C-Basic Beam Warship Tutorial: Difference between revisions
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Designing a Beam-armed Warship
[edit]Before we begin, make sure you are in SM Mode. This is a long section so prepare yourself.
"Beam weapon" in Aurora refers to every weapon that isn't a missile weapon or CIWS (Close In Weapon System). At the moment that includes Lasers, Railguns, Torpedoes, Gauss Cannon, High Power Microwaves and Meson Cannon. For the purposes of this tutorial I'll use Lasers as an example and then cover the other beam weapons in the next tutorial.
Lasers are the yardstick for other beam weapons in Aurora and are reasonably good at everything. Larger lasers can be used as offensive weapons and have a good damage output. Small lasers can be used as dedicated point defence weapons, or slightly larger ones can be used in a dual point defence / anti-ship role. They can also be fitted in turrets. Lasers and other beam weapons are very short-ranged compared to missile weapons but they can do a lot of damage in a short space of time and they don't need ammunition. Beam-armed ships can be deadly when waiting in ambush at a jump point. Every ship suffers sensor and fire-control blindness after a jump for perhaps 30-60 seconds and a beam ship can do a lot of damage in that time, if it is experienced enough to respond to orders quickly.
Before we look at laser design, lets give ourselves some laser tech using the Instant button on the Research tab of the F2 Economics window. We have been using this Instant button quite a lot but you should get some free tech points at the start of a campaign. If you look under the list of Scientists you will see a text box entitled Starting RP. This shows how many free research points you have left. As you Instant something, the total will decrease. Once you have used them all the box will disappear and you should manually research from that point, although you can still go into SM Mode and Instant something if you want to override normal game play for some reason.
Change to Energy Weapons and Instant 12cm Laser Focal Size. Researching that technology makes 15cm Laser Focal Size available so Instant that as well. Next use Instant on Visible Light Laser and also the next tech in the series, Near Ultraviolet Laser. Now change to Power and Propulsion and use Instant on three technologies in the same series, Capacitor Recharge Rate 2, 3 and 4.
Now open the Create Research Project window and change the Project Type to Lasers. There are four background technologies for Lasers. Laser Focal Size determines how large the laser is, how much damage it causes, how much power it requires and the base range. Laser Wavelength modifies the range, with longer wavelength lasers having greater range. Capacitor Recharge Rate determines how fast the laser's power can be recharged and therefore determines its rate of fire. Reduced Size Laser technology, which we won't be examining in this tutorial, creates more compact lasers that have slower rates of fire. When you first select lasers, the program will select the best available background technology in each category, which should create a laser design that looks like this:
15.0cm C4 Near Ultraviolet Laser Damage Output 6 Rate of Fire 10 seconds Range Modifier 30,000 Max Range 180,000 km Laser Size 5 HS (250 tons) Laser HTK 2 Power Requirement 6 Recharge Rate 4 Cost: 29.4 Crew: 15 Development Cost 383 RP Materials Required: 5.9x Duranium 5.9x Boronide 17.6x Corundium
Lets go through some of the terminology. Damage Output is the maximum damage caused by the laser, usually at point blank range. The Rate of Fire is how often the laser fires, assuming sufficient power is provided to the weapon. Rate of Fire is always rounded up to the nearest 5 seconds as that it is smallest time increment in Aurora. Range Modifier is the wavelength of the weapon. Damage falls off with range and the Max Range is equal to the maximum damage multiplied by the Range Modifier multiplied by 10,000 km. In this case, 6 x 3 x 10,000 = 180,000 km. Laser Size is the physical size of the laser in hull spaces (1 hull space = 50 tons). Laser HTK is the hits-to-kill for this system. If it receives two points of damage it is automatically destroyed. If it receives one point of damage it has a fifty percent chance of bring destroyed. The Power Requirement is the amount of energy that must to be sent to the weapon by power reactors before it can fire. Power Recharge is the maximum amount of power that can be sent to the weapon in 5 seconds. The rest are similar to previous systems.
Note that the rate of fire is 10 seconds because only four power can be sent to the weapon every 5 seconds and it needs 6 power. If your capacitor recharge rate technology was 6 instead of 4, you could build a 15cm laser that fired every 5 seconds. We are wasting power a little here as we are using a capacitor that allows 8 power to the laser every 10 seconds and we only need 6. If you change the capacitor recharge rate dropdown to 3 instead of 4 then the laser will still fire every 10 seconds but it will be a little cheaper to manufacture. Since this has no drawbacks on this design, change the recharge rate to 3.
Press Instant for the laser, and it will be added to your race's available ship components instantly. If you weren't using Spacemaster mode, you would instead press Create, which would add it to your race's available research options (under the Energy Weapons category, naturally). Alternatively, if you're not sure exactly what you wanted, you could press Prototype, which would make it available to play around with in the Class Design window. (Make sure to check off the "Prototypes" checkbox at the bottom of the components window if you want to design prototype ships, and remember that you'll actually need to create and research the prototype before you can create the final ship.)
Those 15cm lasers are fairly good ship-killers, but they're too slow-firing to deal with other threats (like shooting down missiles). For this, we'll want a second laser design that's smaller and faster-firing. Go back into the Laser design window, then change the focal size to 10cm. Now you have a laser that should appear as below. This 10cm laser only does half the damage of the 15cm per shot, but it fires every 5 seconds, so the overall damage output over time is the same as the 15cm. Its damage output per hull space over time is actually greater as it is only 60% of the tonnage. Because it only has half the range, an equal speed or faster ship equipped with a 15cm weapon would stay out of range and the 15cm has more crunch effect as hits from that weapon will penetrate more armour. The 15cm is superior as an anti-ship weapon. However, fast firing beam weapons make good point defence weapons. In the case of point defence, overall rate of fire becomes more important than damage per hit. Therefore press Instant for this weapon too, and we will now have two different lasers we can use.
10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Damage Output 3 Rate of Fire 5 seconds Range Modifier 30,000 Max Range 90,000 km Laser Size 3 HS (150 tons) Laser HTK 1 Power Requirement 3 Recharge Rate 3 Cost 15.6 Crew 9 Development Cost 279 RP Materials Required: Duranium 3.1 Boronide 3.1 Corundium 9.4
Fire Control Systems
[edit]Next, we will create some beam fire control systems. Once again we need to Instant some technology before we begin the design process. Go to the Research tab and give yourself Beam Fire Control Range 32,000 km, Beam Fire Control Range 48,000 km, Fire Control Speed Rating 2000 km/s and Fire Control Speed Rating 3000 km/s. Now open the Create Research Project window and select Beam Fire Control. There are seven different parameters, although we don't need to bother with the last three for now. The first two will show the best available technology for beam fire control range and tracking speed and there is no need to change these. Most of the decision making for standard ship-based fire control systems is in the third and fourth dropdowns. At the moment the beam fire control should appear as below.
Beam Fire Control R48-TS3000 Max Range 48,000 km Tracking Speed 3000 km/s Size 0.5 HS (25 tons) HTK 0 Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100% Cost 7.2 Crew 2 Development Cost 189 RP Materials Required: Uridium 7.2
The Max Range at 48,000 km simply means that any beam weapon linked to this fire control will not be able to hit any target more than 48,000 km away. Base chance to hit always starts at 100% if the range is 0 km, and decreases linearly to 0% at the max range. (So, for example, 24,000 km is 50% of the max range, so your base chance to hit will be 50% at 24,000 km.) In effect, every beam fire control you design will have its own to hit chart which is shown when you add the fire control to a class design. Our 15cm Laser has a max range of 180,000 km but linked to this fire control as it currently stands, it would be ineffective beyond 48,000 km because it wouldn’t be able to hit anything. The Tracking Speed of 3000 km/s means that the fire control will be able to track any target moving at 3000 km/s or less without any penalty to the base to hit chance. Against targets moving faster than 3000 km/s, the base chance to hit is modified by (Tracking Speed / Target Speed). For example, against a target moving at 4000 km/s, the base chance to hit would be modified by 3000/4000 or 0.75.
At the moment the fire control is only 25 tons. By using the third dropdown, Fire Control Size vs Range, we can increase the range of the fire control by increasing its size. Change this dropdown to read "Fire Control 2x Size 2x Range". The fire control is now 50 tons and the max range has doubled to 96,000 km. Change it to "Fire Control 4x Size 4x Range", so it appears as below. With a max range of 192,000 km, it will match up well with our 15cm Laser. Change the name if you like and press Instant to create this fire control system.
Beam Fire Control R192-TS3000 Max Range 192,000 km Tracking Speed 3000 km/s Size 2 HS (100 tons) HTK 1 Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100% Cost 28.8 Crew 8 Development Cost 379 RP Materials Required Uridium 28.8
The 10cm laser is intended for use against missiles, so the 3000 km/s tracking speed of the above fire control will be of no use to us. Even against a missile travelling at just 15,000 km/s, the base chance to hit will be divided by 5 (3000/15000 = 0.2). Therefore we need to increase the tracking speed considerably. You can do this in the similar way to increasing the range. Change the Fire Control Size vs Tracking Speed to "Fire Control 4x Size 4x Tracking Speed". Now we have a problem. Although the tracking speed is 12,000 km/s, which is much better, the fire control is now 400 tons, which is huge. This is because the multipliers for size and range are cumulative. However, as this fire control is intended to engage missiles at very close range, we no longer need the range multiplier so reduce that to the original "Normal Size Normal Range" setting. Our beam fire control should now look like this:
Beam Fire Control R48-TS12000 Max Range 48,000 km Tracking Speed 12,000 km/s ECCM-0 Size 2 HS (100 tons) HTK 1 Chance of destruction by electronic damage 100% Cost 28.8 Crew 8 Development Cost 379 RP Materials Required Uridium 28.8
The tracking speed of 12,000 km still isn't enough to avoid any penalty to the base to hit chance if you are shooting at a 15,000 km missile, but as you will likely engage missiles at a range of 10,000 km, just before they strike the ship, the base chance to hit will be fairly high anyway. To build a faster tracking fire control, you would need to research the next level of fire control tracking technology. Go to the Research tab of the Economics window and Instant our new fire control systems.
Other Equipment
[edit]Our ship's weaponry is complete, but there are a few other pieces of equipment we'll need before we're done - engines, power plants, and sensors, in particular. These are also created in the Create Research Project screen. (Note: This is a lot of prep work, but a lot of these components are going to get reused over and over again - you won't need to do this for every design)
For engines, it's possible to mount a bunch of smaller engines to give your ship redundancy against battle damage, but the ship we're designing is a small cruiser that doesn't have space to make anything else redundant, so we won't do that with the engines either. Instead, we'll mount one larger engine, because bigger engines are more fuel-efficient. We have very low levels of engine technology, so this will be a rudimentary engine, but it should do the job. Pick a Nuclear Thermal engine, with an engine power ratio of 120% to give it a bit of extra speed without costing too much fuel, fuel consumption of 1L/EPH, no thermal reduction, and a size of 20, and hit Instant. That will look like this:
Nuclear Thermal Engine EP153.60 Engine Power 153.60 Fuel Use Per Hour 171.33 Litres Fuel Consumption per Engine Power Hour 1.115 Litres Size 20 HS (1,000 tons) HTK 4 Thermal Signature 153.6 Explosion Chance 12% Max Explosion Size 38 Cost 76.80 Crew 24 Military Engine Development Cost 619 RP Materials Required Gallicite 76.80
Next, our power plant. We would eventually like to mount a total of six lasers on our design (two ship-killers and four point defense lasers), and each one has a recharge rate of 3, so we'll need 3*6=18 power. Again, our tech level here is fairly low, so pick a Pebble Bed reactor, no boost, and a plant size of 3.20, because that gets us the 18 power we need. (We could again choose to split the reactor if we wanted redundancy, but a 9-power reactor would be size 2, and two of those would be a total of 2*2=4 HS, which is 40 tons heavier than the single reactor. That's not what this design needs, so we'll make the big one.)
Pebble Bed Reactor R18 Power Output 18.32 Power per HS 5.72 Explosion Chance 5% Max Explosion Size 9 Size 3.20 HS (160 tons) HTK 1 Cost 55.0 Crew 6 Development Cost 524 RP Materials Required Boronide 55.0
Finally, some sensors. There's four kinds of sensors we might want on our ship - an active search sensor optimized for finding the enemy's main ships, a separate active search sensor optimized for detecting enemy missiles and small craft, and two passive sensors that can let us detect enemy emissions without broadcasting our position. One of these sensors (the ship search sensor) was already designed in Part 4: Basic Ship Creation. We'll need to design an accompanying missile search radar. This is very similar, except that it'll only have a resolution of 1 (the smallest possible), which will make it far better at detecting small threats. Use the best sensor strength and EM sensitivity (12 and 6, respectively), a sensor size of 1.0, a resolution of 50 tons (1 HS), and no hardening or ECCM. It should look like this:
Active Search Sensor AS4-R1 Active Sensor Strength 12 Sensitivity Modifier: 50% ECCM-0 Sensor Size 1.0 HS (50 tons) HTK 1 Resolution 1 Maximum Range vs 50 ton object (or larger): 4,370,189 km Range vs Size 6 Missile (or smaller): 393,317 km Range vs Size 8 Missile: 699,230 km Range vs Size 12 Missile: 1,573,268 km Chance of destruction by electronic damage 100% Cost 12.0 Crew 2 Development Cost 244 RP Materials Required Uridium 12.0
This will give us warning of missiles before they impact - for the 15000 km/s missiles we're designing this ship to fight, they can only cross 75,000 km per five-second tick, so we're going to be able to see them for at least five ticks before they hit us, even if they're very small. A ship using anti-missile missiles might want more detection range than this, but our anti-missile weapons are short-range lasers, so this is plenty for us. Instant-create this sensor.
We also need those passive sensors. Under both EM Detection Sensors and Thermal Detection Sensors, choose sensitivity 5, sensor size 1, and no hardening. They'll each look something like this:
Thermal Sensor TH1.0-5.0 Thermal Sensor Sensitivity 5 Sensor Size 1.0 HS (50 tons) HTK 1 Detect Sig Strength 10: 1.77m km Detect Sig Strength 100: 5.59m km Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.68m km Chance of destruction by electronic damage 100% Cost 6.0 Crew 2 Development Cost 158 RP Materials Required Uridium 5.0
Instant-create those as well, and now we are finally ready to assemble our ship.
Ship Creation
[edit]Open the F5 Class Design window and press New Ship Class (at the bottom). Add one each of the two lasers and two fire control systems, then click Show Bands on the right-hand side to get extra info on our laser ranges. Your design should appear as below.
Ark Royal class Cruiser 1,084 tons 50 Crew 154.6 BP TCS 22 TH 0 EM 0 1 km/s Armour 1-9 Shields 0-0 HTK 9 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1-9 PPV 8 Maint Life 10.57 Years MSP 89 AFR 9% IFR 0.1% 1YR 1 5YR 22 Max Repair 28.8 MSP Commander Control Rating 1 BRG Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range N/A 15.0cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (1) Range 180,000km TS: 3,000 km/s Power 6-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 10 6 6 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (1) Range 90,000km TS: 3,000 km/s Power 3-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 5 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 Beam Fire Control R192-TS3000 (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 3,000 km/s ECCM-0 71 67 63 59 55 52 48 44 40 36 Beam Fire Control R48-TS12000 (1) Max Range: 48,000 km TS: 12,000 km/s ECCM-0 79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes
For the lasers the information presented includes the name, how many of that system are in the design, the range, the tracking speed, the power requirements in terms of power to fire and power required per 5 sec, the range modifier, the rate of fire and the damage output in 10,000 km steps. We'll get back to why weapons (as well as fire controls) have a tracking speed in a moment. The fire control information includes the name, how many of the system are in the design, the maximum range, the tracking speed and the chance to hit in 10,000 km steps. On the right hand side there is a section called Range Bands. If you change the Range Band to 20,000 km then the ten damage steps following each of the lasers and the ten to-hit chances following the fire controls will change from 10,000 km steps to 20,000 km steps. Compare the following to the original above.
15.0cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (1) Range 180,000km TS: 3,000 km/s Power 6-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 10 6 4 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (1) Range 90,000km TS: 3,000 km/s Power 3-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 5 3 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Beam Fire Control R192-TS3000 (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 3,000 km/s ECCM-0 67 59 52 44 36 28 20 12 5 0 Beam Fire Control R48-TS12000 (1) Max Range: 48,000 km TS: 12,000 km/s ECCM-0 58 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
If you choose other range bands, the damage and to-hit chances will change accordingly. Underneath Range Bands is Target Speed. If you change Target Speed it will affect the to-hit chances of the fire control systems. For speeds of up to 3000 km/s there should be no change, as the both fire controls can handle those target speeds. Speeds of 3,000-12,000 km/s should change the to-hit chances for the R192-TS3000 fire control as that is only designed to handle targets up to 3000 km/s, but the faster tracking fire control will be unaffected. Over 12,000 km/s, the other fire control is affected too, because its max tracking speed is only 12,000 km/s. The Range Bands and Target Speed settings allow you to check how your weapon and fire control designs would perform against targets at different ranges and different speeds.
Earlier I mentioned that weapons have a tracking speed as well. While the fire control tracking speed is mainly concerned with tracking the target and calculating where to fire the weapons, the weapon tracking speed is the capability of the weapon to fire instantly in that direction when ordered to do so by the fire control. The base weapon tracking speed is equal to either the speed of the ship or your Empire's best Fire Control Speed Rating tech, whichever is greater. Your best Fire Control Speed Rating is 3000 km/s at the moment and as that is higher than the current ship speed of 1 km/s (it has no engines), then 3000 km/s is the weapon tracking speed. Now we add one of our nuclear thermal engines to the class, and it should appear as below. Note that because the ship speed is now 3567 km/s, that is higher than the Empire's Fire Control Speed Rating of 3000 km/s so the weapon tracking speed is now 3567 km/s. In essence, a faster ship has a better chance of quickly pointing its weapons in the right direction.
Ark Royal class Cruiser 2,153 tons 74 Crew 243.9 BP TCS 43 TH 154 EM 0 3567 km/s Armour 1-14 Shields 0-0 HTK 14 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1-4 PPV 8 Maint Life 2.40 Years MSP 70 AFR 37% IFR 0.5% 1YR 17 5YR 249 Max Repair 76.8 MSP Commander Control Rating 1 BRG Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required Nuclear Thermal Engine EP153.60 (1) Power 153.6 Fuel Use 111.54% Signature 153.60 Explosion 12% Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 18.7 billion km (60 days at full power) 15.0cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (1) Range 180,000km TS: 3,567 km/s Power 6-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 10 6 6 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (1) Range 90,000km TS: 3,567 km/s Power 3-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 5 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 Beam Fire Control R192-TS3000 (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 3,000 km/s ECCM-0 71 67 63 59 55 52 48 44 40 36 Beam Fire Control R48-TS12000 (1) Max Range: 48,000 km TS: 12,000 km/s ECCM-0 79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes
When a fire control tries to direct a weapon, the lowest tracking speed of the fire control or the weapon is used to calculate the chance to hit the target. In other words, it is no use having a fast fire control tracking speed if the weapon can't point in the right direction quickly enough and it is no use having a fast weapon tracking speed if the fire control can't make use of it. You need to match weapons with appropriate fire control systems as part of your class design process.
Turrets
[edit]Now, those of you paying attention to the tracking might be wondering why I asked you to make a 12,000 km/s fire control system 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 go back to the module design window and click Turret Design at the bottom.
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 that's done, also select a twin turret, since those are fine for our purposes (and a bit more weight-efficient). Once you've done that, our turret should look like this:
Twin 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret Damage Output 3 Rate of Fire 5 seconds Range Modifier 30,000 Max Range 90,000 km Turret Size 8.16 HS (408 tons) HTK 2 Power Requirement 6 Recharge Rate 6 Cost 42.00 Crew 16 Maximum Tracking Speed: 12,000 km/s Development Cost 458 RP Materials Required Duranium 17.00 Boronide 6.2 Corundium 18.8
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 8.16 HS (hull spaces) compared to only 6 HS for the two standard 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Lasers. This 8.16 HS comprises the 6 HS for the lasers and 2.16 HS for the turret rotation gear (6HS x 40%, reduced by 10% for being a twin turret).
The power requirement is now 6, because the two lasers each need 3 power to fire. However, the recharge rate is now also 6, because each of them can be charged independently.
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. Since we plan to mount four total 10cm lasers, you might also consider a quad turret, to save a bit more weight. But the weight savings is fairly small (from 816 tons to 792 tons), and that will also be a more expensive research project, and less flexible if we want to mount it on other ship designs in future. Plus, a bit of redundancy in our weapons is nice to have, if we can get it.
Once this turret is designed, go back to the F5 Class Design screen, and let's add all the weapons we'll want. Add a second 15cm laser, remove the non-turreted 10cm laser, and add two of the turrets in its place. Let's also add our power plant, so that we can fire these weapons. That lets this ship kill enemies, but it still needs to be able to find them. At this point, add our two active sensors, our passive EM sensor and our passive thermal sensor (one of each).
Fine Tuning
[edit]And with that, we finally have a ship that can move around, spot enemies, defend itself against missiles, and destroy enemy ships. Does that mean we're done?
Not quite! (Sorry.) But we are getting close. There's a few more things to consider - passive defenses (armor and shields), the logistics of running the ship (deployment time, engineering and maintenance, and fuel), and then any last-minute tweaks we want to make.
Firstly, passive defenses. We don't have the technology for shields yet, so we'll just use armor here. The ship has already gotten slower than we might want, and thick armour is heavy, so we won't overdo it. Let's change the armor rating (top middle) from 1 to 3.
For logistics, we need to think about how this ship will be used. Is it going to stay at a fleet base and only sortie when it's needed? If so, you can get away with a short deployment time. Since this ship is fairly fuel-inefficient, we can't afford to have it flying around all the time (escorting freighters, say), so we'll use this only for responding to enemy attacks. That means the default 3 months is fine for deployment time. Likewise, the default single engineering space provides enough maintenance supplies and repair support to keep the ship flying for 1.33 years on average, which is plenty. The default fuel tank of 250,000 litres is also just about right for us - it gives us 60 days of powered flight, and 10.6 billion km of range, which is enough to fly to Neptune and back with a bit left over. If we're ever deploying far away, then this ship will want a tanker to keep it topped up, but for now we can ignore that.
Finally, last-minute tweaks. In this case, I've designed the ship in advance to work fairly well, so you shouldn't need anything. It isn't perfect for every role, but...well, this is a tutorial. It's good enough for now.
With all of that done, the final ship design should now look like this:
Ark Royal class Cruiser 3,820 tons 126 Crew 488.7 BP TCS 76 TH 154 EM 0 2010 km/s Armour 3-21 Shields 0-0 HTK 25 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 1-2 PPV 26.32 Maint Life 1.33 Years MSP 80 AFR 117% IFR 1.6% 1YR 48 5YR 722 Max Repair 76.8 MSP Commander Control Rating 1 BRG Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required Nuclear Thermal Engine EP153.60 (1) Power 153.6 Fuel Use 111.54% Signature 153.60 Explosion 12% Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 10.6 billion km (60 days at full power) 15.0cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (2) Range 180,000km TS: 3,000 km/s Power 6-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 10 6 6 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 Twin 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (2x2) Range 90,000km TS: 12000 km/s Power 6-6 RM 30,000 km ROF 5 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 Beam Fire Control R48-TS12000 (1) Max Range: 48,000 km TS: 12,000 km/s ECCM-0 79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 Beam Fire Control R192-TS3000 (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 3,000 km/s ECCM-0 71 67 63 59 55 52 48 44 40 36 Pebble Bed Reactor R18 (1) Total Power Output 18.3 Exp 5% Active Search Sensor AS4-R1 (1) GPS 12 Range 4.8m km MCR 430.9k km Resolution 1 Active Search Sensor AS22-R100 (1) GPS 1200 Range 22.2m km Resolution 100 Thermal Sensor TH1.0-5.0 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km EM Sensor EM1.0-5.0 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes
You can hopefully see how this ship is benefitting from a consistent design approach, with all the parts designed to work together. For example, the turret has a tracking speed of 12,000 km/s so it lines up perfectly with the 12,000 km/s tracking speed on the second fire control. We can always mount these two systems together on another ship, and we'll know that they'll work together there just as well.
Also note that because we just increased the size of the ship, the speed has dropped to 2010 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. 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.
Successor Designs
[edit]A design we don't need to tweak is boring. So, for sake of demonstration, let's consider a fairly major "tweak" - increasing the ship from a mere cruiser to a battlecruiser. This will demonstrate how we can use all the same components, but make something bigger, faster, and meaner.
For this, we're just going to copy the class ("Copy Class" button, bottom middle) as our starting point. Change the type to "Battlecruiser" at the top - it doesn't actually make a gameplay difference, but it's cooler. The battlecruiser will use all the same components, but in bigger numbers. Instead of one engine, use 3. Instead of 2 ship-killer lasers, use 6. Instead of 2 defensive turrets, use 3. This will double our power needs, so we'll add a second power plant. And let's also increase the armor thickness from 3 to 5.
Note that we don't need to add more sensors, fire controls, or similar systems - they work just as well on the big ship as they did on the small one. You can choose to add more if you want (bigger ships often want redundant systems), but let's see if the design can work as-is. Our ship should now look like this:
Ark Royal - Copy class Battlecruiser 8,306 tons 256 Crew 981.7 BP TCS 166 TH 461 EM 0 2774 km/s Armour 5-36 Shields 0-0 HTK 48 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 1-1 PPV 54.48 Maint Life 0.28 Years MSP 74 AFR 552% IFR 7.7% 1YR 264 5YR 3,959 Max Repair 76.8 MSP Commander Control Rating 1 BRG Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required Nuclear Thermal Engine EP153.60 (3) Power 460.8 Fuel Use 111.54% Signature 153.60 Explosion 12% Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 4.9 billion km (20 days at full power) 15.0cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (6) Range 180,000km TS: 3,000 km/s Power 6-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 10 6 6 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 Twin 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (3x2) Range 90,000km TS: 12000 km/s Power 6-6 RM 30,000 km ROF 5 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 Beam Fire Control R48-TS12000 (1) Max Range: 48,000 km TS: 12,000 km/s ECCM-0 79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 Beam Fire Control R192-TS3000 (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 3,000 km/s ECCM-0 71 67 63 59 55 52 48 44 40 36 Pebble Bed Reactor R18 (2) Total Power Output 36.6 Exp 5% Active Search Sensor AS4-R1 (1) GPS 12 Range 4.8m km MCR 430.9k km Resolution 1 Active Search Sensor AS22-R100 (1) GPS 1200 Range 22.2m km Resolution 100 Thermal Sensor TH1.0-5.0 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km EM Sensor EM1.0-5.0 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes
More firepower, faster, and tougher - what's not to love? Well...
- The biggest drawback is that it's a lot tougher to build. The cost has gone from 488.7 BP all the way up to 981.7 BP, which is more than double. It's also gone from 3820 tons to 8719 tons, meaning that we'll need a far bigger shipyard to build it. That shipyard will take longer to retool for the construction, and the build time of the ship (visible at the top) has also gone from 1.39 years to 1.87 years. That means you can't build as many, even if our shipyards are big enough.
- The ship's fuel tanks didn't grow with the rest of the ship, so now we only get 4.9 billion km, and 20 days of flying. That's probably not enough, so we'll add a second large fuel tank.
- Our maintenance life has also dropped from 1.33 years to a pathetic 0.28 years - that one engineering space isn't nearly enough any more, with all the new stuff to maintain. Let's add a second engineering space, plus a small maintenance storage bay.
- And while we don't need a second bridge, we might want to add an Auxiliary Control (under Command and Control) to the ship - this will let us give the ship an executive officer as well as the commander, with the XO focusing on training the crew more effectively. It's fairly light and cheap, and the big ship can benefit from it.
So with those tweaks, let's bring it home and show off the final version of the new, larger ship:
Ark Royal - Copy class Battlecruiser 8,719 tons 266 Crew 1,021.5 BP TCS 174 TH 461 EM 0 2642 km/s Armour 5-37 Shields 0-0 HTK 51 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 2-2 PPV 54.48 Maint Life 1.39 Years MSP 246 AFR 304% IFR 4.2% 1YR 139 5YR 2,083 Max Repair 76.8 MSP Commander Control Rating 2 BRG AUX Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required Nuclear Thermal Engine EP153.60 (3) Power 460.8 Fuel Use 111.54% Signature 153.60 Explosion 12% Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres Range 9.3 billion km (40 days at full power) 15.0cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (6) Range 180,000km TS: 3,000 km/s Power 6-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 10 6 6 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 Twin 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (3x2) Range 90,000km TS: 12000 km/s Power 6-6 RM 30,000 km ROF 5 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 Beam Fire Control R48-TS12000 (1) Max Range: 48,000 km TS: 12,000 km/s ECCM-0 79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 Beam Fire Control R192-TS3000 (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 3,000 km/s ECCM-0 71 67 63 59 55 52 48 44 40 36 Pebble Bed Reactor R18 (2) Total Power Output 36.6 Exp 5% Active Search Sensor AS4-R1 (1) GPS 12 Range 4.8m km MCR 430.9k km Resolution 1 Active Search Sensor AS22-R100 (1) GPS 1200 Range 22.2m km Resolution 100 Thermal Sensor TH1.0-5.0 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km EM Sensor EM1.0-5.0 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes
You can tweak it further after this point - maybe you want redundant fire control systems, or thicker armour, or more fuel range. You should now have the ability to take the design in any direction that you want to go with it.
Final Notes
[edit]This design was intended as a tutorial, so don't accept it as a great design. Different players would modify it in different ways to suit their own style and the tech levels of different components vary considerably. It has much better fire control and weapon tech than armour, engine and sensor tech for example. It is intended for education and, as you play, you will find your own experiences in the game will guide future ship design. Different people will have different experiences and consequently will often develop different views on design, just like real life.
If you ever need to remove components from a class, click the radio button at the top left of the Class Design tab from "Race Components" to "Class Components". This will show what's mounted on the ship, and double-clicking them will remove them. Race Components is always used to add, Class Components is always used to subtract. If you ever need a lot of a specific item, you can also use the quantity options at the bottom left, to add/remove 1, 5, 20 or 100 of a component at the same time.
Speaking of components, this is probably a good point to look at the Component Summary tab on the Class Design window. This lists all of the components in your design, along with the amount of each component and their size, cost, crew and HTK. You can sort on any of these using the buttons on the bottom, and use this information to analyze your design. For example, in the case of our cruiser, 26.2% of the hull space and 15.7% of the cost is dedicated to engines while the Engineering Spaces are just 1.3% of the space and 2.0% of the cost. This section is just for reference, but it can be enlightening when looking at just where your money is going.
Lastly, we need to actually get these ships built. First of all, in the Class Design tab, click Lock Design (bottom middle). This finalizes the design, and it cannot be modified again unless you're in Spacemaster mode. (You can always copy the class and modify the copy, though.) For the purposes of the tutorial, we'll add the ships instantly to give ourselves a starting combat fleet. Go to the "Priorities/Misc" tab, and on the middle of the left side, you'll see Instant Build Points and Number of Ships to Build. Choose to build 2 ships, and then choose which fleet to build them in. (I'd suggest Battle Fleet.) Then click Instant Build. Congratulations - you now have two shiny new cruisers to bring death to your enemies! The Instant Build Points is a limit for non-Spacemaster games (where it's supposed to represent your pre-existing fleet at game start), but in Spacemaster mode, you can ignore this.
If we want to build the ships the old-fashioned way, go to the F2 Economy window, then the Shipyards tab, and select a naval shipyard (type "N") with capacity that's equal to or greater than the ship's tonnage. Then select the "Retool" activity for the shipyard, and choose the class you want to retool the yard to. A shipyard which has no assigned class can be retooled instantly and for free, but once a class is assigned, this will take some time and Wealth. Once the yard is reooled, select task type Construction, choose which fleet you want to build the ships to, and hit Create Task. A shipyard can build one ship at a time per slipway, so if your yard has multiple slipways, you can press Create Task multiple times (until it goes blank). Then you can use Shipyard Tasks to see the status of your new construction.
And with that, we have finally completed the design for our first warship. Phew.