Posted by: Rince Wind
« on: October 24, 2023, 04:29:07 AM »Easiest way to see it is to design the laser, then lower the capacitator to see if it changes the ROF. If it doesn't stick with the lower capacitor rating.
I don't quite understand you, but what I do understand makes me think I'm putting WAY too many power plants on my beam ships.
Feel free to specify what is confusing for you, I'm sure we can clear it up!
I don't quite understand you, but what I do understand makes me think I'm putting WAY too many power plants on my beam ships.
I don't quite understand you, but what I do understand makes me think I'm putting WAY too many power plants on my beam ships.
Astaroth Kinetics AK-20 Weapons Battery (4x4) Range 160,000km TS: 4,000 km/s Power 12-4 RM 40,000 km ROF 15
Astaroth Kinetics AK-10 Light Weapon Battery (6x4) Range 40,000km TS: 4,000 km/s Power 3-3 RM 40,000 km ROF 5
31.250cm C5 Soft X-ray Laser (1) Range 384,000km TS: 6,667 km/s Power 26-5 RM 60,000 km ROF 30
Twin 15.0cm C5 Soft X-ray Laser Turret (2x2) Range 360,000km TS: 20000 km/s Power 12-10 RM 60,000 km ROF 10
Having come to this game from Starfire (and David Weber novels), it is weird to me to not mount Point Defense of some kind on most ship classes, but I can certainly take advice and go in a different direction. Gauss turrets are huge.
I was hoping medium sized laser turrets could double as antiship and antimissile weapons in sufficient numbers but I can ditch them in favor of just straight lasers for anti-ship purposes and Gauss-equipped PD ships.
Well... I did not exactly say you don't need a fleet... the point being that small ships with low range is far quicker and easier to build in masse and is perfectly fine for defending until you can get a larger fleet that is more offensive. Large ships is mainly needed when you want to take the fight to the enemy. Until you meet someone all you need is smaller ships in modest numbers and some component lying around so you quickly can assemble more if you really need them fast.
So... I did not mean you should not have a fleet. Just one tailored for defending your territory thus smaller ships are the better more efficient option. I simply meant there is no real need for a big space superiority navy before you meet someone, that is quite expensive. That does not mean you can't prepare for it when you need it.
It takes allot of efforts both in terms of research and resources to build proper offensive forces, not to mention ground invasion fleets to support them.
I guess it depends how you define "large" and "small". To me, "small" ships are FACs or corvette sizes in the ~3,000 ton range, which are too small to be proper warships IMO... they are too easily blown up by a few shots and are not efficient enough to have even the fairly short range needed for a starter fleet without significant sacrifices elsewhere, among other issues. Anything else I usually consider "large" in the sense of not-small, so 10,000 or 15,000 tons which I think is reasonable for a starting force of DEs and CLs for instance. Of course these are general-purpose ships with ample passive and active defenses, not offensive juggernauts.
I will say there is also some metagaming which is possible in that a player can design their early fleet to combat spoiler races if they are not too concerned about roleplay.
Just out of curiosity, why does the tonnage need to be a round number? What's the advantage? And isn't that kind of annoying to achieve (it must take a lot of trial and error to find the components that end in a zero).
Well... I did not exactly say you don't need a fleet... the point being that small ships with low range is far quicker and easier to build in masse and is perfectly fine for defending until you can get a larger fleet that is more offensive. Large ships is mainly needed when you want to take the fight to the enemy. Until you meet someone all you need is smaller ships in modest numbers and some component lying around so you quickly can assemble more if you really need them fast.
So... I did not mean you should not have a fleet. Just one tailored for defending your territory thus smaller ships are the better more efficient option. I simply meant there is no real need for a big space superiority navy before you meet someone, that is quite expensive. That does not mean you can't prepare for it when you need it.
It takes allot of efforts both in terms of research and resources to build proper offensive forces, not to mention ground invasion fleets to support them.
QuoteThere is usually not even a need for large combat ships unless you have a known enemy to combat. Once you have an enemy you need to build the ship around what you know about them.
This is the only part I really disagree with. Maybe this depends on your game settings, but under the conditions most players use which is playing against NPRs with more or less default settings, it is important to have a combat fleet of decent size and capability or else you may find yourself overrun by a hostile NPR before you can build a sufficient fleet, or at the least suffering significant losses in territory, population, installations, etc. if you have expanded beyond Sol very much. I can understand this for roleplay, many players like the idea of a race that doesn't build a navy until the first encounter with hostile aliens, but from the perspective of what is "best" in gameplay terms I think having a decent number of capable warships is essential. Note that typical NPR battlefleets will mass 200-300k tons, so a small garrison of a single cruiser or FAC squadron will not be enough to stop a determined NPR offensive unless you have some method to exploit the NPR, which I at least think is generally not a fun way to play the game.
That said, it's true that until you have good intelligence you can be fairly conservative or minimal with your designs. If I'm playing "optimally", I will usually start with a single main weapon type and possibly a secondary point defense weapon (Gauss or 10cm Railguns) and have a larger offensive ship with smaller PD-focused escort ships (plus jump-capable versions as necessary), and usually a third hull type which is a dedicated scouting/sensor platform. A decently large fleet of this composition will be enough to at least credibly oppose most NPRs one could encounter, and you can work more specialist ships or new weapon types into the fleet over time while the first generation is doing its job.
Of course if you play with multiple player races, then the rules can change, but since most players play against NPRs and the NPRs do not follow house rules, I think in general one should plan to build warships prior to contact unless roleplay dictates otherwise.