Humanity First Comments Thread

[Kurt (OP)]

It's always just a tad silly how quickly after reaching the, ah, threshold the, um, Archers show up. Like clockwork, really. Meanwhile, the plague of 'A' names continues. 

After a series of hits the alien ship comes to a halt, now a sitting duck for the human ships.  Two more salvoes and the alien ship exploded, ending the threat. 

"A boarding shuttle! A boarding shuttle! My kingdom for a boarding shuttle!"

The Flight II class interceptor includes a new ion drive that’s been modified to produce thirty percent more power at the cost of significantly increased fuel consumption.  In addition, the Flight II includes improved passive sensors.

Something I notice is that your ship designs seem to have rather low engine sizes relative to their total size. I recognize this as being the common design paradigm in the VB6 days, but in C# the AI ship designs are generally improved and use more engines, proportionally, so you may want to consider dedicating a bit more of your own ship tonnage to engines to counteract this. I tend to use engine mass fractions of 32% for missile/carrier doctrines and 40% for beam doctrines, mostly because they make for nice round numbers.

Hopefully the Imperium can adapt to the new threat quickly enough before some alien forces show up in greater force...

Interesting.  As you will see, my capital ship designs (upcoming) have 30% of their mass devoted to engines. 

Basically:
Engines: 30%
Passives: 20%
Weapons/Power/Fire Control: 22%
Fuel/Maintenance: 16%

[skoormit]

Basically:
Engines: 30%
Passives: 20%
Weapons/Power/Fire Control: 22%
Fuel/Maintenance: 16%

The remaining 12% is for Calculators. Or armor.

[Kurt (OP)]

Basically:
Engines: 30%
Passives: 20%
Weapons/Power/Fire Control: 22%
Fuel/Maintenance: 16%

The remaining 12% is for Calculators. Or armor.

Most of that has to be for space for bureaucrats, right?

[nuclearslurpee]

November, 2110: The Guard position on Io has been reinforced to include a full Territorial Division, twenty-seven surface to orbit laser batteries, eighteen STO plasma batteries, and thirty-five point-defense laser batteries. 

That oughta do it.

January, 2112: The Empire’s first orbital missile base has been deployed.  The Aggressor class is 9,813 tons, has heavy armor, and mounts fifty box launchers equipped with the newly developed Archer Anti-Ship Missile, and ten anti-missile missile launchers for the Shrike AMM.  The Archer ASM has a range of 71 mkm’s and a speed of 17,500 km/s.   

Oof. That's pretty slow especially for a MP-tech missile. Is the Empire not big on the engine power modifier tech line?

The two Imperial destroyers closed to point blank range and the second destroyer continued pounding the alien ship with its light lasers.  The lead destroyer had finally worked out its problems and launched a devastating broadside at point blank range, gutting the alien ship with its plasma cannons.

I believe the kids these days call that "killstealing". 

During the next salvo, the human interceptors got another hit, but the alien ship finally penetrated the lead interceptors’ armor, destroying the small ship’s search sensor.  The CO of the 1st Interceptor Group, Commander Erin Cauthon, ordered Interceptor 003 to drop out of the pursuit and retreat to avoid suffering further damage.

The Empire may find motivation to invest into shield technology. Against single, lightly-armed enemy ships the ability to have recharging/self-repairing "armor" while closing through low-power railgun fire could be valuable.

Rayford Harjo’s ship was targeted again by the damaged Archer Bravo’s, and suffered a catastrophic explosion, killing most of the crew and Commander Harjo.  Harjo’s ship got off one last shot, hitting the Bravo targeting his ship, but the laser didn’t do any apparent damage. 

A salute to this brave sailor!  o7

It seems like Imperial weapons technology still needs some development, a bit more range on those lasers and the advantage passes solidly to humanity. These Archer aliens are troubling, but ultimately once humanity solidifies its core tech base the aliens will be hardly any threat.

Code: [Select]

Aberration Flt III class Interceptor
...
Maint Life 5.93 Years     MSP 214    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 10    5YR 156    Max Repair 120 MSP


A small change worth considering would be to cut out a few kiloliters of fuel and adding enough MSP to double the max repair. Battle damage takes twice as much MSP to repair, so this would ensure that the interceptors can repair an engine after a tough fight without relying on tugs for recovery. The loss of range due to a bit less fuel would be trifling.

Looking forward to the next stage of the conflict here, once the Archers are pushed out of Sol then the challenge of securing the rest of space will begin! 

[Kurt (OP)]

November, 2110: The Guard position on Io has been reinforced to include a full Territorial Division, twenty-seven surface to orbit laser batteries, eighteen STO plasma batteries, and thirty-five point-defense laser batteries. 

That oughta do it.

January, 2112: The Empire’s first orbital missile base has been deployed.  The Aggressor class is 9,813 tons, has heavy armor, and mounts fifty box launchers equipped with the newly developed Archer Anti-Ship Missile, and ten anti-missile missile launchers for the Shrike AMM.  The Archer ASM has a range of 71 mkm’s and a speed of 17,500 km/s.   

Oof. That's pretty slow especially for a MP-tech missile. Is the Empire not big on the engine power modifier tech line?

The Empire is new to missiles, and to be honest, so am I with the latest developments in Aurora missile development.  This is their first try, and what they really wanted was an extreme-range missile to engage the Archers at a distance, and so traded off speed for range.  And they still didn't get the range they wanted. 

The two Imperial destroyers closed to point blank range and the second destroyer continued pounding the alien ship with its light lasers.  The lead destroyer had finally worked out its problems and launched a devastating broadside at point blank range, gutting the alien ship with its plasma cannons.

I believe the kids these days call that "killstealing". 

During the next salvo, the human interceptors got another hit, but the alien ship finally penetrated the lead interceptors’ armor, destroying the small ship’s search sensor.  The CO of the 1st Interceptor Group, Commander Erin Cauthon, ordered Interceptor 003 to drop out of the pursuit and retreat to avoid suffering further damage.

The Empire may find motivation to invest into shield technology. Against single, lightly-armed enemy ships the ability to have recharging/self-repairing "armor" while closing through low-power railgun fire could be valuable.

Shield tech is under development, and will be deployed on the new battlecruiser classes.  It may eventually be deployed down to the destroyers, but it'll be a while before its deployed on the interceptors, which are still viewed as stopgap defensive units. 

[nuclearslurpee]

The Empire is new to missiles, and to be honest, so am I with the latest developments in Aurora missile development.  This is their first try, and what they really wanted was an extreme-range missile to engage the Archers at a distance, and so traded off speed for range.  And they still didn't get the range they wanted. 

You might actually be using too large of an EP modifier, then. You can often get better speed and range with a lower EP modifier, larger engine, and less fuel.

It's hard to say for sure without knowing what the missile designs are, though, especially since 2.2 with all the extra missile modules we can add.

Incidentally, I also realize that the Archer ASM range is only 28.7 m km, not 71 m km as stated in the text... probably want to make a note.

[nuclearslurpee]

The defensive fire destroyed just ten incoming missiles.  The remaining missiles stripped the Terra’s shields and damaged her armor.  At this point Vice Admiral Shatswell decided that they would not be able to survive the alien missile fire and ordered his ships to retreat.   The next two salvoes targeted the other two battlecruisers, stripping their shields as well. 

With the tonnage available, I suspect the fleet probably could close into range, but it would cost some ships to do so. Which could be an acceptable loss, given the potential value of alien technology versus the loss of a few ships which would eventually become outdated, but this is far from certain.

Vice Admiral Shatswell ordered the fleet to return to Terra for repairs, and to report this development.  The fleet’s inability to defend itself from the alien missile fire was alarming, and would be examined by the fleet’s intelligence units, design teams, and strategic and tactical planners. 

It never ceases to amuse me that we, as players, understand the value of point defense against the, um, this particular alien race, yet time and again in AARs our fleets are woefully unprepared for the inevitable. 

By this point, Fleet Command has a plan: The Sparrow ASM.  This small missile is designed for one purpose, to be launched from outside the Groombridge alien’s range and bombard them until they cannot fire back.  With a speed of 30,000 km/s and a range of 2.8 mkm’s, any unit equipped with this missile will be able to engage the aliens with impunity, or so it is hoped. 

Such a short-range missile feels very Starfire in concept.

The alien raid roiled politics in the solar system.  Coming on the heels of the failed attack into the Groombridge system, the Imperial Navy’s image took significant damage.

And now the Imperial politics start turning the wheels... hoping for more of this material!

Wrong thread? I know nothing about that! ... 

[Kurt (OP)]

The defensive fire destroyed just ten incoming missiles.  The remaining missiles stripped the Terra’s shields and damaged her armor.  At this point Vice Admiral Shatswell decided that they would not be able to survive the alien missile fire and ordered his ships to retreat.   The next two salvoes targeted the other two battlecruisers, stripping their shields as well. 

With the tonnage available, I suspect the fleet probably could close into range, but it would cost some ships to do so. Which could be an acceptable loss, given the potential value of alien technology versus the loss of a few ships which would eventually become outdated, but this is far from certain.

With the empire suffering chronic and severe resource shortages as the TN resources run out on Terra, Admiral Shatswell couldn't risk major losses that the empire can't replace any time soon. 

Vice Admiral Shatswell ordered the fleet to return to Terra for repairs, and to report this development.  The fleet’s inability to defend itself from the alien missile fire was alarming, and would be examined by the fleet’s intelligence units, design teams, and strategic and tactical planners. 

It never ceases to amuse me that we, as players, understand the value of point defense against the, um, this particular alien race, yet time and again in AARs our fleets are woefully unprepared for the inevitable. 

Gets me every time.

By this point, Fleet Command has a plan: The Sparrow ASM.  This small missile is designed for one purpose, to be launched from outside the Groombridge alien’s range and bombard them until they cannot fire back.  With a speed of 30,000 km/s and a range of 2.8 mkm’s, any unit equipped with this missile will be able to engage the aliens with impunity, or so it is hoped. 

Such a short-range missile feels very Starfire in concept.

The alien raid roiled politics in the solar system.  Coming on the heels of the failed attack into the Groombridge system, the Imperial Navy’s image took significant damage.

And now the Imperial politics start turning the wheels... hoping for more of this material!

Wrong thread? I know nothing about that! ... 

Thanks!  I'll keep that in mind

[nuclearslurpee]

I may be late to the party here, but I just realized that this and the New Cold War story have in common a Sol system with only one outgoing JP... seems to be your "thing" now, Kurt! 

[Kurt (OP)]

I may be late to the party here, but I just realized that this and the New Cold War story have in common a Sol system with only one outgoing JP... seems to be your "thing" now, Kurt! 

The humans in this campaign got really screwed.  I mean, the campaign backstory is predicated on them being screwed, but the initial exploration results for the solar system were shockingly bad.  No substantial resource deposits were found, even on the asteroids.  Only one jump point, and its position would make everything to come much more difficult.  The jump point is 4.1 billion kilometers away from the sun, just inside of Neptune's orbit. 

It took me a while, but I realized that the bulk of the travel time between Terra and her out-system colonies was just getting to the damned jump point in the solar system.  For example, the Empire's primary resource system is Lalande, which is five jumps away.  The actual distance is 9.5 billion kilometers, meaning that 43% of the trip is spent in the solar system getting to and/or from the jump point.  That sucks for the Empire. 

[paolot]

...

The humans in this campaign got really screwed.  I mean, the campaign backstory is predicated on them being screwed, but the initial exploration results for the solar system were shockingly bad.  No substantial resource deposits were found, even on the asteroids.  Only one jump point, and its position would make everything to come much more difficult.  The jump point is 4.1 billion kilometers away from the sun, just inside of Neptune's orbit. 

It took me a while, but I realized that the bulk of the travel time between Terra and her out-system colonies was just getting to the damned jump point in the solar system.  For example, the Empire's primary resource system is Lalande, which is five jumps away.  The actual distance is 9.5 billion kilometers, meaning that 43% of the trip is spent in the solar system getting to and/or from the jump point.  That sucks for the Empire.

Don't you usually build Lagrange points around (all, or some of) Terra, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptun?
I find this really helpful for movements in the Solar System.

[Kurt (OP)]

...

The humans in this campaign got really screwed.  I mean, the campaign backstory is predicated on them being screwed, but the initial exploration results for the solar system were shockingly bad.  No substantial resource deposits were found, even on the asteroids.  Only one jump point, and its position would make everything to come much more difficult.  The jump point is 4.1 billion kilometers away from the sun, just inside of Neptune's orbit. 

It took me a while, but I realized that the bulk of the travel time between Terra and her out-system colonies was just getting to the damned jump point in the solar system.  For example, the Empire's primary resource system is Lalande, which is five jumps away.  The actual distance is 9.5 billion kilometers, meaning that 43% of the trip is spent in the solar system getting to and/or from the jump point.  That sucks for the Empire.

Don't you usually build Lagrange points around (all, or some of) Terra, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptun?
I find this really helpful for movements in the Solar System.

I only just became aware of this possibility recently.  Still, for much of the year the planets are positioned wrong for this to cut down travel times much.  Still, I'm in the process of remedying this situation as we speak. 

[nuclearslurpee]

Don't you usually build Lagrange points around (all, or some of) Terra, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptun?
I find this really helpful for movements in the Solar System.

I only just became aware of this possibility recently.  Still, for much of the year the planets are positioned wrong for this to cut down travel times much.  Still, I'm in the process of remedying this situation as we speak.

This also doesn't work well for long-term shipping, such as colony convoys on cycled orders, because the LP positions are constantly changing and a fleet on cycled orders can't rely on the LPs remaining in a useful position.

I usually only rely on LPs to connect distant binary star systems where each distant component has suitable planets in orbit. Groombridge 34 for example.

[DrBladeSTEEL]

Loving this so far! Very interesting to see such an extensive use of STO and how effective they are. The missile barges are also a brilliant solution to a very prickly problem, I will probably have to steal that for my minelayers.

What made you decide to mix laser and plasma? Are you satisfied with how it performs?

[Kurt (OP)]

Loving this so far! Very interesting to see such an extensive use of STO and how effective they are. The missile barges are also a brilliant solution to a very prickly problem, I will probably have to steal that for my minelayers.

What made you decide to mix laser and plasma? Are you satisfied with how it performs?

Thanks!

The terrans are very defensive minded, and so heavy use of STO's made perfect sense for them.  I learned the combination of lasers and plasma from my previous campaign, from an NPR that used lasers for medium range combat and plasmas to overwhelm any enemies that got too close. 

The STO's are great, however, they do have the problem that they generally let the xenos scum close to their own weapons range before being able to eliminate them.  My STO defenses have never seriously been challenged, at least not yet, and the few times the alien raiders got in close they took potshots at large civilian ships that absorbed their railgun fire until the ground batteries eliminated them.  However, during the attack on Io, that raider managed to get some hits on an unarmored orbiting habitat, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.  Obviously unacceptable, so ships had to be rushed in to provide the primary defensive force.

Overall I'm happy with the way the campaign is going, and even though the Terrans have had really bad exploration luck so far, that just means they have hardships to overcome.