Anti-Pirate FAC

[gpt3 (OP)]

A great surprise of the Trans-Newtonian age was been the advent of piracy. While many pre-TN economists have argued that interstellar piracy is unprofitable, regular encounters with swarms of "raiders" and "slavers" have belied such claims.

One particularly effective response to such attacks was pioneered by the colonists of Lalande 21185. There, the settlers repurposed a basic naval yard to build a small craft capable of harassing the harassers.

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Laserstar class Gunship      1,000 tons       22 Crew       225.7 BP       TCS 20    TH 146    EM 30
7285 km/s      Armour 3-8       Shields 1-300       HTK 8      Sensors 2/2/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 5
Maint Life 12.40 Years     MSP 450    AFR 16%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 5    5YR 81    Max Repair 72.8 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Morale Check Required   

Kabede & Keya Magneto-plasma Drive  EP145.60 (1)    Power 145.6    Fuel Use 161.22%    Signature 145.6    Explosion 13%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 5.6 billion km (8 days at full power)
Brehane Defence Industries Gamma S1 / R300 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 300 seconds (0 per second)

Veloso Ordnance 22.50cm C1 Far Ultraviolet Laser (1)    Range 320,000km     TS: 7,285 km/s     Power 13-1     RM 50,000 km    ROF 65       
Chovan Electronics Industries Beam Fire Control R320-TS5000 (SW) (1)     Max Range: 320,000 km   TS: 5,000 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Lass-Hatchett Tokamak Fusion Reactor R1-PB40 (1)     Total Power Output 1    Exp 20%

Chovan Electronics Industries Active Search Sensor AS10-R10 (1)     GPS 56     Range 10.8m km    Resolution 10
Treptow-Vivanco EM Sensor EM0.2-2.2 (1)     Sensitivity 2.2     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11.7m km
Treptow-Vivanco Thermal Sensor TH0.2-2.2 (1)     Sensitivity 2.2     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11.7m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a FAC for auto-assignment purposes

The "Laserstar" has proven to be remarkably effective: over the course of the year 2083, a squad of 7 gunships led by LCDR Sita Sasanapuri was able to kite, cripple, and destroy over 200,000 tons of pirate warships while sustaining only minor armour damage.

Despite this performance, there exist some controversies with this design that have prevented wider adoption across the Colonies:

• The admiralty's auditors have questioned the utility of shield generators on such a small ship. Representatives from Brehane Defence Industries have countered that their shields have saved numerous lives that would have otherwise been lost due to "pilot error".
• Lobbyists from Zereyacob Weapon Systems have argued that a particle beam projector would be more effective for kiting. In response, Veloso Ordnance released a holo pointing out that compact lasers are far more effective than particle beams at piercing armour. ZWS then replied with an advertisement for their new "particle lance" technology.
• Chovan Electronics is currently under investigation due to repeated "manufacturing defects" in their fire controls' tracking systems.

[nuclearslurpee]

Despite this performance, there exist some controversies with this design that have prevented wider adoption across the Colonies:

• The admiralty's auditors have questioned the utility of shield generators on such a small ship. Representatives from Brehane Defence Industries have countered that their shields have saved numerous lives that would have otherwise been lost due to "pilot error".

That is indeed quite probably the worst shield generator I've ever seen. What were the designers thinking??

Otherwise it is a perfectly good design and precisely crafted to counter the pirate forces that might be encountered, although one does worry about how they could be deployed to cover a vast empire with such a short range.

[d.rodin]

Do it really need passive sensors. I mean this is system defence / anti-pirate ship, they are scrambled when enemy is already detected by DST's or other ships.
And Magneto-Plasma FAC about 8km/s speed. It is very slow.

[CharonJr]

Based on the speed I have seen from my pirates (and the FACs FC speed) trading the passive sensors and smaller engines for better shields might be an option.

Personally I just keep the range and use the best FC/guns available while using no shields.

[Gabethebaldandbold]

yeah those shields really arent doing anything but cost you maintenance. I dont really bother untill I can get 20-30 strength shields, and usually only start using them on big ships where I can put ginormous shields, and go for bigger numbers. otherwise armour does it better

[dsedrez]

I'm trying a new approach in a game, using Carracks (a commercial auxiliary carrier the side and speed of a freighter with space for 10k+ parasites), each carrying a small group of missile boats and a couple or so beam frigates (fast, short ranged but above the 1k size of your FACS) to defend the travel routes. The goal is not so much to ambush any spoiler attacker but to let the patrol ships don't have to worry with fuel or endurance.

[Laurence]

I'm trying a new approach in a game, using Carracks (a commercial auxiliary carrier the side and speed of a freighter with space for 10k+ parasites), each carrying a small group of missile boats and a couple or so beam frigates (fast, short ranged but above the 1k size of your FACS) to defend the travel routes. The goal is not so much to ambush any spoiler attacker but to let the patrol ships don't have to worry with fuel or endurance.

Hey, that sounds interesting.  Could you post the design you are running with?

[Vandermeer]

I'm trying a new approach in a game, using Carracks (a commercial auxiliary carrier the side and speed of a freighter with space for 10k+ parasites), each carrying a small group of missile boats and a couple or so beam frigates (fast, short ranged but above the 1k size of your FACS) to defend the travel routes. The goal is not so much to ambush any spoiler attacker but to let the patrol ships don't have to worry with fuel or endurance.

It sounds good for saving fuel, but maintenance clock will still go up, including even having maintenance failures as usual. I have tested this thoroughly and had to come to the conclusion that commercial hangars are essentially just multi-vessel-tractor beams with a weight limit.
In addition there is the weird negative behavior that the military ships parked inside will even degrade when orbiting a proper maintenance capable colony, ...and that even though they still consume full MSP there, but do so without getting anything in return. That is in case you may have thought that you could remedy this by bringing maintenance facilities too. They wouldn't work on the fly anyway, but even while stopping you would have to unload all parasites first, or the clocks will still go up.
(Btw. I would consider it pretty amazing if this was otherwise possible. A military fleet that only ever degrades when moving due to a huge civil carrier mothership with maintenance base facilities? One 1st class fare please. )

[nuclearslurpee]

It sounds good for saving fuel, but maintenance clock will still go up, including even having maintenance failures as usual. I have tested this thoroughly and had to come to the conclusion that commercial hangars are essentially just multi-vessel-tractor beams with a weight limit.

Assuming it still works this way, I believe the solution is to put both Maintenance Modules and Commercial Hangars on the ship, so any fighters can be maintained from the ship's MSP stores. Obviously you lose capacity (potentially more than 80% at base tech levels) but you gain endurance which is often all you need to keep a squadron on-station to deter any would-be bandits.

Alternatively you could build these as stations with planetary industry and tug them into place, thus working around the shipyard size limit for the most part, if any.

[Vandermeer]

It sounds good for saving fuel, but maintenance clock will still go up, including even having maintenance failures as usual. I have tested this thoroughly and had to come to the conclusion that commercial hangars are essentially just multi-vessel-tractor beams with a weight limit.

Assuming it still works this way, I believe the solution is to put both Maintenance Modules and Commercial Hangars on the ship, so any fighters can be maintained from the ship's MSP stores.

Well, as I mentioned, even a fully equipped colony doesn't prevent the maintenance clock from going up in civil hangars despite those ships consuming all the MSP from the ground that they would also take if they were floating free in orbit. Though I have not checked this with maintenance modules, I would say that is strong indication that the issue lies with the hangars, so in short: Military ships in hangars have their maintenance clock going up. Always.

[gpt3 (OP)]

It sounds good for saving fuel, but maintenance clock will still go up, including even having maintenance failures as usual. I have tested this thoroughly and had to come to the conclusion that commercial hangars are essentially just multi-vessel-tractor beams with a weight limit.

Assuming it still works this way, I believe the solution is to put both Maintenance Modules and Commercial Hangars on the ship, so any fighters can be maintained from the ship's MSP stores.

Well, as I mentioned, even a fully equipped colony doesn't prevent the maintenance clock from going up in civil hangars despite those ships consuming all the MSP from the ground that they would also take if they were floating free in orbit. Though I have not checked this with maintenance modules, I would say that is strong indication that the issue lies with the hangars, so in short: Military ships in hangars have their maintenance clock going up. Always.

There may be something wrong with maintenance installations, but I don't think that maintenance modules are bugged.

• I used SM mode to spawn two of the below commercial carriers.
• I loaded each of the carriers with one of my FACs
• I had one carrier orbit around Venus (where I have a CMC) and the other orbit around Apophis (where I don't have a colony).
• I then waited for ~90 days.

As far as I can tell, the deployment and maintenance clocks for both FACs are both zero.

CV-AUX-02 Test 001  (Test class Auxiliary Carrier)      26,778 tons       147 Crew       548.7 BP       TCS 536    TH 1,120    EM 0
2091 km/s      Armour 1-79       Shields 0-0       HTK 57      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 2,512    Max Repair 100 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 1,000 tons     
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 20   
Maintenance Modules: 1 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 2,000 tons

Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive  EP160.00 (7)    Power 1120    Fuel Use 1.09%    Signature 160    Explosion 2%
Fuel Capacity 5,250,000 Litres    Range 3,226.1 billion km (17857 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Maintenance Ship for auto-assignment purposes

[nuclearslurpee]

Installations might not work since a fighter docked aboard a mothership is not technically "at" the colony. Maybe if we are lucky Steve can clarify.

[Vandermeer]

There may be something wrong with maintenance installations, but I don't think that maintenance modules are bugged.

• I used SM mode to spawn two of the below commercial carriers.
• I loaded each of the carriers with one of my FACs
• I had one carrier orbit around Venus (where I have a CMC) and the other orbit around Apophis (where I don't have a colony).
• I then waited for ~90 days.

As far as I can tell, the deployment and maintenance clocks for both FACs are both zero.

CV-AUX-02 Test 001  (Test class Auxiliary Carrier)      26,778 tons       147 Crew       548.7 BP       TCS 536    TH 1,120    EM 0
2091 km/s      Armour 1-79       Shields 0-0       HTK 57      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 2,512    Max Repair 100 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 1,000 tons     
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 20   
Maintenance Modules: 1 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 2,000 tons

Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive  EP160.00 (7)    Power 1120    Fuel Use 1.09%    Signature 160    Explosion 2%
Fuel Capacity 5,250,000 Litres    Range 3,226.1 billion km (17857 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Maintenance Ship for auto-assignment purposes

That is good information. My tests were done one version before 2.0, so I guess it has been fixed. Actually not surprising that there would be another look at the issue given how deep space stations advanced with version 2 onwards, so thank you.
I am actually going to use that principle too, since this really seems like the future of warfare here. You could finally use pf1.0+ engines on every ship for example, since the largest consumer, -between battle travel time-, would be of no issue anymore. This kind of makes the point of fighters obsolete to some degree if you think about it, though I guess stealth and even faster engines might still have worth.

Installations might not work since a fighter docked aboard a mothership is not technically "at" the colony. Maybe if we are lucky Steve can clarify.

Oh, right, that could also be the case. Though it seems to be 'at the colony' enough to be fed delicious MSP meals still.

[Agraelgrimm]

Wait, are you guys really having problems with pirates or is this for RP flavour?
And this isnt a trolling post. Do we have pirates now?! Wt*?!
I haven't seen a single one so far.

[captainwolfer]

Wait, are you guys really having problems with pirates or is this for RP flavour?
And this isnt a trolling post. Do we have pirates now?! Wt*?!
I haven't seen a single one so far.

They are called Aether raiders. Do you have them enabled?