Feedback on battle cruiser

[nakorkren (OP)]

Looking for feedback on my "Signal" class battlecruiser. Intent is to use this as the main "ship of the line" in my fleets, as well as be able to use it for solo operator when a full fleet isn't required.

Signal's are designed to be comparable or slightly faster than most enemy NPCs, enabling Signals to hold the range open indefinitely or for a long period while using their plasma lances. In my current game the NPCs make minimal to no use of shields, so plasma lances are extremely effective in beam combat even if you're not able to hold open the distance forever.

The Signal employs a four-tiered PD strategy, with S1 launchers for initial engagement, 12cm laser turrets to mitigate the so-far-hypothetical employment of laser-warhead missiles, gauss to clean up most of what makes it through, and significant shields to tank anything else. If shielded enemies are ever encountered, the S1 launchers can also be employed to strip shielding to enable the particle lances to do their thing vs armor.

Anti-fighter/FAC protection is provided by the S1 launchers when assigned to the 12 MFCs included for that purpose. The 12cm laser turrets provide capability against fighters or FACs with armor and/or if missiles are exhausted by PD duties. If fighters are foolish enough to close within gauss range, the gauss cannons can take out an additional 1 fighter per 5s tick, but the gauss are primarily intended for PD, not anti-fighter role.

The hanger deck carries a long-endurance unarmed "Tracker" class scout for shadowing commercial shipping to discover jump gates and/or colonies, as well as a "Harpy" class fighter armed with a single shot railgun for dispatching commercial shipping and/or catching up with any unarmed survey/scout ships that can outrun a Signal.

The inclusion of a small but heavily armored marine detachment ensures anyone foolish enough to attempt to board faces stiff resistance.

A significant stock of maintenance supplies are included as well as solid damage control for combat damage.

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Bureau of Design Notes: The primary debate in the design of the Signal class was one of cost. The latest top-of-the-line particle lances are incredibly destructive engines of war, but they are also prohibitively expensive, as shown below:

Particle Lance-Damage-RoF
Particle Lance-24-50s: 744 BP each or 5952 BP for set of 8
Particle Lance-18-35s: 637BP each or 5096 BP for set of 8
Particle Lance-24-375s: 93BP each or 744 BP for set of 8

Given a vessel cost before fitting with particle lances of ~ 8500 BP,, the particle lances could make up as much as ~40% of the cost of the vessel! Ultimately a compromise was arrived at to fit four faster-firing "18-pounders" and four extremely slow but inexpensive "24 pounders". The concept is that in most fights the 24 pounders serve as an alpha strike. Assuming they are unshielded, field experience has demonstrated that few ships contribute meaningfully to a fight after taking two or more hits from an 18-pounder, and the expectation is that this will be even more pronounced with the new 24-pounders, justifying their use as an alpha strike weapon. This keeps the overall cost of the vessel affordable, while mounting a broadside of four rapid-firing 18-pounders maintain the ability to continue and finish the fight.

Additional opinions are being solicited from retired admirals and naval architects subscribing to this publication.


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BC-1a Signal class Battlecruiser (P)      40,000 tons       1,174 Crew       11,730.9 BP       TCS 800    TH 6,000    EM 20,610
7500 km/s      Armour 12-104       Shields 687-536       HTK 253      Sensors 56/11/0/0      DCR 101-25      PPV 203.48
Maint Life 2.13 Years     MSP 11,349    AFR 609%    IFR 8.5%    1YR 3,335    5YR 50,028    Max Repair 1,500 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 300 tons     Troop Capacity 100 tons     Magazine 576 / 0    Cryogenic Berths 200   
Rear Admiral (Lower Half)    Control Rating 4   BRG   AUX   ENG   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Flight Crew Berths 6    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP3000.00 (2)    Power 6000    Fuel Use 34.86%    Signature 3000    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 1,460,100 Litres    Range 18.8 billion km (29 days at full power)
Theta S229 / R536 Shields (3)     Recharge Time 536 seconds (1.3 per second)

Particle Lance-24-375s (4)    Range 320,000km     TS: 7,500 km/s     Power 75-1    ROF 375       
Particle Lance-18-35 (4)    Range 320,000km     TS: 7,500 km/s     Power 55-8    ROF 35       
Twin 12cm Laser Turret (160km-5s-20km/s) (2x2)    Range 160,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 8-8     RM 40,000 km    ROF 5       
Quad Gauss PD Turret (20km/s-4x) (2x16)    Range 30,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 30,000 km    ROF 5       
BFC R160-TS20k (SW-EMPP) (3)     Max Range: 160,000 km   TS: 20,000 km/s    ECCM-3     94 88 81 75 69 62 56 50 44 38
BFC R320-TS10k (MW-EMPP) (1)     Max Range: 320,000 km   TS: 10,000 km/s    ECCM-3     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor R61 (1)     Total Power Output 61.3    Exp 5%

S1 Missile Launcher (24)     Missile Size: 1    Rate of Fire 10
MFC-AF (9.3Mkm-5t-ECCM3) (12)     Range 9.3m km    Resolution 5   ECCM-3
MFC-PD (3.1Mkm-200t-ECCM3) (1)     Range 34.3m km    Resolution 1   ECCM-3

AS 10kt-50t (1)     GPS 4200     Range 50.1m km    Resolution 200
MD-1725k-250t (1)     GPS 105     Range 19.2m km    MCR 1.7m km    Resolution 1
EM1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  26.2m km
TH4-56 (1)     Sensitivity 56     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  59.2m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 2    Fire Control 3    Missile 4   

Strike Group / Ground Forces
1x TR-2 Tracker Scout Fighter   Speed: 4444 km/s    Size: 0.99
1x H-1a Harpy Fighter   Speed: 18034 km/s    Size: 4.99
1x Marine Platooon - 2059

[relmz32]

Seems like a pretty cool ship design. The things i see are the short range due to low fuel capacity-- I would pull a gun or a couple MFCs and see if I could get another couple months of fuel on board. I also notice that your Main Gun Fire Control's tracking speed is too high, it only needs 7.5k Tracking speed, because that is what your main guns have due to your engine top speed.

[Froggiest1982]

I am sure there will be others pointing out some other stuff, but since I am big fan of ships that have their reasons to exist as they are, I would point out only the "technical" oversight that could have existed in your universe and it's probably being done by the comparable Galan Erso of your world.

Specifically, I would calculate the necessary power required to operate your weapons, divide that by two, and then add one redundancy unit. This would give you a total of three units, so if one is taken out by a lucky shot, you'll still be able to defend or attack while keeping your slingshots holstered 

[nakorkren (OP)]

Seems like a pretty cool ship design. The things i see are the short range due to low fuel capacity-- I would pull a gun or a couple MFCs and see if I could get another couple months of fuel on board. I also notice that your Main Gun Fire Control's tracking speed is too high, it only needs 7.5k Tracking speed, because that is what your main guns have due to your engine top speed.

The MFCs are only 5t each, so won't get much savings from pulling those. I pulled one of the 24-375s particle lances, as that buys 600 tons of extra fuel, getting total range up to 27.7B km. Not much benefit beyond that, as for longer trips a fleet would be traveling with dedicated tanker ships anyway.

I am sure there will be others pointing out some other stuff, but since I am big fan of ships that have their reasons to exist as they are, I would point out only the "technical" oversight that could have existed in your universe and it's probably being done by the comparable Galan Erso of your world.

Specifically, I would calculate the necessary power required to operate your weapons, divide that by two, and then add one redundancy unit. This would give you a total of three units, so if one is taken out by a lucky shot, you'll still be able to defend or attack while keeping your slingshots holstered 

I tend to build my power plants as large as possible since large power plants are so much more efficient. However, you're probably right that if I ever get into a fight where I'm taking internal damage, it might would be good to have some redundancy in power. I've updated the design with three powerplants each producing 26 power. Made it fit by dropping two Engineering Bays and then filling up the empty volume to 40k total tonnage by adding back in maintenance storage. Only reduced life from 2.03 to 1.99 years, so overall seems like a good change.

Anyone have any thoughts on the use of the 24-375s lances vs additional 18-35s ones at increased cost/build time? I'm really on the fence. I like to make my ships as potent as possible so when they get in a fight, they win. On the other hand, I recognize that it's probably better to have 5 ships with a few less guns than 4 ships with a few more. You get 25% more shields/armor/missiles/launchers/BFC/MFC that way, and your ships can be in 5 places instead of 4 if needed.