Beam Fighter designs in the new era

[davidb86]

With an active sensor of

Q-Slave Targeter  (1)     GPS 8     Range 280k km    Resolution 5

  I do not see how they can function in the anti-missile role at all as they would not detect a missile even at 10,000 km thus never getting off a shot. In that case the space would be better used for other items and depend on the mother ship for active sensors. 

Hartlord's parasite class uses a

Active Search Sensor MR1-R1 (1)     GPS 24     Range 1.9m km    Resolution 1

  that could detect a missile at roughly 170k km which allows for 5 seconds detection if the missile speed is under 34,000 km/s - normal for ion tech missiles.

[amimai]

i dont really have any pure beam fighters anymore, but I do use fighter bombers:

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F3-B4 Beamhound class Fighter    500 tons     9 Crew     177 BP      TCS 10  TH 120  EM 0
12000 km/s     Armour 2-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3.8
Maint Life 3.11 Years     MSP 22    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 3    5YR 51    Max Repair 60 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.17 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 12   

120 EP Fighter Engine (1)    Power 120    Fuel Use 479.28%    Signature 120    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 40 000 Litres    Range 3.0 billion km   (69 hours at full power)

10cm Fighter Blaster (1)    Range 150 000km     TS: 12000 km/s     Power 3-1     RM 5    ROF 15        3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1
Compact FCS (1)    Max Range: 192 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
1C Tokamak (1)     Total Power Output 1    Armour 0    Exp 20%

SRT Mounting (4)    Missile Size 3    Hangar Reload 22.5 minutes    MF Reload 3.7 hours
Torpedo Controller (1)     Range 2.3m km    Resolution 1
T9 Fast SRT  (4)  Speed: 39 700 km/s   End: 0.8m    Range: 1.9m km   WH: 9    Size: 3    TH: 132/79/39

ECM 10and its partner in crime:

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F3-R2 Switch class Fighter    500 tons     9 Crew     177 BP      TCS 10  TH 120  EM 0
12000 km/s     Armour 2-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3.8
Maint Life 3.79 Years     MSP 22    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 2    5YR 36    Max Repair 60 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.17 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 12   

120 EP Fighter Engine (1)    Power 120    Fuel Use 479.28%    Signature 120    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 40 000 Litres    Range 3.0 billion km   (69 hours at full power)

10cm Fighter Blaster (1)    Range 150 000km     TS: 12000 km/s     Power 3-1     RM 5    ROF 15        3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1
Compact FCS (1)    Max Range: 192 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
1C Tokamak (1)     Total Power Output 1    Armour 0    Exp 20%

SR Micro (12)    Missile Size 1    Hangar Reload 7.5 minutes    MF Reload 1.2 hours
Torpedo Controller (1)     Range 2.3m km    Resolution 1
Needle SRM (12)  Speed: 39 200 km/s   End: 1.1m    Range: 2.6m km   WH: 3    Size: 1    TH: 130/78/39

ECM 10
nasty buggers, lasers provide some PD/Anti Fighter power, and torps nuke things into oblivion
lasers pick off anything that survives

I launch the T9 5 seconds later and 150km behind the needles. Quite literally a bait and switch for enemy AMS 


Something i just came up with:

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F8 Acheron class Fighter    375 tons     19 Crew     186.8 BP      TCS 7.5  TH 120  EM 0
16000 km/s     Armour 1-4     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 2
Maint Life 4.13 Years     MSP 31    AFR 11%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 3    5YR 44    Max Repair 72 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 1   

120 EP Fighter Engine (1)    Power 120    Fuel Use 479.28%    Signature 120    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 15 000 Litres    Range 1.5 billion km   (26 hours at full power)

18cm THX Thrmonuclear Laser (1)    Range 384 000km     TS: 16000 km/s     Power 8-0.25     RM 5    ROF 160        8 8 8 8 8 6 5 5 4 4
Fire Control S01 192-2500 (FTR) (1)    Max Range: 384 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
1C Tokamak (1)     Total Power Output 1    Armour 0    Exp 20%a Laser Based Bomber - would probably make a vicious fighter killer as well
18cm 2hs laser cannon XD
you could even stick a 30cm Laser in there if you were really ambitious and had a bit better tech then im willing to use

[Barkhorn]

You should be able to cut their sizes a little, especially on the F8 Acheron.  Set the deployment time of everything down to 0.1; fighters are basically never deployed more than a day.  Also remove any MSP or engineering facilities you may have added.  Last, be sure you removed the bridge.

The reason I think you may be able to save HS, is that your crews are pretty large.  I don't think I've ever had a fighter over 4 crew.

[amimai]

good point 
now this is a ship killer:

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F9 Inevitable class Heavy Fighter    500 tons     5 Crew     219.8 BP      TCS 10  TH 120  EM 0
12000 km/s     Armour 3-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 4
Maint Life 2.17 Years     MSP 27    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 8    5YR 116    Max Repair 72 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 5   

120 EP Fighter Engine (1)    Power 120    Fuel Use 479.28%    Signature 120    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 15 000 Litres    Range 1.1 billion km   (26 hours at full power)

30cm THX Thermonuclear Laser (1)    Range 384 000km     TS: 12000 km/s     Power 24-0.25     RM 5    ROF 480        24 24 24 24 24 20 17 15 13 12
Fire Control S01 192-2500 (FTR) (1)    Max Range: 384 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
1C Tokamak (1)     Total Power Output 1    Armour 0    Exp 20%

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
  i managed to pack a standard cruiser main gun into a heavy fighter 

[sneer]

hit and run design
however I found that fighters like any other units have significant order delay and they stay too long within enemy return fire
hit and run would need maybe some manual waypoint flying possibly
but I have neven been deep into fighters

[Anarade Relle]

The Eurasian Federation just finished a (panicked) well-reasoned mass-production of these fighters to replace fighter losses during a costly jump-point invasion:

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MiGG-129 Sagittarii class Fighter    500 tons     3 Crew     120 BP      TCS 10  TH 112  EM 0
11200 km/s     Armour 2-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3
Maint Life 3.49 Years     MSP 15    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 2    5YR 28    Max Repair 16 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 7   

Korolyov-Kruglov KK27 ADF (4)    Power 28    Fuel Use 240.65%    Signature 28    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 15,000 Litres    Range 2.2 billion km   (55 hours at full power)

10cm NL-29 Omicron Naval Laser (1)    Range 72,000km     TS: 11200 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 3    ROF 5        3 3 3 2 1 1 1 0 0 0
Aerospace Gun Controls Mk.1 (1)    Max Range: 72,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     86 72 58 44 31 17 3 0 0 0
NPR-125 Small Fusion Plant (1)     Total Power Output 3    Armour 0    Exp 5%

J-126 Fighter Search Radar (1)     GPS 952     Range 8.0m km    Resolution 170
Unfortunately over thirty were built before it realized that the design used the antiquated gun controls of the Federation's first set of fighter-craft. A Sagittarii-B variant was subsequently designed with improved fire controls to actually take advantage of the NL-29's 90,000KM range.

The Sagittarii replaced the MiGG-127. The MiGG-127 was intended to close to point-blank range to make use of it's plasma cannonade; until then it's long range (out-stripping available railguns) fire would serve to batter down enemy armor or shields.  However the 127 design took heavy losses during the third invasion of Anarion where it was found that the Anarioi ships were able to maneuver themselves just enough that it was rare for the MiGG-127 squadrons to close to point-blank leading to the development of the laser-armed MiGG-129.

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MiGG-127 class Fighter    475 tons     3 Crew     91.6 BP      TCS 9.5  TH 84  EM 0
8842 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 4
Maint Life 2.28 Years     MSP 12    AFR 18%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 3    5YR 47    Max Repair 42 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 7   

Soloview D-33 AED (1)    Power 84    Fuel Use 235.79%    Signature 84    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 1.6 billion km   (50 hours at full power)

15cm C3 Plasma Carronade (1)    Range 60,000km     TS: 8842 km/s     Power 6-3     RM 1    ROF 10        6 3 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
Aerospace Gun Controls Mk.1 (1)    Max Range: 72,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     86 72 58 44 31 17 3 0 0 0
AF Power Plant 11 (1)     Total Power Output 3.15    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Generally with these I decided to make big 500-ton fighters. The 127 was basically "I want to make a plasma cannonade design!" and it worked well enough; I just never managed to see them/get them at point-blank range for any non-heavily damaged ships to take advantage of a bunch of power-6 blasts.

[Barkhorn]

good point 
now this is a ship killer:

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F9 Inevitable class Heavy Fighter    500 tons     5 Crew     219.8 BP      TCS 10  TH 120  EM 0
12000 km/s     Armour 3-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 4
Maint Life 2.17 Years     MSP 27    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 8    5YR 116    Max Repair 72 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 5   

120 EP Fighter Engine (1)    Power 120    Fuel Use 479.28%    Signature 120    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 15 000 Litres    Range 1.1 billion km   (26 hours at full power)

30cm THX Thermonuclear Laser (1)    Range 384 000km     TS: 12000 km/s     Power 24-0.25     RM 5    ROF 480        24 24 24 24 24 20 17 15 13 12
Fire Control S01 192-2500 (FTR) (1)    Max Range: 384 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
1C Tokamak (1)     Total Power Output 1    Armour 0    Exp 20%

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
  i managed to pack a standard cruiser main gun into a heavy fighter 

That's a wicked laser, but the rate of fire is pretty horrible.  You only get to fire once every 8 minutes.  It might be worth it to trim the size a little to fit a bigger reactor in.  Not saying it has to be done though.  There's definitely a little wow factor in having a 30cm laser on a fighter.  Just be aware that if your squadron is only going to survive long enough to get one volley off against anyone with long enough range to shoot back.  If you don't try to squeeze in a bigger reactor, at least have that one use the highest level reactor boost tech you have.  That should help at least a little with the really bad ROF.  The increased risk of explosion doesn't even really matter.  Anything that penetrates your armor is going to kill you anyways, it doesn't really matter if that's direct weapon damage or the reactor going critical.

[amimai]

the reactor is already 0,1HS in size, i cant make it any smaller

but I was going more for 1 hit kill penetration power, a group of these probably wont need to take a second shot once they got in range 

I would guess at magneto-plasma level tech that thin would take 8-10% of a ships HTK each shot, and a fighter wing can have a lot of these

also be aware that I use pure magneto-plasma era tech this fighter, on max level looks far more nasty (ROF 100, 7-5 armor) of course at that level 30 layer armor is standard, while at magneto-plasma 9-10 layers is considered heavy

[Barkhorn]

I didn't mean trim the reactor size, I meant trim the laser size.  If you dedicate more HS to the reactor(s), your laser will be able to fire a lot faster.

These fighters will be pretty good against anything slow enough to be really easy to hit.  Other fighters or FAC's though will kick their asses, which actually might be an issue now that NPR's can make fighters.  It's a pretty neat design though.  They should out-range most beam PD, which is probably the biggest threat to beam fighters.

[AL]

While it is true that providing insufficient power for energy weapons will reduce their rate of fire, adding more energy generation than the consumption of the weapon(s) will not increase the rate of fire. The energy consumption of the laser in that F9 fighter design is only 0.25 due to miniturisation tech being used, so that single 1 power-output reactor is more than enough.

[Iranon]

I've played around with large lasers and reduced size lasers and large reduced-size lasers... in the end I found 15cm the best size for almost anything.

They are compact and scalable, they can plink things to death from long range (range typically limited by fire control), with decent RoF they are good area defence weapons, unless we have very high capacitor tech their damage-per-second-per-ton is very competitive at all ranges.

[Viridia]

What Barkhorn seemed to be suggesting was in fact the downsizing from a 30cm laser to something smaller. You'll be faster, tracking (or at least the hit-rate) will be better, I assume, and thanks to being smaller you can fit more on.

[sneer]

decision on size of beam is purely between piercing ability of oversized ones and added PD ability of smaller ones
both designs can deliver substancial damage over time and both suffer same problems when enemy is more numerous ( number of fc it can use against fighters )
oversized ones looks good for hit and run till capacitor is ready again but orders have significant delay in execution and I found it difficult to avoid

[iceball3]

decision on size of beam is purely between piercing ability of oversized ones and added PD ability of smaller ones
both designs can deliver substancial damage over time and both suffer same problems when enemy is more numerous ( number of fc it can use against fighters )
oversized ones looks good for hit and run till capacitor is ready again but orders have significant delay in execution and I found it difficult to avoid

Did you make sure they had task force training done?

[sneer]

I dont have such an extensive experiance in carrier ops
I found other means better suited to my playstyle
example is from my old game and honestly I dont remember this
I found force projection made by beam fighters a bit too fragile and conditional in use