Print Page - Challenge: Design a Hive ship

C# Aurora => C# Bureau of Design => Topic started by: DoctorDanny on April 16, 2020, 04:04:32 AM

Title: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: DoctorDanny on April 16, 2020, 04:04:32 AM

I was thinking about a scenario where a species lost its homeworld and travelled the universe in hive ships.
I'm thinking 'Eldar Craftworld Light', so single Ships that operate alone, far away from any support.
These guys are desperate survivors in search of a new homeworld.

I tried to design some, but I'm still very nooby at ship design, so I'd love to see the input of you expert-veterans.

Requirments:
-These ships would need to have harvesting/mining equipment as well as manufacturing/repair facilities.
-They need to carry colonists (stasis?) as well as a population of workers.
-Ideally I'd like them to be able to defend themselves as well, but maybe they use smaller ships to do that.
-Mobile (speed is not that important).
-Tech-level within the first three to four steps of the main techs.
-Either jump capable or carrying jump-point stabilization equipment/ship.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: DFNewb on April 16, 2020, 12:15:22 PM

If you are willing to be nicer on the restrictions you can make armorless stations that can hold a lot of people and have them moved around by tugs, they can also have other ships in hangers for defense and mining. Being a station they can hold population (but you would need to transport it in stasis I think) and be able to do manufacturing and stuff if it has the installations in cargo and able to unload them on a body to do it.

The problem is that either this has to be a massive station that would take many years to build and probably still barely be able to carry many colonists or installations from your home planet.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: Shooer on April 16, 2020, 12:24:21 PM

Honestly the biggest hurdle to this game style in Aurora is population and wealth. It's possible, but you need to design your ships to handle more population than you have, and will probably not be enough.

Your ships are going to have to park over a body to unload their population from cryo and stay there for a few years to gather minerals, make/repair ships, research, train crew officers, make ground forces, ect.

Tried it a long time ago with VB6. The combined habs and fleet could handle 500mil pop and started with 200mil. Hab space wasn't enough after the first stop. So I just ended up terraforming a few planets in the system. So a totally nomadic game isn't strictly easy, but a race that sends the massive mother fleet to find/colonize a new home world is possible.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: xenoscepter on April 16, 2020, 12:30:03 PM

This may take awhile, so please standby.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: 01010100 on April 16, 2020, 01:31:08 PM

You could carry construction ground units in troop transport bays for manufacturing ability, rather than construction facilities in cargo holds.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: xenoscepter on April 16, 2020, 04:07:23 PM

I'm gonna take a break for today, but here's what I have so far:

(This is all WIP)

The Hive Ship

Code: [Select]

Hive Ship class Hive Ship      5,583,894 tons       43,965 Crew       183,627.7 BP       TCS 111,678    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      Armour 1-2803       Shields 0-0       HTK 12654      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 5600      PPV 0
MSP 515,098    Max Repair 2000 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 200,000 tons     Cargo 900,000    Habitation Capacity 1,000,000    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 50    
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 180 months    Flight Crew Berths 4,000    
Jump Point Stabilisation: 360 days
Recreational Facilities
Maintenance Modules: 200 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 200,000 tons

Fuel Capacity 7,500,000 Litres    Range N/A
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 150 hours

Strike Group
25x Geo Survey Craft Geological Survey Craft   Speed: 750 km/s    Size: 9.99
25x Grav Survey Craft Gravitational Survey Craft   Speed: 750 km/s    Size: 9.99

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Brief Summary:

Off-Topic: show

The Support Ships

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Ambassador Corvette class Ambassador Corvette      5,000 tons       108 Crew       534.4 BP       TCS 100    TH 300    EM 0
3000 km/s      Armour 1-26       Shields 0-0       HTK 24      Sensors 1/5/0/0      DCR 3      PPV 0
MSP 713    Max Repair 300 MSP
Troop Capacity 200 tons     
Captain    Control Rating 1   BRG   DIP   
Intended Deployment Time: 5.5 months    

Commercial Ion Drive  EP300.00 (1)    Power 300.0    Fuel Use 8.07%    Signature 300.00    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 102,000 Litres    Range 45.5 billion km (175 days at full power)

Navicomputer 50 (1)     GPS 10     Range 4m km    MCR 434.4k km    Resolution 1
Navicomputer 5000 (1)     GPS 1000     Range 18.5m km    Resolution 100
TH Calibration System (1)     Sensitivity 1     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  7.9m km
Navicomputer EM Calibration System (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  17.7m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Colony Ship class Colony Ship      20,000 tons       263 Crew       755.1 BP       TCS 400    TH 600    EM 0
1500 km/s      Armour 1-65       Shields 0-0       HTK 64      Sensors 1/1/0/0      DCR 28      PPV 0
MSP 4,260    Max Repair 75.000 MSP
Cargo 10,000    Cryogenic Berths 400    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 4    
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 7.2 months    

Commercial Ion Drive  EP300.00 (2)    Power 600.0    Fuel Use 8.07%    Signature 300.00    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 249,000 Litres    Range 27.8 billion km (214 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 4 hours

Panetary Surface Scanner (1)     GPS 1     Range 1.3m km    MCR 137.4k km    Resolution 1
Planetary Detection Scanner (1)     GPS 500     Range 10m km    Resolution 500
TH Calibration System (1)     Sensitivity 1     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  7.9m km
EM Calibration System (1)     Sensitivity 1     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  7.9m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Geo Survey Craft class Geological Survey Craft      500 tons       26 Crew       178.3 BP       TCS 10    TH 8    EM 0
750 km/s      Armour 1-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 4      Sensors 0/0/0/1      DCR 0      PPV 0
Maint Life 14.05 Years     MSP 180    AFR 4%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 2    5YR 26    Max Repair 100 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   SCI   
Intended Deployment Time: 27 days    Morale Check Required    

Ion Drive  EP3.75 (2)    Power 7.5    Fuel Use 243.57%    Signature 3.75    Explosion 7%
Fuel Capacity 12,000 Litres    Range 1.8 billion km (27 days at full power)

Panetary Surface Scanner (1)     GPS 1     Range 1.3m km    MCR 137.4k km    Resolution 1
Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction

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Grav Survey Craft class Gravitational Survey Craft      500 tons       26 Crew       178.3 BP       TCS 10    TH 8    EM 0
750 km/s      Armour 1-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 4      Sensors 0/0/1/0      DCR 0      PPV 0
Maint Life 14.05 Years     MSP 180    AFR 4%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 2    5YR 26    Max Repair 100 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   SCI   
Intended Deployment Time: 27 days    Morale Check Required    

Ion Drive  EP3.75 (2)    Power 7.5    Fuel Use 243.57%    Signature 3.75    Explosion 7%
Fuel Capacity 12,000 Litres    Range 1.8 billion km (27 days at full power)

Panetary Surface Scanner (1)     GPS 1     Range 1.3m km    MCR 137.4k km    Resolution 1
Gravitational Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction

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Resource Collector class Resource Collecotr      25,000 tons       245 Crew       831.4 BP       TCS 500    TH 750    EM 0
1500 km/s      Armour 1-76       Shields 0-0       HTK 58      Sensors 1/1/0/0      DCR 5      PPV 0
MSP 2,043    Max Repair 120 MSP
Cargo 500    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 2    
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 18.1 months    
Fuel Harvester: 2 modules producing 80,000 litres per annum
Orbital Miner: 2 modules producing 20 tons per mineral per annum

Commercial Ion Drive  EP375.00 (2)    Power 750    Fuel Use 7.22%    Signature 375    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 811,000 Litres    Range 80.9 billion km (624 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 16 hours

Planetary Detection Scanner (1)     GPS 500     Range 10m km    Resolution 500
TH Calibration System (1)     Sensitivity 1     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  7.9m km
EM Calibration System (1)     Sensitivity 1     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  7.9m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Salvager class Salvager      25,000 tons       205 Crew       772.2 BP       TCS 500    TH 750    EM 0
1500 km/s      Armour 1-76       Shields 0-0       HTK 43      Sensors 5/5/0/0      DCR 5      PPV 0
MSP 916    Max Repair 200 MSP
Cargo 6,500    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 2    Tractor Beam     
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3.1 months    
Salvager: 1 module(s) capable of salvaging 500 tons per day

Commercial Ion Drive  EP375.00 (2)    Power 750    Fuel Use 7.22%    Signature 375    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 121,000 Litres    Range 12.1 billion km (93 days at full power)

Navicomputer 5000 (1)     GPS 1000     Range 18.5m km    Resolution 100
Navicomputer 50 (1)     GPS 10     Range 4m km    MCR 434.4k km    Resolution 1
Navicomputer TH Calibration System (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  17.7m km
Navicomputer EM Calibration System (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  17.7m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Code: [Select]

Tug Corvette class Tug Corvette      5,000 tons       76 Crew       360 BP       TCS 100    TH 450    EM 0
4500 km/s      Armour 1-26       Shields 0-0       HTK 25      Sensors 1/5/0/0      DCR 3      PPV 0
MSP 877    Max Repair 112.500 MSP
Tractor Beam     
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 5.6 months    

Commercial Ion Drive  EP450.00 (1)    Power 450.0    Fuel Use 6.59%    Signature 450.00    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 127,000 Litres    Range 69.4 billion km (178 days at full power)

Navicomputer 50 (1)     GPS 10     Range 4m km    MCR 434.4k km    Resolution 1
Navicomputer 5000 (1)     GPS 1000     Range 18.5m km    Resolution 100
TH Calibration System (1)     Sensitivity 1     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  7.9m km
Navicomputer EM Calibration System (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  17.7m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: DoctorDanny on April 16, 2020, 04:10:10 PM

Quote from: 01010100 on April 16, 2020, 01:31:08 PM

You could carry construction ground units in troop transport bays for manufacturing ability, rather than construction facilities in cargo holds.

That might work. Drop down onto a planet, build the stuff you need and move out again. We could do some stripmining while we're there :)

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: DoctorDanny on April 16, 2020, 04:23:10 PM

@Xenoscepter:

Man, that's impressive allready. A 6 million ton behemoth!

First thoughts:
I'm unsure how it would operate the facilities though.
Can they function in space or would they have to be dropped down to a surface?

I like that you've added lots of (nice and compact) survey craft.
I picture this monster appearing through a jumppoint, unleashing a swarm of survey drones to find valuables throughout the system.

I've zero experience with tugs yet.
What speed would they be able to get, dragging this big mama?

Can't see much in the way of defences yet though ;-)

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: DFNewb on April 16, 2020, 04:28:38 PM

Quote from: DoctorDanny on April 16, 2020, 04:10:10 PM

Quote from: 01010100 on April 16, 2020, 01:31:08 PM
You could carry construction ground units in troop transport bays for manufacturing ability, rather than construction facilities in cargo holds.

That might work. Drop down onto a planet, build the stuff you need and move out again. We could do some stripmining while we're there :)

I just did some simple math / testing ingame.

The way to go for your plan is DEFINITELY construction vehicles. They are much more space efficient to transport and I don't think they need population to function and might not even be affected by modifiers.

As for the design of the habitat that will get towed I would give it the no armor flag so you can build it using construction factories instead of with a spacestation complex.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: xenoscepter on April 16, 2020, 04:43:56 PM

I plan to stick engines on it, don't worry. The tugs are for stranded vessels. :)

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: spazomatic on April 20, 2020, 10:21:13 AM

I have spent a lot of time recently trying to concept this out recently myself and I have reached the conclusion that it isn't viable using a single monolithic ship or station. The real breaking point for me is just how big the orbital habitat modules are vs. how many colonists they support. The largest station you can really build I believe is 9,375,000 tons because that is the largest jump drive you can construct.

9. 3mil Commercial Jump Drive JC9375K Commercial Jump Drive
Max Ship Size 9,375,000 tons Jump Radius 25k km Squadron Size 2
Max Ship Size vs Drive Size Ratio 19
Cost 62797. 2 Size 500,000 tons Crew 2000 HTK 200
Base Change to hit 100%
Materials Required: Duranium 12,559. 44 Sorium 50,237. 76

If you build a station with nothing but jump drive and orbital habitats then you can squeeze in 17 habitats which only supports 3. 4mil orbital workers, not nearly enough to be viable.
If you go with the cryogenic berths the maximum population would be 35,080,000 colonists. Still not enough to really run a full colony.

I too hit upon the idea of using ground force based construction teams in place of construction factories to reduce population requirements, but I don't think this is financially viable. I am going to assume your current planet you are operating on will need 1000 construction factories. The most efficient space/cost for the ground based construction are medium construction vehicles. Moving them isn't too big a problem, looks like you can do that with 65 large troop transport berths, but financially this would require 127,200 wealth/annum which seems completely infeasible.

I do think a flotilla of hive stations (or ships maybe) could be viable, but would probably become pretty logistically overwhelming.

I haven't fiddled with it yet, but wondering if you can set up some sort of tractor beam daisy chain so once you get it all set up, you just have to tractor the first station in the chain with your tug and move the whole group of stations at once. Probably won't work, but it would be amusing if it did.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: DoctorDanny on April 20, 2020, 12:09:36 PM

I'm not really sure on how stabilized jump points work. Is there an upper mass they allow through?
If not then you can simply use stabilization modules to stabilize new points and move your Hive ship through without a jump drive.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: Alsadius on April 20, 2020, 12:39:13 PM

Quote from: DoctorDanny on April 20, 2020, 12:09:36 PM

I'm not really sure on how stabilized jump points work. Is there an upper mass they allow through?
If not then you can simply use stabilization modules to stabilize new points and move your Hive ship through without a jump drive.

And a stabilization module is way lighter than a max-size jump engine, too.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: Father Tim on April 20, 2020, 12:56:58 PM

Quote from: DoctorDanny on April 20, 2020, 12:09:36 PM

I'm not really sure on how stabilized jump points work. Is there an upper mass they allow through?

Nope.

Quote from: DoctorDanny link=topic=10774.msg126135#msg126135

If not then you can simply use stabilization modules to stabilize new points and move your Hive ship through without a jump drive.

Yup.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: spazomatic on April 20, 2020, 01:59:31 PM

ok, well that just takes all the fun out of it ;D

The last few games I have played I just use jump engines so that hadn't actually occurred to me, but it would still be a ridiculously large ship to achieve any meaningful level of population

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: liveware on May 14, 2020, 06:39:59 PM

At 500 kton per orbital hab module, and 200 k population per module, in order to support 500 million population you would need 2500 modules on your hab station. That would be 1250000 ktons just in hab modules (assuming I did my math correctly).

I'm thinking a station capable of holding 500 million population would be game-breakingly large.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: SpikeTheHobbitMage on May 14, 2020, 07:35:38 PM

Challenge accepted.

Code: [Select]

Heliopolis class Colony      1,250,468,209 tons       76,010 Crew       529,124.7 BP       TCS 25,009,364    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      No Armour       Shields 0-0     HTK 64719      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 0    Max Repair 2000 MSP
Habitation Capacity 500,000,000    
Kaigun-Ch?sa    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    
Recreational Facilities


This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Space Station for construction purposes

Orbital habitats don't seem to contribute to colony population caps unless there are already people there and the people get left behind when you move the station. In particular, a deep space colony doesn't seem to be possible. :(

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: liveware on May 14, 2020, 10:23:08 PM

Quote from: SpikeTheHobbitMage on May 14, 2020, 07:35:38 PM

Challenge accepted.
Code: [Select]
Heliopolis class Colony 1,250,468,209 tons 76,010 Crew 529,124.7 BP TCS 25,009,364 TH 0 EM 0 1 km/s No Armour Shields 0-0 HTK 64719 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0 MSP 0 Max Repair 2000 MSP Habitation Capacity 500,000,000 Kaigun-Ch?sa Control Rating 1 BRG Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Recreational Facilities This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes This design is classed as a Space Station for construction purposesOrbital habitats don't seem to contribute to colony population caps unless there are already people there and the people get left behind when you move the station. In particular, a deep space colony doesn't seem to be possible. :(

Nice.

I think I messed around with something similar in SM mode in VB6. I remember it didn't really work the way I wanted it too but I don't recall exactly why not. What you describe sounds vaguely familiar... maybe try adding cryo chambers and putting everyone to sleep before relocating the habitat?

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: vorpal+5 on May 15, 2020, 01:52:36 AM

I don't think the whole concept is viable because of 2 reasons:

You can only build new ships in shipyards, unless fighters. If you can't rebuild a lost ship, then you got a problem. Plus you might want to have a battlefleet, Homeworld style, at some point, if you encounter a 'point of contention' ...
You can only generate wealth by having deployed population or financial centers.

You'll have to fix both of these 'issues' to make a truly nomadic race viable. A behemoth moving one billion pop in cryo that stop a few years to create shipyards from nothing and enough wealth to burn through the next leap* to another system, perhaps...

*: And by leap I mean you have a parasite stabilizing a wormhole, the Jump Drive approaches is too limiting in size.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: DFNewb on May 15, 2020, 10:48:44 AM

Quote from: liveware on May 14, 2020, 10:23:08 PM

Quote from: SpikeTheHobbitMage on May 14, 2020, 07:35:38 PM
Challenge accepted.
Code: [Select]
Heliopolis class Colony 1,250,468,209 tons 76,010 Crew 529,124.7 BP TCS 25,009,364 TH 0 EM 0 1 km/s No Armour Shields 0-0 HTK 64719 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0 MSP 0 Max Repair 2000 MSP Habitation Capacity 500,000,000 Kaigun-Ch?sa Control Rating 1 BRG Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Recreational Facilities This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes This design is classed as a Space Station for construction purposesOrbital habitats don't seem to contribute to colony population caps unless there are already people there and the people get left behind when you move the station. In particular, a deep space colony doesn't seem to be possible. :(

Nice.

I think I messed around with something similar in SM mode in VB6. I remember it didn't really work the way I wanted it too but I don't recall exactly why not. What you describe sounds vaguely familiar... maybe try adding cryo chambers and putting everyone to sleep before relocating the habitat?

Yea you will need to do that to move them.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: liveware on May 15, 2020, 11:08:43 AM

Quote from: vorpal+5 on May 15, 2020, 01:52:36 AM

You can only build new ships in shipyards, unless fighters. If you can't rebuild a lost ship, then you got a problem.

It's possible to tow shipyards with tugs, which you would presumably have for towing your sodding huge space station.

For wealth generation, you could always amass a huge fortune planetside, then pick up and relocate to another planet or moon, possibly with some terraforming capabilities. This doesn't give you a deep space habitat, but you might RP that your giant terraforming space station just orbits a large rock for convenience of access to resources, or ground based tourism or something.

Do asteroids work with orbital habs? That might make for an interesting approach.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: DFNewb on May 15, 2020, 11:35:36 AM

I think this sort of playstyle is definitely possible, probably with Ion and equivalent tech and a lot of SM BP points. The fleet would be required to make stops in systems (specifically at bodies) to overhaul ships and stabilize jump points as I think the ships might have to be bigger than the largest possible jump drives. There would need to be a supporting civ fleet of tugs, tankers, cargo ships, colony ships, commercial hanger and recreation and maintenance component that allows overhauls. Some of these ships would probably be quite slow as well so you will need to keep them safe from NPR's.

It would be less of a homeworld mothership thing and more of a battlestar galactica thing. You have to understand that space to store all the ships in homeworld is clearly not calculated realistically and there is no way to produce ships out of another ship in Aurora you need space complexes so tugs to move them too.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: liveware on May 15, 2020, 11:50:49 AM

The more I think about this the more is starting to come back to me from the VB version a few years back.

I used SM to give myself 5-6 ships (not stations) with similar design parameters to what Spike listed above, except with commercial engines and cryo bays. I was channeling the General System Vehicles from the Culture book series so they were enormous ships. They had terraforming and I think orbital mining capabilities and I basically used them as seeds for new colonies and roamed around from system to system spreading mankind throughout the galaxy.

It worked rather well but caused a lot of cryptic error messages. Might work better in the C# version...

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: liveware on May 15, 2020, 03:29:37 PM

The ship below IS game breakingly large:

Code: [Select]

Exodus class Migration Vessel      2,959,707,023 tons       5,938,794 Crew       33,647,068.2 BP       TCS 59,194,140    TH 16,000,000    EM 0
270 km/s      Armour 100-183629       Shields 0-0       HTK 527491      Sensors 11/11/0/0      DCR 1010      PPV 0
MSP 101,105    Max Repair 2400 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 250,000 tons     Cargo 1,000,000    Cryogenic Berths 200,000,000    Habitation Capacity 1,000,000,000    Passengers 10000000    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 10    Tractor Beam     
Rear Admiral (Lower Half)    Control Rating 4   BRG   AUX   ENG   SCI   DIP   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 5,000    
Jump Point Stabilisation: 90 days
Recreational Facilities
Fuel Harvester: 2500 modules producing 100,000,000 litres per annum
Terraformer: 4000 modules producing 1 atm per annum
Orbital Miner: 2500 modules producing 25,000 tons per mineral per annum
Maintenance Modules: 250 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 250,000 tons
Refuelling Hub - Capable of refuelling multiple ships simultaneously
Ordnance Transfer Hub - Capable of transferring ordnance to multiple ships simultaneously

Shepherd-Jordan Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive  EP3200.00 (5000)    Power 16000000.0    Fuel Use 2.52%    Signature 3200.00    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 2,000,000,000 Litres    Range 4.8 billion km (207 days at full power)

Shepherd-Jordan CIWS-250 (1000x8)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Shepherd-Jordan Active Search Sensor AS31-R50 (50%) (1)     GPS 1050     Range 31.6m km    Resolution 50
Shepherd-Jordan Active Search Sensor AS8-R1 (50%) (1)     GPS 21     Range 8.6m km    MCR 771.7k km    Resolution 1
Shepherd-Jordan Active Search Sensor AS50-R200 (50%) (1)     GPS 4200     Range 50.1m km    Resolution 200
Shepherd-Jordan EM Sensor EM1.0-11.0 (50%) (1)     Sensitivity 11.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  26.2m km
Shepherd-Jordan Thermal Sensor TH1.0-11.0 (50%) (1)     Sensitivity 11.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  26.2m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

The game throws an error message about a number being to big/small for int32 whenever you try to view the class design, but it can be built via SM. I was unable to make it any larger than shown due to the in32 error messages. However, even if built the ship is immobile because it cannot be refueled, even via SM refuel. It takes about 5 years to load all of the colonists that it can hold.

The cryo chambers seem to be the limiting factor. I could not add more than about 210 000 000 berths worth of cryo chambers before errors started to pop up.

A somewhat smaller version of this vessel might be interesting to attempt. Or if Mr Steve is feeling adventurous raising the int32 limit to int64 might also be interesting.

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: vorpal+5 on May 17, 2020, 07:53:45 AM

Amusing!

5 billions km for the range is not that big though, what if it had to traverse several systems without anything?

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: SpikeTheHobbitMage on May 17, 2020, 09:05:54 AM

Quote from: liveware on May 15, 2020, 03:29:37 PM

The ship below IS game breakingly large:

Code: [Select]
Exodus class Migration Vessel 2,959,707,023 tons 5,938,794 Crew 33,647,068.2 BP TCS 59,194,140 TH 16,000,000 EM 0 270 km/s Armour 100-183629 Shields 0-0 HTK 527491 Sensors 11/11/0/0 DCR 1010 PPV 0 MSP 101,105 Max Repair 2400 MSP Hangar Deck Capacity 250,000 tons Cargo 1,000,000 Cryogenic Berths 200,000,000 Habitation Capacity 1,000,000,000 Passengers 10000000 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 10 Tractor Beam Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Control Rating 4 BRG AUX ENG SCI DIP Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Flight Crew Berths 5,000 Jump Point Stabilisation: 90 days Recreational Facilities Fuel Harvester: 2500 modules producing 100,000,000 litres per annum Terraformer: 4000 modules producing 1 atm per annum Orbital Miner: 2500 modules producing 25,000 tons per mineral per annum Maintenance Modules: 250 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 250,000 tons Refuelling Hub - Capable of refuelling multiple ships simultaneously Ordnance Transfer Hub - Capable of transferring ordnance to multiple ships simultaneously Shepherd-Jordan Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive EP3200.00 (5000) Power 16000000.0 Fuel Use 2.52% Signature 3200.00 Explosion 5% Fuel Capacity 2,000,000,000 Litres Range 4.8 billion km (207 days at full power) Shepherd-Jordan CIWS-250 (1000x8) Range 1000 km TS: 25,000 km/s ROF 5 Shepherd-Jordan Active Search Sensor AS31-R50 (50%) (1) GPS 1050 Range 31.6m km Resolution 50 Shepherd-Jordan Active Search Sensor AS8-R1 (50%) (1) GPS 21 Range 8.6m km MCR 771.7k km Resolution 1 Shepherd-Jordan Active Search Sensor AS50-R200 (50%) (1) GPS 4200 Range 50.1m km Resolution 200 Shepherd-Jordan EM Sensor EM1.0-11.0 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 11.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km Shepherd-Jordan Thermal Sensor TH1.0-11.0 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 11.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
The game throws an error message about a number being to big/small for int32 whenever you try to view the class design, but it can be built via SM. I was unable to make it any larger than shown due to the in32 error messages. However, even if built the ship is immobile because it cannot be refueled, even via SM refuel. It takes about 5 years to load all of the colonists that it can hold.

The cryo chambers seem to be the limiting factor. I could not add more than about 210 000 000 berths worth of cryo chambers before errors started to pop up.

A somewhat smaller version of this vessel might be interesting to attempt. Or if Mr Steve is feeling adventurous raising the int32 limit to int64 might also be interesting.

A refuelling hub allows other ships to refuel from it, which you probably want with this thing, but does not allow it to refuel from a colony. It would either need a fuel handling system for that, or use tankers to handle the transfer. I still award you full points for awesome. :)

Title: Re: Challenge: Design a Hive ship
Post by: liveware on May 21, 2020, 10:24:00 AM

5 billion was the best range I could get with the maximum number of engines installed (seems 5k engines is a hard limit). Better engine tech than MP might give you something better. My plan was to just roam from colony -> gas giant -> colony -> gas giant and stabilizing any jump points needed in between as I go.

There is also 250k worth of hangar space available, so taking a refueling fleet along for the ride is a possibility.

I didn't realize a refueling hub doesn't allow for refueling planetside. I might have to try this concept out again and test it at a gas giant.

Aurora 4x

C# Aurora => C# Bureau of Design => Topic started by: DoctorDanny on April 16, 2020, 04:04:32 AM