First Military designs

[dgibso29 (OP)]

This is my long-term system survey cruiser. Toss is in a system and let it do it's thing for a couple of years.

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Centauri class Survey Cruiser    20,000 tons     1582 Crew     3552 BP      TCS 400  TH 1600  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 8-65     Shields 0-0     Sensors 100/100/3/3     Damage Control Rating 36     PPV 0
Maint Life 6.99 Years     MSP 3886    AFR 123%    IFR 1.7%    1YR 139    5YR 2088    Max Repair 500 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E8 (20)    Power 80    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 2,555,000 Litres    Range 287.4 billion km   (831 days at full power)

Broad Range Area Search Sensor MR250-R100 (1)     GPS 50000     Range 250.0m km    Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH20-100 (1)     Sensitivity 100     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  100m km
EM Detection Sensor EM20-100 (1)     Sensitivity 100     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  100m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (3)   3 Survey Points Per Hour
Geological Survey Sensors (3)   3 Survey Points Per Hour
Best tech avaliable to me at the moment.

Thoughts?

[Erik L]

This is my long-term system survey cruiser. Toss is in a system and let it do it's thing for a couple of years.

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Centauri class Survey Cruiser    20,000 tons     1582 Crew     3552 BP      TCS 400  TH 1600  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 8-65     Shields 0-0     Sensors 100/100/3/3     Damage Control Rating 36     PPV 0
Maint Life 6.99 Years     MSP 3886    AFR 123%    IFR 1.7%    1YR 139    5YR 2088    Max Repair 500 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E8 (20)    Power 80    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 2,555,000 Litres    Range 287.4 billion km   (831 days at full power)

Broad Range Area Search Sensor MR250-R100 (1)     GPS 50000     Range 250.0m km    Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH20-100 (1)     Sensitivity 100     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  100m km
EM Detection Sensor EM20-100 (1)     Sensitivity 100     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  100m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (3)   3 Survey Points Per Hour
Geological Survey Sensors (3)   3 Survey Points Per Hour
Best tech avaliable to me at the moment.

Thoughts?

That is HUGE for a survey ship. Especially with only 3 sensors. Drop engines big time, and fuel down to about a year/year and a half, and you will get a lot better performance I think.

[dgibso29 (OP)]

The Active sensor is 2500t, Thermal and EM are 1000t each. And.. I dunno. I'd rather it not be slow. It's worked wonders thus far. The fuel capacity is to allow it to go off on its own for an extended period. Once I have good enough levels each tech, It's going to be redesigned with Cloaking and a Jump Drive (But by that point my sensors will be far more advanced and smaller), to become my main survey vessel.

[Din182]

I recommend getting rid of 2 sensors. Probably the active and EM. Having that much space dedicated to sensors on a survey ship is excessive in my opinion. I have worse tech than you, yet my survey ships have the same maintenance and fuel life, more speed, more survey sensors, and it's only 5000 tons. it only has a small sensor, and it doesn't really need more than that.

EDIT: I would also make the ships more specialized. 1 geo survey ship and 1 grav survey ship instead of 1 that has both.

[Erik L]

I'm of the philosophy that smaller is better for survey ships. 3k tons to 5k tons. With magneto-plasma you should be able to hit a speed of 5000km/s easy.

Active sensors aren't needed on survey ships, as their function is to be unobtrusive. Give them passives, and when they find something, they run. Actives are for getting information and targeting.

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Corelian class Gravitational Survey Vessel    4,100 tons     410 Crew     927.2 BP      TCS 82  TH 320  EM 0
3902 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-22     Shields 0-0     Sensors 24/24/5/0     Damage Control Rating 5     PPV 0
Maint Life 9.35 Years     MSP 707    AFR 26%    IFR 0.4%    1YR 15    5YR 219    Max Repair 100 MSP

J4500(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 4500 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Magneto-plasma Drive E8 (4)    Power 80    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 137.2 billion km   (406 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH3-24 (1)     Sensitivity 24     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  24m km
EM Detection Sensor EM3-24 (1)     Sensitivity 24     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  24m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (5)   5 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Slightly slower than yours, but I can build ~4 for the price of one of yours. The Geo survey is identical, except for the scanners.

[dgibso29 (OP)]

Dropped the armor, some engines, active sensors, etc. I want one ship for this, not two. Just so that I don't have to dedicate 2 of my 3 military shipyards to them.

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Centauri class Survey Cruiser    8,000 tons     792 Crew     1527.4 BP      TCS 160  TH 960  EM 0
6000 km/s     Armour 1-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 100/100/3/2     Damage Control Rating 10     PPV 0
Maint Life 8.51 Years     MSP 1193    AFR 51%    IFR 0.7%    1YR 29    5YR 441    Max Repair 100 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E8 (12)    Power 80    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 705,000 Litres    Range 198.3 billion km   (382 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH20-100 (1)     Sensitivity 100     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  100m km
EM Detection Sensor EM20-100 (1)     Sensitivity 100     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  100m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (3)   3 Survey Points Per Hour
Geological Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

[Din182]

You probably should have more geo survey scanners. Geo survey usually take longer than grav surveys.

[Brian Neumann]

I build two different classes of ships for survey work.  The first is strictly civilian and has geological sensors on board.  It usually comes out at around 100-120 hs and may even have a jump drive on it (military jump drive can be put on civilian ships without them becoming military).  The second is a really small ship at 20hs that has a standard military drive (NOT gunboat engine) and a single gravitational sensor.  With 1 fuel and maintenance bay they will last a couple of years before there is a problem with them and they are fairly cheap to build.  In total this ties up 1 civilian and 1 military shipyard each being the minimum size you can build.  I find that this makes a lot of economic sense as you don't have a lot of waste space on the ship that is expensive to build and only is used part of the time.  Also geo surveys tend to take a lot longer than the grav survey due to the possibly massive number of asteroids to survey.  As geo survey can be done by civilian ships it takes the pressure off of the military's maintenance problems for long range survey work.

Brian

[dgibso29 (OP)]

I went with the idea of a commercial geo vessel.

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Centauri class Survey Cruiser    8,000 tons     792 Crew     1527.4 BP      TCS 160  TH 960  EM 0
6000 km/s     Armour 1-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 100/100/5/0     Damage Control Rating 10     PPV 0
Maint Life 8.51 Years     MSP 1193    AFR 51%    IFR 0.7%    1YR 29    5YR 441    Max Repair 100 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E8 (12)    Power 80    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 705,000 Litres    Range 198.3 billion km   (382 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH20-100 (1)     Sensitivity 100     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  100m km
EM Detection Sensor EM20-100 (1)     Sensitivity 100     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  100m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (5)   5 Survey Points Per Hour


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Prospector class Geological Survey Vessel    5,000 tons     390 Crew     1397.8 BP      TCS 100  TH 200  EM 0
2000 km/s     Armour 1-26     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/12     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 0
MSP 699    Max Repair 100 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.8 (1)    Power 200    Fuel Use 8%    Signature 200    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 205,000 Litres    Range 922.5 billion km   (5338 days at full power)

Geological Survey Sensors (12)   12 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes


Important question: Do Active sensors function as passive when switched off? The research EM tech description leads me to believe this.

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Electromagnetic sensor strength per hull space of the sensor component.
EM sensors detect alien active sensor emissions and the shield output of alien ships.
They provide the 'listening' portion of active sensors

[Andrew]

No they do not

[Father Tim]

Dropped the armor, some engines, active sensors, etc. I want one ship for this, not two. Just so that I don't have to dedicate 2 of my 3 military shipyards to them.

Geo sensors and Grav sensors are the same size and cost.  This means you can design two ships that are identical except for the survey sensors and get the refit cost (from one to the other) down below the magic threshhold for building both designs in the same shipyard.

[dgibso29 (OP)]

Geo sensors and Grav sensors are the same size and cost.  This means you can design two ships that are identical except for the survey sensors and get the refit cost (from one to the other) down below the magic threshhold for building both designs in the same shipyard.

Actually, the drop-down bar for Refit/Build/Scrap/Repair eluded me until yesterday. I am constantly learning that there is ALWAYS another level of complexity.


I am a few short years from a breakthrough in engine tech; Once I attain the next generation of engines I will post more up-to-date designs for scrutiny (Namely, fighters.)

[dgibso29 (OP)]

Woah, woah, hold on.

Does a ship with missiles require the fire control onboard? Or can my fighter squadrons, for example, have all their missiles slaved to the fire control of the command fighter? If so, how?

Can I have 5 Missile stations and 1 command station in orbit of earth, with primary fire control onboard the command station only? Etc, etc.


Thanks!

[Girlinhat]

I asked the question recently as well.

Every missile tube needs to be slaved to a fire control to work, OR the missile can have its own sensors.  However, being tiny and packed atop a warhead, missile sensors are useless for distant fire, mostly used to launch a huge volley at someone, and then the extra missiles can re-target a nearby ship once you've killed the primary target.  You can "blind fire" a missile, but it doesn't work very well.

Passive and active sensors can be shared amongst ships (in fact, it's your empire-wide field of view there, so everything shares sensor coverage) but fire control is specific to a ship - in fact it's specific to your weapon.  One or more weapon can be slaved to a fire control, treating each fire control as a different volley of fire, so to speak.

[sloanjh]

Does a ship with missiles require the fire control onboard? Or can my fighter squadrons, for example, have all their missiles slaved to the fire control of the command fighter? If so, how?

Can I have 5 Missile stations and 1 command station in orbit of earth, with primary fire control onboard the command station only? Etc, etc.

Fire control must be on board, i.e. these ideas don't work for fire control.  An on-board active sensor is not required - contact data can be obtained from other platforms, so these ideas are applicable to active sensors.

John