Posted by: liveware
« on: July 10, 2020, 06:33:43 PM »About turrets: I've only used them so far for PD weapons and I always go for 25% accuracy guns mounted on a quad turret. This provides the best HS to firepower ratio from what I understand. Now, if we are talking capital ships they are obviously not going to be fast enough to track smaller targets with their beams, so they would benefit from main beam-weapon turrets.For main battery laser turrets I'd go with 3x or 4x 15/20 cm twin or triple turrets, armored slightly higher than the ship's hull, and 100% accuracy. That's mostly to mirror RL WW2 cruiser designs, but I'm also basing this on practical limitations.
How would you suggest to build them? Is it best the do the same as with PD weapons and have quad 25% accuracy beams?
Armored turrets provide much better survivability for the ship. They have high chance to be hit because they're big, and armor makes them less likely to be destroyed. Calibre needs to be high enough to do reasonable damage, but low enough to still be economically suitable. Quad guns may be too much in terms of MSP costs (misfire/maintenance failure repair cost), but twins are less optimal in terms of crew/weight/RP/material costs. So triple may be the sweet spot for me. 100% accuracy is needed because this is a main battery and it needs to be as accurate as possible, otherwise more hits would result in higher misfire/maint failure rate.
For Gauss PD, yeah, 50% accuracy and 0 or lvl 1 armor is normal. 2-3 twin turrets are fine.
But then again, I would not send such a ship going completely solo, probably. Not at first, at least. 2-3 cruisers are much better option, and they then can split up in the enemy territory as needed to cover more ground.
Speed and sensors should be great also. And jump/scout parasites. Situational awareness for such a role is paramount.
I also use 100% accuracy for my big gun triple turrets on cruisers and other large ships. This is based somewhat on the balance of turret size/firepower/crew size considerations and also because during my WWII research I found that US battleships of that era had extremely accurate, long range gun fire controls that proved decisive in several engagements in the Pacific.