Quote from: Whitecold on June 15, 2018, 11:22:56 PM

@QuakeIV Only military ships need to be maintained. Civilian ships are fine, so by making gates civilian components you should be all good.

Except that then you couldn't send military ships through them.

That's how jump drives work.  The jump gate component wouldn't need to work that way.

I'm actually kind of curious about how practical orbital stations would be with shield generators instead of armor, since that would mean (I think) you could build them with industry. But building them with shipyards would be workable too; they still get hefty bonuses compared to ships.

I know in the current version of Aurora PDC beam fire controls get a 50% range bonus, I don't remember if it was mentioned if that gets applied to the new ground based STO beam weapons? But it might help with the worries over being bombarded from out of range.

Will beam fire controls still have the same range limit?

Ikazuchi class Frigate    8 000 tons     231 Crew     1031.4 BP      TCS 160  TH 360  EM 0
2250 km/s     Armour 4-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 12/12/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 36
Maint Life 1.51 Years     MSP 161    AFR 256%    IFR 3.6%    1YR 80    5YR 1198    Max Repair 60 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 8 months    Flight Crew Berths 4   
Hangar Deck Capacity 500 tons     

Mishima Engineering 120 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (3)    Power 120    Fuel Use 68%    Signature 120    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 750 000 Litres    Range 24.8 billion km   (127 days at full power)

19cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (1)    Range 192 000km     TS: 2250 km/s     Power 9-3     RM 3    ROF 15        9 9 9 6 5 4 3 3 3 2
15cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (3)    Range 180 000km     TS: 2250 km/s     Power 6-3     RM 3    ROF 10        6 6 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 1
10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (6)    Range 90 000km     TS: 2250 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 3    ROF 5        3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0
Hamada Warning & Control Type 2 FCS (3)    Max Range: 192 000 km   TS: 2500 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor Technology PB-1 (10)     Total Power Output 31.5    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Hamada Warning & Control Type-1 Search Sensor (1)     GPS 4800     Range 22.8m km    Resolution 160
Hamada Warning & Control Thermal Sensor TH2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km
Hamada Warning & Control EM Detection Sensor EM2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km

Strike Group
1x Ki-1 Yari Fighter   Speed: 4192 km/s    Size: 9.54

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Shimushu class Escort    7 000 tons     158 Crew     929.4 BP      TCS 140  TH 360  EM 0
2571 km/s     Armour 4-32     Shields 0-0     Sensors 12/12/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 19.37
Maint Life 1.3 Years     MSP 166    AFR 196%    IFR 2.7%    1YR 104    5YR 1555    Max Repair 115 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 8 months    Flight Crew Berths 27   
Hangar Deck Capacity 500 tons     

Mishima Engineering 120 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (3)    Power 120    Fuel Use 68%    Signature 120    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 800 000 Litres    Range 30.2 billion km   (136 days at full power)

Quad 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (1x4)    Range 90 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 12-12     RM 3    ROF 5        3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0
Hamada Warning and Control Type 6 FCS (1)    Max Range: 192 000 km   TS: 8000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor Technology PB-1 (4)     Total Power Output 12.6    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Hamada Warning and Control Type 7 Missile Detection System (1)     GPS 72     Range 4.3m km    MCR 470k km    Resolution 1
Hamada Warning & Control Thermal Sensor TH2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km
Hamada Warning & Control EM Detection Sensor EM2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km

Strike Group
1x Ki-2 Tonbo Scout Fighter   Speed: 4255 km/s    Size: 9.4

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Ki-1 Yari class Fighter    477 tons     4 Crew     82 BP      TCS 9.54  TH 30  EM 0
4192 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 2
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 95%    IFR 1.3%    1YR 15    5YR 225    Max Repair 29 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 0   

Mishima Engineering 40 EP Fighter Engine (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 134.16%    Signature 30    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 Litres    Range 1.4 billion km   (3 days at full power)

10cm C0.75 Near Ultraviolet Laser (1)    Range 90 000km     TS: 4192 km/s     Power 3-0.75     RM 3    ROF 20        3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0
Hamada Warning & Control Type 3 FCS (1)    Max Range: 192 000 km   TS: 8000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor Technology PB-1 (1)     Total Power Output 0.9    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Hamada Warning & Control Type 4 Search Sensor (1)     GPS 60     Range 1.1m km    Resolution 10

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
Ki-2 Tonbo class Scout Fighter    470 tons     7 Crew     87.6 BP      TCS 9.4  TH 30  EM 0
4255 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 1.9 Years     MSP 12    AFR 17%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 4    5YR 64    Max Repair 48 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.5 months    Spare Berths 5   

Mishima Engineering 40 EP Fighter Engine (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 134.16%    Signature 30    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 20 000 Litres    Range 5.7 billion km   (15 days at full power)

Hamada Warning & Control Type 5 Search Sensor (1)     GPS 7680     Range 36.4m km    Resolution 160

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
A battle group would have both frigates and escorts, with the scout-fighters taking turns following along to provide sensors.  In combat, the fighters would target enemy scouts (the only other faction using fighters isn't seen as a likely enemy, and most factions will be using scout fighters or small-ish scout ships for sensors, though the most likely enemy faction will be using a large command ship for sensors).

What do you guys think?  Does this make sense?  I guess it's a bit more nebulous since it's not designed with NPR's in mind, but I'm hoping I can still get some decent feedback on these.

I haven't seen anything that would imply that construction factories could build anything aside from civilian space stations using the new skin-hull instead of armour, so the answer is probably that you would need to use shipyards. I already use OWPs for planetary PD whereas PDCs handle missiles, so I'm used to having one shipyard at 2000 tons with like ten slipways, that builds FAC/LACs and OWPs. You can make a simplistic 1 GC turret OWP for 950 tons and a pretty decent 4 GC turret one for under 2000 tons. Retooling isn't that much of an issue because you generally don't need to build both at the same time.

Ie, I build ten OWPs, then use tugs to haul them to their new home, retool for FAC, build a batch of 20 or 30, then design new the next generation OWP, retool for it, build new OWPs and rinse and repeat.