AlStar, do you think you will ever have enough missiles to take down what was depicted on the image in this post? http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=47678.msg2027981#msg2027981 <- There are 38 ships there simultaneously invading Sol plus some more that didn't fit into the screenshot plus a few already destroyed.
Honestly? Unless I was preparing for it, probably not. That said, it doesn't look impossible; most of those look like they're the smallest invader type - a 'mere' 330 shields. If my batch of Invaders had been 330s instead of 450s, Earth would still be around. (I was inflicting ~400 points of damage with each 200 missile volley my PDCs fired off.) The main problem with Invaders is that you need to hit them for their shield strength either 1) in one giant volley or 2) really, really quickly (like, over 10 damage every 5 seconds); otherwise their shields just charge back up to full.
Since Invaders move 10k/sec this becomes quite the problem, since unless your engine tech is at least as high as theirs is, you’ll never get close enough to fire energy weapons at them and they’ll just laugh at you as they stay 2m miles away, blasting you to pieces. Missiles are the other option, but you’ll need a _lot_ of them.
Perhaps I've been lucky, but I've never seen that many Invaders in one place before - the most I've ever seen in any one place in my games is about a dozen.
That said, even a single 1500 shield invader is enough to make you want to cry – but even it’s not impossible to kill – if my fleet had been there, I’d be firing 12(ships)x50(missiles)x6(damage)x~45%(accuracy vs 10k) = 1620 damage, enough to probably kill one each salvo.
Any good designs for a starting player?
You don’t mention what you’re looking for, but here’s some basic designs that I use in my games, which use tech that you more or less start off with:
Missile Cruiser
Illustrious class Missile Cruiser 11,900 tons 745 Crew 1640.62 BP TCS 238 TH 660 EM 0
2773 km/s Armour 10-46 Shields 0-0 Sensors 8/8/0/0 Damage Control Rating 28 PPV 49.5
Annual Failure Rate: 40% IFR: 0.6% Maint Capacity 2413 MSP Max Repair 48 MSP Est Time: 15.27 Years
Magazine 304
Ion Engine E6 (11) Power 60 Fuel Use 60% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres Range 75.6 billion km (315 days at full power)
Size 3 Missile Launcher (33% Reduction) (50) Missile Size 3 Rate of Fire 600
Missile Fire Control FC30-R45 (2) Range 30.9m km Resolution 45
Lightning Size 3 Anti-ship Missile 30m (100) Speed: 20,000 km/s End: 25m Range: 30m km WH: 5 Size: 3 TH: 140 / 84 / 42
Active Search Sensor MR38-R100 (1) GPS 4800 Range 38.4m km Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH1-8 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-8 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km
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
Scout / Geo Survey Ship
Bright Eye class Jump Scout 3,750 tons 365 Crew 639.6 BP TCS 75 TH 300 EM 0
4000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-21 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/6/2/0 Damage Control Rating 6 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 18% IFR: 0.3% Maint Capacity 640 MSP Max Repair 100 MSP Est Time: 7.77 Years
J3750(3-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 3750 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Ion Engine E8 (5) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres Range 300.0 billion km (868 days at full power)
Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Missile PDC
Overlord class Planetary Defense Centre 19,650 tons 271 Crew 2127.64 BP TCS 393 TH 0 EM 0
Armour 24-64 Sensors 1/48 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 99
Troop Capacity: 1 Battalion Magazine 608
PDC Size 3 Missile Launcher (33% Reduction) (100) Missile Size 3 Rate of Fire 300
Missile Fire Control FC30-R45 (1) Range 30.9m km Resolution 45
Thunder Size 3 Anti-ship Missile 30m (100) Speed: 20,000 km/s End: 25m Range: 30m km WH: 4 Size: 3 TH: 140 / 84 / 42
Active Search Sensor MR38-R100 (1) GPS 4800 Range 38.4m km Resolution 100
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 Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 8 sections
GeoSurvey Ship
Plainsman class Geosurvey Ship 7,450 tons 214 Crew 501.2 BP TCS 149 TH 750 EM 0
5033 km/s Armour 1-33 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/6/0/2 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Capacity 42 MSP Max Repair 100 MSP
Ion Engine E0.8 (5) Power 150 Fuel Use 8% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 453.0 billion km (1041 days at full power)
Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
Geological Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Freighter
SuperTrans class Freighter 64,350 tons 364 Crew 734.8 BP TCS 1287 TH 1500 EM 0
1165 km/s Armour 1-143 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/6/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Capacity 7 MSP Max Repair 38 MSP
Cargo 50000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 10
Ion Engine E0.8 (10) Power 150 Fuel Use 8% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 52.4 billion km (520 days at full power)
Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Most of my other commercial ships (colony ships, terraformers, jump gate constructors) are just built off the freighter hull. If you design them correctly (I'm not certain what exactly the conditions are,) you can use one commercial shipyard to build all of them without refitting.
Author
Topic: Aurora - The Dwarf Fortress of 4X Games (Read 2813084 times)