Posted by: Shadow
« on: April 05, 2011, 11:43:36 AM »If you’re talking about beam fire control this is blatantly false. The best I've ever seen is 99% before modifiers.
I apologize. I was quite imprecise there. By base accuracy I meant the combined accuracy you get before it's chopped by the tracking speed limitation. That means a base of 94%, in my case, plus the crew rating bonus and possibly other things that push it over 100%. I'm guessing the tracking time bonus (I've invested some research on that) applies at some point, but I'm not sure where.
Now, a couple of things.
I did mention the Sussex class is reasonably old by now, and due for replacement by a future frigate with 5-shot (+67%) quad turrets and 32,000 km/s tracking speed. The Percivals are a different, newer generation of warships, so they've expectedly better performance than the older escort frigates. That said, admittedly I haven't really gauged against my own vessels, but rather those of my most common enemy: Precursors. They have good tech but aren't really numerous. I know there's technically NPRs out there, but unfortunately I haven't encountered them yet, 39 years into the game and 50-ish systems explored (out of 1000).
If I encounter aliens with technology such as what you described, I'll likely expedite the upgrade of my current escort frigates and probably build at least six more (having refitted the seven Sussex). Yes, that will naturally come at a cost, but I doubt it'll put a meaningful dent in my offensive ability. If the enemy is all about missiles, if you have a solid AM shield, you have all the time in the world to blast them to bits. And those that try to flee would be promptly run down by my Rheinland-class strike cruisers.
I'll likely be trying out your proposed single Gauss turrets sometime soon, since they do look superior than the CIWS alternative. However, while I do believe your fleet defense setup is probably just as effective as mine, it's very hard to determine, all things considered, whether the former's measurably better than the latter.
Fun Facts
- During their debut, I found out my Rheinlands can provide surprisingly effective long range (for direct fire weapons) area defense with their main railguns. They're obviously less efficient than dedicated Gauss turrets, but they thin out salvos quite nicely. Nonetheless, they do need to stay within the bubble of the escort frigates' resolution-1 sensors to be able to actually target (not to mention see) the incoming warheads. I might put them through a sensor refit soon, because of this.
- The primary mission of the Bellerophon-class stealth missile frigates is to slay their Chimeras: they are proven Star Swarm hiveship killers. While they can be employed against more common foes, that would likely result in wasteful overkill. A successor of the huge SLM-190 Excalibur would have integrated sensors, and that may make large salvos of them whole fleet killers.