Aurora 4x
C# Aurora => C# Bureau of Design => Topic started by: liveware on June 02, 2020, 06:31:41 PM
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I became frustrated by the enormous amount of micromanagement required to maintain my previous carrier fleets, so I came up with a new concept that should reduce this problem considerably.
Behold, the mighty Pegasus:
Pegasus B class Jump Tender 199,311 tons 1,473 Crew 12,158.5 BP TCS 3,986 TH 4,000 EM 0
1003 km/s JR 2-25(C) Armour 7-303 Shields 0-0 HTK 243 Sensors 11/11/0/0 DCR 11 PPV 0
MSP 2,038 Max Repair 806.9 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 70,000 tons Cryogenic Berths 3,000
Admiral Control Rating 3 BRG AUX ENG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Flight Crew Berths 1,400
Chaimberlin-Sherman JC200K Commercial Jump Drive Max Ship Size 200000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 2
Chaimberlin-Sherman Commercial Internal Fusion Drive EP1000.00 (4) Power 4000.0 Fuel Use 3.35% Signature 1000.00 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 8,000,000 Litres Range 215.3 billion km (2484 days at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS39-R100 (50%) (1) GPS 2100 Range 39.8m km Resolution 100
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS68-R500 (50%) (1) GPS 10500 Range 68.1m km Resolution 500
Chaimberlin-Sherman Thermal Sensor TH1.0-11.0 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 11.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
Chaimberlin-Sherman EM Sensor EM1.0-11.0 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 11.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
The Pegasus herself is rather lackluster, but within her ample hangar bays she can carry a Cetan:
Cetan class Escort Carrier 70,000 tons 1,475 Crew 12,061.9 BP TCS 1,400 TH 12,000 EM 0
8571 km/s Armour 10-151 Shields 0-0 HTK 352 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 80 PPV 68.14
Maint Life 2.10 Years MSP 9,538 AFR 560% IFR 7.8% 1YR 2,895 5YR 43,428 Max Repair 2000 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 18,000 tons Cryogenic Berths 2,000
Captain Control Rating 4 BRG AUX ENG FLG
Intended Deployment Time: 2 months Flight Crew Berths 360 Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP4000.00 (3) Power 12000 Fuel Use 107.33% Signature 4000 Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 15,381,000 Litres Range 36.8 billion km (49 days at full power)
Single Chaimberlin-Sherman Gauss Cannon R300-100 Turret (1x4) Range 30,000km TS: 16000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 30,000 km ROF 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Quad Chaimberlin-Sherman Gauss Cannon R300-85.00 Turret (2x16) Range 30,000km TS: 16000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 30,000 km ROF 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Chaimberlin-Sherman CIWS-160 (8x8) Range 1000 km TS: 16,000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% to hit
Chaimberlin-Sherman Beam Fire Control R32-TS16000 (50%) (3) Max Range: 32,000 km TS: 16,000 km/s 94 88 81 75 69 62 56 50 44 38
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS39-R100 (50%) (1) GPS 2100 Range 39.8m km Resolution 100
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS68-R500 (50%) (1) GPS 10500 Range 68.1m km Resolution 500
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS8-R1 (50%) (1) GPS 21 Range 8.6m km MCR 771.7k km Resolution 1
ECCM-1 (3) ECM 10
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
The overall fleet concept is that the Pegasus can ferry a Cetan to a hostile system and drop it there. The Cetan can then deploy 18k ton worth of close-range military craft to bring the fight to the enemy. The Pegasus is a commercial vessel and thus benefits from improved fuel efficiency and maintenance efficiency. The Cetan is a military vessel and has a considerable speed advantage at the cost of range and maintenance life.
I am still developing fighters to go along with the Cetan for my campaign against my current hostile NPR enemy. More to follow...
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Commercial hangar decks don't provide maintenance, so you might have some troubles with how long it takes the Pegasus to haul the Cetan to its appointment with the action.
Also, I think I remember a post about some kind of problems with docking a carrier with parasites aboard inside another carrier, but I'm not sure about that. That part ought to work.
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Commercial hangar decks don't provide maintenance, so you might have some troubles with how long it takes the Pegasus to haul the Cetan to its appointment with the action.
Also, I think I remember a post about some kind of problems with docking a carrier with parasites aboard inside another carrier, but I'm not sure about that. That part ought to work.
I intend to test these concepts with the previously posted designs. In particular I want to test my theory that commercial hangar decks do not reduce deployment time or maintenance clock, but do prevent both clocks from increasing. My intention is for the Pegasus to haul the Cetan to/from the combat zone and utilize the nearest colony for resupply and maintenance purposes.
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Commercial hangar decks don't provide maintenance, so you might have some troubles with how long it takes the Pegasus to haul the Cetan to its appointment with the action.
Also, I think I remember a post about some kind of problems with docking a carrier with parasites aboard inside another carrier, but I'm not sure about that. That part ought to work.
I intend to test these concepts with the previously posted designs. In particular I want to test my theory that commercial hangar decks do not reduce deployment time or maintenance clock, but do prevent both clocks from increasing. My intention is for the Pegasus to haul the Cetan to/from the combat zone and utilize the nearest colony for resupply and maintenance purposes.
I can tell you that commercial hangar decks do turn back deployment time. I've been operating out of them constantly for my last two games.
I'm almost entirely certain that they don't pause the maintenance clock, and they absolutely don't wind it back. EDIT: Actually, I'd say I'm absolutely certain - I remember surveying expeditions (a commercial jump-carrier with 2000 tons of hangar and four exploratory parasites) coming back with all four parasite craft at exactly the same maintenance clock
I have not tested landing a mothership in a hangar bay.
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So, a 2-stage carrier approach? A transport carrier that get's the combat carrier to the battlefield. IIRC in VB parasites inside a parasite vanished so that would have taken excessive hangar space, but if it works in C# that seems like an interesting concept to open the books upon again.
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So, a 2-stage carrier approach? A transport carrier that get's the combat carrier to the battlefield. IIRC in VB parasites inside a parasite vanished so that would have taken excessive hangar space, but if it works in C# that seems like an interesting concept to open the books upon again.
That would be annoying if the Cetan cannot carry a useful fighter wing. However I am still interested in testing the nested carrier concept.
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Nice concept. Does putting ships with a filled hangar into a hangar work in C#? I assume it does, but haven't tested it yet.
If my memory serves me, doing so in VB6 would result in the second-tier hangar load entering parasite nirvana (=aurora equivalent of a dwarven atom smasher=). And if you had to unload them first, you'd need additional hangar space on the first-tier carrier, I think.
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That would be faster to test that with a new game and some smaller ships
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Found a few minutes to SMtest my own question. Basically OK from a bug/feature perspective. At least, VB6 parasite nirvana seems to have nirvanished in C#.
The Nirvana has com hangars and engines, the Clemenceau a mil hangar and engine, the Suffren is just an engine with sensors.
So, you can go ahead and test the functional viability of the concept.
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Found a few minutes to SMtest my own question. Basically OK from a bug/feature perspective. At least, VB6 parasite nirvana seems to have nirvanished in C#.
The Nirvana has com hangars and engines, the Clemenceau a mil hangar and engine, the Suffren is just an engine with sensors.
So, you can go ahead and test the functional viability of the concept.
Thanks for testing, I haven't built my ships yet as I am still on pause designing fighters. Did you happen to notice if your Clemenceau's maintenance clock ticks up whilst docked to the Nirvana?
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My first fighter design is starting to take shape. The Piranha is a low cost, high speed, gauss equipped interceptor. It has horrible accuracy but reasonable speed and range and is intended to be used in large swarms. At only 108 tons, a Cetan can easily hold over 150 Pirhana's in it's hangar bays, with plenty of space left over for additional support craft, such as long range sensor scouts.
Piranha class Fighter 108 tons 6 Crew 41.8 BP TCS 2 TH 35 EM 0
16296 km/s Armour 1-2 Shields 0-0 HTK 1 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0.5
Maint Life 29.83 Years MSP 24 AFR 1% IFR 0.0% 1YR 0 5YR 1 Max Repair 17.50 MSP
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.3 days Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP35.00 (1) Power 35.0 Fuel Use 2241.05% Signature 35.00 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 7,000 Litres Range 0.5 billion km (8 hours at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Gauss Cannon R300-8.00 (1x4) Range 16,000km TS: 16,296 km/s Accuracy Modifier 8.00% RM 30,000 km ROF 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
Chaimberlin-Sherman Beam Fire Control R16-TS16000 (50%) (1) Max Range: 16,000 km TS: 16,000 km/s 88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
Range band increments are 2000m and target speed accuracies are for a 10k km/s target
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Based on the Piranha gauss fighter, the Piranha-S forgoes any offensive weaponry in favor of a long-range active sensor. These fighters will serve as scout pickets for carrier strike groups, assisting with locating targets for other fighters to engage.
Piranha-S class Fighter 108 tons 5 Crew 48 BP TCS 2 TH 35 EM 0
16296 km/s Armour 1-2 Shields 0-0 HTK 2 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 27.19 Years MSP 27 AFR 1% IFR 0.0% 1YR 0 5YR 1 Max Repair 26.2 MSP
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.3 days Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP35.00 (1) Power 35.0 Fuel Use 2241.05% Signature 35.00 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 7,000 Litres Range 0.5 billion km (8 hours at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS68-R500 (50%) (1) GPS 10500 Range 68.1m km Resolution 500
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
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The Piranha-MF is a missile fighter variant of the Piranha, equipped with 7x size 1 missile launchers and 1x size 2 missile launcher. With it's missiles, the Piranha-MF can engage targets at ranges up to 685k with a reasonable chance to hit targets moving at 10k km/s or less.
Piranha-MF class Fighter 108 tons 3 Crew 28 BP TCS 2 TH 35 EM 0
16296 km/s Armour 1-2 Shields 0-0 HTK 1 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0.9
Maint Life 33.94 Years MSP 16 AFR 1% IFR 0.0% 1YR 0 5YR 0 Max Repair 17.50 MSP
Magazine 9
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.3 days Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP35.00 (1) Power 35.0 Fuel Use 2241.05% Signature 35.00 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 7,000 Litres Range 0.5 billion km (8 hours at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Size 1 Box Launcher (7) Missile Size: 1 Hangar Reload 50 minutes MF Reload 8 hours
Chaimberlin-Sherman Size 2.0 Box Launcher (1) Missile Size: 2.0 Hangar Reload 70 minutes MF Reload 11 hours
Chaimberlin-Sherman Missile Fire Control FC5-R1 (50%) (1) Range 5.4m km Resolution 1
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
Chaimberlin-Sherman Size 1 Anti-Ship Missile
Missile Size: 1 MSP (2.5 Tons) Warhead: 1 Radiation Damage: 1 Manoeuvre Rating: 13
Speed: 50,000 km/s Fuel: 20 Flight Time: 8.6 seconds Range: 430,000 km
ECM Modifier: 10%
Cost Per Missile: 2.0512 Development Cost: 205
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 650% 3k km/s 216.7% 5k km/s 130% 10k km/s 65%
Materials Required
Corbomite 0.5
Tritanium 0.25
Gallicite 1.3012
Fuel: 20
Chaimberlin-Sherman Size 2 Anti-Ship Missile
Missile Size: 2.000 MSP (5.0000 Tons) Warhead: 3 Radiation Damage: 3 Manoeuvre Rating: 14
Speed: 50,000 km/s Fuel: 45 Flight Time: 13.7 seconds Range: 685,000 km
ECM Modifier: 10%
Cost Per Missile: 3.91896 Development Cost: 392
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 700% 3k km/s 233.3% 5k km/s 140% 10k km/s 70%
Materials Required
Corbomite 0.5
Tritanium 0.75
Gallicite 2.66896
Fuel: 45
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Do you have something planned with mobile active sensors that aren't super-big-resolution? Piranha-S is pretty terrible at detecting fighters, let alone missiles.
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I will also be designing a mine layer which will be responsible for deploying a network of sensor buoys throughout the engagement zone. Those buoys provide better missile and fighter detection coverage. The Piranha-S is intended to detect larger ships at longer range.
Additionally, since I plan on running away as soon as I detect a hostile missile launch, I can skimp somewhat on high resolution sensors because I can usually detect the missiles or the launching ship on thermal sensors from longer range than my active sensors permit anyway.
Also, the method I use for deploying sensor buoys in a potential combat zone before deploying the main carrier strike group is very effective at detecting enemy ships and missiles from outside my normal ship sensor detection range. This has saved a great many of my ships from hostile action.
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The Piranha-MB is a missile bomber variant of the Piranha hull. It has a single, large size 9 missile launcher capable of delivering a large warhead to distant targets with reasonable accuracy. When used in tandem with the Piranha-MF, very large missile barrages can be deployed.
Piranha-MB class Fighter 108 tons 3 Crew 28 BP TCS 2 TH 35 EM 0
16296 km/s Armour 1-2 Shields 0-0 HTK 1 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0.9
Maint Life 30.18 Years MSP 16 AFR 1% IFR 0.0% 1YR 0 5YR 1 Max Repair 17.50 MSP
Magazine 9
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.3 days Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP35.00 (1) Power 35.0 Fuel Use 2241.05% Signature 35.00 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 7,000 Litres Range 0.5 billion km (8 hours at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Size 9.00 Box Launcher (1) Missile Size: 9.00 Hangar Reload 150 minutes MF Reload 25 hours
Chaimberlin-Sherman Missile Fire Control FC5-R1 (50%) (1) Range 5.4m km Resolution 1
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
Chaimberlin-Sherman Size 9 Anti-Ship Missile
Missile Size: 9.000 MSP (22.5000 Tons) Warhead: 15 Radiation Damage: 15 Manoeuvre Rating: 17
Speed: 50,000 km/s Fuel: 160 Flight Time: 22.9 seconds Range: 1,145,000 km
ECM Modifier: 10% ECCM Modifier: 10%
Cost Per Missile: 17.19808 Development Cost: 1,720
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 850% 3k km/s 283.3% 5k km/s 170% 10k km/s 85%
Materials Required
Corbomite 1
Tritanium 3.75
Gallicite 12.44808
Fuel: 160
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I will also be designing a mine layer which will be responsible for deploying a network of sensor buoys throughout the engagement zone. Those buoys provide better missile and fighter detection coverage. The Piranha-S is intended to detect larger ships at longer range.
Actually, the Piranha-MF and -MB can serve as mine layers. Additional minelayer ships are not required.
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The Piranha-MF and -MB can also launch sensor buoys to assist with maintaining improved situational awareness and detection of smaller craft.
Chaimberlin-Sherman Size 1 Sensor Satellite
Missile Size: 1 MSP (2.5 Tons) Warhead: 0 Radiation Damage: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 0 km/s Fuel: 0 Flight Time: 1 seconds Range: 0 km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.26 EM Sensitivity Modifier: 11
Resolution: 100 Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 4,428,679 km
Thermal Sensor Strength: 0.14 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 2,958,040 km
EM Sensor Strength: 0.14 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 2,958,040 km
Cost Per Missile: 0.864 Development Cost: 86
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 0% 3k km/s 0% 5k km/s 0% 10k km/s 0%
Materials Required
Boronide 0.324
Uridium 0.54
Chaimberlin-Sherman Size 2 Sensor Satellite
Missile Size: 2.000 MSP (5.0000 Tons) Warhead: 0 Radiation Damage: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 0 km/s Fuel: 0 Flight Time: 1 seconds Range: 0 km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.52 EM Sensitivity Modifier: 11
Resolution: 100 Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 6,263,098 km
Thermal Sensor Strength: 0.28 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 4,183,300 km
EM Sensor Strength: 0.28 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 4,183,300 km
Cost Per Missile: 1.728 Development Cost: 173
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 0% 3k km/s 0% 5k km/s 0% 10k km/s 0%
Materials Required
Boronide 0.648
Uridium 1.08
Chaimberlin-Sherman Size 9 Sensor Satellite
Missile Size: 8.99 MSP (22.475 Tons) Warhead: 0 Radiation Damage: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 0 km/s Fuel: 0 Flight Time: 1 seconds Range: 0 km
Active Sensor Strength: 2.1 EM Sensitivity Modifier: 11
Resolution: 1 Maximum Range vs 50 ton object (or larger): 2,711,631 km
Thermal Sensor Strength: 1.33 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 9,117,291 km
EM Sensor Strength: 1.1 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8,291,562 km
Geo Sensor Strength: 0.02 Geo Points Per Day: 0.48
ECM Modifier: 10%
Cost Per Missile: 7.78 Development Cost: 778
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 0% 3k km/s 0% 5k km/s 0% 10k km/s 0%
Materials Required
Corbomite 0.5
Boronide 2.73
Uridium 4.55
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I haven't yet started using carriers in C#, but I'm confused on this one. Where is the problem with just making the original 70kt carrier jump capable on it's own?
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I haven't yet started using carriers in C#, but I'm confused on this one. Where is the problem with just making the original 70kt carrier jump capable on it's own?
Jump drives have massive MSP requirements. To get a military jump carrier with similar hangar capacity, speed, and range to the Cetan + Pegasus combo, you need a much larger carrier than what I can achieve with the separate commercial jump drive and commercial engine transport carrier. The larger military carrier is also much more MSP hungry than my large commercial carrier. Basically, I am optimizing around two design requirements: long range and high speed. The Cetan is fast but lacks range. The Pegasus has range but lacks speed. Additionally, by keeping the Cetan stored on the Pegasus while not in use, I think that I can keep the Cetan's maintenance clock from ticking up (I need to confirm this still). This would theoretically provide a significant savings in terms of MSP and how frequently I need to overhaul the Cetan. If this does not work, I still benefit from more efficient commercial engines and jump drives and reap MSP and fuel efficiency benefits there. The Cetan has MUCH lower fuel efficiency than the Pegasus and is not intended to do a lot of cruising unless it is actively engaging the enemy.
FWIW I had originally designed a 100k ton military jump carrier. After staring at the design for a while, I determined that it had inadequate range and speed for it's intended mission and required a huge allocation of hull space to maintenance storage to achieve the required mission and range and endurance. I decided to attempt a non-jump carrier but still ran into the problem of inadequate range and MSP for a given speed. I don't want my carrier to be able to be caught by enemy destroyers, which seem to max out at around 8k km/s based on my existing scout intel. To reduce MSP requirements, I decided to explore commercial engines and jump drives. Ships with military hangers do not benefit substantially from commercial engines in terms of MSP savings, and I could not jump a carrier with military engines using a commercial jump drive, so I opted instead for a very large commercial ship with a single large commercial jump drive and large hangars. Then I re-designed my military carrier to fit inside the commercial jump ship and found that it had substantially more hangar space and speed per hull size (which I consider among the most important attributes that a carrier should possess), and after some design revisions I was able to improve the range to an acceptable value for in-system combat.
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Additionally, by keeping the Cetan stored on the Pegasus while not in use, I think that I can keep the Cetan's maintenance clock from ticking up (I need to confirm this still). This would theoretically provide a significant savings in terms of MSP and how frequently I need to overhaul the Cetan.
You don't have to test this...
Commercial hangars are available in C# Aurora. They are 50% larger than military hangar bays (size 32), have the same cost of 100 BP and the same crew requirement (15).
They are intended for transport of other commercial vessels, temporary transport of military vessels, reloading of box launchers and for repairing ships. With this in mind, a military ship still has normal maintenance requirements while in a civilian hangar.
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Additionally, by keeping the Cetan stored on the Pegasus while not in use, I think that I can keep the Cetan's maintenance clock from ticking up (I need to confirm this still). This would theoretically provide a significant savings in terms of MSP and how frequently I need to overhaul the Cetan.
You don't have to test this...
Commercial hangars are available in C# Aurora. They are 50% larger than military hangar bays (size 32), have the same cost of 100 BP and the same crew requirement (15).
They are intended for transport of other commercial vessels, temporary transport of military vessels, reloading of box launchers and for repairing ships. With this in mind, a military ship still has normal maintenance requirements while in a civilian hangar.
In that case, the Cetan probably needs a longer maintenance life. It also needs a missile magazine to store extra missiles for the missile bombers so a re-design is in order. However I still find the improved fuel efficiency and improved in-system combat capabilities of the Cetan + Pegasus to be superior to my existing military jump-carrier designs. It is possible that larger shipyards and better technology will close this gap, as I am currently limited to 100k ton naval shipyards and 200k ton commercial shipyards.
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Military engines can be almost as efficient as commercial ones if you want them to be, but of course combat ships seldom want them to be because they need speed to maneuver and fight. (You have to either have power at least 55% or size at most 24, but most military drives don't go anywhere near as low as 55% power. Except the occasional engine for small but very-long-range craft like surveyors.)
The huge savings of the Pegasus (or anything) being commercial is that it has zero maintenance failures and unlimited deployment time.
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The huge savings of the Pegasus (or anything) being commercial is that it has zero maintenance failures and unlimited deployment time.
Yes. This was a major consideration in my earlier designs as my previous military carrier fleets had enormous MSP requirements and spent a huge amount of time in overhaul. This is an ongoing design optimization process for me that I am trying to improve.
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The addition of missile bombers to the Cetan's flight wings introduced a requirement for re-arming missile fighters and bombers. Additionally, increased maintenance life was desired for the Cetan. The resulting new class, the Cetan B, has somewhat reduced hangar capacity and range but now includes a missile magazine and improved maintenance life. As the enemy's home system is only about 5b km in diameter, the reduction in range should not be a problem and the improved maintenance life should improve time-on-station. By my estimates, the Pegasus takes about a year to arrive on station, resulting in a useful deployment time of at most 1 year for the Cetan before it requires overhaul. Since combat missions are generally measured in days or hours (or less), this should be adequate for many mission types. With 3 or more Cetans and good mission planning, a single Pegasus could theoretically keep a Cetan on-station continuously. While the deployment time of the Cetan is 1 year, it only has 2 months worth of maneuvering capability, so it is expected that for much of it's deployment it will be kept in a stationary orbit rather than continuously maneuvering.
Cetan B class Escort Carrier 70,000 tons 1,460 Crew 12,370.1 BP TCS 1,400 TH 12,000 EM 0
8571 km/s Armour 10-151 Shields 0-0 HTK 384 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 80 PPV 68.14
Maint Life 3.20 Years MSP 19,731 AFR 560% IFR 7.8% 1YR 2,904 5YR 43,557 Max Repair 2000 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 15,000 tons Magazine 703 Cryogenic Berths 1,800
Captain Control Rating 4 BRG AUX ENG FLG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Flight Crew Berths 300 Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP4000.00 (3) Power 12000 Fuel Use 107.33% Signature 4000 Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 13,616,000 Litres Range 32.6 billion km (44 days at full power)
Single Chaimberlin-Sherman Gauss Cannon R300-100 Turret (1x4) Range 30,000km TS: 16000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 30,000 km ROF 5
Quad Chaimberlin-Sherman Gauss Cannon R300-85.00 Turret (2x16) Range 30,000km TS: 16000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 30,000 km ROF 5
Chaimberlin-Sherman CIWS-160 (8x8) Range 1000 km TS: 16,000 km/s ROF 5
Chaimberlin-Sherman Beam Fire Control R32-TS16000 (50%) (3) Max Range: 32,000 km TS: 16,000 km/s 69 38 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS39-R100 (50%) (1) GPS 2100 Range 39.8m km Resolution 100
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS68-R500 (50%) (1) GPS 10500 Range 68.1m km Resolution 500
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS8-R1 (50%) (1) GPS 21 Range 8.6m km MCR 771.7k km Resolution 1
ECCM-1 (3) ECM 10
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
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Recognizing a need for improved reconnaissance capabilities, the Terran Mercantile Guild has developed the Barracuda hull. Several variants were developed with different mission profiles in mind. First is the Barracuda-S:
Barracuda-S class Fighter 500 tons 18 Crew 208.5 BP TCS 10 TH 200 EM 0
20015 km/s Armour 3-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 5 Sensors 2/2/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 11.80 Years MSP 185 AFR 8% IFR 0.1% 1YR 2 5YR 37 Max Repair 100 MSP
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.6 days Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP200.00 (1) Power 200 Fuel Use 937.50% Signature 200 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 28,000 Litres Range 1.1 billion km (14 hours at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS68-R500 (50%) (1) GPS 10500 Range 68.1m km Resolution 500
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS8-R1 (50%) (1) GPS 21 Range 8.6m km MCR 771.7k km Resolution 1
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS39-R100 (50%) (1) GPS 2100 Range 39.8m km Resolution 100
Chaimberlin-Sherman Thermal Sensor TH0.2-2.2 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 2.2 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 11.7m km
Chaimberlin-Sherman EM Sensor EM0.2-2.2 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 2.2 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 11.7m km
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
The Barracuda hull is substantially larger than the Piranha, but the -S variant has a much more powerful engine capable of propelling the -S at very high speeds and also longer range than the Piranha. The Barracuda-S also boasts a more powerful sensor suite and is capable of providing more detailed sensor coverage than the Piranha. The -S variant is intended to support the planned Barracuda heavy fighter variants in combat with hostile forces.
Barracuda-SLR class Fighter 500 tons 13 Crew 112.3 BP TCS 10 TH 14 EM 0
1401 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 5 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 1
Maint Life 16.82 Years MSP 95 AFR 8% IFR 0.1% 1YR 1 5YR 10 Max Repair 26.2 MSP
Magazine 19
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP14.00 (1) Power 14 Fuel Use 1.81% Signature 14 Explosion 2%
Fuel Capacity 1,000 Litres Range 19.9 billion km (164 days at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Size 1 Missile Launcher (1) Missile Size: 1 Rate of Fire 10
Chaimberlin-Sherman Missile Fire Control FC5-R1 (50%) (1) Range 5.4m km Resolution 1
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS68-R500 (50%) (1) GPS 10500 Range 68.1m km Resolution 500
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS8-R1 (50%) (1) GPS 21 Range 8.6m km MCR 771.7k km Resolution 1
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS39-R100 (50%) (1) GPS 2100 Range 39.8m km Resolution 100
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
The Barracuda-SLR is a long ranged variant of the Barracuda-S, featuring reduced speed and dramatically better range and deployment time. It also possesses a size 1 missile launcher in order to support deployment of sensor satellites.
Barracuda-SGE class Fighter 500 tons 13 Crew 119.6 BP TCS 10 TH 14 EM 0
1401 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 2 Sensors 0/0/0/1 DCR 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 9.39 Years MSP 137 AFR 8% IFR 0.1% 1YR 3 5YR 42 Max Repair 100 MSP
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP14.00 (1) Power 14 Fuel Use 1.81% Signature 14 Explosion 2%
Fuel Capacity 1,000 Litres Range 19.9 billion km (164 days at full power)
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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Barracuda-SGR class Fighter 500 tons 13 Crew 119.6 BP TCS 10 TH 14 EM 0
1401 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 2 Sensors 0/0/1/0 DCR 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 9.39 Years MSP 137 AFR 8% IFR 0.1% 1YR 3 5YR 42 Max Repair 100 MSP
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP14.00 (1) Power 14 Fuel Use 1.81% Signature 14 Explosion 2%
Fuel Capacity 1,000 Litres Range 19.9 billion km (164 days at full power)
Gravitational Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
The Barracuda-SGE and -SGR are geological and gravitional survey craft designed to operate with the Cetan and Pegasus.
Barracuda-JS class Fighter 450 tons 16 Crew 155 BP TCS 9 TH 175 EM 0
19473 km/s JR 1-50 Armour 3-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 3 Sensors 1/1/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 16.80 Years MSP 233 AFR 6% IFR 0.1% 1YR 2 5YR 23 Max Repair 87.5 MSP
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.6 days Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman J450(1-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 450 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 1
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP175.00 (1) Power 175 Fuel Use 1002.23% Signature 175 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 25,000 Litres Range 1 billion km (14 hours at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS2-R1 (50%) (1) GPS 3 Range 2.7m km MCR 244k km Resolution 1
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS12-R100 (50%) (1) GPS 210 Range 12.6m km Resolution 100
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS68-R500 (50%) (1) GPS 10500 Range 68.1m km Resolution 500
Chaimberlin-Sherman Thermal Sensor TH0.1-1.1 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 1.1 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8.3m km
Chaimberlin-Sherman EM Sensor EM0.1-1.1 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 1.1 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8.3m km
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
The Barracuda-JS is the jump scout designed to operate with the Cetan and Pegasus. It is intended to be deployed in advance of the Pegasus, allowing for scouting of the far side of potentially hostile jump points prior to the arrival of the larger carriers. Once a jump point is verified free of hostile forces, the Pegasus will be permitted to transit the jump point and deploy it's Cetan.
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I haven't yet started using carriers in C#, but I'm confused on this one. Where is the problem with just making the original 70kt carrier jump capable on it's own?
Jump drives have massive MSP requirements. To get a military jump carrier with similar hangar capacity, speed, and range to the Cetan + Pegasus combo, you need a much larger carrier than what I can achieve with the separate commercial jump drive and commercial engine transport carrier. The larger military carrier is also much more MSP hungry than my large commercial carrier. Basically, I am optimizing around two design requirements: long range and high speed. The Cetan is fast but lacks range. The Pegasus has range but lacks speed. Additionally, by keeping the Cetan stored on the Pegasus while not in use, I think that I can keep the Cetan's maintenance clock from ticking up (I need to confirm this still). This would theoretically provide a significant savings in terms of MSP and how frequently I need to overhaul the Cetan. If this does not work, I still benefit from more efficient commercial engines and jump drives and reap MSP and fuel efficiency benefits there. The Cetan has MUCH lower fuel efficiency than the Pegasus and is not intended to do a lot of cruising unless it is actively engaging the enemy.
FWIW I had originally designed a 100k ton military jump carrier. After staring at the design for a while, I determined that it had inadequate range and speed for it's intended mission and required a huge allocation of hull space to maintenance storage to achieve the required mission and range and endurance. I decided to attempt a non-jump carrier but still ran into the problem of inadequate range and MSP for a given speed. I don't want my carrier to be able to be caught by enemy destroyers, which seem to max out at around 8k km/s based on my existing scout intel. To reduce MSP requirements, I decided to explore commercial engines and jump drives. Ships with military hangers do not benefit substantially from commercial engines in terms of MSP savings, and I could not jump a carrier with military engines using a commercial jump drive, so I opted instead for a very large commercial ship with a single large commercial jump drive and large hangars. Then I re-designed my military carrier to fit inside the commercial jump ship and found that it had substantially more hangar space and speed per hull size (which I consider among the most important attributes that a carrier should possess), and after some design revisions I was able to improve the range to an acceptable value for in-system combat.
Why not put the jump drive in a separate ship?
Cutting the mass of the jump drive out of the Pegasus would let you make the Pegasus faster (or better in some other way).
You could also cut the deployment time (not maintenance life) of the Cetan by a bit because deployment time won't increase while it is in the hanger, and it only has fuel for <2 months of chasing things around.
Also strictly speaking carriers are supposed to stay out of range of the enemy so having so much armour might be excessive? On the other hand I'd be pretty protective of such a huge ship so maybe not.
I note that as a limitation that if the enemy retreats out of the system you start in, you can't chase them until the Pegasus catches up. Also if the enemy catches the Pegasus then the Cetan is stuck until you can either get a replacement out there or stabilize the jump points.
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The Terran Mercantile Guild has completed initial design efforts for it's new Barracuda heavy fighter hulls. The results are below:
Barracuda-L class Fighter 500 tons 27 Crew 217.9 BP TCS 10 TH 160 EM 0
16003 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 3 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 2
Maint Life 2.05 Years MSP 160 AFR 100% IFR 1.4% 1YR 51 5YR 765 Max Repair 96 MSP
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.6 days Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP160.00 (1) Power 160.0 Fuel Use 1048.16% Signature 160.00 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 20,000 Litres Range 0.7 billion km (11 hours at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman 10cm C0.25 Far Ultraviolet Laser (1) Range 96,000km TS: 16,003 km/s Power 3-0.25 RM 50,000 km ROF 60 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 0
Chaimberlin-Sherman Beam Fire Control R96-TS16000 (50%) (1) Max Range: 96,000 km TS: 16,000 km/s 90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Chaimberlin-Sherman Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor R3-PB60 (1) Total Power Output 3 Exp 30%
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
Range bands are shown with 10km increments against a 10k km/s target.
The Barracuda-L is a heavy fighter armed with a 10cm far ultraviolet laser cannon. It can hit targets at speeds up to 16k km/s at ranges as distant as 96k km. It is fast and possesses better range than the Piranha-G hull, but is extremely lightly armored and is intended to be used in conjunction with large swarms of Piranha-G's. Compared to the Piranha-G, the Barracuda-L can strike enemy targets from 3x the range, however it has a much lower rate of fire.
Barracuda-C class Fighter 500 tons 19 Crew 141.9 BP TCS 10 TH 160 EM 0
16008 km/s Armour 2-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 3 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 4
Maint Life 2.48 Years MSP 120 AFR 100% IFR 1.4% 1YR 27 5YR 406 Max Repair 80.00 MSP
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.6 days Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP160.00 (1) Power 160.0 Fuel Use 1048.16% Signature 160.00 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 22,000 Litres Range 0.8 billion km (13 hours at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman 15 cm C5 Plasma Carronade (1) Range 16,000km TS: 16,008 km/s Power 6-5 RM 10,000 km ROF 10 6 6 6 6 6 5 4 3 0 0
Chaimberlin-Sherman Beam Fire Control R16-TS16000 (50%) (1) Max Range: 16,000 km TS: 16,000 km/s 88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
Chaimberlin-Sherman Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor R6-PB60 (1) Total Power Output 6 Exp 30%
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
Range bands are shown with 2km increments against a 10k km/s target
The Barracuda-C is a close range heavy fighter armed with a single 15 cm plasma carronade. Like all Barracuda heavy fighters, it is intended to operate as part of a larger strike group composed of Piranha fighters and missile bombers. The -C variant is the only armored Barracuda variant due to it's close range weapon. It's plasma carronade has extremely high damage potential, and can strike once every 10 seconds, which at point blank range can devastate enemy armor.
Barracuda-G class Fighter 500 tons 22 Crew 158 BP TCS 10 TH 160 EM 0
16003 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 4 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 4
Maint Life 13.37 Years MSP 249 AFR 8% IFR 0.1% 1YR 3 5YR 39 Max Repair 80.00 MSP
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.6 days Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP160.00 (1) Power 160.0 Fuel Use 1048.16% Signature 160.00 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 24,000 Litres Range 0.8 billion km (14 hours at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Gauss Cannon R300-67.00 (1x4) Range 30,000km TS: 16,003 km/s Accuracy Modifier 67.00% RM 30,000 km ROF 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Chaimberlin-Sherman Beam Fire Control R32-TS16000 (50%) (1) Max Range: 32,000 km TS: 16,000 km/s 91 81 72 62 53 44 34 25 16 6
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
Range bands are in increments of 3km against a 10k km/s target.
The Barracuda-G is the gauss cannon variant of the Barracuda heavy fighter hull. It has improved range and accuracy over the Piranha-G, which it will accompany on combat missions to provide improved fleet firepower.
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Why not put the jump drive in a separate ship?
...
Actually, yeah, why not?
In fact, replace the jump drive on the Pegasus with a tractor beam.
Now build a space station with the jump drive (and nothing else), and tow it with the Pegasus.
This makes the Pegasus quite a bit smaller, which means you can use a smaller jump drive--probably more than enough weight savings to offset the tractor beam.
And you gain the option of ditching the jump drive for increased speed in an emergency.
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I haven't yet started using carriers in C#, but I'm confused on this one. Where is the problem with just making the original 70kt carrier jump capable on it's own?
Jump drives have massive MSP requirements. To get a military jump carrier with similar hangar capacity, speed, and range to the Cetan + Pegasus combo, you need a much larger carrier than what I can achieve with the separate commercial jump drive and commercial engine transport carrier. The larger military carrier is also much more MSP hungry than my large commercial carrier. Basically, I am optimizing around two design requirements: long range and high speed. The Cetan is fast but lacks range. The Pegasus has range but lacks speed. Additionally, by keeping the Cetan stored on the Pegasus while not in use, I think that I can keep the Cetan's maintenance clock from ticking up (I need to confirm this still). This would theoretically provide a significant savings in terms of MSP and how frequently I need to overhaul the Cetan. If this does not work, I still benefit from more efficient commercial engines and jump drives and reap MSP and fuel efficiency benefits there. The Cetan has MUCH lower fuel efficiency than the Pegasus and is not intended to do a lot of cruising unless it is actively engaging the enemy.
FWIW I had originally designed a 100k ton military jump carrier. After staring at the design for a while, I determined that it had inadequate range and speed for it's intended mission and required a huge allocation of hull space to maintenance storage to achieve the required mission and range and endurance. I decided to attempt a non-jump carrier but still ran into the problem of inadequate range and MSP for a given speed. I don't want my carrier to be able to be caught by enemy destroyers, which seem to max out at around 8k km/s based on my existing scout intel. To reduce MSP requirements, I decided to explore commercial engines and jump drives. Ships with military hangers do not benefit substantially from commercial engines in terms of MSP savings, and I could not jump a carrier with military engines using a commercial jump drive, so I opted instead for a very large commercial ship with a single large commercial jump drive and large hangars. Then I re-designed my military carrier to fit inside the commercial jump ship and found that it had substantially more hangar space and speed per hull size (which I consider among the most important attributes that a carrier should possess), and after some design revisions I was able to improve the range to an acceptable value for in-system combat.
Why not put the jump drive in a separate ship?
Cutting the mass of the jump drive out of the Pegasus would let you make the Pegasus faster (or better in some other way).
You could also cut the deployment time (not maintenance life) of the Cetan by a bit because deployment time won't increase while it is in the hanger, and it only has fuel for <2 months of chasing things around.
Also strictly speaking carriers are supposed to stay out of range of the enemy so having so much armour might be excessive? On the other hand I'd be pretty protective of such a huge ship so maybe not.
I note that as a limitation that if the enemy retreats out of the system you start in, you can't chase them until the Pegasus catches up. Also if the enemy catches the Pegasus then the Cetan is stuck until you can either get a replacement out there or stabilize the jump points.
My intention was to keep the Pegasus on the friendly side of the jump point, only entering hostile territory to drop off / pick up Cetans, thus minimizing it's exposure to hostile forces and hopefully improving it's survivability. For this reason the Cetan has no jump drive but does have powerful engines so that it can zip around the hostile system while the Pegasus stays hidden out of range. Ideally the Cetan will also stay out of range of anything it can't out run, but it does rely on the Pegasus to jump out of a hostile system in an emergency.
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Why not put the jump drive in a separate ship?
...
Actually, yeah, why not?
In fact, replace the jump drive on the Pegasus with a tractor beam.
Now build a space station with the jump drive (and nothing else), and tow it with the Pegasus.
This makes the Pegasus quite a bit smaller, which means you can use a smaller jump drive--probably more than enough weight savings to offset the tractor beam.
And you gain the option of ditching the jump drive for increased speed in an emergency.
I considered the space station approached but decided I wanted a ship instead because it would be easier to manage. Once my empire grows it is likely that I will start placing commercial jump stations all over the place, in which case your suggestion will become a better option than it is for me at present. Currently I am equipping all of my commercial ships with jump drives because I don't have a huge amount of interstellar transport demand as of yet, and most of my in-system demand is accounted for with mass drivers. As I start to establish more extrasolar colonies, my demand for interstellar transport will rise and make commercial jump stations more appealing.
One of the overall design goals for the Cetan + Pegasus was to allow them to launch very long range attacks against distant enemies without any intermediate friendly infrastructure in place.
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I considered the space station approached but decided I wanted a ship instead because it would be easier to manage. ...
Honestly, I'm not seeing much downside to the space station approach.
There exists some size threshold above which a self-jumpable multi-purpose ship (i.e. has a significant mass fraction of components other than engines, fuel, and jump drive) is slower and less resource efficient than the same ship with a tractor beam instead, towing a jump station.
I'm not sure exactly where that threshold is (and it will vary based on tech, armor, etc.), but it has to be far less than 200kt with your parameters.
Especially since you will be saving a lot of armor on the jump station. And you can leave the station on the safe side of the jump point, so in any situation in which it would come under attack, it would probably have been destroyed even with the armor, as part of the Pegasus.
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Stations cannot be scrapped or upgraded, which is another reason I'm not a fan of stations at present. Once deployed they can never be repurposed.
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The final addition to the Cetan fighter wing is the Barracuda-BT, a boarding transport capable of ferrying colonial marines across the void of space to do battle with the enemy directly:
Barracuda-BT class Fighter 500 tons 18 Crew 155.5 BP TCS 10 TH 235 EM 0
23525 km/s Armour 4-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 2 Sensors 2/2/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 7.37 Years MSP 118 AFR 10% IFR 0.1% 1YR 4 5YR 57 Max Repair 117.50 MSP
Troop Capacity 100 tons Boarding Capable
Lieutenant Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.6 days Morale Check Required
Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive EP235.00 (1) Power 235.0 Fuel Use 864.87% Signature 235.00 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 17,000 Litres Range 0.7 billion km (8 hours at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Thermal Sensor TH0.2-2.2 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 2.2 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 11.7m km
Chaimberlin-Sherman EM Sensor EM0.2-2.2 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 2.2 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 11.7m km
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
Each Barracuda-BT carries a Colonial Marine Boarding Squadron:
Colonial Marine Boarding Squadron
Transport Size: 100 tons
Build Cost: 44.2 BP
1x Colonial Marine Lance Corporal
1x Colonial Marine Supply Cache
19x Colonial Marine Prefect
1x Colonial Marine Legionnaire
1x Colonial Marine Praetorian
1x Colonial Marine Myrmidon
#############################
Colonial Marine Lance Corporal
Transport Size (tons) 10 Cost 0.36 Armour 24 Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.045 Resupply Cost 0
Headquarters: Capacity 37
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare
Non-Combat Class
Vendarite 0.03
Development Cost 18
#############################
Colonial Marine Supply Cache
Transport Size (tons) 10 Cost 4.88 Armour 24 Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.61 Resupply Cost 0
Logistics Module - Small: Ground Supply Points 100
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare
Non-Combat Class
Vendarite 0.4
Development Cost 244
#############################
Colonial Marine Prefect
Transport Size (tons) 3 Cost 1.46 Armour 24 Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.18 Resupply Cost 0.25
Light Personal Weapons: Shots 1 Penetration 8 Damage 8
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare
Vendarite 0.12
Development Cost 73
#############################
Colonial Marine Legionnaire
Transport Size (tons) 5 Cost 2.44 Armour 24 Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.31 Resupply Cost 1
Personal Weapons: Shots 1 Penetration 15 Damage 15
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare
Vendarite 0.2
Development Cost 122
#############################
Colonial Marine Praetorian
Transport Size (tons) 6 Cost 2.93 Armour 24 Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.37 Resupply Cost 1.3
Improved Personal Weapons: Shots 1 Penetration 19 Damage 15
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare
Vendarite 0.24
Development Cost 146
#############################
Colonial Marine Myrmidon
Transport Size (tons) 12 Cost 5.86 Armour 24 Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.73 Resupply Cost 6
Crew-Served Anti-Personnel: Shots 6 Penetration 15 Damage 15
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare
Vendarite 0.48
Development Cost 293
As designs near their finalized forms, the Terran Mercantile Guild begins retooling it's shipyards for production of a retaliation force.
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Stations cannot be scrapped or upgraded, which is another reason I'm not a fan of stations at present. Once deployed they can never be repurposed.
Can't they, if they're small enough to fit in a shipyard?
A station that just houses your carrier's jump drive should always be small enough to fit in the shipyard that built the carrier.
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Stations cannot be scrapped or upgraded, which is another reason I'm not a fan of stations at present. Once deployed they can never be repurposed.
Can't they, if they're small enough to fit in a shipyard?
A station that just houses your carrier's jump drive should always be small enough to fit in the shipyard that built the carrier.
True. I was assuming a large station similar to my extant 500k ton refueling station, which is sitting useless in Terra orbit as no sorium gas giants remain in the Sol system. I suppose it's a possibility and may offer more maintenance savings than my existing approach, however I consider the existing fuel and maintenance savings I am already getting with my commercial carrier compared to my previous military carrier to be sufficient to justify the expense of the commercial carrier.
I am curious if a single Cetan will be enough to deal any damage to my current NPR foe. If it is not, I will probably adopt a station/tractor ship approach instead and build a much larger non-jump carrier.
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What stops you from towing your monster station through stabilized jump points to Sorium in another system?
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What stops you from towing your monster station through stabilized jump points to Sorium in another system?
My refusal to stabilize jump points :)
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What stops you from towing your monster station through stabilized jump points to Sorium in another system?
My refusal to stabilize jump points :)
That's got to make colonization a howling nightmare.
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What stops you from towing your monster station through stabilized jump points to Sorium in another system?
My refusal to stabilize jump points :)
That's got to make colonization a howling nightmare.
It's a challenge. An interesting challenge. I find it makes self-sufficient colonies much more valuable than they would otherwise appear.
I should use more precise language. I refuse to stabilize jump points leading to my home system. This prevents accidental NPR incursions and forces the NPR to use jump drives for invasions.
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- I typically role-play as a confederation, so Jump Points tend to go un-stabilized by and large. In VB6 Aurora I only began construction of Jump Gates after I had a large and established economy, and even then, only out to the maximum # of jumps that civilian shipping would go to. I believe that number was four IIRC, but it may have changed for C#. If you are not familiar with a confederate model of governance, it is effectively city-states that have a weak central government. Think the Federal Government vs State Government in the American system, but reversed so that the state government was the highest authority, then the Federal. Then size up to an inter-planetary scale. Shy a glorified tyranny, it's the only system of governance I could see getting any traction on such a scale... sans Star Trek or Star Wars levels of BS-Tech and Handwavium Alloy.
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Stations cannot be scrapped or upgraded, which is another reason I'm not a fan of stations at present. Once deployed they can never be repurposed.
By definition, the station that contains nothing but the jump drive for the Pegasus is smaller than the Pegasus, and therefore can be scrapped at the same yard that builds the Pegasus.
And you can upgrade the station if you like. Just build a large enough yard and tool it for the new station design.
This yard will cost barely any more than you save by needing a smaller yard to build the Pegasus without the jump drive. Possibly will cost you less, given that armor is not needed on the station.
And with this approach, you can upgrade either the Pegasus or the jump station without involving the other.
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- I typically role-play as a confederation, so Jump Points tend to go un-stabilized by and large. In VB6 Aurora I only began construction of Jump Gates after I had a large and established economy, and even then, only out to the maximum # of jumps that civilian shipping would go to. I believe that number was four IIRC, but it may have changed for C#. If you are not familiar with a confederate model of governance, it is effectively city-states that have a weak central government. Think the Federal Government vs State Government in the American system, but reversed so that the state government was the highest authority, then the Federal. Then size up to an inter-planetary scale. Shy a glorified tyranny, it's the only system of governance I could see getting any traction on such a scale... sans Star Trek or Star Wars levels of BS-Tech and Handwavium Alloy.
I usually take a more capitalistic approach and RP mega-corporations. I generally assume that it will be economic forces that encourage deep space exploration, such as the need for sorium and the other TN materials, rather than sustained trans-generational political effort. For instance, the Terran Mercantile Guild in my current campaign is essentially a multi-corporation trade union which controls a monopoly on TN technology (civilians are disabled). My current empire has been developing into something similar to the CHOAM conglomerate from the Dune universe as a result. For now, all roads lead to Terra when it comes to resource stockpiles, but I expect that will change as I develop more colonies, and I would like to ultimately found several hub planets which serve as strategic resource reserve sites. Unfortunately I stumbled on some NPR assholes who blew up my survey ship before getting any populated colonies up and running, so now I must at least establish a stable blockade of the NPR system before attempting any serious extrasolar colonization efforts.
Thus led me to the Cetan and Pegasus carriers.
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The Terran Mercantile Guild has successfully launched the first Pegasus and Cetan carriers. The carriers have successfully completed a nesting maneuver, and the Cetan is loaded with an incomplete complement of fighters, as Guild fighter factories struggle to keep up with demand. The carriers will soon depart for their maiden voyage and shakedown cruise to LHS-471-A I, a distant world upon which a xenoarchaeology team has recently completed an excavation and restoration of an alien habitation facility. The carriers will recover the xenoarchaeology team and return them to Terra.
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(Sorry for not answering your question after my little test, I had missed that, but you figured it out soon enough.)
So, you built them. Cool. Is your Pegasus still the original design?
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The Pegasus is as originally posted, the Cetan was revised after original posting but the revision was also posted in this thread.
As far as maintenance clocks go, while the Cetan is docked to the Pegasus, the Cetan's maintenance clock does tick up, however her fighter's clocks do not tick up. So it's not exactly as I had hoped, but still basically functional and provides a more capable front-line carrier than my jump-carrier designs.
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After completion of her maiden voyage, the Pegasus and her support craft have joined the Sol System Defense Fleet and set course for the Luyten 140-9 system. After arriving on station, a small scouting party was launched. Their mission is to transit into the hostile Eta Cephei system and deploy sensor satellites. These satellites should provide valuable intel on enemy fleet movements and ship capabilities.
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With the jump point cleared, the Pegasus has completed her transit into hostile territory. No hostile contacts have yet been spotted, though the wrecks of the previous survey expedition are visible in the distance. Scouts are being deployed to establish a sensor satellite network.
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Actually I lied. I did upgrade the fuel slightly on the final Pegasus to my current maximum capacity. Forgot about that.
Pegasus C class Jump Tender 200,000 tons 1,473 Crew 12,181.5 BP TCS 4,000 TH 4,000 EM 0
1000 km/s JR 2-25(C) Armour 7-304 Shields 0-0 HTK 248 Sensors 11/11/0/0 DCR 11 PPV 0
MSP 2,038 Max Repair 806.9 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 70,000 tons Cryogenic Berths 3,000
Admiral Control Rating 3 BRG AUX ENG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Flight Crew Berths 1,400
Chaimberlin-Sherman JC200K Commercial Jump Drive Max Ship Size 200000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 2
Chaimberlin-Sherman Commercial Internal Fusion Drive EP1000.00 (4) Power 4000 Fuel Use 3.35% Signature 1000 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 8,669,000 Litres Range 232.6 billion km (2692 days at full power)
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS39-R100 (50%) (1) GPS 2100 Range 39.8m km Resolution 100
Chaimberlin-Sherman Active Search Sensor AS68-R500 (50%) (1) GPS 10500 Range 68.1m km Resolution 500
Chaimberlin-Sherman Thermal Sensor TH1.0-11.0 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
Chaimberlin-Sherman EM Sensor EM1.0-11.0 (50%) (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
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During her scouting mission, Cetan failed to locate any surviving life pods. However, upon approaching the wreck of the Devilfish 001, she encountered a hostile ship. She immediately fled for the jump point, but before she arrived several incoming missile contacts were detected. Fighters were deployed on an intercept mission but missed their target, leaving the Cetan to her own defenses. Fortunately, her armament of CIWS turrets proved most effective and destroyed two entire hostile missile salvoes of nearly 15 missiles each, resulting in no damage to the Cetan. After recovering her fighters and launching a sensor satellite, the Cetan fled to the safety of the Pegasus, which made an immediate jump point transit and set course for Terra. No further hostile contacts have yet been detected.
Attached are some screenshots from the first battle of Eta Cephei.
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After a period of rest and restitution on Terra, the Pegasus and Cetan are ready for another mission. Their sensor satellites deployed on their previous mission have revealed some useful intelligence about their targets (see attached). Guild central command has decreed that the hostile alien ship shall be captured or destroyed, and has assigned 3 marine boarding squadrons to the Cetan to assist in this effort. Additionally, the discovery of a hostile alien population on Eta Cephei-A II has caused considerable alarm on all Guild colonies, including Terra. Politicians and military planners are engaged in constant discussions regarding planned Guild responses to this new and alarming discovery.
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Additionally, Guild logisticians have made a useful discovery. Whilst the Cetan is docked to the Pegasus and the Pegasus is docked at a space port, the Cetan consumes no MSP and her maintenance clock does not tick up. This is a considerable economic victory for Guild logisticians.
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Additionally, Guild logisticians have made a useful discovery. Whilst the Cetan is docked to the Pegasus and the Pegasus is docked at a space port, the Cetan consumes no MSP and her maintenance clock does not tick up. This is a considerable economic victory for Guild logisticians.
When a ship with commercial hangars is in orbit of a planet with maintenance facilities, its military parasites will use those facilities exactly as they would if they weren't docked.
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Ah, I did not realize that.
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The Pegasus and Cetan proved their worth today after a successful retaliatory strike against a hostile ship of the Guild-designated Infinite Fire class, which was responsible for the destruction of the original survey craft deployed to the Eta Cephei system. A wing of Piranha-G's and -M's were deployed from the Cetan, and after closing to missile strike range, launched a devastating barrage that resulted in the complete destruction of the Infinite Fire. Attached are some screenshots of the battle.
Guild military planners are now preparing for a ground invasion of Eta Cephei-A II in order to prevent any further attacks against Guild citizens.
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The Guild invasion of Eta Cephei-A II has begun and the marines are making great strides against the enemy with several breakthroughs and incursions into hostile territory within the first day of fighting. Guild marines have suffered no casualties against the entrenched enemy and have inflicted serious damage to several enemy formations, including STO and armored units. The marines are supported by Cetan as well as a newly constructed carrier Leviathan, which carry a combined total of 26 marine landing transports each capable of transporting a 250 ton formation, for a total of 6500 tons of men and equipment. Orbital fire support is provided by a combination of Barracuda-L heavy fighters and newly designed Piranha-PF and Piranha-PB ground support fighters armed with autocannon and bombardment fighter pods. The marines have reduced the estimated 4800 tons of original hostile troops to a current best estimate of 1200 tons. Capitulation is expected soon and CV-E Cetan is approaching the planet to serve as platform for negotiations.
Attached are the latest front-line tactical maps showing the ground OOB and distribution of naval forces in the vicinity of the planet.
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Following a year of bloody fighting, Guild marines succeeded in defeating the enemy. No civilians were found on the planet, only hostile military forces, many of which were deeply entrenched. Following initial successes, the aliens launched a massive planet-wide counteroffensive against Guild forces. The marines were pushed back to their boarding craft, but were not defeated and though losses were heavy, victory was achieved. Platoon casualty rates were as high as 60%, with an average for all attacking forces about 50%. Guild military planners were criticized heavily by the surviving elements for deploying an excess of supply caches and a lack of anti armor weapons with marine squadrons. Future Guild marine detachments will receive more anti-armor weapons and fewer front-line supplies as a result.
Notably, artillery and supply detachments sustained relatively few casualties compared to front line troops. Marine artillery squadrons proved highly effective and were likely a critical element in the success of the invasion, achieving consistent destruction of enemy armor formations and sustaining almost zero casualties.
The enemy fought tenaciously and no prisoners were taken, despite several attempts at communication and peaceful resolution of the conflict. It was discovered after recovering the remains of several defeated alien soldiers that the 'aliens' appeared fully human in their physiology, though somewhat better adapted to the extreme cold of Eta Cephei-A II than the colonial marines. This discovery has been kept secret by order of Guild Central Command until the nature of these mysterious and destructive creatures is better understood.
Several installations and munitions depots were also recovered intact. Xenoarchaeology groups are en-route to unlock the mysteries of the newly acquired alien technologies. Survey craft have also been dispatched to Eta Cephei to complete the geological and gravitational survey of the system.
With the Eta Cephei threat neutralized, Guild strategists look now to developing new colonies in other, better explored regions of Guild territory.
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I tend to do a Warp Cruiser approach from time to time, where I'll put very basic Jump Drives that have the minimum Squadron number and range on anything that I'd want to call a proper Cruiser, and then have a Warp Cruiser with a big tricked out Jump Drive for big the Squadron Jumps to facilitate an assault. Now in C# that's even more viable than it was in VB6, since max jump rating is no longer tied to, or even affected by, the mass of the ship itself.
Sorry, the volume... my bad.
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I'm quite liking the jump-tender-with-commercial-hangars approach to fleet design. It removes the need for large military jump drives entirely and seems to scale reasonably well with larger numbers of carriers.
I also prefer carriers for almost all engagement situations. I find it much easier to re-design and re-build a fighter wing than an entire fleet of large warships. For example, my fighters are now 2 engine tech levels ahead of my carriers but my carriers continue to provide a useful and capable service to the fleet.
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Hah, I just realized something kind of awesome.
The Pegasus carrier functions similarly to a Spacing Guild Highliner from the Dune fictional universe. My current empire is the Terran Mercantile Guild. The next time I redesign my commercial carriers they are 100% going to be reclassified as Guild Highliners.
This game is awesome on so many levels.
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Hah, I just realized something kind of awesome.
The Pegasus carrier functions similarly to a Spacing Guild Highliner from the Dune fictional universe. My current empire is the Terran Mercantile Guild. The next time I redesign my commercial carriers they are 100% going to be reclassified as Guild Highliners.
This game is awesome on so many levels.
So which mineral is Spice?
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Hah, I just realized something kind of awesome.
The Pegasus carrier functions similarly to a Spacing Guild Highliner from the Dune fictional universe. My current empire is the Terran Mercantile Guild. The next time I redesign my commercial carriers they are 100% going to be reclassified as Guild Highliners.
This game is awesome on so many levels.
So which mineral is Spice?
Corundium for me.
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Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
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Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
You forget duranium which everything is made of basically.
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Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
You forget duranium which everything is made of basically.
Duranium seems to show up in greater abundance than the other minerals in my games, though this could just be a RNG side effect.
Gallicite really slows down my military expansion, usually much more so than sorium. However, without sorium my civilian economy would cease to function, so that is arguably more important as my military relies on my civilian mega-carriers to move between systems.
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Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
You forget duranium which everything is made of basically.
Duranium seems to show up in greater abundance than the other minerals in my games, though this could just be a RNG side effect.
Gallicite really slows down my military expansion, usually much more so than sorium. However, without sorium my civilian economy would cease to function, so that is arguably more important as my military relies on my civilian mega-carriers to move between systems.
My problem is gallicite too but its mostly self-inflicted in that I like all my military ships to have the best thermal insulation on their engines which as you might imagine makes my gallicite miners burst into tears.
-
Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
You forget duranium which everything is made of basically.
Duranium seems to show up in greater abundance than the other minerals in my games, though this could just be a RNG side effect.
Gallicite really slows down my military expansion, usually much more so than sorium. However, without sorium my civilian economy would cease to function, so that is arguably more important as my military relies on my civilian mega-carriers to move between systems.
My problem is gallicite too but its mostly self-inflicted in that I like all my military ships to have the best thermal insulation on their engines which as you might imagine makes my gallicite miners burst into tears.
Hah, I have the same addiction to reduced thermal engines... maybe I should try to break that habit and specialize that capability into my scout craft.
-
Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
You forget duranium which everything is made of basically.
Duranium seems to show up in greater abundance than the other minerals in my games, though this could just be a RNG side effect.
Gallicite really slows down my military expansion, usually much more so than sorium. However, without sorium my civilian economy would cease to function, so that is arguably more important as my military relies on my civilian mega-carriers to move between systems.
My problem is gallicite too but its mostly self-inflicted in that I like all my military ships to have the best thermal insulation on their engines which as you might imagine makes my gallicite miners burst into tears.
Hah, I have the same addiction to reduced thermal engines... maybe I should try to break that habit and specialize that capability into my scout craft.
For small engines its not bad, but at max tech level 1% doubles the cost of engines which for the larger engines of your capitals starts to get massive.
-
Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
You forget duranium which everything is made of basically.
Duranium seems to show up in greater abundance than the other minerals in my games, though this could just be a RNG side effect.
Gallicite really slows down my military expansion, usually much more so than sorium. However, without sorium my civilian economy would cease to function, so that is arguably more important as my military relies on my civilian mega-carriers to move between systems.
My problem is gallicite too but its mostly self-inflicted in that I like all my military ships to have the best thermal insulation on their engines which as you might imagine makes my gallicite miners burst into tears.
Hah, I have the same addiction to reduced thermal engines... maybe I should try to break that habit and specialize that capability into my scout craft.
For small engines its not bad, but at max tech level 1% doubles the cost of engines which for the larger engines of your capitals starts to get massive.
I'm already at the point where I'm struggling to keep my maintenance clock in check for ships with large military engines. I've definitely out-paced myself in terms of engine size vs shipyard capacity there. I can build up to 400HS engines, but I can't practically operate anything larger than about 50HS.
I am thinking that for my next campaign I am going to pick a target engine tech and stop researching new engine tech once I reach that level in order to reduce my tendency to continually rebuild my fleets with larger ships with better engine tech. Having gained some more practical experience now I think I might be able to field some useful fleets from ion-tech onwards, so that might be my initial goal next campaign.
-
Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
You forget duranium which everything is made of basically.
Duranium seems to show up in greater abundance than the other minerals in my games, though this could just be a RNG side effect.
Gallicite really slows down my military expansion, usually much more so than sorium. However, without sorium my civilian economy would cease to function, so that is arguably more important as my military relies on my civilian mega-carriers to move between systems.
My problem is gallicite too but its mostly self-inflicted in that I like all my military ships to have the best thermal insulation on their engines which as you might imagine makes my gallicite miners burst into tears.
Hah, I have the same addiction to reduced thermal engines... maybe I should try to break that habit and specialize that capability into my scout craft.
For small engines its not bad, but at max tech level 1% doubles the cost of engines which for the larger engines of your capitals starts to get massive.
I'm already at the point where I'm struggling to keep my maintenance clock in check for ships with large military engines. I've definitely out-paced myself in terms of engine size vs shipyard capacity there. I can build up to 400HS engines, but I can't practically operate anything larger than about 50HS.
I am thinking that for my next campaign I am going to pick a target engine tech and stop researching new engine tech once I reach that level in order to reduce my tendency to continually rebuild my fleets with larger ships with better engine tech. Having gained some more practical experience now I think I might be able to field some useful fleets from ion-tech onwards, so that might be my initial goal next campaign.
TBH I thought that extra large engines were primarily or entirely for commercial ships, to gain fuel efficiency as an alternative to using lower power modifiers.
-
Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
You forget duranium which everything is made of basically.
Duranium seems to show up in greater abundance than the other minerals in my games, though this could just be a RNG side effect.
Gallicite really slows down my military expansion, usually much more so than sorium. However, without sorium my civilian economy would cease to function, so that is arguably more important as my military relies on my civilian mega-carriers to move between systems.
My problem is gallicite too but its mostly self-inflicted in that I like all my military ships to have the best thermal insulation on their engines which as you might imagine makes my gallicite miners burst into tears.
Hah, I have the same addiction to reduced thermal engines... maybe I should try to break that habit and specialize that capability into my scout craft.
For small engines its not bad, but at max tech level 1% doubles the cost of engines which for the larger engines of your capitals starts to get massive.
I'm already at the point where I'm struggling to keep my maintenance clock in check for ships with large military engines. I've definitely out-paced myself in terms of engine size vs shipyard capacity there. I can build up to 400HS engines, but I can't practically operate anything larger than about 50HS.
I am thinking that for my next campaign I am going to pick a target engine tech and stop researching new engine tech once I reach that level in order to reduce my tendency to continually rebuild my fleets with larger ships with better engine tech. Having gained some more practical experience now I think I might be able to field some useful fleets from ion-tech onwards, so that might be my initial goal next campaign.
TBH I thought that extra large engines were primarily or entirely for commercial ships, to gain fuel efficiency as an alternative to using lower power modifiers.
Larger engines are always more fuel efficient per ton than smaller, so I always try to use largest possible engines on all ships, even military.
Also, speed is a pretty significant combat advantage.
-
Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
You forget duranium which everything is made of basically.
Duranium seems to show up in greater abundance than the other minerals in my games, though this could just be a RNG side effect.
Gallicite really slows down my military expansion, usually much more so than sorium. However, without sorium my civilian economy would cease to function, so that is arguably more important as my military relies on my civilian mega-carriers to move between systems.
My problem is gallicite too but its mostly self-inflicted in that I like all my military ships to have the best thermal insulation on their engines which as you might imagine makes my gallicite miners burst into tears.
Hah, I have the same addiction to reduced thermal engines... maybe I should try to break that habit and specialize that capability into my scout craft.
For small engines its not bad, but at max tech level 1% doubles the cost of engines which for the larger engines of your capitals starts to get massive.
I'm already at the point where I'm struggling to keep my maintenance clock in check for ships with large military engines. I've definitely out-paced myself in terms of engine size vs shipyard capacity there. I can build up to 400HS engines, but I can't practically operate anything larger than about 50HS.
I am thinking that for my next campaign I am going to pick a target engine tech and stop researching new engine tech once I reach that level in order to reduce my tendency to continually rebuild my fleets with larger ships with better engine tech. Having gained some more practical experience now I think I might be able to field some useful fleets from ion-tech onwards, so that might be my initial goal next campaign.
TBH I thought that extra large engines were primarily or entirely for commercial ships, to gain fuel efficiency as an alternative to using lower power modifiers.
Larger engines are always more fuel efficient per ton than smaller, so I always try to use largest possible engines on all ships, even military.
Also, speed is a pretty significant combat advantage.
I also like to go big with military engines but I always pick a size such that I use a minimum of 2 engines for any ship that I expect for it to get shot at. Losing your only engine is a big sad, losing half your engines is half of a big sad.
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In this campaign, I really cannot go less than 8 engines (which achieve equivalent engine power to my max engine size) while achieving satisfactory maintenance clock.
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Sorium and/or Gallicite. Gallicite keeps the military running, sorium runs everything else.
Sorium is probably more consistent with Dune canon, being an essential component of Aurora starship fuel.
You forget duranium which everything is made of basically.
Duranium seems to show up in greater abundance than the other minerals in my games, though this could just be a RNG side effect.
Gallicite really slows down my military expansion, usually much more so than sorium. However, without sorium my civilian economy would cease to function, so that is arguably more important as my military relies on my civilian mega-carriers to move between systems.
The RNG is weighted to produce twice as much Duranium as any other single mineral.