3 Weapon Doctrines

[liveware (OP)]

Thanks for everyone's input, this thread has given me some good reading material and design ideas. After thinking things over, I've decided to remove carronades from the railgun faction and focus solely on railguns (with some missile support for flavor). I worked up some preliminary ship designs for the railgun faction.

All factions will be starting with nuclear thermal engine technology and most likely at least duranium armor as ships with less advanced engines and armor are... really bad.

First up are some frigate designs. These ships will be the 'standard' fleet ships, intended to provide solid PD and DPS. For the most part, 10cm railguns are provided for point defence and larger 25cm railguns are provided to enhance armour penetration capability. Generally, a frigate squadron will consist of at least 1 Longsword and 3 Broadswords. The Longsword provides quite long range sensor coverage for the rest of the squadron. Later on, once jump drives are developed, one Broadsword will be replaced by a jump frigate for jump point exploration and/or for transits into known hostile systems. Additionally, a Broadsword may be replaced by a Bastion in a squadron if missile strike capability (or other carrier support functions) are required for a particular mission. Multiple squadrons will be grouped together to form larger fleets and will be supported by larger fleet carriers and cruisers (once developed).

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Broadsword class Frigate (P)      7,500 tons       235 Crew       789.6 BP       TCS 150    TH 400    EM 0
2666 km/s      Armour 3-34       Shields 0-0       HTK 62      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 7      PPV 28
Maint Life 4.97 Years     MSP 460    AFR 64%    IFR 0.9%    1YR 31    5YR 464    Max Repair 100.00 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 2   BRG   AUX   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Akthenion Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP200.00 (2)    Power 400.0    Fuel Use 204.80%    Signature 200.00    Explosion 16%
Fuel Capacity 860,000 Litres    Range 10.1 billion km (43 days at full power)

Akthenion 25cm Railgun V30/C3 (2x4)    Range 128,000km     TS: 4,000 km/s     Power 15-3     RM 30,000 km    ROF 25       
Akthenion 10cm Railgun V30/C3 (4x4)    Range 30,000km     TS: 4,000 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 30,000 km    ROF 5       
Akthenion Beam Fire Control R128-TS4000 (2)     Max Range: 128,000 km   TS: 4,000 km/s     92 84 77 69 61 53 45 38 30 22
Akthenion Pressurised Water Reactor R9-PB10 (2)     Total Power Output 18    Exp 7%

Akthenion Active Search Sensor AS1-R1 (1)     GPS 1     Range 1.3m km    MCR 113.5k km    Resolution 1
Akthenion EM Sensor EM0.1-0.5 (1)     Sensitivity 0.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5.6m km
Akthenion Thermal Sensor TH0.1-0.5 (1)     Sensitivity 0.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5.6m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Longsword class Frigate Leader (P)      7,500 tons       202 Crew       747.4 BP       TCS 150    TH 400    EM 0
2666 km/s      Armour 3-34       Shields 0-0       HTK 55      Sensors 50/50/0/0      DCR 6      PPV 8
Maint Life 5.56 Years     MSP 733    AFR 75%    IFR 1.0%    1YR 40    5YR 600    Max Repair 100.00 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 250 tons     
Commander    Control Rating 2   BRG   AUX   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Flight Crew Berths 20    Morale Check Required   

Akthenion Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP200.00 (2)    Power 400.0    Fuel Use 204.80%    Signature 200.00    Explosion 16%
Fuel Capacity 850,000 Litres    Range 10 billion km (43 days at full power)

Akthenion 25cm Railgun V30/C3 (1x4)    Range 128,000km     TS: 4,000 km/s     Power 15-3     RM 30,000 km    ROF 25       
Akthenion Beam Fire Control R128-TS4000 (1)     Max Range: 128,000 km   TS: 4,000 km/s     92 84 77 69 61 53 45 38 30 22
Akthenion Pressurised Water Reactor R3 (1)     Total Power Output 3    Exp 5%

Akthenion Active Search Sensor AS3-R1 (1)     GPS 10     Range 4m km    MCR 359k km    Resolution 1
Akthenion Thermal Sensor TH10-50 (1)     Sensitivity 50     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  55.9m km
Akthenion EM Sensor EM10-50 (1)     Sensitivity 50     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  55.9m km

Strike Group
2x Spyglass Scout   Speed: 4206 km/s    Size: 2.5

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Bastion class Carrier (P)      7,500 tons       148 Crew       720.1 BP       TCS 150    TH 400    EM 0
2666 km/s      Armour 2-34       Shields 0-0       HTK 51      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 6      PPV 0
Maint Life 4.53 Years     MSP 600    AFR 75%    IFR 1.0%    1YR 47    5YR 712    Max Repair 100.00 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 1,500 tons     Magazine 225   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Flight Crew Berths 60    Morale Check Required   

Akthenion Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP200.00 (2)    Power 400.0    Fuel Use 204.80%    Signature 200.00    Explosion 16%
Fuel Capacity 871,000 Litres    Range 10.2 billion km (44 days at full power)

S3M1 SRM (75)    Speed: 4,933 km/s    End: 0.1m     Range: 0m km    WH: 4    Size: 3    TH: 16/9/4

Akthenion Active Search Sensor AS1-R1 (1)     GPS 1     Range 1.3m km    MCR 113.5k km    Resolution 1
Akthenion EM Sensor EM0.1-0.5 (1)     Sensitivity 0.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5.6m km
Akthenion Thermal Sensor TH0.1-0.5 (1)     Sensitivity 0.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5.6m km

Strike Group
12x Lance Strike Bomber   Speed: 3605 km/s    Size: 2.5

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Spyglass class Scout (P)      125 tons       2 Crew       10.7 BP       TCS 2    TH 11    EM 0
4206 km/s      Armour 1-2       Shields 0-0       HTK 1      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 24%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 0    5YR 7    Max Repair 5.25 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 days    Morale Check Required   

Akthenion Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP10.50 (1)    Power 10.5    Fuel Use 736.49%    Signature 10.5    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 2 billion km (5 days at full power)

Akthenion Active Search Sensor AS1-R1 (1)     GPS 1     Range 1.3m km    MCR 113.5k km    Resolution 1
Akthenion EM Sensor EM0.1-0.5 (1)     Sensitivity 0.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5.6m km
Akthenion Thermal Sensor TH0.1-0.5 (1)     Sensitivity 0.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5.6m km

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction


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Lance class Strike Bomber (P)      125 tons       2 Crew       11.2 BP       TCS 2    TH 9    EM 0
3605 km/s      Armour 1-2       Shields 0-0       HTK 1      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 0.45
Maint Life 8.47 Years     MSP 20    AFR 25%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 0    5YR 7    Max Repair 5 MSP
Magazine 3   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Akthenion Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP9.00 (1)    Power 9    Fuel Use 795.50%    Signature 9    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 5,000 Litres    Range 0.91 billion km (69 hours at full power)

Akthenion Size 3.0 Box Launcher (1)     Missile Size: 3    Hangar Reload 86 minutes    MF Reload 14 hours
Akthenion Missile Fire Control FC2-R1 (1)     Range 2.5m km    Resolution 1
S3M1 SRM (1)    Speed: 4,933 km/s    End: 0.1m     Range: 0m km    WH: 4    Size: 3    TH: 16/9/4

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction

Additionally, the Dagger class corvette was designed to provided rudimentary planetary point defence to colonies. Lacking the deployment time and fuel endurance of the larger frigates, the Dagger class maintains a strong array of point defence railguns as well as a single larger 25cm12cm railgun for engaging enemy ships that stray too close to a colony.

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Dagger class Corvette (P)      3,750 tons       118 Crew       395.9 BP       TCS 75    TH 200    EM 0
2666 km/s      Armour 3-21       Shields 0-0       HTK 23      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 2      PPV 14
Maint Life 5.59 Years     MSP 271    AFR 56%    IFR 0.8%    1YR 15    5YR 219    Max Repair 50.00 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 2   BRG   AUX   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Morale Check Required   

Akthenion Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP100.00 (2)    Power 200.0    Fuel Use 289.63%    Signature 100.00    Explosion 16%
Fuel Capacity 301,000 Litres    Range 5 billion km (21 days at full power)

Akthenion 12cm Railgun V30/C3 (1x4)    Range 60,000km     TS: 4,000 km/s     Power 6-3     RM 30,000 km    ROF 10       
Akthenion 10cm Railgun V30/C3 (3x4)    Range 30,000km     TS: 4,000 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 30,000 km    ROF 5       
Akthenion Beam Fire Control R128-TS4000 (1)     Max Range: 128,000 km   TS: 4,000 km/s     92 84 77 69 61 53 45 38 30 22
Akthenion Pressurised Water Reactor R6-PB20 (2)     Total Power Output 12    Exp 10%

Akthenion Active Search Sensor AS1-R1 (1)     GPS 1     Range 1.3m km    MCR 113.5k km    Resolution 1
Akthenion EM Sensor EM0.1-0.5 (1)     Sensitivity 0.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5.6m km
Akthenion Thermal Sensor TH0.1-0.5 (1)     Sensitivity 0.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5.6m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

With a fleet range of only about 10b km for the frigates and 5b km for the corvettes, these ships will require refueling for longer missions (though the corvettes have sufficient range to reach all lagrange points in the custom starting trinary star system I made for this game). To support long range missions, the Resilience class support vessel has been developed:

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Resilience class Fleet Support Vessel (P)      20,000 tons       220 Crew       554 BP       TCS 400    TH 400    EM 0
1000 km/s      Armour 2-65       Shields 0-0       HTK 51      Sensors 5/5/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 4,017    Max Repair 25.00 MSP
Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 4   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   

Akthenion Commercial Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP100.0 (4)    Power 400.0    Fuel Use 8.84%    Signature 100.0    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 5,289,000 Litres    Range 538.5 billion km (6233 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 105 hours

Akthenion Active Search Sensor AS3-R1 (1)     GPS 10     Range 4m km    MCR 359k km    Resolution 1
Akthenion EM Sensor EM1.0-5.0 (1)     Sensitivity 5.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  17.7m km
Akthenion Thermal Sensor TH1.0-5.0 (1)     Sensitivity 5.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  17.7m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

The Resilience is capable of refueling and resupplying up to four ships simultaneously while underway, which will allow for it operate with standard sized frigate squadrons. Not intended for combat operations, this ship class is equipped with high fuel efficiency engines which reduce the ship's speed considerably. However, due to the reduced maintenance costs this is considered acceptable. Additionally, this ship class is provided with 2 layers of armor in order to provide some small amount of protection should it's fleet be ambushed.

[nuclearslurpee]

The railgun ships look fairly solid. My only major complaint would be that you've gone up the tech tree to 25 cm railguns, which by the way are quite a ways up compared to NTE and duranium armor, but you've not gone very far up in fire control to match this. Your BFCs don't even match the 25 cm railgun range at 128k km which means you have 0% accuracy at a quite reduced maximum range. I would drop down to 20 cm (I think this would be the 120k or 160k range mark depending on how you divvy up your techs) and use those RPs to gain a level or two in BC tech to gain some range past the weapon range so you can fire accurately at longer range - railguns in particular need this as they already struggle for range against lasers, PBs, etc.

I dislike the scout fighter design. On one hand, for recon purposes I'm not sure you need so much speed so maybe that tonnage could be better used. Where? On the other hand, the sensors you have are very weak at only 0.1 HS each which will make it difficult to spot or shadow enemy vessels without being spotted yourself. My standard recon fighter is 250 tons with 1 HS thermal and EM sensors, if you want to keep the 125 ton size you could either have 0.5 HS sensors (even a tick smaller would probably be fine, at 0.4 HS you have double the range of the 0.1 HS sensors) or have two pairs scout classes with one EM and one thermal between them. I would probably prefer the latter here as the detection range really does make a difference. The stronger sensor lets you approach an enemy fleet without being spotted and detect low signatures - notably thermal signatures from smaller ships in a fleet at rest which are not running their actives.

[Zap0]

My scout ship philosophy is that for smaller a ship you need less speed, as the vessel is less likely to be detected. Lower speed helps reduce thermal signature further, and if it gets spotted a small ship is much more readily replacable. There's definitely a place for fast, short-ranged spotters, like your bombers will need.

I'm a bit confuzzled by the bomber. First, I'm not sure about it's tonnage efficiency, I can fit 10 size 3 box launchers in a 500 ton fighter, that would suggest you should be able to fit at least 2. But what's up with the missiles? You have a short-range fire control, which is a fine decision and all, but the missiles show as 0.1 minutes endurance and 0m range. Their speed is also really bad, even for NTE, but the killer is the lack of engine boost technology. Oh well, missiles are much easier to replace than ships and fighters as tech progresses.

[liveware (OP)]

The scouts would probably benefit from using smaller engines and larger sensors. A 250 ton scout might be better also. Originally I had only a 125 ton boat bay on the frigate leader so I was aiming for a smaller displacement.

The missiles are probably horrible. They were designed using the most basic of missile tech and use conventional warheads. The size 3 missile design is below:

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Missile Size: 3.0000 MSP  (7.50000 Tons)     Warhead: 4    Radiation Damage: 4    Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 4,933 km/s     Fuel: 1     Flight Time: 7.3 seconds     Range: 36,013 km
Cost Per Missile: 1.37384     Development Cost: 137
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 49.3%   3k km/s 16.4%   5k km/s 9.9%   10k km/s 4.9%

Materials Required
Tritanium  1
Gallicite  0.37384
Fuel:  1

These are intended to be fast to avoid PD fire and improve chance to hit. Probably could trade some speed for agility and fuel but I want to design the other faction's fleets first so I have a better idea as to what a reasonable target speed should be.

[liveware (OP)]

I think I like this scout design better:

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Spyglass class Scout (P)      250 tons       7 Crew       25.1 BP       TCS 5    TH 15    EM 0
3011 km/s      Armour 1-3       Shields 0-0       HTK 1      Sensors 4/4/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 49%    IFR 0.7%    1YR 1    5YR 22    Max Repair 7.50 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 days    Morale Check Required   

Akthenion Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP15.00 (1)    Power 15.0    Fuel Use 1460.59%    Signature 15.00    Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 29,000 Litres    Range 1.4 billion km (5 days at full power)

Akthenion Active Search Sensor AS1-R1 (1)     GPS 1     Range 1.3m km    MCR 113.5k km    Resolution 1
Akthenion Thermal Sensor TH0.9-4.5 (1)     Sensitivity 4.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  16.8m km
Akthenion EM Sensor EM0.9-4.5 (1)     Sensitivity 4.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  16.8m km

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction

If I did my math right, this should be able to detect one of my Longswords from outside of the Longsword's detection range. Probably worth adding some longer range secondary actives to the Longsword to check for scouts like this...

[liveware (OP)]

The Lance needed improvements, here is a better version:

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Lance class Strike Bomber (P)      100 tons       1 Crew       11.2 BP       TCS 2    TH 7    EM 0
3500 km/s      Armour 1-1       Shields 0-0       HTK 1      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 0.45
Maint Life 11.28 Years     MSP 20    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 0    5YR 4    Max Repair 5 MSP
Magazine 3   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Akthenion Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP7.00 (1)    Power 7.0    Fuel Use 1432.35%    Signature 7.00    Explosion 17%
Fuel Capacity 4,000 Litres    Range 0.5 billion km (39 hours at full power)

Akthenion Size 3.0 Box Launcher (1)     Missile Size: 3    Hangar Reload 86 minutes    MF Reload 14 hours
Akthenion Missile Fire Control FC5-R8 (1)     Range 5m km    Resolution 8
S3M3 SRM (1)    Speed: 4,000 km/s    End: 63.8m     Range: 15.3m km    WH: 4    Size: 3.00    TH: 13/8/4

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction

The new Lance can hit a 2666 km/s target from beyond 5m km range, which should allow stealth strikes against targets similar to the Longsword class. Additionally, it has an effective range of about 117m km against targets moving at 2666 km/s, so it should allow the Bastion to remain outside of detection range of ships similar to the Longsword.