Posted by: joeclark77
« on: September 05, 2015, 12:41:37 AM »Lately I have tended to favor missile ships with good sensors and long range, and in those cases I don't need high speed. Rather, I prefer to slowly but surely approach the enemy and force him to either flee or find himself in my circle of death. I tend to use 0.8 or 0.9 power engines, 5HS per 1000T (i.e. 25% of my tonnage). On the other hand, if I'm at a tech level where I can come close to matching my enemy, I may go with overpowered engines in order to exceed his speed.
For civilian designs, I usually use a 40 or 50 HS engine at around 0.3 power. I create fast tankers with 5,000,000 gallon fuel tanks and slap on a bunch of engines. They come in at less than 20000T and can generally go almost as fast as my combat ships. Therefore, combat ships need only have a short range, and I can just add tankers up to the range the fleet needs.
Lately I find that I want to try beam ships, and those need speed. I'm leaning toward a model where large, efficient carriers haul short-range fighters and FACs into enemy territory, so I can use gas-guzzling engines on the beam combatants.
Now, if you want to talk about *really* long range warships.... (go here)
For civilian designs, I usually use a 40 or 50 HS engine at around 0.3 power. I create fast tankers with 5,000,000 gallon fuel tanks and slap on a bunch of engines. They come in at less than 20000T and can generally go almost as fast as my combat ships. Therefore, combat ships need only have a short range, and I can just add tankers up to the range the fleet needs.
Lately I find that I want to try beam ships, and those need speed. I'm leaning toward a model where large, efficient carriers haul short-range fighters and FACs into enemy territory, so I can use gas-guzzling engines on the beam combatants.
Now, if you want to talk about *really* long range warships.... (go here)