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Posted by: sloanjh
« on: July 08, 2011, 08:37:19 AM »

Quote from: Dutchling on June 27, 2011, 03:41:55 PM
Ok, thanks. 
So that is why my ship exploded.  I'll make more MF before I make the new ships.

And remove the 50 engineering spaces you put in (if you haven't already) - 2-3 years is good for estimated time to failure.  It's ok to have an annual failure rate over 100% - that rate is proportional to how big the ship is (think how much more frequently something breaks on an aircraft carrier compared to a destroyer)

John
Posted by: jRides
« on: June 28, 2011, 04:57:19 PM »

I would try not to push them too far over their Est Time before Overhauling them. Also when not in use keep them stationed over a maintenance facility to keep that clock from ticking - you'll need to ensure the facility has the required minerals for the duration tho, you can see what you will need in the Economics Window, Mining/Maintenance tab.

Building a fleet of Maintenance vessels that you can send to a forward staging area is always a good idea - (you will need to create a colony to base them at and ensure minerals are unloaded at the colony). Again, if you have several maintenance ships in orbit you can see the total capacity in the same place as if they were planetary structures and when over a colony they act exactly like planet built structures - just send your fleets there to overhaul.
Posted by: Dutchling
« on: June 27, 2011, 03:41:55 PM »

Ok, thanks. 
So that is why my ship exploded.  I'll make more MF before I make the new ships.
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: June 27, 2011, 12:25:39 PM »

Quote from: Dutchling on June 27, 2011, 12:06:02 PM
How many maintenance facilities do you need for X tons of ships?

200 tons per MF. However, the Summary section of the Pop window will tell you your maintenance capacity. I think it is called "Maintenance Facility Maximum Ship Size" and it is near the top of the right-hand column.

Steve
Posted by: Thiosk
« on: June 27, 2011, 12:18:38 PM »

i think its 200 tons per facility
Posted by: Dutchling
« on: June 27, 2011, 12:06:02 PM »

How many maintenance facilities do you need for X tons of ships?
Posted by: Hawkeye
« on: June 27, 2011, 10:21:06 AM »

Well, your larger ship is around 14.500 tons in size. This means, you need maintenance facilities on earth for ships of that size (73 if my math is right) to keep their maintenance clock from advancin.

What you have to keep in mind is this:
As the clock advances, the chance for maintenance failers increases. This means, your 50% chance becomes 100% chance after a while, then 200%, then 400 % (this takes quite some years, mind you) and after a long time, things will get so much out of control, that the ships start to explode.

You can think of this as your ships becoming 30 years old rust-buckets that simply start to fall apart.

To counter this, put the ships into overhaul every two or three years - for which you also need enough maintenance facilities.

As a rule of thumb, I calculate my fleet needs like this:

1/3 in overhaul
1/3 on the way to/from mission area
1/3 on a mission

Usually, this is a bit on the cautious side, leaving me with more ships ready than I realy need, but it´s better to err on the side of caution.
Posted by: Dutchling
« on: June 27, 2011, 08:51:55 AM »

It are the ships I posted in this thread.   They are both having maint problems every month and a sensor ship just exploded.  .  . 
EDIT: I just added 50 engineering spaces (+more engines and life support) so they both have 50% failure rate.  I hope that will make them explode less often.
Posted by: sloanjh
« on: June 27, 2011, 08:50:22 AM »

Quote from: Dutchling on June 27, 2011, 04:05:45 AM
EDIT: my ships are EXPLODING at earth! They weren't doing anything! How do I stop this?
Did you give them any engineering spaces?  Did you build maintenance facilities on Earth?  This sounds like maintenance failure.

John

PS - That or they're caught in a Baen book :)
Posted by: Dutchling
« on: June 27, 2011, 04:05:45 AM »

Well, I actually started designing the ships when my colony on Titan was demanding protection, but later I realized they just needed a PDC.   I didn't want to stop the designing though, so I basically have some ships now without a real purpose. 

EDIT: my ships are EXPLODING at earth! They weren't doing anything! How do I stop this?
Posted by: Thiosk
« on: June 26, 2011, 03:34:52 PM »

I wish i had explored a little more before coming here and getting ship design suggestions though-- you ought to take these beam ships out for a tour of duty and see how it goes!!!
Posted by: Dutchling
« on: June 26, 2011, 03:29:23 PM »

Ok, thx for the help.
I think I produce 1 sensor ship and 5 or more laser ships.  I'll start on missile tech now (haven't touched that yet).

Posted by: Brian Neumann
« on: June 26, 2011, 03:23:18 PM »

Quote from: Dutchling on June 26, 2011, 02:14:13 PM
EDIT: Modified the my 2nd post.  Is this good? I guess so, but I don't really know if they amount of shields/armor is okay.
You have a working design.  The next step is to actually use it in combat and see how it works.  When you see a potentially hostile contact make sure you exit out of aurora entirely and make a copy of the database.  This way if you make mistakes in controlling the ships (ie forgot to set pd up when the missiles are coming in) you can go back and fix those types of mistakes.  If you want a true learning experience, fight the battle out and see what happens.  Then change the designs of your ships around and refight the battle to see how that makes a difference.  As an example for a reworked design you could make the turrets tripple gun turrets and use the extra space saved to up your shields, armour, or both.  Then see what works for you.  If you do not have a decent missile ship for both offensive and defensive purposes then you will probably want the extra defenses.  I would recommend 1 ship with 10 size 1 launchers and lots of magazines.  This is your primary point defense and you want it to thin out the incomming salvo's so that the lasers can take care of the rest.  You will also want at least a couple of long range anti-ship missile ships (60-100 mkm is a good start).  If not then hopefully you are faster than the enemy ships which is problematical given your tech levels.

Brian
Posted by: Dutchling
« on: June 26, 2011, 02:14:13 PM »

Ok, I think I remove the beam fire control with the lower TS, remove the 12cm lasers and make a total of 3 quad 12cm lasers. 
I just need to design the power plants so won't have that much power left. 

EDIT: Modified the my 2nd post.  Is this good? I guess so, but I don't really know if they amount of shields/armor is okay.
Posted by: Brian Neumann
« on: June 26, 2011, 02:08:08 PM »

Quote from: Dutchling on June 26, 2011, 01:47:51 PM
I updated my second post,
I added the laser and boosted speed to 5000km/s (+engineering space and fuel storage)

The squad turret is indeed designed for point defense but I think it should do fine as attack weapon versus crafts without missiles.  I just took the fastest laser possible which was the 12cm.
After looking a little more closely I realized that both the 12 and 15cm lasers have the same range.  In that case you might want to look at replacing the 15's with 2 tripple 12's and get the benifit of more lasers for point defense, and faster firing lasers for offense.  The two points of damage is not enough difference when compared to doubling the cycle time between shots.

Brian