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[Greenbane]

Quadruple Edit: And that's game. The precursor ships (checked SM mode) have come through the warp. The only military research I've done is sensors.  I don't even have war ships yet, and those things are within sensor range of earth. Might as well have done a zero point embark next to a skarp river. Oh well, losing is fun.

Hmm. How did SM mode help you identify the aggressors as Precursors?

Also, the fact they can jump through ungated points is alarming news! I thought they never left the system they were guarding. Luckily enough for me, the couple of Precursor systems I found are a handful of jumps away from my colonies.

[Grendus]

If you go to Event Updates in regular mode it says "Unknown Ship fires energy or kinetic weapon at Class B Grav Survey 001". In SM mode it says "Precursor Destroyer 00X fires railgun at Class B Grav Survey 001". Unless there's an NPR named Precursor...

I thought they couldn't jump either. That's why I was really surprised when I saw thermal signatures coming through the Proxima Centauri portal. But they were the same signatures, a group of 2000 and 1000 thermal signatures. Even my biggest ships only broke 350 with no reduction. It's possible that their ships can be, but usually aren't, designed with jump modules. Or maybe there was a jump ship. There were several 2000 thermal signatures and a 1000 signature, which may have been the jump ship.

It's been about 20 years here. I'll be heading out once I finish my research into particle torpedos. My gauss tech is good enough for point defense, as are my turret and tracking techs. I admit I spent a very long time researching CP tech, which will help later on. I still need to upgrade my torpedo range and my long range tracking tech, then build a jumper.

[Eduren]

In my current game I wanted to get the idea of exploration and expansion, so I enabled the "All JPs have gates" option. Hopefully I won't regret it.

[Greenbane]

In my current game I wanted to get the idea of exploration and expansion, so I enabled the "All JPs have gates" option. Hopefully I won't regret it.

Sounds dangerous. Prioritize military technologies.

[Grendus]

So, to confirm, I need a beam fire control system for every target I want my ship to go after? I'm building a gauss gun ship with a bunch of single gauss turrets and need to know how many targeting computers I need.

[Eduren]

Two systems that border mine have enemies in them and there are still 2 more that I have yet to survey. The fifth adjacent system seems friendly enough and I have a colony starting there.

My only military craft is a weak PDC at Earth. And I think that I designed it wrong anyway.

Should be Fun.

[Greenbane]

So, to confirm, I need a beam fire control system for every target I want my ship to go after? I'm building a gauss gun ship with a bunch of single gauss turrets and need to know how many targeting computers I need.

A ship's is a target, a PDC's a target, a shipyard's a target, a missile salvo is a target. Missiles aren't considered individual targets on their own, unless they're the only missile in a salvo, which is possible if the platform that fired it has a single launcher.

As for weapons with high rate of fire, like CIWS mounts, gauss cannons and railguns, each shot in a 5-second period can hit more than a single missile as long as they belong to the same salvo. This makes those weapons the prime choice against unarmoured missiles.

And regarding fire controls, I'd use one per 2-4 turrets, depending on the amount of salvos the current enemy usually fires in battle. Also, remember CIWS have their own integrated FC, so you don't need to link them to an external one.

[Tarran]

So, to confirm, I need a beam fire control system for every target I want my ship to go after? I'm building a gauss gun ship with a bunch of single gauss turrets and need to know how many targeting computers I need.

A ship's is a target, a PDC's a target, a shipyard's a target, a missile salvo is a target. Missiles aren't considered individual targets on their own, unless they're the only missile in a salvo, which is possible if the platform that fired it has a single launcher.

As for weapons with high rate of fire, like CIWS mounts, gauss cannons and railguns, each shot in a 5-second period can hit more than a single missile as long as they belong to the same salvo. This makes those weapons the prime choice against unarmoured missiles.

And regarding fire controls, I'd use one per 2-4 turrets, depending on the amount of salvos the current enemy usually fires in battle. Also, remember CIWS have their own integrated FC, so you don't need to link them to an external one.

Railguns are bad for PD, as they depend on the ship speed, and your research on (I guess) turret gear (for minimum speed), so even at mid game tech you will have a hard time using railguns for PD.

now, gauss guns work much better compared to railguns, as they can be mounted on turrets, and missiles go fast, so any weapon on turrets works like a charm.

HERE is something neat. 

Now, let me ask anyone, whats your favorite colony?
mine is 'Eden' [yes I'm that uncreative in names], in the 'Athens' system [told you], it sits above a ruined city, so its already got some industry, and I'm thinking of shipping more. its gravity is earthlike. its diameter is very earthlike (12400). its filled 44% with water. its year is the same as its day, 37 days. its axial tilt is 86 degrees. it has no plate tectonics. it has no magnetic field. and has 198mil colonists. 

the nearest possible colony in the same system is a -175.2C (97.95K) degree base temperature moon with no water and albedo of 1.14, so it needs a greenhouse of around 2.5 (2.25 carbon [2.25 gh press], 0.1 nitrogen, 0.15 oxygen [to get atmos press of 2.5,{.25 gh press}]) (97.95K X 2.5 X 1.14= ~279.15 [~6C]), but I am going to colonize it someday dammit!

Edit, you should also know that Eden has neon in its atmosphere.

[Grendus]

I haven't even left Sol yet, except that (humorously) disastrous escapade in Proxima Centauri.

And railguns can make decent point defense early on, though the odds of you ending up at war that early are very slim. Their pitiful accuracy can be compensated with their pretty decent rate of fire. You're right though, even low tech gauss on absurdly large turrets  (for low tech) would be better than railguns 90% of the time.

Actually, I can't even think of why you would ever want railguns except for early game tech, they're the weakest beam weapons it seems like. They have pitiful range, pitiful accuracy, and don't really do much damage. Unless they're really light or something for fighters, seems pointless to have them.

[Journier]

I haven't even left Sol yet, except that (humorously) disastrous escapade in Proxima Centauri.

And railguns can make decent point defense early on, though the odds of you ending up at war that early are very slim. Their pitiful accuracy can be compensated with their pretty decent rate of fire. You're right though, even low tech gauss on absurdly large turrets  (for low tech) would be better than railguns 90% of the time.

Actually, I can't even think of why you would ever want railguns except for early game tech, they're the weakest beam weapons it seems like. They have pitiful range, pitiful accuracy, and don't really do much damage. Unless they're really light or something for fighters, seems pointless to have them.

Here is how I handle everything, Lasers for Final fire and Area point defense ^_^ God lasers are so awesome.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Laser Spam my friend, Laser Spam.

The original hood


My Hood Mk2


My Current Fleet

[Areyar]

railguns need a powerboost. They should be like torpedoes (not losing power over distance), but with faster ROF.
Or maybe not requiring energy for firing...though it must seem odd at first, RAILS can be viewed as Gauss but bigger.
gauss<railgun<massdriver are actually synonyms of the same thing IIRC, just that one focusses on large mass or large rof or long range.


edit: OK not exactly. the principle of the technology is similar though.
a gauss uses capacitors to create a magnetic field to accelerate a conducting projectile,
while a rail uses rails under current to propel a conductive projectile, the projectile requires contact with both rails though, creating high friction.
a mass driver is a gaussgun (or coilgun) in which cargo is catapulted using a magnetizable container.

[Grendus]

You do realize that none of the lasers in the Hood MK1 are in turrets, right? So the only thing they're really good for is ship to ship combat, which with their pitiful range means you'd have to almost be ramming your target?

The quad turrets in the MK2 are probably overkill too, at least for point defense. Actually, they look more like a dual use turret, they have the track speed to shoot down a missile and the range to be used as anti-ship weapons in beam warfare. Still, very very heavy ships.

This is my first dedicated point defense cruiser. Uses 12 single gauss turrets, which means I can save weight on reactors since gauss don't require power. Very short range, I designed them with size in mind. They're cheap and hopefully effective.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Military Class B Anti-Missile Cruiser class Cruiser    11050 tons     682 Crew     1968.6 BP      TCS 221  TH 480  EM 0
2895 km/s     Armour 10-44     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 9     PPV 84
Annual Failure Rate: 108%    IFR: 1.5%    Maint Capacity 1002 MSP    Max Repair 77 MSP    Est Time: 4.4 Years

Military Magneto-plasma Drive E8 (8)    Power 80    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 60    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 40.7 billion km   (162 days at full power)

Single Gauss Cannon R2-85 Turret (12x3)    Range 20,000km     TS: 16000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S04 32-16000 (6)    Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

Not entirely sure how good they'll be, and they take a while to make, but that's partly my fault for not investing in shipyard tech yet. Class A was never produced, after I designed them I realized I hadn't expanded their fuel tanks, they could only go about 50 days without refueling. They're intended to be used in groups, which means in missile combat there are multiple failure points. If a missile gets through and takes out one cruiser, the squad isn't suddenly open to missile fire.

Question about reactors - it says they produce x amount of power. Is that per 5 seconds, per second, or what? My torpedo cruiser has 7 particle torpedo launchers that use 5 power every 5 seconds. I just realized I need power, but I'm not sure how large I need to make the reactor.

Edit: And then I realize the flaw - no sensors.

[Tarran]

Did I tell you how much I hate precursors? well, I hate them even more now, why?
I had jumped into a system with a zero colony cost planet, I thought I would finally find an NPR and post about them here, it was not meant to be.

Apparently I forgot to turn on the scouts active sensors, and I ended up with a missile ship and an unknown ship.
and of-course they take advantage of my mistake an fire missiles, its around here I decide I would rather cheat than have my scout blown away like the precursors always do, and teleport him to the jump point, yes, yes I know I should not cheat, but you have to understand that its not fun to order your scouts to explore the universe and then have them blown up just because the RNG wants them to, let alone wait for them to be rebuilt, if it had been an NPR however I would likely have let them blow up the scout, but I will not let those damned precursors blow up my scout for fun.

I haven't even left Sol yet, except that (humorously) disastrous escapade in Proxima Centauri.

And railguns can make decent point defense early on, though the odds of you ending up at war that early are very slim. Their pitiful accuracy can be compensated with their pretty decent rate of fire. You're right though, even low tech gauss on absurdly large turrets  (for low tech) would be better than railguns 90% of the time.

Actually, I can't even think of why you would ever want railguns except for early game tech, they're the weakest beam weapons it seems like. They have pitiful range, pitiful accuracy, and don't really do much damage. Unless they're really light or something for fighters, seems pointless to have them.

Here is how I handle everything, Lasers for Final fire and Area point defense ^_^ God lasers are so awesome.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Laser Spam my friend, Laser Spam.

The original hood


My Hood Mk2


My Current Fleet

I know you are going to disagree with me, but your ships are too damned slow, 2000 km/s? come on! get them to at-least 4000 km/s! not only will my ships be able to run from yours, but if your ships have to run they can't get away! even my biggest ship can go +4000 km/s. so please, for the sake of your crew, give them faster engines or reduce the size of the ship because NPR's will take advantage of this to the extreme, try imagining an NPR missile ship going 3000 km/s, not only will they be able to bombard you from a distance but they will be able to keep out of your range indefinitely, your ships could not even run if they were too damaged.

Edit:

...

This is my first dedicated point defense cruiser. Uses 12 single gauss turrets, which means I can save weight on reactors since gauss don't require power. Very short range, I designed them with size in mind. They're cheap and hopefully effective.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Military Class B Anti-Missile Cruiser class Cruiser    11050 tons     682 Crew     1968.6 BP      TCS 221  TH 480  EM 0
2895 km/s     Armour 10-44     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 9     PPV 84
Annual Failure Rate: 108%    IFR: 1.5%    Maint Capacity 1002 MSP    Max Repair 77 MSP    Est Time: 4.4 Years

Military Magneto-plasma Drive E8 (8)    Power 80    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 60    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 40.7 billion km   (162 days at full power)

Single Gauss Cannon R2-85 Turret (12x3)    Range 20,000km     TS: 16000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S04 32-16000 (6)    Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

Not entirely sure how good they'll be, and they take a while to make, but that's partly my fault for not investing in shipyard tech yet. Class A was never produced, after I designed them I realized I hadn't expanded their fuel tanks, they could only go about 50 days without refueling. They're intended to be used in groups, which means in missile combat there are multiple failure points. If a missile gets through and takes out one cruiser, the squad isn't suddenly open to missile fire.

Question about reactors - it says they produce x amount of power. Is that per 5 seconds, per second, or what? My torpedo cruiser has 7 particle torpedo launchers that use 5 power every 5 seconds. I just realized I need power, but I'm not sure how large I need to make the reactor.

Edit: And then I realize the flaw - no sensors.

It could be faster, its not the end of the world if you have to kick off some turrets and have to build a few more, it hurts your entire TG if you have a slow ship, and having it able to run fast makes it more easy to destroy inbound missiles.

as for reactors, they produce power in the sense that its used up instantly, so say you have 4 lasers taking up to 10 power each, you would want enough to produce 40 power.

[Journier]

Super fast heavy ships with highly inefficient engine space useage dont make my ships effective.    Also I slowly increase my speed every engine tech level I get. so when i get Magneto Plasma drives Ill probably bump my ships to 2500 km/s

Also to Grendus-

Yea the Mk1 Hood has 20 non turreted lasers. Its a Battleship/PD mix from 20 years into my game. My turret tech at the time was pretty crappy so i just said forget it till Mk2 The MK2 is how the rest of the Hoods will be for the foreseeable future.

Your Design looks fine to me really, Multiple layers of PD is what the doctor calls for always remember And Final Fire has a large to hit chance bonus.

Also on your sensor issue, Thats not really a big deal.

Have large active sensor arrays on a Command and control ship, or 2 in the fleet. That takes care of your little PD ship, unless you want it to run around alone then well yea small sensor suite on it.

[Tarran]

super fast heavy ships with highly inefficient engine space useage dont make my ships effective.    Also I slowly increase my speed every engine tech level I get. so when i get Magneto Plasma drives Ill probably bump my ships to 2500 km/s
...

Code: [Select]

Baltimore II class Corvette    4000 tons     427 Crew     1317 BP      TCS 80  TH 231  EM 120
8250 km/s     Armour 4-22     Shields 4-480     Sensors 12/12/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 12
Annual Failure Rate: 128%    IFR: 1.8%    Maint Capacity 206 MSP    Max Repair 189 MSP    Est Time: 0.85 Years

Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E6 (Fast, 1.1) (6)    Power 110    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 38.5    Armour 0    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres    Range 300.0 billion km   (420 days at full power)
Theta R480/28 Shields (1)   Total Fuel Cost  28 Litres per day

20cm C4 Ultraviolet Laser (2)    Range 320,000km     TS: 8250 km/s     Power 10-4     RM 4    ROF 15        10 10 10 10 8 6 5 5 4 4
Fire Control S06 160-6000 H70 (1)    Max Range: 320,000 km   TS: 6000 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69

Active Search Sensor MR22-R20 (1)     GPS 3780     Range 22.7m km    Resolution 20
Thermal Sensor TH2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km

ECM 10

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

See this ship? it would wipe your ships out, because you can't kill them if they are out of range, and its hell to hit a fast ship with ECM anyway. oh, and even if you hit them they can go hit-and-run with their shields.

Also, I realized I forgot to put some weapons on one of my ship designs. 

EDIT: yup, it has no reactors, how tired was I when I made these ships?