Some advice before I go ahead and build this

[Yakface (OP)]

Aha - so lots of lights just dawned.....

Andrew - thanks for the explanation of how the ROF works - makes sense of why 10cm railguns are at max ROF with C3's and how it works with lasers.

Kiero - what you posted made me realise that the numbers I was looking at next the weapons was the damage at that range rather than the hit chance (Not my proudest moment).  I was looking at the 10cm railguns and thought they only had a 1% chance of hitting at all ranges and speeds - it is actually 1 damage.  So the chance of a weapon hitting (excluding battlefield effects) is the numbers next to the BFC.  So all weapons under the same BFC have the same chance of hitting - which makes sense.

Thanks for all the others who gave suggestions

Sooooooo in redesigning the ship I came across something which I thought I knew, but maybe don't

As an experiment I put a max tracking speed FC on the ship - expecting it not to affect the hit chance (I thought I understood that hull mounted weapons had a cap of the ship speed for their tracking).  However it vastly impoorved the numbersL

Here is the original BFC (vs targets moving at 50,000kps 10K bands):

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Beam Fire Control R384-TS7000 (30%) (1)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 7,000 km/s    ECCM-2     14 13 13 13 12 12 11 11 11 11
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

and here for the 4x tracking speed
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Beam Fire Control R384-TS20000 (30%) (1)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 20,000 km/s    ECCM-2     39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is the improvement real? or will I only get the lower numbers when out in the field, no matter what is showing on the super-dooper BFC

[Michael Sandy]

Of the endurance trifecta, maintenance, crew, and fuel, it is generally hardest to reset the ship maintenance, so you generally want that the longest, and I could see an RP of just wanting significantly greater maintenance supplies for any ship that is on its own outside the home system.

As far as ship classification goes, it comes down to what the smallest tonnage/build cost fleet that will be expected to actually fight as distinct from merely scouting or running?

For myself, any fleet element that is expected to fight will have multiple ships in it, that is just how I design things.  Nobody goes into the void alone.  But if you want to have anything like the Star Trek vibe, you build ships that are generalists, that have the sensors to detect enemy ships and missiles and any ship capable of independent operation has to be able to handle missiles on their own.

A lot of it comes down to RP.  Whether someone likes building fleets/squadrons that are efficient, or building ships that meet a certain aesthetic.

[davidb86]

Sooooooo in redesigning the ship I came across something which I thought I knew, but maybe don't

As an experiment I put a max tracking speed FC on the ship - expecting it not to affect the hit chance (I thought I understood that hull mounted weapons had a cap of the ship speed for their tracking).  However it vastly impoorved the numbersL

Here is the original BFC (vs targets moving at 50,000kps 10K bands):

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Beam Fire Control R384-TS7000 (30%) (1)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 7,000 km/s    ECCM-2     14 13 13 13 12 12 11 11 11 11
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

and here for the 4x tracking speed
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Beam Fire Control R384-TS20000 (30%) (1)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 20,000 km/s    ECCM-2     39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is the improvement real? or will I only get the lower numbers when out in the field, no matter what is showing on the super-dooper BFC

Per the Wiki, which is also my understanding

Unfortunately, Tracking Speed (TS) is used for two different parameters in the game:

The TS of a beam weapon is its ability to physically follow and point at a target. For non-turreted beam weapons, it's the higher of either the ship's speed or the racial tracking speed tech. For turreted weapons, it's the turret's TS. In other words, if you want to shoot at something moving really fast, such as missiles or fighters, mount weapons in a turret. It allows far higher weapon TS than rigid mounts.

The TS of a FC is its ability to calculate targeting data. Both weapon and FC tracking speed should match, as the weapon's actual hit chance is determined using the lower of either the FC's or the weapon's TS.

Charlie Beeler: Hull mounted weapons have a tracking speed of either the ship's max speed or the current base beam fire control tech, whichever is greater. To benefit from turret tracking speeds the weapon must be in a turret. To benefit from beam fire controls that have above standard tracking speeds the weapon(s) must be turret mounted.

Thus a higher speed beam fire control is needed if your ship speed is above your racial tracking speed research, but the fire control cannot take the weapon above the ship speed unless you have the weapon in a turret with higher speed.