Iceranger:ECM 1 might not be so valuable against AMMs for fighters. If the accuracy of the missile is high enough, the ECM can be negated. For example, if your fighter is 20kkm/s, against a AMM that has 100% chance to hit a 22kkm/s target. Then this missile will have 110% hit rate against this fighter, or 100% when it has ECM1.
Also, due to the shock damage change, even AMMs now have a chance to induce shock damage on fighters. So armor on fighters is much less valuable than before.
Example AMM:Missile Size: 1.00 MSP (2.500 Tons) Warhead: 1 Radiation Damage: 1 Manoeuvre Rating: 40
Speed: 52,800 km/s Fuel: 50 Flight Time: 14.5 seconds Range: 765,600 km
Cost Per Missile: 2.167 Development Cost: 217
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 2112.0% 3k km/s 704.0% 5k km/s 422.4% 10k km/s 211.2%
Materials Required
Tritanium 0.255
Gallicite 1.912
Fuel: 50
Railgun FigherNew Class class Escort 500 tons 27 Crew 189.1 BP TCS 10 TH 204 EM 0
20439 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 4 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 3
Maint Life 8.46 Years MSP 127 AFR 10% IFR 0.1% 1YR 3 5YR 47 Max Repair 102.00 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 days Morale Check Required
Internal Fusion Drive EP204.00 (1) Power 204.0 Fuel Use 1336.70% Signature 204.00 Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 9,000 Litres Range 0.2 billion km (3 hours at full power)
10cm Railgun V20/C3 (1x4) Range 20,000km TS: 20,439 km/s Power 3-3 RM 20,000 km ROF 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Beam Fire Control R40-TS20000 (1) Max Range: 40,000 km TS: 20,000 km/s 25 17 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Tokamak Fusion Reactor R3 (1) Total Power Output 3 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS1-R1 (1) GPS 2 Range 1.8m km MCR 160.6k km Resolution 1
ECM 10
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
Armored EscortNew Class - Copy class Escort 500 tons 24 Crew 177.7 BP TCS 10 TH 204 EM 0
20438 km/s Armour 2-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 3 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 3
Maint Life 1.64 Years MSP 80 AFR 100% IFR 1.4% 1YR 35 5YR 526 Max Repair 102.00 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 days Morale Check Required
Internal Fusion Drive EP204.00 (1) Power 204.0 Fuel Use 1336.70% Signature 204.00 Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 9,000 Litres Range 0.2 billion km (3 hours at full power)
10cm Railgun V20/C3 (1x4) Range 20,000km TS: 20,438 km/s Power 3-3 RM 20,000 km ROF 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Beam Fire Control R40-TS20000 (1) Max Range: 40,000 km TS: 20,000 km/s 25 17 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Tokamak Fusion Reactor R3 (1) Total Power Output 3 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS1-R1 (1) GPS 2 Range 1.8m km MCR 160.6k km Resolution 1
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
Fast Escort:New Class - Copy class Escort 500 tons 26 Crew 197.6 BP TCS 10 TH 222 EM 0
22243 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 3 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 3
Maint Life 1.53 Years MSP 80 AFR 100% IFR 1.4% 1YR 39 5YR 583 Max Repair 111.00 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 days Morale Check Required
Internal Fusion Drive EP222.00 (1) Power 222.0 Fuel Use 1281.36% Signature 222.00 Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres Range 0.3 billion km (3 hours at full power)
10cm Railgun V20/C3 (1x4) Range 20,000km TS: 22,243 km/s Power 3-3 RM 20,000 km ROF 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Beam Fire Control R40-TS21875 (1) Max Range: 40,000 km TS: 21,875 km/s 27 18 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Tokamak Fusion Reactor R3 (1) Total Power Output 3 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS1-R1 (1) GPS 2 Range 1.8m km MCR 160.6k km Resolution 1
ECM 10
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
- I'm not entirely convinced that the ECM 1 is less valuable after building the above examples, but that's not the point of this reply. I feel the point about shock damage is misleading, and so in the spirit of the thread I'll chime in. The value of armor isn't against shock damage, it's against sandblasting. The Escort invests 25 Tons for it's ECM 1,and while the Example AMM could and would spam it to oblivion and then some, BasileusMaximos is doing something very wrong to get within 766,000 km of the enemy in a bomber to start with. The Armored Escort on the other hand, even at Composite Armor Tech, invests a mere 35 tons t literally double the amount of armor that the Example AMM must grind through. The Fast Escort is simply faster than 20,000 km/s so the ECM 1 is still valuable even against the Example AMM.
- Armor is probably a lot less valuable than it was in VB6, but I feel like you might be devaluing it a bit overtly. Shock Damage is inherently RNG, while sandblasting the armor is not. 35 Tons for double the endurance is a tremendous return on investment, and cheaper than shields to boot. ECM 1 is a nice to have, but ECM 2 or 3 would certainly be much better. I think a lot of it comes down to design, but this thread is called "PD Fighter Analysis" so I felt compelled to chime in... even if I'm splitting hairs. I did learn something though! I learned that AMMs scale way harder than I previously thought. >.>;
@BasileusMaximos - I would encourage you to make a new thread about this, so we could better help you.
The range of your bombers, ASMs, the range of the enemy AMMs, their tech level, your tech level... these things matter a lot. We'd need that to give you a good solution.