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[LoSboccacc]

I was meaning the other one, uninhabited, but I stand corrected

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

well, duh.

expeditious retreat!


...and I need some better sensors.

[LoSboccacc]

2055, 20th August

first contact:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

our exploration vessel made the first contact with an unknown alien species. They seems suspiciously... sexy.
Our researcher believe that their image is a ruse, an illusion created from the fantasies of our own crew. Their call sign also remind of an Earth flag of the ancient times. Scanned records make us believe they actually are race of vaguely squid shaped creatures with strong mental powers.

Little is known of their design. Probably we didn’t found any military class vessel. All of those were quite small and while Ship Zero is now a wreckage floating in Struve their attack was of low intensity.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I need to gather more intelligence before calling the federation council upon deciding a course of action.

[LoSboccacc]

The Terran federation is ready to retaliate against the aliens who destroyed the Ship Zero. Without the ability to field huge jump engines nor large tonnage hulls, we need to maximize our engineering effort toward a complete yet manageable ship.

Our strategy is set. we cannot attain superiority trough velocity, nor weapon technology. Miniaturization and efficiency, or the lack thereof, is also a problem for largest ship. The enemy seems to be fielding strength six missiles, of velocity and agility unknown.

The main problem in fielding an efficient cruiser is to have an acceptable jump drive, in size and costs. Even at efficiency six, 30 ktons is simply too much to tunnel.

we will focus on small, complementary ship, each highly specialized and extremely dependent one from another. all together, they have the functionality of a battlecruiser, but will be built and will jump separately allowing for lesser research and production costs.

warning: lame paint art

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

in our intention, each component has a separate and specific functionality and role, and absolutely no other. everything is reduced to the bare essential.

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Module A class Modular Battlecruiser    3,500 tons     304 Crew     487 BP      TCS 70  TH 80  EM 0
1142 km/s     Armour 4-20     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 10
Annual Failure Rate: 98%    IFR: 1.4%    Maint Capacity 87 MSP    Max Repair 250 MSP    Est Time: 0.36 Years
Magazine 70   

Nuclear Pulse Engine E10 (2)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 25.7 billion km   (260 days at full power)

Size 10 Missile Launcher (1)    Missile Size 10    Rate of Fire 150
Missile Fire Control FC167-R20 (1)     Range 167.7m km    Resolution 20
Size 10 Drone (7)  Speed: 16,000 km/s   End: 187.5m    Range: 180.1m km   WH: 0    Size: 10    TH: 26 / 16 / 8

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

Module A is the basic offensive module, carring 7 long range two stage missiles and one launcher. There should be 6 of those per group.

This is the ordinance carried:

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Missile Size: 10 MSP  (0.5 HS)     Warhead: 0    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 5
Speed: 16000 km/s    Endurance: 187 minutes   Range: 180.0m km
Cost Per Missile: 4.475
Second Stage: Size 4 Anti-ship Missile x1
Second Stage Separation Range: 150,000 km
Overall Endurance: 3 hours   Overall Range: 181.0m km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 80%   3k km/s 25%   5k km/s 16%   10k km/s 8%
Materials Required:    0.25x Tritanium   4.9228x Gallicite   Fuel x2500

second stage:

Missile Size: 4 MSP  (0.2 HS)     Warhead: 1    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 24
Speed: 20000 km/s    Endurance: 1 minutes   Range: 1.0m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.9333
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 480%   3k km/s 144%   5k km/s 96%   10k km/s 48%
Materials Required:    0.25x Tritanium   2.5061x Gallicite   Fuel x53.75

Development Cost for Project: 193RP


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Module B class Modular Battlecruiser    3,600 tons     179 Crew     354.5 BP      TCS 72  TH 80  EM 0
1111 km/s     Armour 4-20     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 40
Annual Failure Rate: 51%    IFR: 0.7%    Maint Capacity 123 MSP    Max Repair 44 MSP    Est Time: 2.8 Years

Nuclear Pulse Engine E10 (2)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 25.0 billion km   (260 days at full power)

Single Gauss Cannon R2-100 Turret (4x2)    Range 0km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Module B carries the group point defense, in the form of 4 single gauss cannon turret with an exceptionally short range but high tracking speed. We are considering sending 4 of those in each group.

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Module C class Modular Battlecruiser    3,600 tons     240 Crew     422.5 BP      TCS 72  TH 80  EM 0
1111 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 4-20     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 34%    IFR: 0.5%    Maint Capacity 220 MSP    Max Repair 144 MSP    Est Time: 2.47 Years
Magazine 180   

J3600(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 3600 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Nuclear Pulse Engine E10 (2)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 100.0 billion km   (1041 days at full power)

Size 10 Drone (18)  Speed: 16,000 km/s   End: 187.5m    Range: 180.1m km   WH: 0    Size: 10    TH: 26 / 16 / 8

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

Module C act as collier/tanker for the other ships. It has a 3600 ton jump drive and should enable the group to traverse the jump points, even if one ship at time. However, the last time we surveyed the system the jump point was not defended, so this will do.

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Module D class Modular Battlecruiser    3,600 tons     348 Crew     641 BP      TCS 72  TH 80  EM 0
1111 km/s     Armour 1-20     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 34%    IFR: 0.5%    Maint Capacity 334 MSP    Max Repair 500 MSP    Est Time: 1.47 Years

Nuclear Pulse Engine E10 (2)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 25.0 billion km   (260 days at full power)

Active Search Sensor MR250-R100 (1)     GPS 50000     Range 250.0m km    Resolution 100

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Module D is the sensor module. It's the weak point of the entire operation, being completely unarmored due size constraint. We need to keep this well defended and possibly away from the action to keep the fleet operational.

If we can get three/four of those modular cruiser out there, we can have some chance against their ships. I should probably send a D module ahead of the others as to have a better assessment of the enemy forces.

The long range missiles will hopefully permit me two salvos before starting to get return fire, thus reducing their rank before getting decimated. A lot of this plan can go wrong and we will need quite a lot of time to build everything up; I just hope we can manage to engage near the jump point to make a quick retreat should something fail.

[FuzzyZergling]

Just a tip, you can modify the [ img ][ /img ] tags to [ img width=x ][ /img ] to force images to a certain size.

[Maldevious]

Best of luck with the war. If my memory is correct, it seems you'll need it.

[Felius]

Remember, as long as you can hit them, you can kill em, even if they kill you in the process. Also, if what you found were only a handful ships,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You might have found some precursors ships. They are far more advanced, but they won't repair, won't get out of the system, won't produce more ships, and unless they have a reloading station in the system, won't get more missiles either. As such, if the ships are in fact precursor ships, you have the advantage of attrition, even if you send enough ships for them to use all missiles and then ram themselves against you.

On more technical aspects, you're missing a PD active sensors. Without it, you won't be able to target the enemy missiles, period. You might also want some active sensors on the missile, so you can shoot them at the enemy location without having to turn on your active sensors. For double stage missiles, it might be better for you to use drones as the first stage. Drones have a MUCH better fuel efficiency than missiles.

[EuchreJack]

I have a similar situation in my game.  I ran across 16 ships of 800 tons in size, each armed with weapons optimized to the arena of battle.

(They were in a Nebula, but since nebulas don't exist in Real Systems On, I won't detail it.)

My tactic is to build Naval Shipyards, and "add slipways" instead of expanding compacity.  I've got a healthy swarm of 1000 ton ships boiling (taskforce training) to attack the NPR.

I'm not sure how it will work out.

[LoSboccacc]

thanks all for the info.

I've put images in fixed width now. I tried proportional but it's not working. ho well, now they're 512px

They're not precursors but a full npr. I'm going to lose the first encounters, I know, but the target is hampering their expansion so I can have an easier fight in the long run. probably na hit and run on their shipyards may help there.

they didn't get at me so probably they don't have yet jump technology, or discovered my jump point. that is a big advantage I cannot maintain for too long and I have to exploit now.

also, thanks for remembering me about fire controls on turrets. I got confused a bit and I was convinced about turrets not needing controls. I'll fix it up next time I get to the game, removing a turret will give me plenty of space. I'll go for one control per turret but I'll see how it works in term of ship size.

by the way:

might also want some active sensors on the missile, so you can shoot them at the enemy location without having to turn on your active sensors. For double stage missiles, it might be better for you to use drones as the first stage. Drones have a MUCH better fuel efficiency than missiles.

I'm already using a drone as first stage, the range seems not that much because my fuel efficiency technology sucks.

one more thing: that bit about actives on missiles seems interesting, but I couldn't find out how much of a sensor you need on the drone for what range.

also, if I put one point of active on the drone, can the drone launch the missile autonomously? I'm a bit lost here and the wiki missile design hint the possibility but doesn't get into the operative details of that.

it is an extremely useful position for me, as having small ship means I can probably remain undetected if I go with actives off. I know where mostly of they ship are, so if drones have active sensor I can just shoot them in their general direction. I'm just lost at how to accomplish that 

[LoSboccacc]

back home from the week end!

now I don't remember anything. Let's make a quick recap:

Galaxy exploration was abruptly interrupted when in the first system an hostile alien race attacked and destroyed my only jump ship.

Sol system is pretty low on mineral overall, I was planning to wage war on the aliens, but I can barely scrap together enough for a couple scout. I already have one jump ship with gravity and geological sensors, but is to slow and pricey to get close and personal with unknown planets.

At least I've no fuel problems nor sorium shortage: I can explore some other system, to get the needed resources for my war.

If I can get the civilian to do my biddings, I could at least skim on cargo costs; that means right now I need just a geosurvey companion to avoid putting my jump ship in distress.

I've still three jump points to search from the sol system, except the alien one, Struve...

[FuzzyZergling]

What are the advantages/disadvantages of diplomacy?
Do all or most aliens attack on sight, or were you just unlucky?

[LoSboccacc]

at the first contact, relations were quite neutral, at just -3.

soon thereafter they got a sensor reading on my jumpship, which is a military vessel due his sensors, and got quite pissed about that.

now relations are quite bad. Not "kill on sight and follow on the seven galaxy to eliminate the last one" bad, but bad.

at higher diplomacy you get trade, free passage and shared technology, I think. but the wiki page about that is pretty scant.

I think the initial reaction depends on their xenophobia rating or something, so a bit of bad luck may be involved there.

[EuchreJack]

Have you assigned diplomatic team to the aliens yet?

You start by making a team, similar to creating a geosurvey team, however it does not matter where they are created (I'd suggest placing them on your homeworld).

Next, you access the aliens in the diplomacy menu, and add your team to the aliens.

Finally, try and establish communications.

As it looks, you probably won't win a war, so hopefully you can establish peaceful relations.  Or they're precursors, which means guaranteed enemies that will never leave their system.

[LoSboccacc]

Have you assigned diplomatic team to the aliens yet?

You start by making a team, similar to creating a geosurvey team, however it does not matter where they are created (I'd suggest placing them on your homeworld).

Next, you access the aliens in the diplomacy menu, and add your team to the aliens.

Finally, try and establish communications.

As it looks, you probably won't win a war, so hopefully you can establish peaceful relations.  Or they're precursors, which means guaranteed enemies that will never leave their system.

assigned a team and attempted communication, it says communication impossible, but they seems not the average precursor (not that I meet any before)

[LoSboccacc]

Here are our neighbouring systems we have discovered in our efforts to bolster our resources income:

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Struve 2398 is occupied by an hostile alien race. Communications failed up until now, and we’re unsure if they are a threat or not.

Luyten 347-14 is a small sistem, consisting only in few comets and asteroids.

Ross 128 & 154 are cold, small systems, with their planets in the near vicinity of the star and mostly broken in cloud of moons.

Of all those system, only three planets are available for sustaining a human colony, but neither of them has abundant or easy to obtain minerals.

Ross system has some promising uninhabitable earth like moons that may or may not hold some useful minerals, but we need to revise our plan. Instead of looking for a single useful planet, we need to split our mining effort to obtain a decent mineral coverage.

We’ll set colonies wherever we can find a single mineral with at least 100k reserve and 0.9 availability, in the hope of finding them all in just one or two system, to reduce transportation costs.

Meanwhile, we colonized Mars and Titan, which created a lot of business opportunities for our civilian to exploit. Their massive cargo fleet will aid in managing the distribution of the automated mines around our colonies. I just need to build jumpgates to facilitate their intersystem mobility.

[Felius]

Remember you don't need people just to mine, specially in the long run. While for now you might be best served moving around mines, outside of the short term, building a lot automated mines is generally worth it. And remember that you don't need a 0 cost planet to colonize. Infrastructure is pretty cheap.