Posted by: Theodidactus
« on: March 08, 2013, 05:46:28 PM »This will be a rather _long_ review. You have been warned
I like long reviews
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Aurora:
Hm, if I am not misreading this, your probes do not have any engine. Is the Aurora supposed to enter orbit, drop off a probe and move on to the next planetary body? Personally, I´d go with a two stage system, a carrier and the actual probe, allowing for the Aurora to sit back and launch the probes at interesting targets.
Yeah...I'm learning the hard way that this idea wasn't as fun as I imagined it to be. at this point, I wish they were more like you described, but I was so excited to get my aurora up and running that i built it first.
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Ichigo:
The X-ray Laser Battery has a _horrible_ rate of fire. 320 seconds between salvos? Any enemy with beam weapons will rip that one appart while the guns recharge after the first salvo (if it survies that first salvo, of course)
The Ichigo and Red Cliffs designs used a new beam weapons system that I wanted to try: tons of little shooters with long reload times. The idea seemed fun in theory (and much more "Laser"like) and I knew it was unconventional, but I didn't appreciate how bad it was until I poked around the forum a bit.
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Jovian:
Hm, it carries a jump drive, I don´t like that.
I know, flexibility and all that.
Still, personally, I´d have gone for a dedicated jump ship (heavily armored and shielded, lots of fuel/supplies, so it can also work as a fleet support ship and if any space is left, some good sensors and beam weapons for attacking a contested jump point) and leave as much space free on my combat ships as possible.
Of course, the jump ship will _not_ accompany my battle fleet in-system, but stay at the jump point.
It also has a rather substantial armor belt. While I agree with armoring combat ships heavily, with a carrier, my philosophy is different. As the fighters will do the fighting, there is no reason to get the carrier into combat range, and therefore, it does not need heavy armor (and let´s face it, if a Jovian gets into close combat with an enemy, his fighters can´t handle, the Jovian dies. His armor will only prolong the inevitable by 30 seconds or so).
The Jovian needs to be able to operate away from Eradini classes, given the nature of this campaign. Most of the battles I've had so far have been stopping very small incursions into my territory, or cleaning out systems occupied by the Hyades Remnant, a race that all but died 100,000 years ago. As such, power projection by carriers is really important.
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Kircher:Kirchers almost always go along with an Aurora, which provides plenty of passive sensor support. Still, this is a good critique. I like my science vessels decked out so they're big, expensive, and very high quality (like all my other ships). One of the ways I play this setting is that FTL communication is super tedious, slow, and expensive (deploy a drone that jumps, broadcasts to another drone left behind that jumps, broadcasts to another drone left behind that jumps, broadcasts) so carrying the scientists along is important. You'll notice that the Aurora has a luxury cabin for scientists with little to no space training
10 survey sensors, holy cow!
For a survey ship that size (and cost), I sure would like a longer ranged active and stronger passive sensor, so it can avoid being blown up buy guys it can´t even see. Perhaps trade in 2 survey sensors for that?
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Massachusetts:It's so each of the turrets can train on a different target in short ranged combat. I really hope I can get in a situation where those long-nines can pretzel an enemy spacecraft.
A real beast at point blank range.
Of course, once the range opens only a little, you´d be a lot better off with those 30cm laser cannons, not only damage wise (at the 3rd range bracket, it surpasses the plasma carronade already) but with more than 2.5 shots for every shot the PC can get off too.
What´s the Creedance FC supposed to be for? Same tracking speed but less range than either of the guns, wouldn´t a 3rd ULR FC make more sense?
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Transvaal:Yeah...this is something I considered too. May need to change it.
I´d concentrate on one size of ASM launcher. Either go with the size-10 or with the size-5 one and try to get a decent salvo size. Also makes logistics a lot easier.
And finally, if the Transvaal is supposed to operate on it´s own, he can´t nearly see as far as he could shoot (active sensor range 11.5mkm, maximum missile range 60mkm)