Editing VB-Basic Beam Warship Tutorial (section)

===Turrets===
You might be asking, why have I just created a 12,000 km/s fire control system then if this bucket of bolts has no chance of going at anything like that speed? Good question! That is why we have turreted weapons. A weapon mounted in a turret has a tracking speed equal to the tracking speed of the turret rather than the speed of the ship. So we had better put our 10cm laser in a turret. Open the F2 window, go to the Research tab and select Energy Weapons. Instant the tech for Turret Tracking Speed 2000 km/s and Turret Tracking Speed 3000 km/s. Now click the Turrets button in the row of buttons along the bottom of the window.

The top right of the Turret Design Window shows the best technology available for both fire control speed rating and turret tracking speed. The Turret Calibre and Type section allows us to choose the type of beam weapon and whether this will be a single, dual, triple or quad turret. The Turret Components section allows us to choose the desired tracking speed of the turret and any armour for the turret. We won't bother with armour for this turret but we do want to change the tracking speed. Before we do so, note that the Rotation Gear % is 33%. This is how much space is required for the turret itself rather than the weapons it will mount. Better Turret Tracking Speed technology will reduce this percentage. A turret will require rotation gear of 10% if the Desired Tracking Speed is equal to the Turret Tracking Speed technology. Because the desired turret tracking speed is currently set to 10,000 km/s, which is 3.3x the turret tracking technology speed of 3000 km/s, the percentage is also multiplied by 3.3x and therefore becomes 33%. Change the desired tracking speed to 12,000 km/s so it will match the fire control system we designed earlier. Note the rotation gear percentage increases to 40% (because 12000/3000 x 10% = 40%). You don't need to remember the formulae. Just remember that higher desired tracking speed = more turret rotation gear and that improving the turret tracking tech will reduce the amount of rotation gear you need. Once the desired tracking speed is changed our turret should look like this:

 Single 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret
 Damage Output 3x1      Rate of Fire: 5 seconds     Range Modifier: 3
 Max Range 90,000 km    Turret Size: 5    Armour: 0    Turret HTK: 1
 Power Requirement: 3    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 3
 Cost: 25    Crew: 30
 Maximum Tracking Speed: 12000km/s
 Materials Required: 13x Duranium  3x Corbomite  9x Corundium  
 Development Cost for Project: 250RP

Most of this information is similar to that for a normal laser, except for turret size and max tracking speed. Also the damage output has 3x1, with the 1 representing a single weapon in this turret. Note that the turret is 5 HS (hull spaces) compared to only 3 HS for the standard 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser. This 5 HS comprises the 3 HS for the laser and 1.2 HS for the turret rotation gear (3HS x 40%), rounded up to 5 HS. Try changing this to a twin turret. It should appear as below:

 Twin 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret
 Damage Output 3x2      Rate of Fire: 5 seconds     Range Modifier: 3
 Max Range 90,000 km    Turret Size: 9    Armour: 0    Turret HTK: 2
 Power Requirement: 6    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 6
 Cost: 45    Crew: 60
 Maximum Tracking Speed: 12000km/s
 Materials Required: 21x Duranium  6x Corbomite  18x Corundium  
 Development Cost for Project: 450RP

The damage output is now 3x2 because there are two lasers in the turret each capable of 3 damage. The power requirement has also doubled to 6. However, because there are 2 lasers, each with its own C3 capacitor, the power recharge per 5 seconds is also 6. The size is 9 HS. This comprises 6 HS for the two lasers plus 2.4 HS for the turret gear (6 x 40%), rounded up to nine. Which means the twin turret is more efficient in terms of size because two single turrets would total 10 HS. Check the options for triple and quad turrets and you will find they are 13 HS and 17 HS respectively. They are slightly more efficient in terms of size but 17 HS is a large system so not quite as flexible when trying to fit everything into a ship design. Go back to the twin option.

We still have some wasted space in this twin turret design as the rotation gear plus weapons only adds up to 8.4 HS and is being rounded up to 9 HS, Is there anything we can do with the 0.6 HS? Actually, there is. If you increase the tracking speed to 15,000 km/s, the gear required will be 3 HS instead of 2.4 HS. The turret will still only be 9 HS and it will cost the same but it will include some future-proofing for free. When our new warship design eventually gets out of date, you could perhaps refit it with an improved fire control system based on more advanced technology. The turret will already be capable of matching up with a fire control that has a tracking speed of up to 15,000 km/s. Use Create to accept our new twin turret and use Instant on the Research tab under energy weapons. Go back to the class design window, change to the Design View tab, remove the existing 10cm laser and replace it with our new twin turret. The ship should now look like this:

 Ark Royal class Cruiser    3500 tons     363 Crew     314.5 BP      TCS 70  TH 200  EM 0
 2857 km/s     Armour 1-20     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 13
 Annual Failure Rate: 98%    IFR: 1.4%    Maintenance Capacity 56 MSP    Max Repair 45 MSP
 
 Nuclear Thermal Engine E10 (8)    Power 25    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 25    Armour 0    Exp 5%
 Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 25.7 billion km   (104 days at full power)
 
 Twin 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (1x2)    Range 90,000km     TS: 15000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 3    ROF 5        3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0
 15cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (1)    Range 180,000km     TS: 3000 km/s     Power 6-3     RM 3    ROF 10        6 6 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 1
 Fire Control S04 96-3000 (1)    Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 3000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
 Fire Control S04 24-12000 (1)    Max Range: 48,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0
 
 This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

As you can see the turret has a tracking speed of 15,000 km/s so it can easily handle the fire control with the 12,000 km/s tracking speed. Also note that because we just increased the size of the ship, the speed has dropped to 2857 km/s. The tracking speed for the 15cm Laser (which isn't turret-mounted) has therefore reverted to the Empire's best tracking speed technology of 3000 km/s. Lets add a second 10cm twin turret and a second 15cm laser. When we get to combat I will explain how to link weapon systems to fire controls. For now we are happy that this design has some long ranged 15cm lasers and a long-ranged fire control plus two anti-missile turrets with a suitable fast-tracking fire control.

If you look at the design errors box in the bottom right you will see a message for insufficient life support. Check the Life Support section near the centre of the left hand edge and you will see Required Crew is 463 and Life Support is 250. Add a crew quarters to correct the life support problem. We'll have to keep an eye on this as we still have a few systems to add and the required crew is very likely going to rise above 500.