Aurora 4x
VB6 Aurora => Bureau of Ship Design => Topic started by: Zenorefe on November 28, 2014, 11:12:36 AM
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Hello Aurora Forum
Recently I have just began my first game of aurora without a tutorial holding my hand. I ask that someone look at the design below, it is my first attempt to design a military ship with attack and defense missiles. Please point out any faults or possible improvement in my design, anything will be greatly appreciated.
Nelson Mrk I class Cruiser 7 950 tons 208 Crew 1003.55 BP TCS 159 TH 300 EM 0
1886 km/s Armour 1-35 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 17
Maint Life 0.19 Years MSP 79 AFR 505% IFR 7% 1YR 406 5YR 6091 Max Repair 300 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 0
Magazine 37
Dunn Limited 50 EP Nuclear Thermal Engine (6) Power 50 Fuel Use 90% Signature 50 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 750 000 Litres Range 18.9 billion km (115 days at full power)
Donnelly Techsystems Size 3 Missile Launcher (1) Missile Size 3 Rate of Fire 45
Bell-Carey Space & Security Size 7 Missile Launcher (2) Missile Size 7 Rate of Fire 105
Jones-Ahmed Missile Fire Control FC45-R1 (1) Range 45.0m km Resolution 1
Miller Orbital Systems Missile Fire Control FC34-R60 (1) Range 34.8m km Resolution 60
Dobson-Gough Active Search Sensor MR38-R60 (1) GPS 6000 Range 38.7m km Resolution 60
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Thanks for any help
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Copy and paste your design into bb code code ( put [code ] text here [/code ] with no spaces in the [] part, or use the # button above)
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Copy and paste your design into bb code code ( put [code ] text here [/code ] with no spaces in the [] part, or use the # button above)
Thanks man
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Thanks man
But you haven't done it.
Still, I guess you need a review of your ship.
Nelson Mrk I, the missile cruiser, has great speed compared to other Nuclear Thermal-driven ships.
But this seem to come at great cost:
1. No armor.
2. Very low maintenance life. Your ship will break apart as soon as it leaves your maintenance facilities.
3. The ship can fire only TWO salvos from its magazines.
4. What's the point of making such big AMM fire controls if you supposedly don't have AMM launchers?
I would advice you to remove the AMM FC and 1-2 engines and add enough armor to withstand at least one salvo of your own missiles, more magazines, some engineering spaces and maybe 1-2 extra launchers.
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*facepalm* I meant actually copying and pasting the design from the game window into the code. Just click and drag to select and right click and click copy (or CRTL C) in the game design window and past it in the browser
Example;
Nautilus class Destroyer 7 500 tons 273 Crew 2200.4531 BP TCS 150 TH 703.5 EM 360
6253 km/s Armour 5-34 Shields 12-375 Sensors 27/28/0/0 Damage Control Rating 32 PPV 24
Maint Life 17.74 Years MSP 4035 AFR 20% IFR 0.3% 1YR 24 5YR 364 Max Repair 439.4531 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 1
937.5 EP Gas Core AM Drive (1) Power 937.5 Fuel Use 9.13% Signature 703.125 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 750 000 Litres Range 197.1 billion km (364 days at full power)
Delta R375/150 Shields (5) Total Fuel Cost 31 Litres per hour (750 per day)
19cm C6 Ultraviolet Laser (Spinal) (1) Range 360 000km TS: 15000 km/s Power 9-6 RM 4 ROF 10 9 9 9 9 7 6 5 4 4 3
Particle Beam-9-R6 (2) Range 240 000km TS: 15000 km/s Power 22-6 ROF 20 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9
CIWS-600 (1x12) Range 1000 km TS: 60000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Fire Control S01 240-7500 (1) Max Range: 480 000 km TS: 7500 km/s 98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Gas-core Anti-matter Power Plant PB-1-20 (1) Total Power Output 20 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor MR165-R100 (1) GPS 15000 Range 165.0m km Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH2.5-27 (1) Sensitivity 27 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 27m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2.5-27.5 (1) Sensitivity 27.5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 27.5m km
ECCM-2 (1) ECM 20
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Mid game destroyer (almost 100 years in from a conventional start.)
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But you haven't done it.
Still, I guess you need a review of your ship.
Nelson Mrk I, the missile cruiser, has great speed compared to other Nuclear Thermal-driven ships.
But this seem to come at great cost:
1. No armor.
2. Very low maintenance life. Your ship will break apart as soon as it leaves your maintenance facilities.
3. The ship can fire only TWO salvos from its magazines.
4. What's the point of making such big AMM fire controls if you supposedly don't have AMM launchers?
I would advice you to remove the AMM FC and 1-2 engines and add enough armor to withstand at least one salvo of your own missiles, more magazines, some engineering spaces and maybe 1-2 extra launchers.
Thanks, not good with forums, I noticed the maint life issue when an engine blew up orbiting Luna. I'm not sure about the AMM launchers, they're the size three launchers, are you saying that they are not set up correctly or what?
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*facepalm* I meant actually copying and pasting the design from the game window into the code. Just click and drag to select and right click and click copy (or CRTL C) in the game design window and past it in the browser
Example;
Nautilus class Destroyer 7 500 tons 273 Crew 2200.4531 BP TCS 150 TH 703.5 EM 360
6253 km/s Armour 5-34 Shields 12-375 Sensors 27/28/0/0 Damage Control Rating 32 PPV 24
Maint Life 17.74 Years MSP 4035 AFR 20% IFR 0.3% 1YR 24 5YR 364 Max Repair 439.4531 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 1
937.5 EP Gas Core AM Drive (1) Power 937.5 Fuel Use 9.13% Signature 703.125 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 750 000 Litres Range 197.1 billion km (364 days at full power)
Delta R375/150 Shields (5) Total Fuel Cost 31 Litres per hour (750 per day)
19cm C6 Ultraviolet Laser (Spinal) (1) Range 360 000km TS: 15000 km/s Power 9-6 RM 4 ROF 10 9 9 9 9 7 6 5 4 4 3
Particle Beam-9-R6 (2) Range 240 000km TS: 15000 km/s Power 22-6 ROF 20 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9
CIWS-600 (1x12) Range 1000 km TS: 60000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Fire Control S01 240-7500 (1) Max Range: 480 000 km TS: 7500 km/s 98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Gas-core Anti-matter Power Plant PB-1-20 (1) Total Power Output 20 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor MR165-R100 (1) GPS 15000 Range 165.0m km Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH2.5-27 (1) Sensitivity 27 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 27m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2.5-27.5 (1) Sensitivity 27.5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 27.5m km
ECCM-2 (1) ECM 20
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Mid game destroyer (almost 100 years in from a conventional start. )
I'm new, does that fire control guide all of those weapons? And What am I doing wrong with size? Should my early game ship really be bigger than a late game one?
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Yes to the fire control question because they are similar in range, but I could have more if I wanted. And to the size question, it doesn't really mater. For me I always keep classes the same sizes ie. Frigates are 2k-4k, tons Destroyers are 5k-8k tons, Cruisers 10k-20k tons, Battlecruisers/Light Carriers 20k-40k tons, Main Capital ships 50k+ tons. But it is all about design doctrine your using. In the Halo universe Frigates are 30k-40k tons, Destroyers 60k-80k, Cruisers 100k-200k, Capitals 200k+, the Infinity class is somewhere between 2m and 2.1m tons. Its really up to what you feel you need.
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And about your ship, design larger engines for it (you would want either 1 that equals the size of the 6 you have, or 2 equaling 1.5 the size of them). Add a few size 1 launchers (Anti Missile Missiles). Have the armour be at least 4 (so strength equals area, as well as it being the cosmic number). For your main missile control for your larger launcher, have the resolution size be at 150+, I usually have the size at around 2.5 for general purpose and 5 for specialized large craft. Design and add more magazines, I would have about 10-15 main missiles for each launcher, 30-50 for mid-sized, and 50+ for AMMs (keep in mind that the magazines stores are per MSP so a size 3 needs 3 space). Just in case I would add either a small gauss cannon turret (double+) or a CIWS or anti-missile purposes, but that is just me.
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Very new at designing myself. I think you need berths for your flight crew. Something something check "keep Q". I want to go with carriers, fighters and facs myself!
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Very new at designing myself. I think you need berths for your flight crew. Something something check "keep Q". I want to go with carriers, fighters and facs myself!
The design doesn't have any hangers, so needs to flight crew berths.
I'm interested to see the specifications for the missiles you're using, I would suggest ditching the size 3 launchers and make your fire control resolution 60 to match your sensor, you'll save space and won't need a res 1 fire control unless you plan on targeting fighters/missiles, in which case you need a resolution 1 sensor too, I suggest making an escort with a res 1 sensor. If you do wish to target missiles then perhaps lower the resolution 1 fire control's range significantly as you'll still be hard pressed to get a res 1 sensor with that kind of range. With low tech engines I generally limit the range significantly to save weight and hence fuel. You shouldn't need more than a few billion kilometres range, put fuel dumps around your home system and any system you intent to station the fleet and put good efficiency tankers with the fleet when it travels. You could probably save fuel and get increased speed by designing engines 3 times the size but with slightly more than 3 times the power multiplier. You could hit 2000 km's and still get decent range.
You need armour desperately, at least 3 layers so you can survive a few hits. And maintenance life is very important, your ship has 115 days of fuel but will break after 69 days, and doesn't have enough maintenance spares to repair the most costly item on board, you need minimum 300 MSP on board to prevent this. I suggest upping the maintenance life to 6 months, also drop the deployment time to match and save a bit of space. Lastly reduced size launchers will allow a far greater broadside so research 75% reduction asap, but until then add some more magazine space.
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Wow, thanks for all the advice and such. Here's the new Nelson MrkIII; I've added more armour, removed the extra launch tubes (not sure why they were there) and designed new missiles. I'm not totally sure what to do about sensors and fire control though. Can I ask for some brief pointers on them?
Nelson Mrk III class Missile Cruiser 7 850 tons 155 Crew 970.3 BP TCS 157 TH 480 EM 60
3057 km/s Armour 4-35 Shields 2-450 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 14
Maint Life 1.79 Years MSP 232 AFR 164% IFR 2.3% 1YR 90 5YR 1350 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 1
Magazine 154
Grade 2 NP Engine 160 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (3) Power 160 Fuel Use 64% Signature 160 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 760 000 Litres Range 27.2 billion km (103 days at full power)
Bolton Dynamics Beta R450/324 Shields (1) Total Fuel Cost 14 Litres per hour (324 per day)
Torpedo Launcher MrkI Size 7 Missile Launcher (2) Missile Size 7 Rate of Fire 70
Torpedo Missile Control Missile Fire Control FC29-R30 (70%) (1) Range 29.6m km Resolution 30
Size 7 Anti-ship Missile (22) Speed: 14 300 km/s End: 379.5m Range: 325.6m km WH: 2 Size: 7 TH: 57/34/17
Dobson-Gough Active Search Sensor MR38-R60 (1) GPS 6000 Range 38.7m km Resolution 60
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Also here's the new missile.
Missile Size: 7 MSP (0.35 HS) Warhead: 3 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 13
Speed: 14300 km/s Engine Endurance: 6.3 hours Range: 325.6m km
Cost Per Missile: 2.48
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 185.9% 3k km/s 52% 5k km/s 37.2% 10k km/s 18.6%
Materials Required: 0.75x Tritanium 1.73x Gallicite Fuel x1250
Development Cost for Project: 248RP
PS: Is it just me or is the forums and wiki very slow?
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Wow, thanks for all the advice and such. Here's the new Nelson MrkIII; I've added more armour, removed the extra launch tubes (not sure why they were there) and designed new missiles. I'm not totally sure what to do about sensors and fire control though. Can I ask for some brief pointers on them?
What is it your confused about? I think this should clear things up a bit. http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Active_Sensors/Fire_Control and http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Active_Sensor_Design
Nelson Mrk III class Missile Cruiser 7 850 tons 155 Crew 970.3 BP TCS 157 TH 480 EM 60
3057 km/s Armour 4-35 Shields 2-450 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 14
Maint Life 1.79 Years MSP 232 AFR 164% IFR 2.3% 1YR 90 5YR 1350 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 1
Magazine 154
Grade 2 NP Engine 160 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (3) Power 160 Fuel Use 64% Signature 160 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 760 000 Litres Range 27.2 billion km (103 days at full power)
Bolton Dynamics Beta R450/324 Shields (1) Total Fuel Cost 14 Litres per hour (324 per day)
Torpedo Launcher MrkI Size 7 Missile Launcher (2) Missile Size 7 Rate of Fire 70
Torpedo Missile Control Missile Fire Control FC29-R30 (70%) (1) Range 29.6m km Resolution 30
Size 7 Anti-ship Missile (22) Speed: 14 300 km/s End: 379.5m Range: 325.6m km WH: 2 Size: 7 TH: 57/34/17
Dobson-Gough Active Search Sensor MR38-R60 (1) GPS 6000 Range 38.7m km Resolution 60
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This is looking a lot better. Just remember to keep it far from the actual fight as this is a ship geared toward long range bombardment. I would also design a really fast scout ship to go with this with large active sensors, others would say do that and remove the active sensors on it but its up to you. Also, change the missile fire control to at least resolution 100 and double the size, because your fire control only can aim at an object 1/10th the distance your missile can shoot, same goes for your active search sensor. Also, moar shieldz, yours currently block 2 damage every 7.5 minutes. Shields do a constant regeneration to the total over the recharge period, in your case 450 seconds (7.5 minutes), so it takes nearly 4 minutes to be able to take 1 damage. I think at your current tech level, this ship design should be around 12k tons to have full effect for what you want.
Also here's the new missile.
Missile Size: 7 MSP (0.35 HS) Warhead: 3 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 13
Speed: 14300 km/s Engine Endurance: 6.3 hours Range: 325.6m km
Cost Per Missile: 2.48
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 185.9% 3k km/s 52% 5k km/s 37.2% 10k km/s 18.6%
Materials Required: 0.75x Tritanium 1.73x Gallicite Fuel x1250
Development Cost for Project: 248RP
I actually want to know how the missile does so little damage for its size. I think you should re-do it with 1/2 the fuel and replace most of it with warhead. Also, question, why does the design here say warhead 3 when on the ship design it says warhead 2?
PS: Is it just me or is the forums and wiki very slow?
Yes, but it is getting better.
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It's certainly looking better as a ship, good speed, armour, range and maintenance life, Next you want to maximise its offensive capabilities, 2 launchers isn't going to do much unless you have a large group of these. You can save space which you can devote to more launchers by removing the sensor and putting one on a dedicated sensor platform. Also by raising the resolution of the fire control you can get more range or save space, I would aim for resolution 80 which could target ships half the size of your cruiser, but resolution 60 is good too.. Low tech shields are kind of useless especially if you want this ship to stay out of the fighting zone and lob stuff at long range so you can probably remove those too. If you can squeeze 4 launchers onto it you've effectively doubled the offensive capability of the ship, see if you pare down other systems to achieve that goal while not going over 8k tons. Maybe pare down the range of the missile to 200 million, increase the warhead, design a 200 million range sensor and fire control, put the sensor onto a dedicated sensor ship.
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Update: Thanks for all the help guys, I'm much further along now and nearing out Sol expansion. There was one problem when a shuttle blew up and I had to rush design a collier to refuel a troop transport by Saturn. One new problem and I know its not the right place but I'm having error 5 popups, making the game unplayable. Any ideas to fix? Or is there nothing to do?
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Don't know about your error; it could be anything. Sometimes it'll go away after a while, other times it'll break the game and you just have to start a new one.
When firing missiles, you have to get through enemy point defenses (either energy weapon turrets, or anti-missile missiles) so the number of missiles per volley is more important than the size of the missile. I'd consider going with smaller missiles and at least twice as many launchers. The problem with only two missiles per volley is that if the enemy can shoot down only one of them, he's cut your offensive power in half.
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Thanks, hoping that I haven't lost my game.
To what you said about missiles, wouldn't larger more powerful missiles be better anyway? Even if half were lost It would mean that the half that get through are able to pack a suffcient punch? It sounds inificient but it seems to me a better idea than more vollies of smaller missiles. The hits of those packing the same or less firepower than my size sevens.
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Use Erik Luken's Aurora Backup Utility, Zenorefe, found here: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,6121.0.html (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,6121.0.html)
Aurora doesn't have a save function, but with this you get some autosaves. I never lost a game again since I use this, because even though such errors did happen in all my games here and there still, I could always just rollback 20 minutes at max. and then avoid the incident that caused the problem.
What would I have lost without it. It should be considered part of the standard installation package, since only that makes Aurora fully playable for as long as you want.
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Thanks, hoping that I haven't lost my game.
To what you said about missiles, wouldn't larger more powerful missiles be better anyway? Even if half were lost It would mean that the half that get through are able to pack a suffcient punch? It sounds inificient but it seems to me a better idea than more vollies of smaller missiles. The hits of those packing the same or less firepower than my size sevens.
Maybe, but your missiles aren't really powerful, and typically the enemy can shoot down more than just one per volley. I usually start in the Ion tech era, a little beyond yours, and I can generally fit eight size 4 launchers on a ship this size. Or 10 size 3 launchers. I use the 75% size reduction which reduces the rate of fire but lets me fire more per volley. You can generally develop a size 4 missile with WH 9, or size 3 missile with WH 4, even in the early game. (Squares like 4, 9, 16, 25 are best, because of the way missiles do damage.) Imagine I've got a fleet with 4 of my 8-launcher ships. That means I'm firing 32 missiles per volley, and if an enemy can shoot down half of those, I can still get 16 good hits. You'd need nine of your ships to even do any damage at all.
In the later game when you're using bigger ships, you might also use bigger missiles to carry a WH16 or WH25 payload, but only when you can do it at scale.
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Use Erik Luken's Aurora Backup Utility, Zenorefe, found here: hxxp: aurora2. pentarch. org/index. php/topic,6121. 0. html
Aurora doesn't have a save function, but with this you get some autosaves. I never lost a game again since I use this, because even though such errors did happen in all my games here and there still, I could always just rollback 20 minutes at max. and then avoid the incident that caused the problem.
What would I have lost without it. It should be considered part of the standard installation package, since only that makes Aurora fully playable for as long as you want.
Thanks man, I'm not totally sure what caused it. At this point I just want my game back.
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To what you said about missiles, wouldn't larger more powerful missiles be better anyway? Even if half were lost It would mean that the half that get through are able to pack a sufficient punch? It sounds inefficient but it seems to me a better idea than more volleys of smaller missiles. The hits of those packing the same or less firepower than my size sevens.
Either way would work fine, but your missile design just sucked.... badly. They were inefficient, slow, and didn't pack a punch, and as joeclark said they won't make it through AM fire. Do as I said before, make the missiles mostly warhead, fuel really doesn't matter that much with your sensor/fire control ranges being so little. I mainly focus on short rang combat with my really fast capital ships (each currently go over 5000km/s) so any missiles I use will be small (1-3 for general purpose, 4-6 for "long range" combat) and will have a lot of them per ship (or a few for smaller ships that can be produced quickly). It just comes to what ranges you usually engage at, and until your tech is better, missiles that go that range (your sucky size 7) are mostly ineffective because of their sacrifices of other parts. So I suggest building and using smaller missiles for now, around size 3, a good start would be using 1MSP for engine, 0.5 for fuel, and 1.5 for warhead (adjust slightly as needed).
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Hi,
About your design
Torpedo Launcher MrkI Size 7 Missile Launcher (2) Missile Size 7 Rate of Fire 70
Torpedo Missile Control Missile Fire Control FC29-R30 (70%) (1) Range 29.6m km Resolution 30
Size 7 Anti-ship Missile (22) Speed: 14 300 km/s End: 379.5m Range: 325.6m km WH: 2 Size: 7 TH: 57/34/17
Dobson-Gough Active Search Sensor MR38-R60 (1) GPS 6000 Range 38.7m km Resolution 60
Your missile fire control is for size 30 and your active search sensor is size 60. So you can shoot at ships you cannot detect. better to have the same resolution and range for both active sensor and fire control. It is nearly the same for the range. It is useless to be able to fire at a range you cannot detect a target, unless your active sensor is only a small backup as you have designed a sensor ship. ABout resolution, is your ship intended to fight against 1500 tons ships, or 3000 tons ships ? or even 5000 tons ships ? A low resolution increase cost and space, better to think a lot about it. A common resolution is 5000 tons, or 800-1000 tons for anti fast attack craft, or 1 for anti missile. In the last case a range of 2 to 5 mkm is enough. The basic for anti-missile range is to ne sure to have 2*max speed * 5 seconds range, in order to be able to target then fire against ennemy missile.
In addition your missile has a range of 325 mkm while you cannot fire at more than 29.6 mkm. Better to have similar range for your firing system and your missile. I think you can make your missile size 4 with a 100 mkm range, and so have enough space to increase your sensor range.
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Here are some missile designs for you. All are using a similar base to what I said in my last post. Anti-matter engine era.
Archer Series Size 3 ASM-L;
Missile Size: 3 MSP (0.15 HS) Warhead: 12 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 100000 km/s Engine Endurance: 15 minutes Range: 90.6m km
Cost Per Missile: 6.75
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 1000% 3k km/s 330% 5k km/s 200% 10k km/s 100%
Materials Required: 3x Tritanium 3.75x Gallicite Fuel x1250
Development Cost for Project: 675RP
Archer Series Size 3 ASM-M;
Missile Size: 3 MSP (0.15 HS) Warhead: 12 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 15
Speed: 100000 km/s Engine Endurance: 9 minutes Range: 54.4m km
Cost Per Missile: 7.07
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 1500% 3k km/s 495% 5k km/s 300% 10k km/s 150%
Materials Required: 3x Tritanium 4.07x Gallicite Fuel x750
Development Cost for Project: 707RP
Archer Series Size 3 ASM-C;
Missile Size: 3 MSP (0.15 HS) Warhead: 12 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 18
Speed: 100000 km/s Engine Endurance: 6 minutes Range: 36.3m km
Cost Per Missile: 7.23
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 1800% 3k km/s 594% 5k km/s 360% 10k km/s 180%
Materials Required: 3x Tritanium 4.23x Gallicite Fuel x500
Development Cost for Project: 723RP
My focus was more on particle beams, gauss cannons, and railguns yet I was still able to do something like this. No ones going to stop something going about 1/3 the speed of light :P.
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Hi,
About your design
Your missile fire control is for size 30 and your active search sensor is size 60. So you can shoot at ships you cannot detect. better to have the same resolution and range for both active sensor and fire control. It is nearly the same for the range. It is useless to be able to fire at a range you cannot detect a target, unless your active sensor is only a small backup as you have designed a sensor ship. ABout resolution, is your ship intended to fight against 1500 tons ships, or 3000 tons ships ? or even 5000 tons ships ? A low resolution increase cost and space, better to think a lot about it. A common resolution is 5000 tons, or 800-1000 tons for anti fast attack craft, or 1 for anti missile. In the last case a range of 2 to 5 mkm is enough. The basic for anti-missile range is to ne sure to have 2*max speed * 5 seconds range, in order to be able to target then fire against ennemy missile.
In addition your missile has a range of 325 mkm while you cannot fire at more than 29.6 mkm. Better to have similar range for your firing system and your missile. I think you can make your missile size 4 with a 100 mkm range, and so have enough space to increase your sensor range.
Typically my all-purpose missile ships will have two sensors, one with resolution 160 (8000T) because I've never seen an NPR build its main combat ships smaller than this except FACs, and one with resolution 15 (750T) because that's the smallest alien FAC I've ever seen. (Aliens don't use fighters, as far as I know.) Then two fire controls with similar range and the same resolution. A missile fire control that's 1/3 the size of the sensor will have equal range, so you can make these 1.5HS and 0.5HS, or 3HS and 1HS, whatever gives you the range you want. You could have a third sensor with resolution 1 to detect missiles, if you have some kind of anti-missile defenses. I believe your "final defensive fire" weapons will work without special missile sensors though.
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Quick question. This is my first time trying to make a mine, and the question is will it work? Critique is required :D.
S15/M6S2 Mine;
Missile Size: 15 MSP (0.75 HS) Warhead: 0 Armour: 1 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 0 km/s Engine Endurance: 0 minutes Range: 0.0m km
Thermal Sensor Strength: 0.4956 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 495 600 km
ECM Level: 1
Cost Per Missile: 24.7806
Second Stage: Size 2 Anti-ship Mine Missile x6
Second Stage Separation Range: 100 000 km
Overall Endurance: 0 minutes Overall Range: 0.2m km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 0% 3k km/s 0% 5k km/s 0% 10k km/s 0%
Materials Required: 13.75x Tritanium 0.945x Boronide 2.0756x Uridium 8.01x Gallicite Fuel x60
Development Cost for Project: 2478RP
Size 2 Anti-ship Mine Missile;
Missile Size: 2 MSP (0.1 HS) Warhead: 9 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 34
Speed: 15000 km/s Engine Endurance: 0 minutes Range: 0.2m km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.18 Sensitivity Modifier: 110%
Resolution: 25 Maximum Range vs 1250 ton object (or larger): 90 000 km
Cost Per Missile: 3.873
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 510% 3k km/s 170% 5k km/s 102% 10k km/s 51%
Materials Required: 2.25x Tritanium 0.108x Boronide 0.18x Uridium 1.335x Gallicite Fuel x10
Development Cost for Project: 387RP
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Looks like a potent mine! Two things stand out to me as possible problems:
1. The mine has different sensors from its sub-munitions. There's a risk that something might trigger the mine to launch but the sub-munitions might not be able to target it. Generally it's recommended that you use identical sensors on both components.
2. I don't know if "second stage separation range" is going to have any effect, or what it should ideally be set to. Maybe somebody else can weigh in.
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Looks like a potent mine! Two things stand out to me as possible problems:
1. The mine has different sensors from its sub-munitions. There's a risk that something might trigger the mine to launch but the sub-munitions might not be able to target it. Generally it's recommended that you use identical sensors on both components.
2. I don't know if "second stage separation range" is going to have any effect, or what it should ideally be set to. Maybe somebody else can weigh in.
1. That's because the mine itself uses passive sensors to be stealth and the missiles themselves have the active sensors they need to target ships that activate after separation (this does work apparently).
2. That is how close that ships need to get for the missiles to fire.
The question I should have specified was how long this mine will last and if I can increase the operational time.
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Since 6.00, any missiles/buoys/mines without an engine will stay active forever, unless they are destroyed, release submunitions (I think, maybe not), or are self-destructed.
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Thank you for clearing that up for me. Now I only have to finish designing my high speed stealth minelayer. :D
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1. That's because the mine itself uses passive sensors to be stealth and the missiles themselves have the active sensors they need to target ships that activate after separation (this does work apparently).
Agreed, but you can also put passives on the missiles and they will still target. Ships need active sensors to target, but missiles can find targets using only passive sensors. It could still be a good idea to use the same sensors on both devices.
2. That is how close that ships need to get for the missiles to fire.
My fear would be that the missiles would only fire outside of that range. Are you sure it works the way you think?
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Agreed, but you can also put passives on the missiles and they will still target. Ships need active sensors to target, but missiles can find targets using only passive sensors. It could still be a good idea to use the same sensors on both devices.
I'm pretty sure they do need an active contact to hit, but you can still fire at a passive contact. Think of it this way, if you see a large thermal contact that is going really slow so you fire expecting you hit the motherload, and your missile passes strait through the center of the target. How can that happen, as it turns out it is really a multitude of ships flying in formation. However, if the missiles actually don't need an active contact, then I'll keep my missiles how they are for RP purposes, I like for the enemy to see their doom coming.
My fear would be that the missiles would only fire outside of that range. Are you sure it works the way you think?
Yes I am pretty sure as the separation range is described as the range from a target that a sub-munition will separate from the main munition.
Oh, and I think I found a kind of OP way to mine a JP if the mines really do stay forever (until target if found) and I can manipulate waypoints like you can with escorts. You put a few (5-10 I think) mines on the JP itself and have one or two every 30 degree offset at the ranges of 100k km and 250k km. Any other thoughts on how to use them?
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I'm pretty sure they do need an active contact to hit, but you can still fire at a passive contact. Think of it this way, if you see a large thermal contact that is going really slow so you fire expecting you hit the motherload, and your missile passes strait through the center of the target. How can that happen, as it turns out it is really a multitude of ships flying in formation. However, if the missiles actually don't need an active contact, then I'll keep my missiles how they are for RP purposes, I like for the enemy to see their doom coming.Yes I am pretty sure as the separation range is described as the range from a target that a sub-munition will separate from the main munition.
On the contrary, a heat-seeking or radar-seeking missile (ie with passive sensors) makes sense because the missile only needs to know the direction of the target relative to itself -- is the target to the left or to the right? -- and point itself in that direction. It doesn't need to know the absolute position or the distance of the target, and can keep looping toward the target if it misses. However, a ship (or mine, or other base) that's giving guidance to a missile needs active sensors because it needs to track the exact positions of the target and the missile, do some math, and then give the missile directions.