Warships of the Imperial Union of Great Britain & Terrestrial Commonwealths, rev. 1876

Design Forum
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First proper designs I’ve made in 2.70. Campaign conceit is that peat-diggers in Scotland found an alien ship in a bog circa the 1820s, with the technological and scientific fruit of TN theory ultimately leading to a soft coup by the Admiralty and some of their allies in Parliament. First flight of British starships was in 1850, the campaign is currently up to TL4-5ish with drive tech slightly ahead of the rest. I’m playing with 50% tech speed and 50% survey speed.

Established fleet doctrine revolves around cruiser squadrons for external operations against enemy fleet groups, armed survey cruisers acting as commerce raiders, and a mix of corvette groups and detached light cruisers for internal security. Carriers and orbital defense platforms are first-gen.

Feedback is welcome.

Europa class Heavy Cruiser 80,000 tons 1,582 Crew 18,952 BP TCS 1,600 TH 6,000 EM 5,100
7500 km/s Armour 10-165 Shields 170-425 HTK 485 Sensors 280/0/0/0 DCR 60-7 PPV 345.68
Maint Life 0.88 Years MSP 5,922 AFR 1280% IFR 17.8% 1YR 6,722 5YR 100,827 Max Repair 1,932 MSP
Magazine 2,180 / 0
Captain Control Rating 4 BRG AUX ENG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months CDE 30% Morale Check Required

Magnetic Fusion Drive EP1500.00 (8) Power 12000 Fuel Use 28.53% Signature 750.0 Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 14,393,000 Litres Range 113.5 billion km (175 days at full power)
Epsilon S85 / R425 Shields (2) Recharge 425 seconds (0.4 per second)

Quad Gauss Cannon R400-100 Turret (8x16) Range 40,000km TS 20000 km/s Power 0-0 ROF 5
Point Defence Fire Control R80-TS20000 (70%) (2) Range 80,000 km TS 20,000 km/s ECCM-2

ASM-10 Launcher (60.0% Reduction) (10) Missile Size: 10 ROF 80
Missile Fire Control FC191-R20 (70%) (1) Range 191.8m km RES 20 ECCM-2 EH-30
ASM-10 Firestreak MK-II (218) Speed 21,000 km/s Range 127.9m km WH 25 Size 10 TH: 2,940 / 5,880 / 11,760

Active Search Sensor AS214-R20 (70%) (1) GPS 28000 Range 214.4m km RES 20 ECCM-2 EH-30
Point Defence Sensor AS11-R1 (70%) (1) GPS 28 Range 11.2m km MCR 1m km RES 1 ECCM-2 EH-30
Thermal Sensor TH20-280 (70%) (1) Sensitivity 280 Detect 1000: 132.3m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers: Sensor 2 Fire Control 2 Missile 2

Calliope class Jump Cruiser 80,000 tons 1,612 Crew 19,501.7 BP TCS 1,600 TH 6,000 EM 5,100
7500 km/s JR 4-100 Armour 10-165 Shields 170-425 HTK 435 Sensors 280/0/0/0 DCR 60-7 PPV 262.26
Maint Life 0.84 Years MSP 6,094 AFR 1280% IFR 17.8% 1YR 7,226 5YR 108,384 Max Repair 1,932 MSP
Magazine 2,160 / 0
Captain Control Rating 4 BRG AUX ENG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months CDE 30% Morale Check Required

J80000(4-100) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 80000 tons Distance 100k km Squadron Size 4
Magnetic Fusion Drive EP1500.00 (8) Power 12000 Fuel Use 28.53% Signature 750.0 Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 15,150,000 Litres Range 119.5 billion km (184 days at full power)
Epsilon S85 / R425 Shields (2) Recharge 425 seconds (0.4 per second)

Quad Gauss Cannon R400-100 Turret (6x16) Range 40,000km TS 20000 km/s Power 0-0 ROF 5
Point Defence Fire Control R80-TS20000 (70%) (2) Range 80,000 km TS 20,000 km/s ECCM-2

ASM-10 Launcher (60.0% Reduction) (8) Missile Size: 10 ROF 80
Missile Fire Control FC191-R20 (70%) (1) Range 191.8m km RES 20 ECCM-2 EH-30
ASM-10 Firestreak MK-II (216) Speed 21,000 km/s Range 127.9m km WH 25 Size 10 TH: 2,940 / 5,880 / 11,760

Active Search Sensor AS214-R20 (70%) (1) GPS 28000 Range 214.4m km RES 20 ECCM-2 EH-30
Point Defence Sensor AS11-R1 (70%) (1) GPS 28 Range 11.2m km MCR 1m km RES 1 ECCM-2 EH-30
Thermal Sensor TH20-280 (70%) (1) Sensitivity 280 Detect 1000: 132.3m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers: Sensor 2 Fire Control 2 Missile 2

Marksman class Destroyer 50,000 tons 1,056 Crew 13,207.5 BP TCS 1,000 TH 3,750 EM 5,100
7500 km/s Armour 10-120 Shields 170-425 HTK 358 Sensors 280/0/0/0 DCR 41-8 PPV 285.68
Maint Life 0.63 Years MSP 3,466 AFR 952% IFR 13.2% 1YR 5,507 5YR 82,606 Max Repair 1,932 MSP
Captain Control Rating 4 BRG AUX ENG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months CDE 30% Morale Check Required

Magnetic Fusion Drive EP1500.00 (5) Power 7500 Fuel Use 28.53% Signature 750.0 Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 6,291,000 Litres Range 79.4 billion km (122 days at full power)
Epsilon S85 / R425 Shields (2) Recharge 425 seconds (0.4 per second)

Quad Gauss Cannon R400-100 Turret (8x16) Range 40,000km TS 20000 km/s Power 0-0 ROF 5
Point Defence Fire Control R80-TS20000 (70%) (4) Range 80,000 km TS 20,000 km/s ECCM-2

Active Search Sensor AS78-R1 (70%) (1) GPS 1400 Range 79m km MCR 7.1m km RES 1 ECCM-2 EH-30
Thermal Sensor TH20-280 (70%) (1) Sensitivity 280 Detect 1000: 132.3m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers: Sensor 2 Fire Control 2 Missile 2

ASM-10 Firestreak MK-II

Missile Size: 10.00 MSP (25.000 Tons) Warhead: 25.0 Radiation Damage: 25.0
Speed: 21,000 km/s Fuel: 6,650 Flight Time: 102 minutes Range: 127.94m km
Thermal Sensor Strength: 0.18 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 3,354,102 km
Decoys: 1 ECM-4 ECCM-2 ATG: 40% Retarget Capable
Cost Per Missile: 13.788 Development Cost: 293

100% Chance to Hit: 2,940 km/s 50% Chance: 5,880 km/s 25% Chance: 11,760 km/s

These are the core of my current-gen cruiser squadrons. Typical composition is 2:1:1 for CA/CJ/DD. A cruiser squadron will usually operate with two wings of four ships in this arrangement, allowing them to split to cover multiple objectives or herd enemy forces. Prior enemy encounters by British naval forces tended to lean towards smaller numbers of well-shielded (400+ strength) missile cruisers firing large volumes of long-ranged mid-sized ASMs, so doctrine for British external forces focuses on ships resilient enough to close to their own range through heavy fire and kill each target with one or two salvos.

The high fuel capacity, high intended deployment duration, and relatively low maintenance life reflects current logistics in the Empire. The furthest bounds of known space are ~30-35b km from Sol and a new wave of expansion is imminent. I have more in the way of supply depots and supply ships than I do inhabited colonies to give crews R&R. There is also a large number of Sorium-rich gas giants spread throughout the jump network with harvesting bases in place, so I’m fairly fuel-rich – current Sorium stockpiles are ~665k tons, with ~615 million liters of fuel on colonies and 77 million more in the tanks of various harvesting stations.

Vampire class Destroyer 50,000 tons 1,141 Crew 14,584.7 BP TCS 1,000 TH 4,500 EM 7,650
9000 km/s Armour 14-120 Shields 255-425 HTK 347 Sensors 280/0/0/0 DCR 41-8 PPV 223.22
Maint Life 0.62 Years MSP 3,828 AFR 952% IFR 13.2% 1YR 6,128 5YR 91,919 Max Repair 1,932 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months CDE 30% Morale Check Required

Magnetic Fusion Drive EP1500.00 (6) Power 9000 Fuel Use 28.53% Signature 750.0 Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 4,367,000 Litres Range 55.1 billion km (70 days at full power)
Epsilon S85 / R425 Shields (3) Recharge 425 seconds (0.6 per second)

Twin 20cm C4 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (2x2) Range 320,000km TS 10000 km/s Power 20-8 ROF 15
Twin 12cm C4 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (4x2) Range 200,000km TS 10000 km/s Power 8-8 ROF 5
Quad Gauss Cannon R400-100 Turret (4x16) Range 40,000km TS 20000 km/s Power 0-0 ROF 5
Direct Fire Control R320-TS10000 (70%) (2) Range 320,000 km TS 10,000 km/s ECCM-2
Point Defence Fire Control R80-TS20000 (70%) (1) Range 80,000 km TS 20,000 km/s ECCM-2
Tokamak Fusion Reactor R8 (6) Total Power Output 48 Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor AS78-R1 (70%) (1) GPS 1400 Range 79m km MCR 7.1m km RES 1 ECCM-2 EH-30
Thermal Sensor TH20-280 (70%) (1) Sensitivity 280 Detect 1000: 132.3m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers: Sensor 2 Fire Control 2 Missile 2

This is intended as a multi-role combatant for locking down jump points, dueling large enemy STO batteries, and chasing down light ships. It’s deliberately designed to be able to substitute in for Marksman-class destroyers in the cruiser squadrons if they’re fighting something that doesn’t require such heavy point defense, or something that uses bomb-pumped laser warheads.

Restless III class Corvette 5,000 tons 133 Crew 1,707.2 BP TCS 100 TH 600 EM 0
12000 km/s Armour 3-26 Shields 0-0 HTK 26 Sensors 112/0/0/0 DCR 1-2 PPV 4.8
Maint Life 0.48 Years MSP 213 AFR 200% IFR 2.8% 1YR 445 5YR 6,675 Max Repair 450 MSP
Magazine 144 / 0
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months CDE 30% Morale Check Required

Magnetic Fusion Drive EP600.00 (2) Power 1200 Fuel Use 77.94% Signature 300.0 Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 529,500 Litres Range 24.5 billion km (23 days at full power)

ASM-4 Launcher (30.0% Reduction) (4) Missile Size: 4 ROF 400
Missile Fire Control FC85-R20 (70%) (1) Range 85.8m km RES 20 ECCM-2 EH-30
ASM-4 Dragonfly (36) Speed 38,500 km/s Range 41.2m km WH 4 Size 4 TH: 5,390 / 10,780 / 21,560

Active Search Sensor AS85-R20 (70%) (1) GPS 4480 Range 85.8m km RES 20 ECCM-2 EH-30
Thermal Sensor TH8-112 (70%) (1) Sensitivity 112 Detect 1000: 83.7m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers: Sensor 2 Fire Control 2 Missile 2

This is a cheap internal security ship meant to be used for picketing listening posts and running down enemy commerce raiders, survey ships, &c. It shares the same light ASM as my survey cruisers.

ASM-4 Dragonfly

Missile Size: 4.00 MSP (10.000 Tons) Warhead: 4.0 Radiation Damage: 4.0
Speed: 38,500 km/s Fuel: 1,000 Flight Time: 18 minutes Range: 41.19m km
ECCM-2 ATG: 40% Retarget Capable
Cost Per Missile: 5.85 Development Cost: 191

100% Chance to Hit: 5,390 km/s 50% Chance: 10,780 km/s 25% Chance: 21,560 km/s

Hecate III class Survey Cruiser 25,000 tons 435 Crew 3,451.7 BP TCS 500 TH 3,000 EM 2,550
6000 km/s Armour 3-76 Shields 85-425 HTK 101 Sensors 280/6/4/4 DCR 30-12 PPV 4.8
Maint Life 1.09 Years MSP 862 AFR 500% IFR 6.9% 1YR 736 5YR 11,035 Max Repair 322 MSP
Magazine 144 / 0
Captain Control Rating 1 BRG DIP
Intended Deployment Time: 48 months CDE 30% Morale Check Required

Commercial Magnetic Fusion Drive EP600.00 (5) Power 3000 Fuel Use 2.89% Signature 600 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 520,000 Litres Range 129.7 billion km (250 days at full power)
Epsilon S85 / R425 Shields (1) Recharge 425 seconds (0.2 per second)

CIWS-200 (1x8) Range 1000 km TS 20,000 km/s ROF 5
ASM-4 Launcher (30.0% Reduction) (4) Missile Size: 4 ROF 400
Missile Fire Control FC85-R20 (70%) (1) Range 85.8m km RES 20 ECCM-2 EH-30
Sensor Buoy Spyglass MK-II (8) Speed 0 km/s Range 0m km WH 0 Size 4 TH: 0 / 0 / 0
ASM-4 Dragonfly (28) Speed 38,500 km/s Range 41.2m km WH 4 Size 4 TH: 5,390 / 10,780 / 21,560

Active Search Sensor AS85-R20 (70%) (1) GPS 4480 Range 85.8m km RES 20 ECCM-2 EH-30
Thermal Sensor TH20-280 (70%) (1) Sensitivity 280 Detect 1000: 132.3m km
Improved Geological Sensors (2) 4 Survey Points Per Hour
Improved Gravitational Sensors (2) 4 Survey Points Per Hour
ELINT Module (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect 1000: 19.4m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers: Sensor 2 Fire Control 2 Missile 2

The survey cruiser in question. This is an updated design of the III variant (originally launched in 1874) that adds a shield generator and improved EWAR jammers.

Aurora class Light Cruiser 30,000 tons 695 Crew 8,465.1 BP TCS 600 TH 2,250 EM 5,100
7500 km/s JR 4-100 Armour 5-86 Shields 170-425 HTK 153 Sensors 280/6/0/0 DCR 15-5 PPV 32.8
Maint Life 0.94 Years MSP 2,645 AFR 480% IFR 6.7% 1YR 2,827 5YR 42,412 Max Repair 1,932 MSP
Magazine 608 / 0
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months CDE 30% Morale Check Required

J30000(4-100) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 30000 tons Distance 100k km Squadron Size 4
Magnetic Fusion Drive EP1500.00 (3) Power 4500 Fuel Use 28.53% Signature 750.0 Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 4,933,000 Litres Range 103.8 billion km (160 days at full power)
Epsilon S85 / R425 Shields (2) Recharge 425 seconds (0.4 per second)

Twin 12cm C4 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (2x2) Range 200,000km TS 10000 km/s Power 8-8 ROF 5
CIWS-200 (2x8) Range 1000 km TS 20,000 km/s ROF 5
Direct Fire Control R320-TS10000 (70%) (1) Range 320,000 km TS 10,000 km/s ECCM-2
Tokamak Fusion Reactor R8 (2) Total Power Output 16 Exp 5%

ASM-4 Launcher (30.0% Reduction) (8) Missile Size: 4 ROF 400
Missile Fire Control FC85-R20 (70%) (1) Range 85.8m km RES 20 ECCM-2 EH-30

Active Search Sensor AS214-R20 (70%) (1) GPS 28000 Range 214.4m km RES 20 ECCM-2 EH-30
Thermal Sensor TH20-280 (70%) (1) Sensitivity 280 Detect 1000: 132.3m km
ELINT Module (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect 1000: 19.4m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers: Sensor 2 Fire Control 2 Missile 2

This CL is intended to be a heavier equivalent to the corvette design above, with better ability to pursue targets outside of its home system and survive engagements with peer opponents. It was also designed to speed-match the CAs and CJs so that in a pinch it can be folded in to cruiser squadrons to replace damaged ships.

Hermes class Light Carrier 60,000 tons 1,297 Crew 14,587.5 BP TCS 1,200 TH 6,000 EM 2,550
10000 km/s Armour 4-136 Shields 85-425 HTK 333 Sensors 700/700/0/0 DCR 58-9 PPV 142.84
Maint Life 1.21 Years MSP 6,274 AFR 758% IFR 10.5% 1YR 4,392 5YR 65,885 Max Repair 1,125 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 6,000 tons
Captain Control Rating 2 BRG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Flight Crew Berths 120 CDE 30% Morale Check Required

Magnetic Fusion Drive EP1500.00 (8) Power 12000 Fuel Use 28.53% Signature 750.0 Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 8,457,000 Litres Range 88.9 billion km (102 days at full power)
Epsilon S85 / R425 Shields (1) Recharge 425 seconds (0.2 per second)

Quad Gauss Cannon R400-100 Turret (4x16) Range 40,000km TS 20000 km/s Power 0-0 ROF 5
Point Defence Fire Control R80-TS20000 (70%) (2) Range 80,000 km TS 20,000 km/s ECCM-2

Point Defence Sensor AS11-R1 (70%) (1) GPS 28 Range 11.2m km MCR 1m km RES 1 ECCM-2 EH-30
EM Sensor EM50-700 (1) Sensitivity 700 Detect 1000: 209.2m km
Thermal Sensor TH50-700 (70%) (1) Sensitivity 700 Detect 1000: 209.2m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers: Sensor 2 Fire Control 2 Missile 2

Strike Group
24x Sabre Fighter Speed: 14000 km/s Size: 5

Sabre class Fighter 250 tons 6 Crew 93.1 BP TCS 5 TH 35 EM 0
14000 km/s Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 HTK 2 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0-0 PPV 2
Maint Life 7.17 Years MSP 23 AFR 5% IFR 0.1% 1YR 1 5YR 12 Max Repair 52.5 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months CDE 30% Morale Check Required

Magnetic Fusion Drive EP70.00 (1) Power 70.0 Fuel Use 362.36% Signature 35.000 Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 5,700 Litres Range 1.13 billion km (22 hours at full power)

Gauss Cannon R400-33.00 (1x4) Range 40,000km TS 14,000 km/s Accuracy Modifier 33.00% ROF 5
Direct Fire Control R40-TS10000 (SW) (70%) (1) Range 40,000 km TS 10,000 km/s ECCM-2

Active Search Sensor AS3-R1 (70%) (1) GPS 3 Range 3.5m km MCR 317.9k km RES 1 ECCM-2 EH-30

A first-gen carrier designed for a mix of internal security operations chasing down stray hostile ships and long-term picketing in border systems, in both cases likely alongside other light assets operating semi-independently.

I’m still getting used to shields, this is my first time playing in a while and I keep having to remind myself that they don’t burn fuel any more. As noted above, the Precursors have super-heavy shields and weird size-4 ASMs instead of the usual AMM spam. The Raiders have been really active in some of my core systems that are 4b+ km across, so those little ~290 therm sig buggers are nearly impossible to find without a ton of fast light forces. That, and up until a few years ago one of the NPRs kept leaking ships into my territory through two separate hidden JPs which I finally found and occupied.

The main flaw is too much fuel – I could probably get away with ~60b km range on everything and rely more on tankers, but I’ve had to start escorting my tankers to avoid them getting popped in transit and honestly CBA.

Thoughts?

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Those are probably the longest ranged combat ships I’ve seen on this and the old forum. My current designs usually have 17b range with ~200% fuel use, but also around 1000 km/s faster even though I’m still at ion.

Feels like at your tonnage you could stand to arm your ships a little more, though take with a grain of salt I’ve never built anything bugger than 30k in my playthroughs

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My gut reaction is you’re really light on tonnage dedicated to offensive firepower, as a percentage of ship tonnage. It looks like you have a LOT of gauss and CIWS turrets, which I guess is, as you mentioned, a function of the enemy you’ve encountered being heavy on missiles.

Your Firestreak Mk-II seem super slow for that tech level. Have you tried increasing engine boost and fuel and slightly cutting warhead size? Your dragonfly missile is twice the speed, although obviously much lower warhead.

I don’t have as much experience with using missiles on offense, but have you considered putting less missile defense on and more missile offense, and killing the bastards before they can do as much damage to you, as opposed to tanking it all?

On the positive side, your ships-of-the-line are so big they’ll be hard to kill just based on sheer size. I’ve found that to be a significant benefit of using big ships.

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This.

I heard one guy in a wiki guide put it really well when he said that with missiles “you either go big or go home.” If your missiles cannot overwhelm the enemy’s missile defense, your ships are essentially unarmed. Combine that with your limited (and potentially expensive on Gallicite) ammunition, and that’s a real problem.

He’s also right that your close-combat vessels are also GIGANTIC for what little offensive power they have. I usually use the “Destroyer” class as a designation for close-combat vessels, usually around 20-40k tons. They’ll usually have a broadside of at least 5 guns of my highest firepower.

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Pro-tip: The AI will usually prioritize your largest ship, identifying it as the most severe threat. Give it heavy defenses, and have smaller ships doing heavy damage. That’s probably the bigger benefit of a larger ship; becoming a damage sponge

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I’ve not really experienced this. Usually, the AI targets my smaller ships because they are easier to destroy and thus quicker to remove guns from the battle.

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When my 5k and 1k sized ships are in the same fleet, the 5k get targeted. 5k have shields, 1k do not. So maybe the em size pulls the aggro? I also have the 1k keep their active sensors off to help reduce their sig when in a fleet with something that can tank damage.

Also, as soon as a 5k microwave is able to fire, the AI will single them out ahead of any of the other 5k weapon systems.

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Yep, definitely heard on the light armament and slower, heavier missiles. Those are both a product of the campaign, since I’ve got a lot of chains sealed off by Precursors with fast, well-shielded missile boats that have no PD. My typical all-rounder design in older versions was CLs with ~20 size 4ish launchers and ~300m km range in the ~30-40k ton bracket. This go-round they were getting run down and killed without being able to pop shields.

The larger ASMs don’t really need more speed since the vast majority of what they’re being shot at has little or no PD of its own except for decoys – retargeting is objectively superior to more hit % when that’s the case. The basic tactical flow has been to close through heavy fire starting at ~250m km, get locks at ~100m km, dump ~10-12 missiles per ship, and that’s all she wrote. Between the retargeting module and onboard sensor the hit rate is functionally 100%, even if it takes a few passes for them all connect. The main fail states for that sort of engagement are not being able to withstand the incoming damage while getting into range or not having large enough warheads to pop the shields and do critical damage in one salvo.

Don’t get me wrong though LOL, in a void you’re definitely correct that designs will need to change once this campaign runs into real PD. RE: classification, I tend to hew closer to roles than arbitrary tonnage bands. E.g. the two models of DD here are destroyers because they’re respectively a fleet escort point defense platform and a gunboat/cloaked ship hunter.

RE: targeting, @S810_Jr mirrors my own experiences since the early days of VB6. They’ll shoot first at EM emissions, at larger contact sizes, and at high-threat weapons. The classic case is PD ships being ignored entirely until they start firing offensively.

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I believe this is also correct. The AI loves to target what it thinks are your sensors to blind you so you can’t shoot. I think it is too overzealous about this, since most of the time player ships have redundant sensors to prevent exactly this vulnerability.

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Love that you’ve designed to optimize vs the enemy you’re fighting, vs sticking to “best practice” that’s general and not applicable here.

Just… Get ready for some other enemy to show up that throws you for a tailspin.

Wrt your current enemy, you should consider designing super long range two stage missiles, with the terminal stage being very fast and short range and having an active sensor. That way you can launch at a waypoint you set where you know an enemy is waiting, without needing to get close enough to see them on your own active sensors. That might keep you outside their detection or firing range.

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Yep, and it also makes it really easy to juggle aggro by building actives into every ship and toggling which one is on.

Not sure yet if they also hard focus shields now that they’re EM beacons, but if they do that opens up a whole new world of AI manipulation.

@nakorkren Mm, I’m getting pretty close to my Invader system count threshold. I know they don’t use the old model of plasma torps + binary shields and basically nothing else so I’m sure it’ll be a fun emergency to solve. I’ve only hit one of the gamestart NPRs so far and they seem to have wasted a lot of their research doing who knows what since the ships I’ve seen are only TL3-ish.

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Yeah, a salvo of 28 missiles from a squadron is really light. Understandable if you haven’t really faced strong PD enemies but definitely will become an issue later on. For comparison sake, in my PDR game my battleships are 100,000 tons and they carry the following armaments:
1x Spinal Particle Beam (6dmg)
20x Particle Beams (4dmg)
20x Lasers (16dmg)
20x Railguns (5x4dmg)
So if everything hits and the BB is at point-blank range, it can deal 806 points of damage. Obviously that will never happen but bear with me. Your heavy cruiser, if all ten missiles hit, can deal only 250 points of damage. If we count the squadron with 2x CA and 1x CJ, then in the best case scenario the squadron still does only 625 points of damage for a tonnage of 240,000.

Of course, comparing a beam slugger vs missile boat is not a fair comparison but I just wanted to emphasize that your cruiser designs prioritize defence way more than offence. I understand the reasoning why, just bringing up a counter-point.

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I thought my ships were slow with 18000 km/s and 80B range at solid-core AM. But man, even at the same tech level I’d be going 50% faster. (Granted, my entire doctrine relies on missiles and being able to carry out operations across extended distances, and I have faster, shorter range ships for in-system defense)

I feel like your fleet would be a lot more powerful if you had ships dedicated to point defense to cover the entire fleet (a destroyer escort or a frigate) so that your larger ships can use more of their tonnage to actually give the enemy a good wallop.

Also, you have very few, very slow, very expensive, and very big missiles on your ships. Which is fine if your enemy doesn’t have point defense (this seems to be the case), but I honestly feel like a larger volley of missiles half the size with 3x the speed would be a lot more effective. Even just going from 60% launchers to 30% launchers would alone double your firepower (and at a range of 120m km you aren’t going to miss that extra reload speed.)

As a point of comparison for missiles: My Corvettes (12k tons) have 63 size 5 box missile launchers (not meant for a protracted engagement) firing strength 4 warheads. That’s 252 points of damage if everything hits. That’s the same amount of damage you’re getting out of your 80k ton cruisers.

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May you share your designs, please?
I’m curious of how much armour and shield your ships have.

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Jump Frigate
Jump Frigate789×622 16.6 KB

Cruiser
Cruiser787×601 21.3 KB

Destroyer
Destroyer785×600 18.9 KB

Corvette
Corvette787×599 18.2 KB

Frigate
Frigate785×624 21.8 KB

Carrier
Carrier787×634 15.8 KB

AMM Fighter
AMM Fighter792×635 13.5 KB

Fighter
Fighter791×626 13.7 KB

AMM
AMM706×242 5.78 KB

ASM
ASM717×248 6.45 KB

And then I have an AWACS fighter which apparently didn’t show up.