United Earth fleet

[user-unknown (OP)]

I finally think I've got the hang of this game - known about it for about a year but hadn't really played it that much until the last few weeks.    I started a new game on 5. 51 and am now about 20 years in, which is the furthest I've ever made it!

I've discovered 36 systems now, but have only found two NPRs - one of whom is the Swarm, the other I think is the Precursors but not sure. 
Recently, I have seen one of them rather close to the Sol system and have decided it may finally be time to put all those long research hours into good use and actually build some military ships for a change.  .  . 

First up, an anti-missile escort.    Currently planning on building 10 of these. 

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Paladin class Destroyer Escort    6,000 tons     568 Crew     1191.56 BP      TCS 120  TH 640  EM 0
5333 km/s     Armour 4-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 13     PPV 16
Maint Life 4.95 Years     MSP 372    AFR 96%    IFR 1.3%    1YR 25    5YR 379    Max Repair 70 MSP
Magazine 448    

Rolls Royce E6-M Magneto-plasma Drive (8)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 100.0 billion km   (217 days at full power)

S1-10 Missile Launcher (16)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10
Missile Fire Control FC29-R1 (4)     Range 29.4m km    Resolution 1
AMM Interceptor Mk II (448)  Speed: 40,000 km/s   End: 3.1m    Range: 7.5m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 373 / 224 / 112

Active Search Sensor MR9-R1 (1)     GPS 70     Range 9.8m km    Resolution 1

ECM 10

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

Next up, an anti-ship destroyer.    Currently planning on building 5 of these. 

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Avenger class Missile Destroyer    6,000 tons     625 Crew     1038.12 BP      TCS 120  TH 640  EM 0
5333 km/s     Armour 4-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 13     PPV 24
Maint Life 4.48 Years     MSP 324    AFR 96%    IFR 1.3%    1YR 26    5YR 392    Max Repair 70 MSP
Magazine 408    

Rolls Royce E6-M Magneto-plasma Drive (8)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 100.0 billion km   (217 days at full power)

S4-30 Missile Launcher (6)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 30
Missile Fire Control FC117-R16 (1)     Range 117.6m km    Resolution 16
ASM-4 Javelin Mk I (60)  Speed: 24,000 km/s   End: 31.2m    Range: 45m km   WH: 9    Size: 4    TH: 168 / 100 / 50
ASM-4 Longbow Mk I (42)  Speed: 20,000 km/s   End: 62.5m    Range: 75m km   WH: 6    Size: 4    TH: 173 / 104 / 52

Active Search Sensor MR31-R16 (1)     GPS 896     Range 31.4m km    Resolution 16

ECCM-1 (1)         ECM 10

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

A slightly larger jump ship - eventually all my main shipyards will have 8000 ton capacity, but at the moment most are still 6000 ton.   
Has a reasonable amout of point defense which will probably be left in final defensive fire mode to cover the fleet. 
Thinking of 4 of these (as that is the number of slipyards available)

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Trafalgar class Jump Destroyer    8,000 tons     714 Crew     1334.8 BP      TCS 160  TH 880  EM 0
5500 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 4-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 17     PPV 31.6
Maint Life 4.45 Years     MSP 730    AFR 73%    IFR 1%    1YR 59    5YR 892    Max Repair 256 MSP

J8000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 8000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Rolls Royce E6-M Magneto-plasma Drive (11)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 270,000 Litres    Range 101.3 billion km   (213 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R2-50 Turret (4x6)    Range 20,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S03 16-12000 (2)    Max Range: 32,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     69 37 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Close Range Active Search Sensor MR3-R1 (1)     GPS 28     Range 3.9m km    Resolution 1

ECM 20

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

The active sensors on all these ships are for backup purposes only as I don't want to have any ships left completely incapable of defending themselves.   The sensors on the two missile ships are 2. 5HS to still give a useful range, whereas the one on the turret ship is 1HS for a range of 400k as I wanted to keep the time based tracking bonus against missiles (does this allpy only to guns or to missiles too?).    I am planning on building a dedicated sensor platform with 3 large arrays at resolutions 1, 16 and 80 but the arrays are still being researched so haven't been able to put a design together yet!

I still haven't started tooling the shipyards for these yet so there's still time if there are any huge mistakes I have made

I also have a size 1000 x10 slipways shipyard ready for creating gunboats but haven't worked out what to put on them yet.    It seems fairly pointless to just build smaller versions of the above.    I guess I could put box launchers on them for huge volleys, but then I would need some form of tender for them to reload.    Unfortunately my beam fire control tech is pretty terrible - I was considering sticking a 15cm railgun on them but the  fire control required to make full use of it ended up being about the same size as the gun itself. 

[Brian Neumann]

The only thing that jumped to my attention on a first pass was the number of anti-missile launchers on your destroyer escort.  I usually want fewer launchers and more magazine space.  If you dropped 6 launchers and 1 fire control you would probably have enough space for an extra 100 missiles.  In most engagements I find myself running out of anti-missiles rather than being overwhelmed by mass salvo's.  Also check what the actual engagement range is for those anti-missile fire control.  A size 6 missile is a much smaller target than a size 20 which is a 1 hull space resolution.  You probably are only getting about 10% of the range shown which would be 2.9m km.  If that is the case then you might want a larger fire control to make full use of the anti-missile range.

Brian

[user-unknown (OP)]

Yes, the anti missile FC does have a much shorter range but I don't really have space for larger ones!  I might try a compromise between your suggestions actually - drop one FC and launchers, increase size of remaining FCs by say 50% and then fill any remaining space with magazines.

Also, the magazines I am using have 1 pt of armour in them which reduces the capacity of each by 1 missile.   Is this actually worth doing? Switching to unarmoured would give about another 25 missiles in total IIRC.

[Brian Neumann]

Also, the magazines I am using have 1 pt of armour in them which reduces the capacity of each by 1 missile.   Is this actually worth doing? Switching to unarmoured would give about another 25 missiles in total IIRC.

On a ship this size I wouldn't bother with armoured magazines, especially if they are size 1 magazines in the first place.  I have two standard magazines a size 1 with no armour and a size 5 with 1 point of armour.  The size 5 gets put on larger ships where a single lucky hit is more important to guard against.  Having a magazine hit and then explode is a great way to get a chain reaction that guts a ship.  That 1 extra point of armour prevents a lot of low damage hits from causing that chain reaction in the first place.

Brian

[user-unknown (OP)]

Ok, have updated them slightly.   All now have a slightly decreased maintenance supply (down to approx 3. 5 years from 4. 5)

Escort now has increased magazine capacity and longer fire control range, but reduced number of launchers.

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Paladin class Destroyer Escort    6,000 tons     540 Crew     1215.6 BP      TCS 120  TH 640  EM 0
5333 km/s     Armour 4-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 12     PPV 12
Maint Life 3.7 Years     MSP 317    AFR 115%    IFR 1.6%    1YR 36    5YR 539    Max Repair 112 MSP
Magazine 522   

Rolls Royce E6-M Magneto-plasma Drive (8)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 100.0 billion km   (217 days at full power)

S1-10 Missile Launcher (12)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10
Missile Fire Control FC47-R1 (3)     Range 47.0m km    Resolution 1
AMM Interceptor Mk II (522)  Speed: 40,000 km/s   End: 3.1m    Range: 7.5m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 373 / 224 / 112

Active Search Sensor MR9-R1 (1)     GPS 70     Range 9.8m km    Resolution 1

ECM 10

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

Anti ship destroyer has more magazine capacity, one less launcher, and ECCM removed as fire control range is massively future proofed anyway. . .
ECM has been upgraded to ECM-2 from Compact ECM-1

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Avenger class Missile Destroyer    6,000 tons     591 Crew     1011.6 BP      TCS 120  TH 640  EM 0
5333 km/s     Armour 4-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 12     PPV 20
Maint Life 3.62 Years     MSP 242    AFR 125%    IFR 1.7%    1YR 28    5YR 427    Max Repair 70 MSP
Magazine 530   

Rolls Royce E6-M Magneto-plasma Drive (8)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 100.0 billion km   (217 days at full power)

S4-30 Missile Launcher (5)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 30
Missile Fire Control FC117-R16 (1)     Range 117.6m km    Resolution 16
ASM-4 Javelin Mk I (72)  Speed: 24,000 km/s   End: 31.2m    Range: 45m km   WH: 9    Size: 4    TH: 168 / 100 / 50
ASM-4 Longbow Mk I (60)  Speed: 20,000 km/s   End: 62.5m    Range: 75m km   WH: 6    Size: 4    TH: 173 / 104 / 52

Active Search Sensor MR31-R16 (1)     GPS 896     Range 31.4m km    Resolution 16

ECM 20

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

Dropped maintenance capacity in line with remainder of fleet and added a thermal sensor in its place

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Trafalgar class Jump Destroyer    8,000 tons     714 Crew     1336.8 BP      TCS 160  TH 880  EM 0
5500 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 4-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 11/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 16     PPV 31.6
Maint Life 3.85 Years     MSP 637    AFR 83%    IFR 1.2%    1YR 68    5YR 1018    Max Repair 256 MSP

J8000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 8000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Rolls Royce E6-M Magneto-plasma Drive (11)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 270,000 Litres    Range 101.3 billion km   (213 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R2-50 Turret (4x6)    Range 20,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S03 16-12000 (2)    Max Range: 32,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     69 37 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Close Range Active Search Sensor MR3-R1 (1)     GPS 28     Range 3.9m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km

ECM 20

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


[Beersatron]

Do you have a dedicated scout ship? Your FC is nice a long range and your missiles have a good range too but your actual search sensors are less than the range of your missiles by a noticeable margin, negating the point of having the longer ranged FC and missiles in the first place.

My opinion only of course, I like to have the ASS, FC and missiles all hit the same distances (or as close as the fractions allow), but it is nice to have a couple extra million on the missiles range in case the target starts moving away from you.

[user-unknown (OP)]

Yes, I designed a couple more ships to fill missing roles:

A fleet scout:

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L81 Oracle class Destroyer    8,000 tons     701 Crew     2119.6 BP      TCS 160  TH 880  EM 0
5500 km/s     Armour 7-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 38/70/0/0     Damage Control Rating 16     PPV 15.8
Maint Life 4.49 Years     MSP 1076    AFR 78%    IFR 1.1%    1YR 86    5YR 1294    Max Repair 420 MSP

Rolls Royce E6-M Magneto-plasma Drive (11)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 270,000 Litres    Range 101.3 billion km   (213 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R2-50 Turret (2x6)    Range 20,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S03 16-12000 (1)    Max Range: 32,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     69 37 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Active Search Sensor MR58-R1 (1)     GPS 420     Range 58.8m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR350-R80 (1)     GPS 22400     Range 350.6m km    Resolution 80
Active Search Sensor MR156-R16 (1)     GPS 4480     Range 156.8m km    Resolution 16
Thermal Sensor TH3.5-38 (1)     Sensitivity 38     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  38m km
EM Detection Sensor EM5-70 (1)     Sensitivity 70     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  70m km

ECM 20

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

A jump ship:

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L80 Trafalgar class Jump Destroyer Escort    8,000 tons     714 Crew     1336.8 BP      TCS 160  TH 880  EM 0
5500 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 4-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 11/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 16     PPV 31.6
Maint Life 3.85 Years     MSP 637    AFR 83%    IFR 1.2%    1YR 68    5YR 1018    Max Repair 256 MSP

J8000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 8000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Rolls Royce E6-M Magneto-plasma Drive (11)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 270,000 Litres    Range 101.3 billion km   (213 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R2-50 Turret (4x6)    Range 20,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S03 16-12000 (2)    Max Range: 32,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     69 37 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Close Range Active Search Sensor MR3-R1 (1)     GPS 28     Range 3.9m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km

ECM 20

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


A slightly larger missile destroyer;

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L82 Warlock class Destroyer    8,000 tons     756 Crew     1420.1 BP      TCS 160  TH 880  EM 0
5500 km/s     Armour 5-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 33/28/0/0     Damage Control Rating 14     PPV 35.8
Maint Life 4.09 Years     MSP 444    AFR 128%    IFR 1.8%    1YR 43    5YR 639    Max Repair 84 MSP
Magazine 360   

Rolls Royce E6-M Magneto-plasma Drive (11)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 270,000 Litres    Range 101.3 billion km   (213 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R2-50 Turret (2x6)    Range 20,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S03 16-12000 (1)    Max Range: 32,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     69 37 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

S4-30 Missile Launcher (5)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 30
Missile Fire Control FC117-R16 (1)     Range 117.6m km    Resolution 16
ASM-4 Longbow Mk I (90)  Speed: 20,000 km/s   End: 62.5m    Range: 75m km   WH: 6    Size: 4    TH: 173 / 104 / 52

Close Range Active Search Sensor MR3-R1 (1)     GPS 28     Range 3.9m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR47-R16 (1)     GPS 1344     Range 47.0m km    Resolution 16
Thermal Sensor TH3-33 (1)     Sensitivity 33     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2-28 (1)     Sensitivity 28     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  28m km

ECM 20

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


Command variant of above:

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L82-C Warlock class Destroyer Leader    8,000 tons     761 Crew     1511.6 BP      TCS 160  TH 880  EM 0
5500 km/s     Armour 5-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 14     PPV 35.8
Maint Life 4.22 Years     MSP 502    AFR 120%    IFR 1.7%    1YR 45    5YR 679    Max Repair 150 MSP
Flag Bridge    Magazine 360   

Rolls Royce E6-M Magneto-plasma Drive (11)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 270,000 Litres    Range 101.3 billion km   (213 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R2-50 Turret (2x6)    Range 20,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S03 16-12000 (1)    Max Range: 32,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     69 37 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

S4-30 Missile Launcher (5)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 30
Missile Fire Control FC117-R16 (1)     Range 117.6m km    Resolution 16
ASM-4 Longbow Mk I (90)  Speed: 20,000 km/s   End: 62.5m    Range: 75m km   WH: 6    Size: 4    TH: 173 / 104 / 52

Close Range Active Search Sensor MR3-R1 (1)     GPS 28     Range 3.9m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR47-R16 (1)     GPS 1344     Range 47.0m km    Resolution 16

ECM 20

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

My final fleet consisted of 10 Paladins, 7 Avengers, 4 Trafalgars, 2 Oracles, 2 Warlock and 2 Warlock-Cs.  I sent them on a voyage of discovery into a Precursor naval base? system.  Against the enemy fleet, they seemed to do quite while - IIRC all missiles launched by the enemy ships were shot down before striking my ships, however I did lose a Trafalgar when I did a 20 min increment thinking that this would put the enemy fleet just inside missile range, and it turned out it put their 8x30cm laser armed ship right on top of my fleet.  This interruption was promptly dealt with as soon as my own ships launched against it however. 

After dealing with fleets within the system, I moved on to investigate two intriguing contacts hovering over a planet, but this turned out to be a mistake...  Lulled into a false sense of security by their complete lack of doing anything, I moved my fleet pretty close to them and was somewhat dismayed when the continuous five second turns started and shortly after a large number of waves of about 70 size 1 missiles were detected heading straight for my fleet.  The Paladins put up a valiant effort but were unable to keep up with the sheer volume of fire incoming and about half the fleet got sandpapered to death, with most others heavily damaged.  I had the last laugh though - due to them unloading their entire missile load on my fleet, the 4 salvos of ASM missiles I had launched at them when the combat started were able to reach them entirely unopposed and both contacts died to two salvos each.

My losses unfortunately included two more of the jump ships, and left the single remaining jump ship with damage to its jump drive.  Luckily, damage control teams were able to restore the jump engine and after a sweep through the system to ensure nothing else was lurking to pounce on unsuspecting survey ships, the fleet left and headed back to Earth for repair.

Unfortunately I then realised I had a massive gallicite and tritanium shortage due to not paying attention to a) the fact that none of my mining colonies were producing any, b) there are only about 5000 units of either in the entire Sol system, and c) missiles use quite a lot to build!  Over the last 10 years I have set up a number of offworld colonies to mine more and now have about enough to build the next series of military ships.

[user-unknown (OP)]

Ok, I switched computers since starting this game and forgot to transfer the game across    However, this one seems to be going much better, in that I actually have some Gallicite, a couple of friendly NPRs and some pretty good luck with the habitable planet generator meaning that I have three cost 0 colonies right next to Earth (courtesy of a fleet of terraformer ships), with an additional two further out (albeit currently at a cost of somewhere around 1.5).

I am now in 2071 after starting in 2025 with 1 billion population, but no jump tech or shipyards and think I pretty much have 'mid-game' tech levels.  I had been relying on single function anti-missile and anti-ship missile frigates, which ended up looking suspicioulsy like those above, but have finally got round to upgrading the slipways on a few yards to 12k tons, allowing construction of a new Light Cruiser class:

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Ares class Light Cruiser    12,000 tons     1091 Crew     3409.6 BP      TCS 240  TH 1920  EM 2700
8000 km/s     Armour 7-46     Shields 90-375     Sensors 18/18/0/0     Damage Control Rating 16     PPV 39.5
Maint Life 4.04 Years     MSP 1154    AFR 177%    IFR 2.5%    1YR 113    5YR 1695    Max Repair 252 MSP
Magazine 960    

Military E3 ICF Drive (12)    Power 160    Fuel Use 30%    Signature 160    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 420,000 Litres    Range 210.0 billion km   (303 days at full power)
Xi R375/15 Shields (18)   Total Fuel Cost  270 Litres per day

Gauss Cannon D5-T20K Turret (1x5)    Range 30,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S04 40-20000 (1)    Max Range: 80,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0

S4/40 Missile Launcher  (8)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 40
Point Defence Missile Launcher (8)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 5
Missile Fire Control FC155-R16 (2)     Range 155.5m km    Resolution 16
Missile Fire Control FC38-R1 (2)     Range 38.9m km    Resolution 1
AMM-1 Interceptor Mk VI (560)  Speed: 81,200 km/s   End: 2.8m    Range: 13.5m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 866 / 519 / 259
ASM-4 Hurricane Mk IV (100)  Speed: 46,900 km/s   End: 40m    Range: 112.6m km   WH: 10    Size: 4    TH: 312 / 187 / 93

Anti Missile Sensor MR32-R1 (1)     GPS 180     Range 32.4m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR181-R16 (1)     GPS 4032     Range 181.4m km    Resolution 16
Thermal Sensor TH1-18 (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  18m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-18 (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  18m km

Compact ECCM-1 (2)         ECM 30

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

I have heard that multi-function ships are generally a bad idea, but in this case I wanted something which could operate both individually and in a group.  It's pretty much just my existing escort ship and missile destroyer put together into a single hull, and upgraded to the most recent human technology level.    First ship I've ever fielded using shields too - I know the strength isn't brilliant, but so far my anti-missile defence (from about 20 years ago) has been overkill against any of the 5 NPRs (including Precursors) who I have come up against.  They did once manage to get two missiles past, but I then realised that I hadn't linked the gauss turrets to fire controls...  The shields should stop random hits from scraping armour away anyway.

The missiles on this are my main interceptor and ship-killer missiles, but the missile version of Inertial Confinement drives finishes in a few months so I imagine I will design a new version then, which will also include upgraded agility, reduced fuel consumption and a better seeker head to allow more mass for warhead and engine.

Haven't designed a jump ship for this yet, as several of the NPR races seem to have put jump gates EVERYWHERE.  Also, the beam fire control is slightly larger than it needs to be considering I just leave the turrets on final defensive fire at 10k, but not reducing the range also makes it more accurate at close range.  For system defense, all my colonies have massive passive sensor arrays so I haven't put very good passive sensors on these.  I have just noticed that the the anti missile fire control has better range than the anti missile sensor though.  Oops.  Will fix that in the refit edition!

My next design will probably be a beam armed variant, replacing the anti-ship launchers and half the magazine with several fixed particle beams and a couple of laser turrets.   This may also have a 6-500 Jump Engine to allow proper combat jumps but I will have to see how mass goes for that though.

[Steve Walmsley]

I have heard that multi-function ships are generally a bad idea, but in this case I wanted something which could operate both individually and in a group.  

It isn't that multi-function ships are a bad idea. It's more that small ships don't really have enough internal space to handle more than one role effectively. A large multi-role ship is entirely possible.

Steve

[TheDeadlyShoe]

It depends on what you define as role.  You could toughen up that cruiser if you dropped most of the seach sensor capability and used it in squadrons with a scout ship or a cruiser leader.  If you keep the changes small enough you could even build a sensor cruiser and battle cruiser from the same yard.  OTOH you get a chance of getting mission-killed by lucky enemy targeting if certain ships are critical.   I like to use leaders with powerful sensors and give the regular ships 'getting by' sensors that have drastically reduced capability.

Fire controls put a certain minimum limit on the tonnage of a space-efficient loadout.   I like to think of it as having a system - figure out what the minimum effective combination of weapon-to-FC ratio is for your empire, then design your ships on that basis.  For example,  if you want a minimum of four lasers per PD fire control, then you can see about how much tonnage that is- which tells you the minimum tonnage for an effective PD escort.   And if you also figure out the minimum of x launchers per missile fire control, then combining the Laser and Missile systems gives you a rough idea of the minimum size of an effective multirole warship.

Or at least thats how I approach it.

As applied to your designs, you may want a second GC turret to match with that fire control, though getting the tonnage for that might be tough.

I have just noticed that the the anti missile fire control has better range than the anti missile sensor though.  Oops.  Will fix that in the refit edition!

It is not necessarily a problem, since you might have another ship around with better AM sensors. 

[blue emu]

...  I have just noticed that the the anti missile fire control has better range than the anti missile sensor though.  Oops.  Will fix that in the refit edition!

In fact, it's quite useful to have FCs that outrange your sensor by up to 40%. Your opponents might have ECM, which reduces your FC range (but not your sensor range!) by -10% per ECM level. Over-sized FCs are cheaper than ECCM, so it's the easiest way to overcome enemy ECM.

[UnLimiTeD]

Which of course depends on the tech level.
If your opponent has 80% ECM, an oversized FC won't help anymore.^^