Posted by: Zook
« on: August 06, 2012, 11:03:42 AM »Thanks guys! Off to the drawing board then.
I'm designing my first PD ships, and I'm hopelessly confused about tracking speed. I can build a beam FC with a tracking of 8,000 km/s when I max it out (my first AS missile has a speed of 10,000, however, so I'd even have trouble defending against my own low-tech ships, not to speak of alien baddies). If the FC can track targets with a speed of up to 8,000, why do I need a turret? And why has the turret its own tracking speed?
BTW, I want the ship to defend the fleet, not only itself. I have a 10cm C2 laser and 24,000-range FC that I could triple in size to bring it up to 72,000. Laser range is 90,000, max tracking range would be 144,000, so if I were attacked by 10,000 km/s missiles, I could fire 9 times (or 4 times when accounting for recharging time). With a bigger 12cm laser (range 120,000) I could fire 12 times (6 incl. recharging) Right?
edit: OK, OK, apparently it's km per second, not per 5-second turn. So the range-90,000 laser would fire once, the other one twice. Correct?
I'm designing my first PD ships, and I'm hopelessly confused about tracking speed. I can build a beam FC with a tracking of 8,000 km/s when I max it out (my first AS missile has a speed of 10,000, however, so I'd even have trouble defending against my own low-tech ships, not to speak of alien baddies). If the FC can track targets with a speed of up to 8,000, why do I need a turret? And why has the turret its own tracking speed?unturreted beam weapons are mounted along the spinal axis of the ship that they are built on, and can only turn as fast as the ship itself can turn(or your base line Fire control tech). Turrets allow for faster target tracking than your ship's speed will allow. Firecontrols themselves are the electronic portion of the issue, what your software and hardware can deal with tracking, atleast at 100% accuracy.
BTW, I want the ship to defend the fleet, not only itself.As long as a ship is in the same location as other ships, and is set to final defensive fire it will attempt to intercept attacks against any ship there.
I have a 10cm C2 laser and 24,000-range FC that I could triple in size to bring it up to 72,000. Laser range is 90,000, max tracking range would be 144,000, so if I were attacked by 10,000 km/s missiles, I could fire 9 times (or 4 times when accounting for recharging time). With a bigger 12cm laser (range 120,000) I could fire 12 times (6 incl. recharging) Right?At low accuracy, the 24,000 range figure is for 50% accuracy base, before any other modifiers are put into play. you really only get one chance to intercept an enemy missile with beams until you get crazy good technology, but you can force the issue via the combat assignments page(f8) if you want.
edit: OK, OK, apparently it's km per second, not per 5-second turn. So the range-90,000 laser would fire once, the other one twice. Correct?