Aurora 4x
VB6 Aurora => Bureau of Ship Design => Topic started by: Starmantle on November 10, 2016, 11:36:50 PM
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I love role playing out really, really early conventional ships like shuttles to start exploring the Sol System and defending against imagined alien attacks. Below are some of my early designs from my last campaign, but I'd love to see some of yours too!
The Sagan Class is small and durable, able to travel at 136km per second and can transport small teams of experts to other planets.
Sagan class Shuttle 365 tons 8 Crew 44.5 BP TCS 7.3 TH 1 EM 0
136 km/s Armour 1-4 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Life 86.71 Years MSP 76 AFR 1% IFR 0% 1YR 0 5YR 0 Max Repair 5 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 80 months Spare Berths 5
0.6 EP Conventional Engine (1) Power 0.6 Fuel Use 97% Signature 0.6 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 60 000 Litres Range 30.3 billion km (2577 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
Naval engineers draw up a design for a geological survey ship with current technologies. It's not ideal, but it might work. It's not possible to design a shuttle larger than 500 tons - the challenges of creating a craft that can survive in both deep space and in atmosphere at high speeds are simply too great. And there's not quite enough room on the ships for adequate engines, life support, the bulky sensors, and decent engineering space. So the engineering space had to go. That leaves a functional, but dangerous shuttle suitable only for surveying Luna, Mars, and perhaps a few other bodies.
Kaskuh class Shuttle 475 tons 12 Crew 117.4 BP TCS 9.5 TH 1 EM 0
105 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/1 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years MSP 0 AFR 95% IFR 1.3% 1YR 44 5YR 667 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 1
0.51 EP Conventional Engine (1) Power 0.51 Fuel Use 64.61% Signature 0.51 Exp 8%
Fuel Capacity 10 000 Litres Range 5.9 billion km (644 days at full power)
Geological Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
The development of nuclear thermal engines leads to the design of a new geological survey shuttle that is very durable with long deployment time, maintenance life, and fuel reserves, with still almost 4 times the speed of its predecessor.
Anders class Geosurvey Shuttle 500 tons 16 Crew 141.4 BP TCS 10 TH 4 EM 0
400 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/1 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Life 17.96 Years MSP 177 AFR 2% IFR 0% 1YR 1 5YR 16 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 40 months Spare Berths 0
4 EP Nuclear Thermal Engine (1) Power 4 Fuel Use 56.67% Signature 4 Exp 8%
Fuel Capacity 50 000 Litres Range 31.8 billion km (919 days at full power)
Geological Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
The vessel is named after one of humanity's first visitors to the moon. Eight members of the class are laid down and will be produced in sequence to survey the many bodies of the inner solar system.
Admiral Conor Lawrence of Fleet Command also notes the value of creating training fighters to develop the skills of pilots and to build morale. The navy has already lost many promising officers to the private sector as they wait for a true space-based navy to be designed and built.
The Frogfoot Trainer craft is deigned with many elements from the Anders shuttle, minus the bulky survey sensors. It's an even sturdier craft and can travel at an incredible 1000 km/s.
Frogfoot class Trainer 200 tons 6 Crew 33 BP TCS 4 TH 4 EM 0
1000 km/s Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years MSP 103 AFR 0% IFR 0% 1YR 0 5YR 0 Max Repair 6 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 72 months Spare Berths 0
4 EP Nuclear Thermal Engine (1) Power 4 Fuel Use 56.67% Signature 4 Exp 8%
Fuel Capacity 50 000 Litres Range 79.4 billion km (919 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
With advancements in Gauss cannon research and nuclear pulse engines, Fleet Command introduces a design for the Mauler class Armed Shuttle. It has a trio of nuclear pulse engines, a 18.2b km range, extra armor, and a gauss cannon, as well as its own small active sensor. The shuttle is incredibly fast at 2400 km/s and is humanity's first space combat vessel. It's thought to be an effective point defense asset and is the first example of real force projection power within the Sol system.
Mauler class Armed Shuttle 500 tons 13 Crew 61.2 BP TCS 10 TH 24 EM 0
2400 km/s Armour 2-5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 3
Maint Life 23.81 Years MSP 38 AFR 4% IFR 0.1% 1YR 0 5YR 2 Max Repair 8 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 48 months Spare Berths 0
8 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (3) Power 8 Fuel Use 79.2% Signature 8 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 40 000 Litres Range 18.2 billion km (87 days at full power)
Gauss Cannon R1-50 (1) Range 10 000km TS: 2400 km/s Power 0-0 RM 1 ROF 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S00.2 10-625 (FTR) (1) Max Range: 20 000 km TS: 2500 km/s 50 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Active Search Sensor MR0-R50 (1) GPS 60 Range 420k km Resolution 50
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
The Le Moyne administration approves construction of one squadron of 8 maulers which will be available in 4 months, likely to be followed by additional squadrons.
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I like the Sagan survey shuttle idea. They don't really become obsolete, because you can always stuff them into a carrier. Building most of your capital ships with hangars means you can adjust small craft to the mission, whether it is scouts, survey shuttles, troop transport, life boats, tankers, or fast interceptors to run down civilian ships and/or survey craft.
Have a jump ship carrier with a maintenance bay, and they get pretty decent lifespans.
I think they would be especially useful for surveying all the moons of a gas giant.
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Thanks!
To be honest, I scrapped the Sagan pretty early, but it was fun for RP purposes.
Though I always keep several shuttles like it just for moving around teams and governors.
Newer, faster ones, though. 136 km/s isn't something I have patience for forever :P
This is a later ship is used for moving around teams and governors, but was designed explicitly to drop off espionage teams on what turned out to be a very primitive world. It was also a decent hospital ship for my fleets for a while.
Blackhawk class Insertion Shuttle 480 tons 8 Crew 84 BP TCS 9.6 TH 80 EM 0
8333 km/s Armour 2-5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 13.43 Years MSP 55 AFR 3% IFR 0.1% 1YR 1 5YR 9 Max Repair 40 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 15 months Spare Berths 0
Cryogenic Berths 200
80 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (1) Power 80 Fuel Use 57% Signature 80 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 80 000 Litres Range 52.6 billion km (73 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
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Cool idea, I never thought of using fighter factories in that manner.
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Putting geo sensors on a fighter hull is like having a reusable survey drone. And if you are playing a start where the race JUST discovered transuranics, using fighters for surveys is a lot faster than designing a ship, tooling up a shipyard, and building it.
If you build your fleets with a 1000 ton hangar on most ships then you never have to worry about completely stranded fighters. You build fighter PDCs to house spare scout fighters, troop transport fighters, geosurvey fighters etc... which saves a lot on maintenance when you aren't using them.
Also, with Steve's new refueling rules, having a 1000 ton tanker that actually flies into the hangar of the ships it is refueling makes it a lot less vulnerable to being shot at while refueling.
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Discovery class Cargo Ship 24 950 tons 242 Crew 1128 BP TCS 499 TH 30 EM 0
60 km/s Armour 1-76 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/8 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 28 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 0
Cargo 5000
Titan-7 Rocket System (6) Power 5 Fuel Use 8.84% Signature 5 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 600 000 Litres Range 48.9 billion km (9426 days at full power)
Geological Survey Sensors (8) 8 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
My earliest design for combined cargo-geosurvey ship ;>
From my most recent playtrough with starting 100m people on custom planet ;>
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Now some of my early designs are classified, as they are involved in the community game and the FSA can't have their stuff leak! Love the old shuttles. We are having a lot of early game small ships being built in the community game, but these are from another game.
Argo class Cargo Ship 10 950 tons 57 Crew 138 BP TCS 219 TH 9 EM 0
41 km/s Armour 1-43 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 8 Max Repair 5 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Spare Berths 1
Cargo 5000
Grogg Aircraft Engine Co 3 EP Commercial Conventional Engine (3) Power 3 Fuel Use 12.38% Signature 3 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100 000 Litres Range 13.2 billion km (3739 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Batan class Spaceliner 8 500 tons 155 Crew 263.2 BP TCS 170 TH 9 EM 0
52 km/s Armour 1-37 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 19 Max Repair 5 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Spare Berths 0
Passengers 250
Grogg Aircraft Engine Co 3 EP Commercial Conventional Engine (3) Power 3 Fuel Use 12.38% Signature 3 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100 000 Litres Range 16.8 billion km (3739 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Used these as a early game colony expansion ships. Ended up having the liners run the Earth-Mars run for decades in that game. Cargo ships ended up being scrapped early on, next time I would build less of the cargo ships.
Blue Star class Spaceliner 9 250 tons 234 Crew 418.45 BP TCS 185 TH 125 EM 0
675 km/s Armour 1-39 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 28 Max Repair 15.625 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Spare Berths 1
Passengers 500
Cray-Hornbrook 62.5 EP Commercial Nuclear Thermal Engine (2) Power 62.5 Fuel Use 13.26% Signature 62.5 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100 000 Litres Range 14.7 billion km (251 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Built 10 of these. They where good people movers.
Cutlass class Patrol Craft 2 550 tons 77 Crew 263.8 BP TCS 51 TH 100 EM 0
1960 km/s Armour 3-16 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 10
Maint Life 3.21 Years MSP 65 AFR 52% IFR 0.7% 1YR 10 5YR 143 Max Repair 25 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Spare Berths 1
Purvines-Ciampa 50 EP Nuclear Thermal Engine (2) Power 50 Fuel Use 72% Signature 50 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 50 000 Litres Range 4.9 billion km (28 days at full power)
Lizarraga & Corbell Armaments Company Particle Beam-2 (2) Range 100 000km TS: 1960 km/s Power 5-3 ROF 10 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Robbin-Foisy Fire Control S02.2 72-1875 (1) Max Range: 144 000 km TS: 1875 km/s 93 86 79 72 65 58 51 44 37 31
Robbin-Foisy Pebble Bed Reactor Technology PB6 (1) Total Power Output 6 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Shahamatdoost International Active Search Sensor MR0-R1 (1) GPS 18 Range 900k km MCR 98k km Resolution 1
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
early beam ship. the nice thing about this ship was that since they are such simple ships, rebuilding them with new engines made sure they where at least competitive, even if in the end they became system defense boats. I ended up having a shipyard that built nothing but cutlasses and its decedents.
PLA class Fast Patrol Craft 950 tons 33 Crew 90.5 BP TCS 19 TH 30 EM 0
1578 km/s Armour 1-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 3
Maint Life 13.87 Years MSP 60 AFR 7% IFR 0.1% 1YR 1 5YR 9 Max Repair 18 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Spare Berths 1
Ruddell & View Engines Limited 30 EP Nuclear Thermal Engine (1) Power 30 Fuel Use 94% Signature 30 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 50 000 Litres Range 10.1 billion km (73 days at full power)
Bucher-Polito Cybernetics 10cm C1 Infrared Laser (1) Range 30 000km TS: 1578 km/s Power 3-1 RM 1 ROF 15 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Shahamatdoost International Fire Control S02 20-2500 (1) Max Range: 40 000 km TS: 2500 km/s 75 50 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Whitlinger Incorporated Pebble Bed Reactor Technology PB-1 (1) Total Power Output 1.2 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Shahamatdoost International Active Search Sensor MR0-R1 (1) GPS 18 Range 900k km MCR 98k km Resolution 1
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Early FAC, the 12 month is for training up the crews and to let them be stationed at small outposts.
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SFE-01 class Geosurvey Ship 450 tons 16 Crew 134.4 BP TCS 9 TH 2 EM 0
222 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/1 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Life 23.76 Years MSP 187 AFR 1% IFR 0% 1YR 1 5YR 10 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 1
Vulcan 2.5 EP Nuclear Thermal Engine (1) Power 2.5 Fuel Use 15.75% Signature 2.5 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 30 000 Litres Range 76.1 billion km (3968 days at full power)
Geological Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
This is a useful ship. It is the least fun duty in the navy, they are manned probes, but I can build a ton of them for cheap early in the game and they will scan and scan.
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This is a useful ship. It is the least fun duty in the navy, they are manned probes, but I can build a ton of them for cheap early in the game and they will scan and scan.
Quite right. Tell the men they'll only be deployed for 3 months and keep them out for decades. You must be close friends with the HR department.
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Quite right. Tell the men they'll only be deployed for 3 months and keep them out for decades. You must be close friends with the HR department.
(Gillian island theme of "It was going to be a 3 month tour..."
I am the HR department! ;D
I will at least give the officers my survey medal for their hard work.
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Against your Argo I send a Gazelle for comparison
Argo class Cargo Ship 10 950 tons 57 Crew 138 BP TCS 219 TH 9 EM 0
41 km/s Armour 1-43 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 8 Max Repair 5 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Spare Berths 1
Cargo 5000
Grogg Aircraft Engine Co 3 EP Commercial Conventional Engine (3) Power 3 Fuel Use 12.38% Signature 3 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100 000 Litres Range 13.2 billion km (3739 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Gazelle class Light Freighter 10 200 tons 58 Crew 131.8 BP TCS 204 TH 8 EM 0
39 km/s Armour 1-41 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 8 Max Repair 10 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 17 months Spare Berths 0
Cargo 5000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 5
Waters-Nicholson 2.5 EP Commercial Conventional Engine (3) Power 2,5 Fuel Use 13,26% Signature 2,5 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 10 000 Litres Range 1,3 billion km (392 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
While Gazelle has just the tenth of Argo's range I have found out the speed is the big problem. I have used Gazelles to start moving some automines around. Interesting you don't have to ship the full installation at once, you can pick 20% of it and just go 5 times ... but later on I was using a pack of 5 Gazelles. They were still faster to obtain than 25k cargo vessels, Rhinos, which weighted around 36kt, so needed much bigger shipyard.
With such low speed I have found Gazelle has often troubles to catch its destination. So when going for asteroid Ate in the asteroid belt after Mars, I had to use Waypoints to go like 30° in front of ... by the time Gazelle finally got there the Ate was nearby. With the 5-Gazelle-pack I made total 3 Waypoints when trying to ship automines to 2010 TK7. Because it moves on orbit similar to Earth, just like 120° in front of it, I used these commands for a set of 3 Waypoints in 0°-120°-240°constellation:
- load installation at Earth
- go to Waypoint 1 (before 2010 TK7 so use chord route to get there in time)
- unload installation at 2010 TK7 (which should be nearby)
- load installation at Earth (easy, the Earth is going towards you)
- go to Waypoint 2
- unload installation at 2010 TK7
- load installation at Earth
- go to Waypoint 2
- unload installation at 2010 TK7
and just left it there for 10+ years on "recycle orders" and only build few more automines on Earth from time to time.
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The problem is earth has an orbital velocity of 30 km/s, I've found anything moving less than 40 km/s has trouble catching up.
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The problem is earth has an orbital velocity of 30 km/s, I've found anything moving less than 40 km/s has trouble catching up.
The problem lies also in the time increments. From what I have seen, ships move in the direction of their destination first, then space bodies move. So few times when I moved multiple days ahead and Gazelles just by few days didn't manage to get to the Earth it then moved so much ahead they were not able to catch it. Few times I had to just leave them at Earth orbital path with their low fuel and wait most of the year till Earth was close again enough so that may land. I didn't have any tankers back then.
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My first and longest serving geo-survey boat. Back on my first play through when I thought ships should multitask. They tend to make it home on schedule, and even though I have newer, better ones, they keep on surveying outer asteroids.
IF-120 class Geological Survey Vessel 8 200 tons 42 Crew 317.3875 BP TCS 164 TH 52 EM 0
317 km/s Armour 1-36 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/2 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 24 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 32 months Spare Berths 0
Cargo 5000
Fry Systems 52.5 EP Commercial Nuclear Thermal Engine (1) Power 52.5 Fuel Use 4.57% Signature 52.5 Exp 3%
Fuel Capacity 60 000 Litres Range 28.8 billion km (1052 days at full power)
Geological Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
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Against your Argo I send a Gazelle for comparison
I really feel that 41 km/s is a key number to reach for slow boats, otherwise they have a hard time getting back to earth.
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I am of mixed opinion of the utility of conventional engined survey vessels. I suppose if you have a sensor expert and no PP expert, and you want to get the survey started so you can start buying civilian minerals.
But you aren't going to be exploiting the solar system before you have upgraded your conventional industry.
I suppose getting early survey started helps when making strategic decisions like "Do I NEED to develop jump point theory? Am I going to expand with asteroid mining, in which case developing Asteroid Mining Modules and Tractors means you can expand you mining with just your shipyard production, saving your production for research and more production. Or do you have a colonizable planet, like the Jovian moons, Mars or Luna, so terraforming (and tractors) is a good idea?
I have experimented with some early start choices, where I figured expanding early shipyard continuously is a good idea, so when I finally get the tech to go out into the galaxy, I can rapidly exploit it and defend myself. This resulted in my having 3 slipways around 4k tons when I finally got Nuclear Thermal, and two or three waves of survey ships survey the whole solar system. But then I recall my survey ships and they and the shipyards sit idle until I get jump theory. My economy would be better with 5000 RP in mining or construction, but it is difficult to go from exploring the system to just sitting around waiting.
By the way, here is a tip: Make a bunch of empty Task Forces early, with placeholder commanders, and use them to train up survey commanders. I got survey skills up to 50 and 60 that way, effectively doubling my survey effectiveness. Because that +60 Fleet HQ survey commander boosts everybody in the system. Also, training the logistics officers means you need less cargo handling systems for the same loading time.
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Here is a very low tech Patrol/FAC
SDB-M2 class Fast Patrol Craft 800 tons 35 Crew 86.5 BP TCS 16 TH 40 EM 0
2500 km/s Armour 1-7 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 3
Maint Life 17.67 Years MSP 68 AFR 5% IFR 0.1% 1YR 0 5YR 6 Max Repair 20 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Spare Berths 0
Bae Technology 40 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (1) Power 40 Fuel Use 85.5% Signature 40 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 30 000 Litres Range 7.9 billion km (36 days at full power)
Topham-Priest R1.5/C1 Meson Cannon (1) Range 15 000km TS: 2500 km/s Power 3-1 RM 1.5 ROF 15 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Landreth-Buote Fire Control S01.5 15-4000 (1) Max Range: 30 000 km TS: 4000 km/s 67 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Honda Pebble Bed Reactor Technology PB-1.2 (1) Total Power Output 1.2 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Vanacker-Lowery Systems Active Search Sensor MR1-R1 (1) GPS 17 Range 1 000k km MCR 109k km Resolution 1
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
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So my latest game, I got a EW 60 scientist early, so I am thinking of going mesons, but I think I will go with 70% engine commercial engined beam ships, on the theory that versus mesons, you want big cheap systems that are hard to damage. Yeah, they would have huge sensor footprints, but they would be designed to fair well against someone with the same technology. But I am putting a higher priority into turrets than into the individual beam techs, so I will be able to exploit other beam weapons.
I would call something with a 1 month deployment time a planetary defense craft, not a patrol craft. It is designed to be tied to a maintenance base with a population. Well, you have an engineering bay, so it can defend colonies that haven't gotten maintenance bases yet. You might consider a variant without an engineering bay, for just that much more speed performance, but that would limit its deployment options to more vital colonies.
To me, a 'patrol craft' is one that can picket a forward location. Something which can be deployed for a year, preferably multiple years. I suppose it can do its job patrolling a colony pretty well.
I am conflicted about the res 1 sensor. I just don't see you shooting down many missiles without a turret bonus to tracking speed. I build fighter sized meson PDCs to get the benefit of fighter beam fire controls. But it is really hard to stick a turret on a mobile fighter early on. But at least you can clear out buoys with it, and if something does jump on you, you will be able to say what killed you, which is a big part of the job of a patrol ship.
If it is meant more as an anti-ship role than an anti-missile role, it should have a longer, broader resolution sensor.
Odd choice in powerplant size too, but overall, I like it. It has a low rate of fire because you haven't diverted your PP scientist to capacitor research yet, but versus early missiles, the incoming waves are likely to be far enough apart it won't matter, and it is fairly cheap. The nuisance is that it ties up a full-sized shipyard to make them.
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So my latest game, I got a EW 60 scientist early, so I am thinking of going mesons, but I think I will go with 70% engine commercial engined beam ships, on the theory that versus mesons, you want big cheap systems that are hard to damage. Yeah, they would have huge sensor footprints, but they would be designed to fair well against someone with the same technology. But I am putting a higher priority into turrets than into the individual beam techs, so I will be able to exploit other beam weapons.
I would call something with a 1 month deployment time a planetary defense craft, not a patrol craft. It is designed to be tied to a maintenance base with a population. Well, you have an engineering bay, so it can defend colonies that haven't gotten maintenance bases yet. You might consider a variant without an engineering bay, for just that much more speed performance, but that would limit its deployment options to more vital colonies.
To me, a 'patrol craft' is one that can picket a forward location. Something which can be deployed for a year, preferably multiple years. I suppose it can do its job patrolling a colony pretty well.
I am conflicted about the res 1 sensor. I just don't see you shooting down many missiles without a turret bonus to tracking speed. I build fighter sized meson PDCs to get the benefit of fighter beam fire controls. But it is really hard to stick a turret on a mobile fighter early on. But at least you can clear out buoys with it, and if something does jump on you, you will be able to say what killed you, which is a big part of the job of a patrol ship.
If it is meant more as an anti-ship role than an anti-missile role, it should have a longer, broader resolution sensor.
Odd choice in powerplant size too, but overall, I like it. It has a low rate of fire because you haven't diverted your PP scientist to capacitor research yet, but versus early missiles, the incoming waves are likely to be far enough apart it won't matter, and it is fairly cheap. The nuisance is that it ties up a full-sized shipyard to make them.
Well a few things to recall.
- I always have a "FAC" Shipyard) that never gets over 1000 tons but has a ton of slipways, thus even early on it no problem to produce 20-30 of these craft. After all, a shipyard at 1000 tons can add a slipway in a year (or less) depending on your research. In my current game, I produce 20 meson and 20 plasma armed (can be built in the same shipyard) and sent them training.
-I see these useful in a number of cases.
1. If you are doing a multi-faction start, these craft can be built very quickly (as there is not much research in them, and you can have a shipyard that set for FAC production) and with mesons or plasma they can be a threat to any early ship. Be it commerce raiding, or facing off with other gunboats or in groups taking on thermal/pulse cruisers who are going to be 3000 tons or so. They are also dirt cheap.
2. There firepower is short ranged, and they really do not need to see more then a million kilometers. I learned in multifaction starts a lot of the early combat is over a moon, a rock, or near earth orbit, where a million miles will give you plenty of info, and most what you engage is small. In the community game, I had patrol craft that scanned at 3000 tons (and 25 million range) and they had a hard time locking on the craft they where fighting.
3. I do not leave the Sol system till I get Ion Drives, (and normally, after I build a Ion fleet!) these craft can be built in the 5 years or so in the Nuclear Pulse age and then when Ion engines come around they can be upgraded into two types.
True patrol craft, who use the more powerful Ion engine to add fuel and living space so they can spend years out on some colony being a tripwire
Or a system defense boat that designed to be attached to a colony and is the defense for that colony. in which case the speed is increased,
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Maybe off topic but I was wondering given the use of mesons has anyone experimented with high power microwave either in place of or along with mesons?
On paper high power microwave seem like a more effective meson cannon since ships have far less electronic hit points than internal hit points, and once a ship is without electronics it wont really be able do much.
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I always put a few microwave carriers into my FAC or beam fighter swarms, but they haven't exactly been combat tested.
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Since the community game is over, I can post what I built as was building.
Here was the missile ship I was prepping for.
Cape Town class Cruiser 2 650 tons 79 Crew 316.8 BP TCS 53 TH 160 EM 0
3018 km/s Armour 1-17 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 12
Maint Life 2.87 Years MSP 75 AFR 56% IFR 0.8% 1YR 13 5YR 201 Max Repair 48 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Spare Berths 1
Magazine 72
Naudé-van Blerk 80 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (2) Power 80 Fuel Use 81% Signature 80 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 150 000 Litres Range 12.6 billion km (48 days at full power)
Vlok Advanced Defence Systems Size 4 Missile Launcher (3) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 120
Uys Aerospace Industries Missile Fire Control FC11-R20 (1) Range 11.3m km Resolution 20
Atlas (18) Speed: 10 000 km/s End: 18.3m Range: 11m km WH: 4 Size: 4 TH: 33/20/10
de Klerk Aeronautical Active Search Sensor MR10-R20 (1) GPS 960 Range 10.7m km Resolution 20
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
Doesn't look like much, but it would have been by far the most powerful ship in the game.
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Scipio Africanus class Cruiser 1 600 tons 62 Crew 190 BP TCS 32 TH 80 EM 0
2500 km/s Armour 1-12 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 3
Maint Life 5.06 Years MSP 74 AFR 20% IFR 0.3% 1YR 5 5YR 72 Max Repair 50 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 8 months Spare Berths 0
Naudé-van Blerk 80 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (1) Power 80 Fuel Use 81% Signature 80 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 100 000 Litres Range 13.9 billion km (64 days at full power)
Zarif -Yazdi R1.5/C1 Meson Cannon (1) Range 15 000km TS: 2500 km/s Power 3-1 RM 1.5 ROF 15 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Roos-van Heerden Foundation Fire Control S04 40-2500 (1) Max Range: 80 000 km TS: 2500 km/s 88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
Ansary Aerospace Pebble Bed Reactor Technology PB-1 (1) Total Power Output 1.8 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Early Bird Corp Active Search Sensor MR19-R60 (1) GPS 3000 Range 19.4m km Resolution 60
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This was a flawed design. The sensor is all wrong for what I was facing.
Scipio Africanus B class Cruiser 1 550 tons 69 Crew 156 BP TCS 31 TH 80 EM 0
2580 km/s Armour 1-11 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 6
Maint Life 5.78 Years MSP 63 AFR 19% IFR 0.3% 1YR 3 5YR 48 Max Repair 40 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 8 months Spare Berths 1
Naudé-van Blerk 80 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (1) Power 80 Fuel Use 81% Signature 80 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 100 000 Litres Range 14.3 billion km (64 days at full power)
Zarif -Yazdi R1.5/C1 Meson Cannon (2) Range 15 000km TS: 2580 km/s Power 3-1 RM 1.5 ROF 15 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Roos-van Heerden Foundation Fire Control S04 40-2500 (1) Max Range: 80 000 km TS: 2500 km/s 88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
Ansary Aerospace Pebble Bed Reactor Technology PB-1 (1) Total Power Output 1.8 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Bazargan Foundation Active Search Sensor MR0-R1 (1) GPS 10 Range 500k km MCR 55k km Resolution 1
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Built in the same yard, these turned out be rather effective.
(In the community game you have to spit out ships fast, so in the early game, a 1500 ton ship might be your cruiser. When the Cape Town came online, the B would have been used as anti-missile corvettes, and the A would become "show the flag" corvettes)
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Telegraph class Recon Fighter 345 tons 10 Crew 44.12 BP TCS 6.9 TH 13 EM 0
1884 km/s JR 1-50 Armour 1-4 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/8/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 34.26 Years MSP 40 AFR 1% IFR 0% 1YR 0 5YR 1 Max Repair 10 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 0
Pinnace Jump Drive J400(1-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 400 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 1
NP fighter engine 12.8 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (1) Power 12.8 Fuel Use 44.88% Signature 12.8 Exp 8%
Fuel Capacity 30 000 Litres Range 34.9 billion km (214 days at full power)
EM 8x1 EM Detection Sensor EM1-8 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
On getting Jump Drive tech, I quickly researched a pinnace drive and a small sensor. In retrospect, I should have gone with a size 2 sensor, it would have fit well with the size 400 Jump Drive.
Basically, the idea is to use fighter factories to be the first to exploit a new technology, and hopefully they would give information that informs the followup missions, prioritizing which systems will get surveyed first.
Also, the pinnaces will serve as communications relays. I suppose I should have given them more crew endurance, mostly to avoid getting pinged with messages about crew whining.
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Telegraph class Recon Fighter 345 tons 10 Crew 44.12 BP TCS 6.9 TH 13 EM 0
1884 km/s JR 1-50 Armour 1-4 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/8/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 34.26 Years MSP 40 AFR 1% IFR 0% 1YR 0 5YR 1 Max Repair 10 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 0
Pinnace Jump Drive J400(1-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 400 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 1
NP fighter engine 12.8 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (1) Power 12.8 Fuel Use 44.88% Signature 12.8 Exp 8%
Fuel Capacity 30 000 Litres Range 34.9 billion km (214 days at full power)
EM 8x1 EM Detection Sensor EM1-8 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
On getting Jump Drive tech, I quickly researched a pinnace drive and a small sensor. In retrospect, I should have gone with a size 2 sensor, it would have fit well with the size 400 Jump Drive.
Basically, the idea is to use fighter factories to be the first to exploit a new technology, and hopefully they would give information that informs the followup missions, prioritizing which systems will get surveyed first.
Also, the pinnaces will serve as communications relays. I suppose I should have given them more crew endurance, mostly to avoid getting pinged with messages about crew whining.
That is a cool design/concept, thanks for sharing it!
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For uncolonizing the Moon:
Botany Bay class Colony Ship 9 450 tons 155 Crew 465.85 BP TCS 189 TH 125 EM 0
661 km/s Armour 1-39 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 31 Max Repair 31.25 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 1
Cryogenic Berths 20000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 50
Ingram Aero Engines NT 125 EP Commercial Nuclear Thermal Engine (1) Power 125 Fuel Use 8.84% Signature 125 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250 000 Litres Range 53.8 billion km (942 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
10 Cargo handling systems. I can load and unload in an hour, with a decent logistics officer. It has way more range than it needs, but I wanted the flexibility. My little colony ship can outpace the entire efforts of a colony fleet that can load 350,000 people at a time. So I can keep profiting from them shipping people to the moon without it getting overcrowded.
Similarly:
Terra-Luna Shipping class Freighter 9 400 tons 137 Crew 272.85 BP TCS 188 TH 125 EM 0
664 km/s Armour 1-39 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 18 Max Repair 31.25 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 1
Cargo 5000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 50
Ingram Aero Engines NT 125 EP Commercial Nuclear Thermal Engine (1) Power 125 Fuel Use 8.84% Signature 125 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250 000 Litres Range 54.1 billion km (942 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Designed to shuttle lots of stuff cheaply between Earth and Luna. I also would use it once I get around to terraforming the Jovian moons, so larger ships could handle the bulk long distance shipping. Also, it can just go around between the various mining colonies, saving me from having to build and ship mineral packet launchers.
Also used for quick things like "Ship the mats for Spaceport to the Moon, ship lots of construction factories to the Moon to build it".
One of my goals is to get ship to ship tractors, and once Luna is terraformed, move all my shipyards there, and put a dedicated Shipyard bonus commander on it, while Earth will have a wealth/factory/mining commander. I would just keep a small freighter handy for shipping stuff back and forth when I needed to, and I could use it for other purposes as needed.