So what I'm getting from all of this on shields is that larger ships and ships receiving less rapid damage is a far more effective use of them than smaller ships and ships that are in the front?
I think I'm starting to understand what all of you mean about the railguns, I assume my personal problem was thinking that tracking speed made a hard limit on how fast an object the weapon can effectively fire at (IE a tracking speed of 3000km/s would be incapable of firing at an 8000km/s missile), but what it seems like is that is an inaccurate method of thinking? In that case, I've got some more work cut out to create an effective cruiser.
Oh, and the fire control tracking speed is a goof on my part, that was an older and obsolete fire control that I accidentally used in place of a 9000km/s fire control (which would take advantage of all the other systems). Though seeing as both of those 9000km/s turrets are a bit of a nuisance themselves, I'll have to completely redesign that system.
In other events, I've put off the cruiser debacle to try and create the flagship of my early fleets, hopefully there's less critique to be had with it (though I certainly welcome any advice!)
New York class Carrier 36,450 tons 746 Crew 5451. 6 BP TCS 729 TH 3200 EM 600
4389 km/s Armour 10-97 Shields 20-400 Sensors 16/10/0/0 Damage Control Rating 45 PPV 45
Maint Life 2. 37 Years MSP 3337 AFR 425% IFR 5. 9% 1YR 814 5YR 12207 Max Repair 400 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Flight Crew Berths 22
Flag Bridge Hangar Deck Capacity 10000 tons
Gielen Aerospace 800 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (4) Power 800 Fuel Use 25% Signature 800 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,350,000 Litres Range 26. 7 billion km (70 days at full power)
Dayan-Zuelke Gamma R400/240 Shields (10) Total Fuel Cost 100 Litres per hour (2,400 per day)
Kapoi & Medley 10cm Railgun V3/C2 (15x4) Range 30,000km TS: 4389 km/s Power 3-2 RM 3 ROF 10 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Kulju & Hoag Point Defense Fire Control S03 48-9000 H70 (3) Max Range: 96,000 km TS: 9000 km/s 90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Tickle-Schnoke 6. 3 Power Reactor (5) Total Power Output 31. 5 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Hall Electronics Small Craft Sensor (1) GPS 960 Range 17. 2m km Resolution 20
Hall Electronics Active Search Sensor MR51-R100 (70%) (1) GPS 6400 Range 51. 2m km Resolution 100
Hall Electronics Missile Detection System (1) GPS 48 Range 3. 8m km MCR 418k km Resolution 1
Lu-Chang Thermal Sensor TH2-16 (1) Sensitivity 16 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 16m km
Borns Techsystems EM Detection Sensor EM2-10 (1) Sensitivity 10 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 10m km
Strike Group
21x Yugoslavia Strikefighter Speed: 13417 km/s Size: 9. 54
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
And the fighter attached:
Yugoslavia class Strikefighter 477 tons 4 Crew 106 BP TCS 9. 54 TH 128 EM 0
13417 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 3
Maint Life 0 Years MSP 0 AFR 95% IFR 1. 3% 1YR 23 5YR 338 Max Repair 64 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0. 1 months Spare Berths 0
Yu-Luo 128 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (1) Power 128 Fuel Use 271. 53% Signature 128 Exp 20%
Fuel Capacity 5,000 Litres Range 0. 7 billion km (14 hours at full power)
Kapoi & Medley 10cm Railgun V3/C2 (1x4) Range 24,000km TS: 13417 km/s Power 3-2 RM 3 ROF 10 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Thibaudeau-Ruppert Fighter Beam Control (1) Max Range: 24,000 km TS: 12000 km/s 58 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Wei Engineering 2. 4 Power Reactor (1) Total Power Output 2. 4 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Xiao & Wú FTR Sensor (1) GPS 2 Range 120k km MCR 13k km Resolution 1
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
I know the engine power/ship size ratio on the carrier is a tad low, but given that the sole purpose of the ship is to command the fleet and stay clear away from the fighting, I don't assume it needs to be much faster (I could be horribly, horribly wrong on that though). Also, my active sensors might be a little low (or maybe they're not?), but since my whole fleet setup is to operate in close proximity to PDC/Orbital habitat systems as a defense force I am attempting to make the force more of a reactionary system to close in to already discovered enemies from my massive planetary sensors and engage before they can close on inhabited systems.
The Yugoslavia fighter is my second fighter (I've got a Kiev that's basically just an experiment in box launchers and added PPV for some of my PDC's) and certainly isn't great (fire control speed and fighter speed was a constant issue of mine, and still isn't really where I'd want it) but hopefully it'll serve some basic point defence/small craft deterrence purpose.