Do you prefer to use military or commercial engines for giant carriers?
It might seem like a no-brainer for most play-throughs and carriers. Fast speed to get them to the battlefield at the same time as the rest of your forces, but if you are planning to build carriers of a fairly large size, it will be a huge cost to research the jump drives required to get them anywhere, and the maintenance required of such a jump drive is also fairly high. However, building them with commercial engines results in using a jump drive with a much lower research cost, meaning you can get to use them much quicker - especially early game - but the jump drive takes up for space and the ship will be significantly slower.
So, I'm curious to hear if anyone has had thought on this and also to get an opinion on two concrete examples. These are extremely lowtech (and it's been a while since I last played, so bear with me), but are identical except for the engine and jump drive. I haven't added any modules to the military version, so the final speed and range will be a bit lower, but it does give some room for improvements.
(Also, I know these are 'giant' for some people, but this is still early game
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Primus class Mothership (P) 229,106 tons 2,981 Crew 15,061.4 BP TCS 4,582 TH 4,800 EM 6,000
1047 km/s JR 2-25(C) Armour 5-333 Shields 200-333 HTK 838 Sensors 150/150/0/0 DCR 170 PPV 120
Maint Life 2.46 Years MSP 68,663 AFR 2799% IFR 38.9% 1YR 15,675 5YR 235,131 Max Repair 1685.5 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 45,000 tons
Hunter Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Flight Crew Berths 900 Morale Check Required
JC251K Commercial Jump Drive Max Ship Size 251000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 2
Commercial Nuclear Pulse Engine EP240.00 (20) Power 4800 Fuel Use 5.05% Signature 240 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 2,000,000 Litres Range 31.1 billion km (343 days at full power)
Beta S20 / R333 Shields (10) Recharge Time 333 seconds (0.6 per second)
10cm Railgun V10/C3 (40x4) Range 10,000km TS: 2,000 km/s Power 3-3 RM 10,000 km ROF 5
Beam Fire Control R128-TS8000 (4) Max Range: 128,000 km TS: 8,000 km/s 92 84 77 69 61 53 45 38 30 22
Improved Pebble Bed Reactor R62 (3) Total Power Output 187.5 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS4-R1 (2) GPS 12 Range 4.8m km MCR 430.9k km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH25-150 (1) Sensitivity 150 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 96.8m km
EM Sensor EM25-150 (1) Sensitivity 150 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 96.8m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a b for auto-assignment purposes
Primus - Copy class Mothership (P) 217,795 tons 5,073 Crew 79,196.8 BP TCS 4,356 TH 7,680 EM 6,000
1763 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 5-322 Shields 200-333 HTK 1133 Sensors 150/150/0/0 DCR 170 PPV 120
Maint Life 0.25 Years MSP 96,590 AFR 2530% IFR 35.1% 1YR 384,113 5YR 5,761,697 Max Repair 62797.2 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 45,000 tons
Hunter Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Flight Crew Berths 900 Morale Check Required
J250000(3-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 250000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Nuclear Pulse Engine EP384.00 (20) Power 7680 Fuel Use 16.36% Signature 384 Explosion 8%
Fuel Capacity 2,000,000 Litres Range 10.1 billion km (66 days at full power)
Beta S20 / R333 Shields (10) Recharge Time 333 seconds (0.6 per second)
10cm Railgun V10/C3 (40x4) Range 10,000km TS: 2,000 km/s Power 3-3 RM 10,000 km ROF 5
Beam Fire Control R128-TS8000 (4) Max Range: 128,000 km TS: 8,000 km/s 92 84 77 69 61 53 45 38 30 22
Improved Pebble Bed Reactor R62 (3) Total Power Output 187.5 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS4-R1 (2) GPS 12 Range 4.8m km MCR 430.9k km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH25-150 (1) Sensitivity 150 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 96.8m km
EM Sensor EM25-150 (1) Sensitivity 150 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 96.8m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a b for auto-assignment purposes