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[Sheb]

Oh, yeah.

The largest missile size you can create in game is 100 (5 HS, 250 tons). A 0,25*size launcher (If you need to reload for a second salvo, you're doing it wrong) would be 25 HS/1250 tons. Now, I guess ten of the beasts should be more than enough, so with 3 reloads (in case you need to exterminate a multi-planet system), you're looking at ~20 000 tons of missile equipment.

After that, it's up to how big you define a "superdreadnought". I think it could be rather awesome to have a big ball of shields, CIWS and armor, so it can slowly get to the planet, not giving a fuck and then turn it into radioactive crap.

You might also want to look into those rad-enhanced warhead.

Other ideas: Troop compartments, a single terraforming module to add toxic gases to the athmosphere, some smaller anti-ship missiles to target recalcitrant PDCs and shipyards...

[gimlet]

Make sure you name the captain Grand Moff Tarkin.   And watch out for fighters!

[Cthulhu]

I'm Egyptians, it's not the death star. 

I didn't know you could do missiles with no engines.  Bombs would be better.  I dunno about shields and CIWS and stuff, the idea is that it stays at the home system until it's needed and comes out once the enemy's no longer a threat.  Tankers and colliers can take care of ammo and fuel concerns (to maximize free space for dakka) and maybe a wolf pack of fast frigates for hunting down fleeing civilians.  I am firmly in the "mushrooms are closer relatives than aliens" camp.  If fucking aliens try to fuck with me I am not affording them any benefit of the doubt whatsoever.  No prisoners, no survivors.  I dunno though, we'll see how things actually go.

I'm imagining a bigass pyramid.  Obviously stealth is out the window so may as well paint it white and gold.  Add a reflective sun disc angled to catch the light.  Make sure even the people on the ground can see it coming.

The only problem is that mixing egyptians and scifi just gets ancient aliens shit so there's no good inspirational material on google.

[EuchreJack]

What, you've never heard of the movie Stargate, or the TV show Stargate SG1?  TONS of material, just google those things, as the main enemy in the movie and most of the TV show is exactly what you're talking about, down to the Pyramid Ships (which are command ships, but still contain planet-destroying equipment, I believe).

[forsaken1111]

I'm imagining a bigass pyramid.  Obviously stealth is out the window so may as well paint it white and gold.  Add a reflective sun disc angled to catch the light.  Make sure even the people on the ground can see it coming.

The only problem is that mixing egyptians and scifi just gets ancient aliens shit so there's no good inspirational material on google.

http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Ha'tak

[Flying Dice]

Honestly. 

But yes, as Sheb said, something like that (extinction-event bomb launchers and nothing else) would be pretty piddly. I've built things that I could justify calling CLs that were bigger than that.

[EuchreJack]

I'm imagining a bigass pyramid.  Obviously stealth is out the window so may as well paint it white and gold.  Add a reflective sun disc angled to catch the light.  Make sure even the people on the ground can see it coming.

The only problem is that mixing egyptians and scifi just gets ancient aliens shit so there's no good inspirational material on google.

http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Ha'tak

Ah, the joys of another wiki walk.

[Jay]

Hm. I'm thinking of getting back into this.
Can anyone summarize what's changed since 5.60?

EDIT: nevermind, found the changelogs -- he posts them in a different place now, damnit Steve

[Cthulhu]

Honestly. 

But yes, as Sheb said, something like that (extinction-event bomb launchers and nothing else) would be pretty piddly. I've built things that I could justify calling CLs that were bigger than that.

I guess it makes more sense really.  That's how they do it in 40k, just swarms of tiny stealth ships to drop the bombs.  No, I haven't seen Stargate and I'd forgotten about goa'uld. 

Well in that case, what have people actually done with supergiant ships?  I suppose if a planetbuster is easy and small I can afford to just make it a regular flagship with more general capability, instead of just being something you drop on the enemy planet when they're already down.

[Flying Dice]

You can even have the 'stealth' part if you put a lot of work into cloaking systems and engine thermal signature reduction tech. Though it's only really viable for sneaky-beaky attacks on planets and passive scouting.

[iceball3]

You can even have the 'stealth' part if you put a lot of work into cloaking systems and engine thermal signature reduction tech. Though it's only really viable for sneaky-beaky attacks on planets and passive scouting.

It also comes in handy for things like passive engagement, where you have a carrier is stealthy and deploys it's medium-range parasite ships for engaging the enemy within missile range, and then leaving their active sensor range for refueling.
One significant issue comes in mind with the active sensors though, in that sensors only lose significant range below a threshold, which means the cloaking systems are only actually effective if it puts your ship from above a sensor's weight classification to below it.
The only way you are going to find that out is initial contact, meaning that you have to have an alien civilization far enough and fighting you long enough that you can design a new component to go with a new ship.
Either that, or you're stuck with just using it for smaller vehicles to slip under common active sensor bands to avoid engagement for a longer time hopefully.

[Flying Dice]

I'm like 95% certain that that's not true, that the listed size/range pairs are just markers, and that a sensor's effective detection range scales smoothly rather than jumping at arbitrary tonnage marks.

[MarcAFK]

The listed range is the maximum range, it only detects contacts of equal or larger size than it's resolution. At smaller sizes it gets significantly less range, it does curve, in general half the contact size gives you something like a quarter the range.

[iceball3]

The listed range is the maximum range, it only detects contacts of equal or larger size than it's resolution. At smaller sizes it gets significantly less range, it does curve, in general half the contact size gives you something like a quarter the range.

Yes, I guess what I meant to convey was that if the stealth module doesn't put you somewhere below the particular active sensor's resolution (not too much concerning if the ship was above or below it in the first place), then the effects on active sensor contact range would be negligible, if nonexistent.
For instance, if you have a stealth ship of 20,000 tons with a... Oh, the stealth modules are a lot more efficient than I first thought.
Lowest tech, 75% efficiency, would put it down to 5,000 ton detection if I'm not misinformed.
That said, if that still doesn't manage pass below the resolution threshold of one of the enemy's sensors, then it would be ineffective against it.

[Metalax]

Yeah, stealth got a fairly hard nerf back when Steve introduced the minimum sensor signal for any object being missile size 6 or 0.3 HS, a few years back. Before that it was quite possible to design stealth fighters and FAC's that could get well inside of even anti-missile active sensors before being picked up.

It can still be of use in a few places, such as carriers and long range bombardment missile boats. As, as long as their signature drops below the typically high resolution of long range active sensors/fire controls, they can't be targeted until the enemy manages to close the distance, giving time to escape/perform long range bombardment.