Aurora 4x
VB6 Aurora => Bureau of Ship Design => Topic started by: Girlinhat on October 23, 2011, 05:24:46 PM
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So I had the idea to mount a plasma carronade to a FAC or fighter design, which is ridiculous given the carronade's size and energy consumption. Has anyone attempted to make a plasma bomber like this before, and if so how well did it work? The theory is to be able to very quickly rush in, strike with plasma, and rush out, and be able to make several passes without the worry of reloading a box launcher. Because of the carronade's range, fire control won't be a huge issue, and being made as a bomber it wouldn't need a very fast or utterly accurate fire control, so that part would be comparatively smaller than other fighters. But it would need a powerplant of some kind, and if it were kept small then the ship would probably have to run away to allow recharge time before coming in for another pass.
Thoughts?
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It should be as workable as any other beam armed fighter/FAC. ???
Your problem will be surviving the enemy ships missile fire and then any large calibre energy weapons before you get your shot and then surviving his close range energy fire so you can get another shot. The Box launchers are probably more effective and likely to cost less as you won't be actually losing ships to enemy fire
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There were some threads on this subject some time ago. If you can get in range, its shred city.
HOWEVER
if you know an alien fleet is coming via listening posts, and the fighters are suitably fast, you could park a squadron for gate defense;
imagine the carnage coming under fire of 20 or so carronade fighters. That first 30 seconds would be brutal.
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In the case of jump defense, the fighters might even manage to fire and flee before the enemy shakes off the sensor downtime.
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Carronade fighters would be kind of funny, but since you can't use any miniaturization tech on the carronades they'd be slower than a FAC even with the smallest version. :(
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"Bomber" would be more apt, I think. I wonder if it wouldn't pay just to add more armor and a CIW system and call them a squadron bomber. The sort of "delivering heavy payload" type of ship. The Y-Wing from Star Wars, if you will.
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Use an FAC.
You can mount a single carronade in them, and the weapon is reasonably cheap.
For AM, use different FACs with Gauss or Rail.
Though the question is, why not use Mesons? :P
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Use an FAC.
You can mount a single carronade in them, and the weapon is reasonably cheap.
For AM, use different FACs with Gauss or Rail.
Though the question is, why not use Mesons? :P
There is something gratifying about blasting the armor off of ships. I have not employed mesons yet.
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Theory formulation time go!!! Ok well uh a big carronade could take a ship out of the fac zone so wouldn't it be easier to make a reeeaaaaaallllllllllllyyy short range but highly deadly missile with according box launcher? Or why even bOther with Facs? I mean who needs speed anyways (all my ships go at like 3000km per hour)? recreate the armada and give the varying monsters the ol broadside
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I like the idea, personally. It has its own RP value, which is important overall, and a certain appeal. After all, having no magazines on your carrier allows for more tonnage for other things, more fighters or better sensors or higher speed or whatever you want! Box launchers are fun, but everyone's done them, so I want to strap capital ship guns onto a fighter and watch the enemy squirm!
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Always depends on what you do with them.
I rarely see it that someone builds Anti-Missile Ships based on box, for example.
As for the plasmas, a 15cm is really, really cheap, so you'd be able to build replacements for them en masse.
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If you make the components via industry, and produce the fighters via fighter production (not shipyard) do the components still get used? If so, you could spam out a couple dozen fighters in extremely short order.
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I'm totally trying this out next game.
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Well, problem is that fighters will be rather slow and heavy with a carronade.
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That's why "bomber" or "FAC" seemed a more appropriate title instead.
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I would prefer the term 'target drone' :)
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"FAC" is already it's own ship type, you gotta be careful with those words.^^
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I know, but since the design is only in theory, the terms are kind of fluid :P
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I don't get that one. ???
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Something to consider is that, AFAICT, IR lasers have exactly the same power and range as plasma carronades, and cost half as much. The advantage of the carronades is that it's faster to research any given caliber, but for something you're mounting on an FAC, you won't want a very big weapon anyway. Plus, lasers have the smaller/slower firing techs, making them even more suited for the job.
Really, I don't know what carronades are supposed to be good for.
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Really, I don't know what carronades are supposed to be good for.
Jump Point defense. Don't Carronades dish out several times more damage at point blank range?
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I successfully mounted a 20cm carronade on a 20HS FAC with 6 layers of armor, got 2 into a light carrier and deployed them. Forgot to equip them with a fast enough firecon, but I manage to get a 25 damage shot on an enemy fighter at 0 range and simply destroyed it. Looking at it closer, it would be an absolutely brutal bomber craft, made to take out mainline destroyers and such. 1250 km/s tracking isn't grand, but it's not terrible against big ships (not fighters).
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The big advantage of carronades is their cost. The cheapest laser is a 10cm while the same reasearch cost carronade is 15cm which does twice the damage. Other than that the laser is a better weapon. It will quickly outrange the carronade and it's damage profile is deeper so for large lasers they will penetrate more deeply rather than having a broader crater the way the carronade does. Personally I almost never use the carronade because of this, but if you are in a hurry to get a big slow firing weapon for point blank beam weapon combat then the carronade is the way to go. The 25cm carronade is a 4000 research point project so from scratch this would be 7,000 research points. This is about what the 15cm laser costs to research. Damage potential is 6 vs 16 at point blank range. Take your pick depending on what you need.
Brian
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I manage to get a 25 damage shot on an enemy fighter at 0 range and simply destroyed it. Looking at it closer, it would be an absolutely brutal bomber craft, made to take out mainline destroyers and such.
Wait, 25 damage? I thought 20cm beams did less than that? That would make them more useful if a 20cm carronade does more damage at point-blank range than a 20cm laser.
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I seem to recall 25 damage. Or maybe that was the ramming damage that was done to me... Maybe it was 10 from the carronades? It was still enough to one-shot a fighter, I remember that!
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"Enough to oneshot a fighter" equals 4. ::)
The main boon of carronades is indeed the cheap research cost, plus a not too expensive actual weapon.
They have a rather flat damage profile, but as far as I remember the actual damage is quite decent.
You already start a level higher than other beams if I remember right?
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You already start a level higher than other beams if I remember right?
Two levels higher actually, that is what makes them dangerous. You can get a decent size without lots of time researching them.
Brian