Hmm. Yeah, the point defense fire control worried me a bit, but I was reluctant to change it since that's the way the tutorial (
Beam Warships) suggested it.
I'll design a better fire control system, and ponder PD alternatives as advised.
EDIT:Observations, assuming current technology:
- Both fire control systems have an HS of 4. One with both 12,000 km/s tracking speed and a maximum range of 96,000 km would have an HS of 8.
- Gauss cannons and railguns have a maximum range of 10,000 km. With a bit of research, I could boost this some, but I guess not too much.
- Mesons have a range of 15,000 km.
- The cost and size of a Twin 10cm C3-NUV Laser Cannon Turret with a TS of 15,000 km/s is, oddly enough, the same as that of one with 12,000 km/s. Got that from the tutorial, so there's some hidden cleverness there after all.
- The tracking speed of the 20cm C4-UV Laser Cannons is somewhat over that of their associated fire control, but I don't know if the (modest?) difference is worth the introduction of a very specialized fire control to deal with it. Gotta ponder that.
As for point defense in general, I'm at an impasse. Let's assume a hypothetical 12,000 km/s salvo: it'd travel 60,000 km in the space of 5 seconds. I don't know much about the game yet, but it'd seem to me PD weapons would only get a single chance to fire on this group. So, in theory:
- A meson would fire a single shot. Armour-ignoring, but still just one.
- A gauss cannon would fire two shots.
- My twin laser turret (with an extender fire control) would fire two shots. Four if lucky.
- A railgun would fire four shots.
The railgun would appear to be the best choice, but would the aforementioned salvo be able to 'skip' those tiny 10,000-km ranges? I mean. One second it could be 12,000 km away, and the next hitting the target. Could that happen, or does the game take into consideration the vital time between seconds?