter

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Spider class Light Fighter    250 tons     1 Crew     36.5 BP      TCS 5  TH 28  EM 0
5600 km/s     Armour 1-3     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 1.5
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 50%    IFR 0.7%    1YR 3    5YR 38    Max Repair 9 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 9   

14 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (2)    Power 14    Fuel Use 320.86%    Signature 14    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 5,000 Litres    Range 1.1 billion km   (55 hours at full power)

Gauss Cannon R3-25 (1x3)    Range 30,000km     TS: 5600 km/s     Accuracy Modifier 25%     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S00.5 24-1500 (FTR) (1)    Max Range: 48,000 km   TS: 6000 km/s     79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0

Active Search Sensor MR0-R1 (1)     GPS 2     Range 120k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes


[sublight]

I think we'll be seeing a lot of odd-duck fighter designs with the new engines.

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Cribin Fawr class Scout Fighter    500 tons     14 Crew     142.5 BP      TCS 10  TH 5  EM 0
500 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/1/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 11.01 Years     MSP 89    AFR 4%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 1    5YR 20    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 9 months    Spare Berths 5    

Fighter Thermal (1)    Power 5    Fuel Use 89.1%    Signature 5    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 80,000 Litres    Range 32.3 billion km   (748 days at full power)

Gravitational Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes

I built a half dozen of these guys to survey Sol. Partly because I wanted to use my fighter factories for something, and partly because I didn't want to retool any of my shipyards.

[Gidoran]

So it's kind of a cheap, fighter-factory produced long endurance pod for a fighter? How do you tend to use them? I could see them as kinda-useful to drop at a point just a little shy of a jump point, or to put a fighter garrison over a world you just colonized, but it seems like a proper carrier would be better for both. Maybe not cheaper, though.

[Omnivore (OP)]

So it's kind of a cheap, fighter-factory produced long endurance pod for a fighter? How do you tend to use them?

Pretty much exactly that, a cheap way of forward basing small numbers of low endurance, high performance, 250 ton fighters.   In the long run I'll probably use carriers, but that is an extra ship design that ties up the yards (as sublight noted with his survey fighter) and I'd still be left with the long term basing problem the Trapdoor solves.   I currently use small squadrons of the Trapdoor/Spider combo along with a Trapdoor variant sensor platform to back up my warp point minefields.   Unlike the mines, the Trapdoor/Spider defenses can be redeployed further forward at need, more or less cutting down on the number of mines I need to use.

Come to think of it, my minelayer design is a bit of an odd duck itself since it is a combination minelayer/tanker/supply(/collier?) ship that I use to extend the range of the Trapdoors on the way to and from jump points I'm defending.

[Nathan_]

I've never really made one of these before, so I suppose it qualifies, though its not by any means a stopgap design.

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Martel V class Drop Carrier    20,000 tons     421 Crew     3858.5 BP      TCS 400  TH 4800  EM 1800
12000 km/s     Armour 3-65     Shields 60-300     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 20     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.92 Years     MSP 2412    AFR 160%    IFR 2.2%    1YR 418    5YR 6268    Max Repair 600 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Flight Crew Berths 52   
Hangar Deck Capacity 2000 tons     Troop Capacity: 2 Battalions   

Military 1200 EP Internal Fusion Drive (4)    Power 1200    Fuel Use 82.67%    Signature 1200    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 1,425,000 Litres    Range 15.5 billion km   (14 days at full power)
Epsilon R300/15 Shields (20)   Total Fuel Cost  300 Litres per day

ECM 30

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

It carries two of these:

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Hammer V class Dropship    1,000 tons     26 Crew     375.5 BP      TCS 20  TH 57.6  EM 0
12000 km/s     Armour 3-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.14 Years     MSP 59    AFR 32%    IFR 0.4%    1YR 17    5YR 258    Max Repair 120 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Spare Berths 4   
Drop Capacity: 1 Battalion    Cargo Handling Multiplier 10   

FTR 120 EP Internal Fusion Drive (2)    Power 120    Fuel Use 763.84%    Signature 28.8    Exp 30%
Fuel Capacity 75,000 Litres    Range 1.8 billion km   (40 hours at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

I can't remember if a cargo handler is needed, if it isn't I'll dump it. Anyway the plan is for my fleet proper to batter down an enemy ship until it slows to where it can be captured.

[Gidoran]

I believe that the cargo handling modules only help the troop bays, not the drop bays.

Although speaking off odd-duck... I got tired of wasting shipyards producing endless tiny survey ships that take forever to get the job done, and so designed a pair of 500 ton survey fighters, each with a single sensor on it, and this carrier (based off an escort carrier I already had designed) to lead a task force strong enough to at least fight its way out of a bad situation. I've been breaking up my original run of Missile Destroyers, Generalist Destroyers, and Escort Carriers to provide them with a basic escort. They actually seem to get systems surveyed quicker, and have the advantage of being usable as fighter transports to ferry garrisons about.

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Carrack class Survey Command Ship    10,000 tons     173 Crew     1143.6 BP      TCS 200  TH 300  EM 0
2000 km/s    JR 4-100     Armour 4-41     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 10     PPV 0
Maint Life 4.5 Years     MSP 715    AFR 80%    IFR 1.1%    1YR 57    5YR 858    Max Repair 107 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Flight Crew Berths 21   
Hangar Deck Capacity 2000 tons     

General Electric M200 Mod 1 Slipstream Drive     Max Ship Size 10000 tons    Distance 100k km     Squadron Size 4
General Electric CV2000 Magnetoplasma Drive (2)    Power 200    Fuel Use 7.96%    Signature 150    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 2,000,000 Litres    Range 452.3 billion km   (2617 days at full power)

TN/SPS-01 Area Search Sensor (1)     GPS 8400     Range 117.6m km    Resolution 100

Strike Group
2x C-4 Prospector Survey Craft   Speed: 2400 km/s    Size: 10
2x C-5 Astronaut Survey Craft   Speed: 2400 km/s    Size: 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


[Nathan_]

They help dropbays(or rather help load from troopbays),  but it uses the ones on the troopship carrier, not the ones on the dropship, so no need there.

[DoktorV]

Gentlemen, BEHOLD! The Hamster class is the galaxy's smallest spacefaring emergency rescue vehicle, capable of extricating stranded crews from any situation (except hostile fire).  How do we fit all that life-saving functionality into a 500-ton, early-TN tech chassis? We have no idea!

Hamster class Tanker    500 tons     6 Crew     76. 4 BP      TCS 10  TH 7. 5  EM 0
1000 km/s     Armour 2-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 96    AFR 2%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 0    Max Repair 6 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 18 months    Spare Berths 1   
Cryogenic Berths 200   

9. 6 EP Ion Drive (1)    Power 9. 6    Fuel Use 6. 94%    Signature 7. 2    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 185,000 Litres    Range 959. 7 billion km   (11107 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes.


I haven't actually built any yet, partially because I'm a bit worried about what "Maintenance Life 0 years" means.

[ThatBlondeGuy]

quick question, why's it class 'tanker' secondly. You can easily get maint life in one of those things, just drop the engine size a little bit but boost it up, and drop the fuel capacity. Then plonk in a small engineering bay.

[metalax]

Gentlemen, BEHOLD! The Hamster class is the galaxy's smallest spacefaring emergency rescue vehicle, capable of extricating stranded crews from any situation (except hostile fire).  How do we fit all that life-saving functionality into a 500-ton, early-TN tech chassis? We have no idea!

Hamster class Tanker    500 tons     6 Crew     76. 4 BP      TCS 10  TH 7. 5  EM 0
1000 km/s     Armour 2-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 96    AFR 2%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 0    Max Repair 6 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 18 months    Spare Berths 1    
Cryogenic Berths 200    

9. 6 EP Ion Drive (1)    Power 9. 6    Fuel Use 6. 94%    Signature 7. 2    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 185,000 Litres    Range 959. 7 billion km   (11107 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes.


I haven't actually built any yet, partially because I'm a bit worried about what "Maintenance Life 0 years" means.

I think you have run into one of the bugs that seems to have cropped up with the move to 6.0 in that sometimes the maitainance life of a class is stuck at zero even though you have engineering spaces present on the ship. I haven't seen any way of fixing it short of creating a new design and giving it the same components.

I'd seriously drop some of that fuel to improve speed, unless the class is supposed to serve as a dual role tanker and rescue ship. Up the power on the engines, perhaps not to the same level as on combat fighters but if it is serving as a rescue ship, it needs to be able to reach lifepods before their lifesupport fails.

[sublight]

I haven't actually built any yet, partially because I'm a bit worried about what "Maintenance Life 0 years" means.

is a rounding notification that signifies that your ship has, for all practical proposes, a maintenance life of infinity. It seems to be displayed when either the true maintenance life exceeds 100 years or when the IFR% rounds to zero (less than 3.5% AFR), although I could be wrong.

The only other time I've seen or heard of 0 maintenance life is when the ship/fighter has 0 MSP.

Edit: Here is a link to to a 5.6 design that also had 0 maintnance life in a good way.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,4647.0.html

[swarm_sadist]

One thing I'm noticing from all these carriers and fighters is that they have enough fuel for up to 5 years, but only have the berthing for 12-24 month deployment. If your deployment time is large, then the only thing to worry about is a top up from a tanker every couple of months.

@gidoran and @sublight
I'd like to know just how much micromanagement is involved when dealing with fighter survey/carriers.

[Conscript Gary]

If you stay deployed for too long, you just lose morale.
If you run out of fuel, it's a much more pressing situation