Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[RedKing]

True. I usually don't bother doing that just because it's a PITA to jump a squadron two at a time. Standard Terran Alliance doctrine as of 2075 is the four-ship battle squadron:

1 Vanguard-class light carrier w/ either 1 10-unit Comanche squadron or 3-boat Corsair FAC group
3 Omaha-class missile destroyers

Makes for a good basic strategic unit and provides enough missile firepower to take down 2-4 enemy ships while absorbing acceptable damage. The fighters/FACs provide the follow-up damage and/or killing blow.

[Flying Dice]

For a carrier design for missile corvettes, will I need an internal magazine on the carrier to hold backup missiles? Will I need extra fuel tanks as they'll draw from its reserve, or what? Brief me on carriers, please.

Yes and no. Yes, that is certainly one design route, but as BishopX pointed out, making a carrier that is also an ammo collier and giant fying fuel tank means you need a damn big carrier. And it's a carrier that inherently can go boom and leave you utterly scrod.

OTOH, seperating out the ammo and fuel to dedicated colliers and tankers makes logistics more complicated and requires more shipyards.

I rarely "carry" anything larger than FACs, since the hangar space required adds up bigtime. Especially as you don't need to physically dock the corvettes to jump with them. Just research your jump fields up to a squadron size of 4 or 5 (remember that the jumping ship itself counts as one). Refueling can be done without a hangar, so it's really only useful to dock them for box reloads, protection (if the carrier is built like a damn tank) and possibly fuel economy, as the corvettes wouldn't burn any of their own fuel while travelling inside the carrier. But for the hangar space required, you could just slap a hell of a big fuel tank and keep refueling them the whole way.

The only reason you want a large squadron size is to handle jump point ambushes. Everything else can be handled by a squadron size three jump engine using the standard transit option. My current (untested) doctrine is to use several small jump ships to transit pairs of small ships to clear the jump point before transiting in my capital ships.

Also keep in mind that parasites docked with their mothership don't run up their maint. clocks or consume supplies. I tend to use dedicated carriers because of this, the reduced reload time, and the fact that you don't have to rely on support ships. Yes, you run up the tonnage, but parasite and supply management are enough of a pain as it is, without needed two or three sets of support ships to allow your squadrons to function. In addition to that, having fighters or FACs that can't reload at their mothership is akin to having missile ships that have no magazines: yes, you'll save on space, but they're completely impractical for any sort of sustained combat.

[BishopX]

Heh, I'm planing on useing my (civillian) geo survey ships to transit a destroyer/torpedo boat pairs to clear the jump point before bring my carriers, cruisers and logistics ships through.

So far I've got my FACs and destroyers designed, still working on the tech for the captial ships (I need things like power plants, long range beam fire controls and actual missle lauchers first).

Spoiler: JP clearance groups (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

Luhu class Geological Survey Vessel    3,750 tons     347 Crew     493.6 BP      TCS 75  TH 150  EM 0
2000 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-21     Shields 0-0     Sensors 8/1/0/1     Damage Control Rating 19     PPV 0
MSP 1563    Max Repair 100 MSP

J3750(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 3750 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Ion Engine E0.7 (1)    Power 150    Fuel Use 7%    Signature 150    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 1371.4 billion km   (7936 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH1-8 (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  8m km
Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes


Code: [Select]

Yinchuan class Fast Attack Craft    900 tons     36 Crew     105.4 BP      TCS 18  TH 120  EM 0
6666 km/s     Armour 1-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 9.6
Maint Life 7.37 Years     MSP 37    AFR 12%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 1    5YR 18    Max Repair 30 MSP
Magazine 64   

GB Ion Engine E70 (1)    Power 120    Fuel Use 700%    Signature 120    Armour 0    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 20,000 Litres    Range 5.7 billion km   (9 days at full power)

Size 8 Box Launcher (8)    Missile Size 8    Hangar Reload 60 minutes    MF Reload 10 hours
Missile Fire Control FC49-R140 (1)     Range 49.2m km    Resolution 140
S8 ASM (8)  Speed: 23,400 km/s   End: 27.4m    Range: 38.5m km   WH: 9    Size: 8    TH: 195 / 117 / 58

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


Code: [Select]

Kaifeng class Destroyer    3,750 tons     297 Crew     622 BP      TCS 75  TH 300  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 4-21     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 13     PPV 21.25
Maint Life 6.85 Years     MSP 311    AFR 37%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 12    5YR 173    Max Repair 86 MSP
Magazine 16   

Ion Engine E7 (5)    Power 60    Fuel Use 70%    Signature 60    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 34.3 billion km   (99 days at full power)

Single Gauss Cannon R2-50 Turret (5x4)    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 S06 36-16000 (1)    Max Range: 72,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     86 72 58 44 31 17 3 0 0 0

Size 8 Box Launcher (2)    Missile Size 8    Hangar Reload 60 minutes    MF Reload 10 hours
Missile Fire Control FC49-R140 (1)     Range 49.2m km    Resolution 140
S8 ASM (2)  Speed: 23,400 km/s   End: 27.4m    Range: 38.5m km   WH: 9    Size: 8    TH: 195 / 117 / 58

Active Search Sensor MR4-R1 (1)     GPS 42     Range 4.6m km    Resolution 1

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


[Flying Dice]

Whoa, that's a big survey ship! 

[EuchreJack]

It has to be in order to be useful for BishopX's purposes.  Let us know if it works, as I'm curious if a commercial ship can successfully transit military vessels.  I wouldn't think it would work, but I'd be glad to be wrong.

[BishopX]

It has to be in order to be useful for BishopX's purposes.  Let us know if it works, as I'm curious if a commercial ship can successfully transit military vessels.  I wouldn't think it would work, but I'd be glad to be wrong.

Commercial ships with military jump engines can transit military ships. The reason my geo survey vessels are so big is two fold. a) they serves as general purpose supply ships and b) the can move small military vesels around easily.

[RedKing]

Really? Most of my early jumpscouts are in the 3000-4000 ton range. Heck my new and improved scouts are 6000 tons, and they're not even commercial ships:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pathfinder class Jump Scout    6,000 tons     498 Crew     1411.1 BP      TCS 120  TH 341  EM 0
5683 km/s    JR 3-250     Armour 4-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 27/28/2/2     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.79 Years     MSP 441    AFR 96%    IFR 1.3%    1YR 82    5YR 1232    Max Repair 169 MSP

Pathfinder-class Jumpdrive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 250k km     Squadron Size 3
MilFus E730S50 (7)    Power 97.5    Fuel Use 57%    Signature 48.75    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 105.3 billion km   (214 days at full power)

Phalanx I (2x8)    Range 1000 km     TS: 20000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
ThermaSweep-27 (1)     Sensitivity 27     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  27m km
MagnaSweep-27 (1)     Sensitivity 27.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  27.5m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour
Improved Geological Sensors (1)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Question: Shouldn't having a military jumpdrive automatically make the vessel a military vessel? 

[BishopX]

Really? Most of my early jumpscouts are in the 3000-4000 ton range. Heck my new and improved scouts are 6000 tons, and they're not even commercial ships:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pathfinder class Jump Scout    6,000 tons     498 Crew     1411.1 BP      TCS 120  TH 341  EM 0
5683 km/s    JR 3-250     Armour 4-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 27/28/2/2     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.79 Years     MSP 441    AFR 96%    IFR 1.3%    1YR 82    5YR 1232    Max Repair 169 MSP

Pathfinder-class Jumpdrive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 250k km     Squadron Size 3
MilFus E730S50 (7)    Power 97.5    Fuel Use 57%    Signature 48.75    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 105.3 billion km   (214 days at full power)

Phalanx I (2x8)    Range 1000 km     TS: 20000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
ThermaSweep-27 (1)     Sensitivity 27     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  27m km
MagnaSweep-27 (1)     Sensitivity 27.5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  27.5m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour
Improved Geological Sensors (1)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Question: Shouldn't having a military jumpdrive automatically make the vessel a military vessel? 

for whatever reason it doesn't. The only part of a scout vessel which is automatically military is the grav sensor. I run two types of survey ships, a military grav survey ship with lots of speed (5070 km/s with ion engines) and an active sensor for first contact. After the grav survey ship has swept all the promising planets for nprs or other nasties I send the geosurvey ships in.

[RedKing]

I used to do it that way. Now I do a combo grav/geo jumpscout so I can check notable worlds before doing the gravsurvey. Once I have jumpgates up and the system is inside "the perimeter" then I send in nonjump commercial surveyors (Mantis-class) to catalog every minor rock in the system.

And because of the "first contact" scenario (especially since my game seems chock full of Precursors), I learned to uparmor, slap on ECM and put a pair of CIWS on there. The predecessor class to the Pathfinders all met their ends in first contact situations against either Precursors or the Swarm. I've lost a couple of Pathfinders, but I've also had just as many incidents where they got away. Those CIWS make a big difference against the typical 1-2 ship Precursor contacts (big missiles, small volleys)

[BishopX]

I design my grav scouts be able to outrun NPR's, but not spoilery things. I also make them much smaller than my geo survey craft and essentially replaceable. In my current game I've lost 3 out of 5 so far.

[Flying Dice]

I just use throwaway 1000 ton survey ships with milJDs. If I want a scout, jump tender, or a supply ship, I send one. No point in building extra stuff into ships that are by and large going to end their lives as scorched scrap metal floating in some far-off system. It's certainly cheaper using them as tripwires and then deploying actual scouts and forces to the contact point, as opposed to building more expensive ships that can scout on their own. It also allows me to automate them much more effectively; I order one into a new system and can then ignore it until it finishes the survey or is destroyed by enemy fire.

[Tarran]

I design fast (AKA 10000+ km/s fast) multi-use scouts with huge range. One of the benefits of turtling until you have massive tech. :p

But even without massive tech, I would still build fast scouts. I don't really like losing my scouts, and as an added benefit of massive speed is that the survey ships can get places very, very fast.

[BishopX]

So speaking of fast scouts, I just found a massive trinary system, Jinzhou-B orbits Jinzhou-A at a distance of 1.1 trillion km (7400 au), and the outmost planet orbiting Jinzhou-B is 96 billion km from the star. There are 6 LPs in the system, five around Jinzhou-B and one near Jinzhou-C, which is also orbiting Jinzhou-A at a more reasonable distance. The nice thing is that there are three worlds with colony costs less than three, unfortunatly none of them are orbiting Jinzhou-B.

[EuchreJack]

Where did you enter the system?

Question: The aliens of an inhabited system just sent out a squadron of ships to follow my ship.  Is there any way to have the game advance faster than 1 in-game minute per cycle?

[Flying Dice]

You should be able to advance it at whatever rate you want, assuming they aren't setting slower ticks because they're firing on you.