The BattleStar Challenge

[Shadow]

That's a flagship, not a capital ship.

[ardem (OP)]

As I said its up to you how you classify it. 

Capital Ship can be flagships and vice versa, its normally you biggest ship, that you designate to be your main ship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_ship

But you may have a different thought on the meaning of captial ship, in BattleStar the capital ship was a carrier.

[dooots]

So is anyone that is trying this using jump gates?

I was going to use huge ships with shields (swarm queen minus the facs) for fighting and a lot of survey ships so I could move at a quick pace, but I had forgot it takes months to build a jump gate when I came up with the idea.

[ardem (OP)]

I am using jump gates at 150 day construction, but it give me time to do sorium harvesting, resources and scout the other jump points.

I need to set up my orbital station with maintenance modules in down times so most my ships are ok, I almost ready to reveal my fleet, it take some time and to and fro's

[ardem (OP)]

UPDATED: 16.4.2011

My Military component to the Fleet, please inspect and give your views.

FlagShip and Carrier

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Enterprise class Carrier    77,450 tons     4385 Crew     13126.2 BP      TCS 1549  TH 2900  EM 3000
3744 km/s     Armour 5-161     Shields 100-300     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 182     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 315%    IFR: 4.4%    Maint Capacity 16102 MSP    Max Repair 150 MSP    Est Time: 7.75 Years
Flag Bridge    Hangar Deck Capacity 40000 tons     

ICF Drive P100E6 (58)    Power 100    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 50    Armour 1    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,250,000 Litres    Range 48.4 billion km   (149 days at full power)
Theta R300/24 Shields (25)   Total Fuel Cost  600 Litres per day

CIWS-320 (9x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit

Carrier for Grav Survey Facs

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Essex class Carrier    31,950 tons     1776 Crew     5339.5 BP      TCS 639  TH 900  EM 720
2816 km/s     Armour 4-89     Shields 24-300     Sensors 700/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 61     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 160%    IFR: 2.2%    Maint Capacity 5327 MSP    Max Repair 700 MSP    Est Time: 2.58 Years
Hangar Deck Capacity 18000 tons    

ICF Drive P100E6 (18)    Power 100    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 50    Armour 1    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 46.9 billion km   (192 days at full power)
Theta R300/24 Shields (6)   Total Fuel Cost  144 Litres per day

Thermal Sensor TH50-700 (1)     Sensitivity 700     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  700m km
The defence of my fleet and most numerous deployed in 5 ship formation to protect carriers, destroyers and commercial.

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Spruance class Destroyer Escort    12,500 tons     1012 Crew     4742 BP      TCS 250  TH 500  EM 480
4000 km/s     Armour 3-47     Shields 16-300     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 34     PPV 100
Annual Failure Rate: 52%    IFR: 0.7%    Maint Capacity 5690 MSP    Max Repair 1152 MSP    Est Time: 3.87 Years

ICF Drive P100E6 (10)    Power 100    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 50    Armour 1    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 48.0 billion km   (138 days at full power)
Theta R300/24 Shields (4)   Total Fuel Cost  96 Litres per day

Single 20cm C5 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (1x1)    Range 480,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 10-5     RM 5    ROF 10        10 10 10 10 10 8 7 6 5 5
Twin Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (4x6)    Range 30,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S16 240-32000 (2)    Max Range: 480,000 km   TS: 32000 km/s     98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1.25 AR-1 (1)     Total Power Output 10    Armour 1    Exp 20%

Active Search Sensor MR18-R1 (1)     GPS 168     Range 18.5m km    Resolution 1
Point Defence and Heavy attack ships

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North Carolina class Destroyer    12,000 tons     1015 Crew     4565.9 BP      TCS 240  TH 600  EM 2760
5000 km/s     Armour 4-46     Shields 92-300     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 20     PPV 24
Annual Failure Rate: 57%    IFR: 0.8%    Maint Capacity 4756 MSP    Max Repair 1152 MSP    Est Time: 3.29 Years

ICF Drive P100E6 (12)    Power 100    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 50    Armour 1    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 50.0 billion km   (115 days at full power)
Theta R300/24 Shields (23)   Total Fuel Cost  552 Litres per day

Single 20cm C5 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (2x1)    Range 480,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 10-5     RM 5    ROF 10        10 10 10 10 10 8 7 6 5 5
CIWS-320 (3x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Fire Control S16 240-32000 (1)    Max Range: 480,000 km   TS: 32000 km/s     98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1.25 AR-1 (2)     Total Power Output 20    Armour 1    Exp 20%

Active Search Sensor MR1078-R100 (1)     GPS 98000     Range 1,078.0m km    Resolution 100
Main Attack fighter

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F-1 Nimitz class Fighter    335 tons     14 Crew     121 BP      TCS 6.7  TH 75  EM 0
11194 km/s     Armour 1-4     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 4
Annual Failure Rate: 8%    IFR: 0.1%    Maint Capacity 23 MSP    Max Repair 50 MSP    Est Time: 2.71 Years

ICF Drive P75E9 (ftr) (1)    Power 75    Fuel Use 9000%    Signature 75    Armour 0    Exp 100%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 0.6 billion km   (14 hours at full power)

12cm C5 Far Ultraviolet Laser (1)    Range 60,000km     TS: 11194 km/s     Power 4-5     RM 5    ROF 5        4 4 4 4 4 3 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S00.5 30-8000 (FTR) (1)    Max Range: 60,000 km   TS: 32000 km/s     83 67 50 33 17 0 0 0 0 0
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 AR-0 (1)     Total Power Output 4    Armour 0    Exp 5%
First Wave Fighter, this is to clear a path to the enemy ship/s

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F-2 Brooklyn class Fast Attack Craft    1,400 tons     94 Crew     567.5 BP      TCS 28  TH 125  EM 480
8928 km/s     Armour 2-11     Shields 16-300     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 10
Annual Failure Rate: 31%    IFR: 0.4%    Maint Capacity 127 MSP    Max Repair 288 MSP    Est Time: 1.2 Years

ICF Drive P250E9 (1)    Power 250    Fuel Use 900%    Signature 125    Armour 1    Exp 60%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 1.4 billion km   (44 hours at full power)
Theta R300/24 Shields (4)   Total Fuel Cost  96 Litres per day

Single Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (1x3)    Range 30,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S04 60-32000 (1)    Max Range: 120,000 km   TS: 32000 km/s     92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Support for the Fighters

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F-3 Long Beach class Fast Scout Craft    1,000 tons     81 Crew     402.5 BP      TCS 20  TH 125  EM 600
12500 km/s     Armour 2-8     Shields 20-300     Sensors 7/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 16%    IFR: 0.2%    Maint Capacity 126 MSP    Max Repair 168 MSP    Est Time: 2.56 Years

ICF Drive P250E9 (1)    Power 250    Fuel Use 900%    Signature 125    Armour 1    Exp 60%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 2.0 billion km   (44 hours at full power)
Theta R300/24 Shields (5)   Total Fuel Cost  120 Litres per day

Active Search Sensor MR18-R1 (1)     GPS 168     Range 18.5m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH0.5-7 (1)     Sensitivity 7     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  7m km
Military Grav Ships, these based off a carrier for quick finds

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S-1 Gearing class Cruiser    2,000 tons     175 Crew     616.5 BP      TCS 40  TH 125  EM 0
6250 km/s     Armour 5-14     Shields 0-0     Sensors 7/1/3/0     Damage Control Rating 12     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 16%    IFR: 0.2%    Maint Capacity 385 MSP    Max Repair 109 MSP    Est Time: 6.15 Years

ICF Drive P250E9 (1)    Power 250    Fuel Use 900%    Signature 125    Armour 1    Exp 60%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres    Range 30.0 billion km   (55 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH0.5-7 (1)     Sensitivity 7     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  7m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (3)   3 Survey Points Per Hour
These jump in and out of a system to determine if the system is the right path. Only Jump capable drive I have.

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Oliver H Perry class Jump Scout    7,500 tons     813 Crew     1959 BP      TCS 150  TH 150  EM 0
2000 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 2-34     Shields 0-0     Sensors 700/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 21     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 21%    IFR: 0.3%    Maint Capacity 3428 MSP    Max Repair 700 MSP    Est Time: 6.26 Years

J7500(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 7500 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
ICF Drive P100E6 (3)    Power 100    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 50    Armour 1    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 40.0 billion km   (231 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH50-700 (1)     Sensitivity 700     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  700m km

Class		Type		QTY		Tonnage		Total Ton
Enterprise		Carrier		1		77,450		77,450
Essex		Carrier		1		31,950		31,950
Spurance		Destroyer Escort		15		12,500		187,500
North Carolina		Destroyer		2		12,000		24,000
F-1 Nimitz		Fighter		53		335		17,775
F-2 Brooklyn		Defence FAC		12		1,400		16,800
F-3 Long Beach		Sensor FAC		4		1,000		4,000
S-1 Gearing		Survey FAC		9		2,000		18,000
Oliver H Perry		Scout		3		7,500		22,500

Total Tonnage 399,975

[Narmio]

The F-1 and F-2 are crazy slow. As in they'd still be slow at twice the speed.

Also, maybe a Flag Bridge somewhere?  Most likely on the carrier?

[dooots]

Those fighters/facs will be easy targets.  Fighters are usually between 100 and 300 tons and facs are usually 1000 tons max.

Your laser turrets only have a tracking speed of 25000 km/s but the fire controls have a tracking speed of 32000 km/s.

The fire control on the F-2 only has a tracking speed of 8000 km/s but a turret with a tracking speed of 40000 km/s.

The last thing I see is for a beam armed fleet your ships are light on engines.  You will likely want at least one engine per 1000 tons on military ships.

[ardem (OP)]

Yes I would of liked more speed, but not sure how I can do this, power and propulsion are at max unless I sacrifice 1 tech advance in fuel efficiency and use it to add a little bit more power in power argumentation. Thoughts on that?

I suppose I can always rely on my fuel harvesters so fuel efficiency is not that great.

Research on various turrets and sensors is tough the research points are just not there to do, so I need to mix and match perhaps I need to look at changing the turrets for all then.

I don't care if F-2's are slow they are there to take punishment instead of the fighters, they are defensive not attack

Will include a Flag Bridge on the carriers thanks

Thanks for the advise I think some drawing board changes

On one more engine, this add more maintenance that adds more tonnage, that means less ships in the fleet, also I got to keep in my I need to carry around a Military dock which cuts into my commercial area, at the moment I am aiming any vessel under 15K ton, other then the carrier. damn this is a balancing act.

[Narmio]

I don't care if F-2's are slow they are there to take punishment instead of the fighters, they are defensive not attack

They still need to get close to a target to do that though, right? The fighters need to get to beam range to attack, and so the F-2s will need to go along with them, thereby decreasing both your attack capability (the fighters take longer to close to attack range) and your defence capability (the fighters are exposed to enemy attack for longer before they can attack).

Also, those F-2s aren't so tough that they'll keep 5k/s beam fighters alive for long. Anti-ship weapons will have no trouble targetting either the F-1s or the F-2s.  They're both fairly tough when taking PD weapon fire but they'll melt in the face of anti-ship missiles or beam weapons.

Also there's the very real possibility that an enemy will go faster than 5k/s and use missiles while keeping range, at which point you are in trouble.

[dooots]

If you have your heart set on a fighter/fac fleet I would recommend you go for facs like these.

The attack version.  I went with Mesons because if you manage to make it to an enemy you will need to take them out fast.

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Tribal class Fast Attack Craft    800 tons     88 Crew     208.8 BP      TCS 16  TH 200  EM 0
12500 km/s     Armour 3-7     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 3
Annual Failure Rate: 5%    IFR: 0.1%    Maint Capacity 163 MSP    Max Repair 90 MSP    Est Time: 7.92 Years

GB Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E50 (1)    Power 200    Fuel Use 500%    Signature 200    Armour 0    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 22.5 billion km   (20 days at full power)

R7.5/C3 Meson Cannon (1)    Range 75,000km     TS: 12500 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 7.5    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
Fire Control S03 40-15000 (1)    Max Range: 80,000 km   TS: 15000 km/s     88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 AR-0 (2)     Total Power Output 3.2    Armour 0    Exp 5%

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Another version, I upped the fire control speed rating to 6250 km/s from 5000 km/s, used a smaller fuel tank, and engineering space, and was able to add 4 layers of armor.

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Tribal v2 class Fast Attack Craft    800 tons     76 Crew     213 BP      TCS 16  TH 200  EM 0
12500 km/s     Armour 7-7     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3
Annual Failure Rate: 10%    IFR: 0.1%    Maint Capacity 83 MSP    Max Repair 75 MSP    Est Time: 4.16 Years

GB Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E50 (1)    Power 200    Fuel Use 500%    Signature 200    Armour 0    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 4.5 billion km   (4 days at full power)

R7.5/C3 Meson Cannon (1)    Range 75,000km     TS: 12500 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 7.5    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
Fire Control S02 40-12500 (1)    Max Range: 80,000 km   TS: 12500 km/s     88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 AR-0 (2)     Total Power Output 3.2    Armour 0    Exp 5%

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
The scout.  There is room to play with this I padded it with armor but its goal is to give your facs a point defense sensor so they can try to shoot down missiles on the long flight to the enemy.

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Victory class Fast Scout Craft    800 tons     55 Crew     222.7 BP      TCS 16  TH 200  EM 0
12500 km/s     Armour 8-7     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 5%    IFR: 0.1%    Maint Capacity 174 MSP    Max Repair 84 MSP    Est Time: 8.5 Years

GB Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E50 (1)    Power 200    Fuel Use 500%    Signature 200    Armour 0    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 22.5 billion km   (20 days at full power)

Active Search Sensor MR11-R1 (1)     GPS 84     Range 11.8m km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

After making these designs I still have over 600000 rp left so there is a plenty left over and you may even be able improve them more.

As for the rest of the fleet, make a dedicated scout ship.  Move your big sensors off of all the other ships and on to the scout.  Passive sensor will be your friend you may not even want large active sensors.

Most of your fleet space will need to go to carriers so you have enough facs to give each other cover while flying in.

You will probably want one point defense design in case you get caught with your pants down.

[ardem (OP)]

I updated it based on advise above, I cannot squeeze any more juice out of it. Although the robustness of my fighters is not there I hope my strategy of absorbing the missile damage, and launching fighters with the F-2 soaking up the missiles will be an advantage, the range and power of my fighters have been reduced.

[Narmio]

I would run some tests with your carrier group against various opponents before setting off on the big voyage with a beam fighter design.  There are some questions about the viability of beam-fighter based setups in general, essentially because the fighters are a lot easier to hit than a missile and almost all opponents will have some form of missile defence they can re-purpose to swatting your beam-fighters. Just think how well your fleet would perform against itself. 

How many of your fighters could your Spruance class kill in one round of firing?

[ardem (OP)]

The idea will be to avoid fights, the fighters are last defence, only to be used against fast attack vessels, If I can deploy my AAM Facs that gives me more missile defence, if an enemy is a laser beam attacker, then they can come in and fight it our with my destroyers, if they out range and are faster then I use my fighters.

Yes it be tricky, but this is a tough challenge I wonder who else is ready to throw there cards on the table, but this is the fleet I be using.

The only ones to scare me is the high tech opponents and if this case hopefully running is a good option.

[dooots]

Just a warning your carrier could be caught by a ship using Nuclear Pulse Engines.

[ardem (OP)]

Hahhaa my carrier could be caught, by a one legged man in a spacesuit. Tonnage is the issue, this is apart of the challenge sticking everything under 400K tonnage. Once other people come up with some other interesting ideas, and post them there be more to compare from it hard to put it into perspective until you really try and put a fleet together with the various restrictions.

Some alternate Carrier Designs I have been playing with do you go for more redundancy have 3 carriers or do you go for the later option

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New Class class Carrier    96,850 tons     4710 Crew     14532 BP      TCS 1937  TH 2500  EM 2400
2581 km/s     Armour 5-187     Shields 80-300     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 200     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 500%    IFR: 6.9%    Maint Capacity 14068 MSP    Max Repair 150 MSP    Est Time: 5.62 Years
Flag Bridge    Hangar Deck Capacity 60000 tons     

ICF Drive P100E6 (50)    Power 100    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 50    Armour 1    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,250,000 Litres    Range 38.7 billion km   (173 days at full power)
Theta R300/24 Shields (20)   Total Fuel Cost  480 Litres per day

CIWS-320 (10x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit

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New Class class Carrier    72,500 tons     3950 Crew     11567 BP      TCS 1450  TH 2100  EM 2400
2896 km/s     Armour 5-154     Shields 80-300     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 180     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 280%    IFR: 3.9%    Maint Capacity 14956 MSP    Max Repair 150 MSP    Est Time: 7.95 Years
Flag Bridge    Hangar Deck Capacity 40000 tons     

ICF Drive P100E6 (42)    Power 100    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 50    Armour 1    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,250,000 Litres    Range 51.7 billion km   (206 days at full power)
Theta R300/24 Shields (20)   Total Fuel Cost  480 Litres per day

CIWS-320 (10x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit