Sirius Business - a C# Aurora forum game. v2.5

[blue emu]

The problem with Gauss canon is their short range and they're super bulky...

They have issues, yes.

On the other hand, they are the ONLY weapon other than Railguns (which cannot be turreted) that can fire more than one shot per barrel per impulse.

At our tech level, Gauss PD offers four shots per barrel per impulse. Laser PD shoots once per impulse.

---

I thought the Death Star Laser was pretty funny (53 points of damage per shot!).

And it doesn't actually take forever to recharge.

It will just seem like forever.

 

[randakar]

There's also the point that I do sometimes get long stretches of 5-second combat interrupts, from somebody somewhere fighting something.

Could be NPR vs Precursor, of course.

Obviously. It has to be one of those two options.

It's actually an argument in favor of doing more exploration: to increase the odds of encountering fun stuff

Of course those settings can also be changed to raise the odds, if we start feeling bored.

They have issues, yes.

On the other hand, they are the ONLY weapon other than Railguns (which cannot be turreted) that can fire more than one shot per barrel per impulse.

At our tech level, Gauss PD offers four shots per barrel per impulse. Laser PD shoots once per impulse.

Gauss is definitely awesome.
How is our meson tech? Does that still exist?

---

I thought the Death Star Laser was pretty funny (53 points of damage per shot!).

And it doesn't actually take forever to recharge.

It will just seem like forever.

Depends, not many ships will survive a shot like that, even at long range it will penetrates pretty deeply through armor. So if there is only one opponent it may not even need to recharge..

 

[blue emu]

How is our meson tech? Does that still exist?

We have made zero progress on Mesons, Particle Beams and Railguns.

Actually... since our chosen Energy Weapon tech lines (Laser and Gauss) have both advanced to the point where it takes 60,000 or 80,000 research points to reach the next level, there is an argument for pausing Laser and Gauss research for a few years while we catch up in Mesons, Particle Beams and Railguns.

They are still at the 1,000 or 2,000 research points per level stage.

 

[blue emu]

June 22nd, 2004.

Current scientific research:

---

Current factory production:

---

Current shipyards:

---

Ships and space stations under construction:

 

[blue emu]

Known Space, June 22nd, 2004.

The consensus seems to be that we should re-start exploring.

We have several options... P Eridani could easily be turned into a Naval base to support further exploration to rimward or to widdershins. Similarly, van Maanen's Star and/or Teegarden's Star could be fortified as a Naval base with only a little additional effort. We would need to build an Ark. Takes less than a week. That would allow exploration to rimward and spinward.

Lacaille 9352 has three star systems adjacent which each host one or more jump points, enabling exploration to spinward and coreward. It is also adjacent to the Rakhas system, so a Naval base built here can later serve as a jumping-off platform for an attack on the Rakhas planet. And Iota Ursae Majoris not only holds three jump points, but also contains worthwhile minerals. And there's already a Naval base (with Sabres) right next door... the planet Bugeyes in AX Microscopii.

Suggestions? Which direction would you like to expand?

All of them?

 

[blue emu]

I've sent out our two 30-year-old Jump Gate Constructors to link Iota Ursae Majoris and P Eridani into our jump-gate network.

 

[randakar]

The consensus seems to be that we should re-start exploring.

I presume you will still send scouts into Galapagonia when ready. I'm really curious what we're up against there.

We have several options... P Eridani could easily be turned into a Naval base to support further exploration to rimward or to widdershins. Similarly, van Maanen's Star and/or Teegarden's Star could be fortified as a Naval base with only a little additional effort. We would need to build an Ark. Takes less than a week. That would allow exploration to rimward and spinward.

P. Eridani is listed as 26.6 distance - from earth, I presume? That doesn't sound like the most logical option - the further from earth, the bigger the turnaround time on large expeditions. And there's closer options here - Teegarden's star is only 12.4 .. light years? AU? away.
Or am I misreading those numbers?

Lacaille 9352 has three star systems adjacent which each host one or more jump points, enabling exploration to spinward and coreward. It is also adjacent to the Rakhas system, so a Naval base built here can later serve as a jumping-off platform for an attack on the Rakhas planet. And Iota Ursae Majoris not only holds three jump points, but also contains worthwhile minerals. And there's already a Naval base (with Sabres) right next door... the planet Bugeyes in AX Microscopii.

Lacaille sounds good, it's close - DX Cancri lists 11.8 distance, and that's just one of them. Plus, I am in favor of picking fights.

Suggestions? Which direction would you like to expand?

All of them?

As above. All of them sounds fun, too.
Though really, choose whatever makes you happiest

 

[blue emu]

I presume you will still send scouts into Galapagonia when ready. I'm really curious what we're up against there. - Yes indeed. We are now less than a year away from the tech that allows a Stealth Field Generator to occupy only 1/8th of your displacement (instead of 1/6th, as currently). So in less than a year we can check and see if a decent Stealth Scout can be designed at those techs, or whether one more iteration (to 1/10th of the displacement) is required. We might need another "Minimum Cloak Size" tech. Currently 500 tons.

P. Eridani is listed as 26.6 distance - from earth, I presume? That doesn't sound like the most logical option - the further from earth, the bigger the turnaround time on large expeditions. And there's closer options here - Teegarden's star is only 12.4 .. light years? AU? away.
Or am I misreading those numbers? - You are reading the numbers correctly, but they are largely irrelevant. Those numbers are the real-space radial distances from Sol to the star, and that's not the ROUTE we follow to get there. We get there by bucket-brigading ourselves forward, by jumping from one star system to another, then to another, then to another... zig-zagging our way forward rather than following a simple straight radial path. The only things that affect the time it takes to get there are the number of jumps, the scale of the star systems (Alpha Centauri is HUGE, Tau Ceti is small) and the arrangement of jump points within the star system.

Lacaille sounds good, it's close - DX Cancri lists 11.8 distance, and that's just one of them. Plus, I am in favor of picking fights.

As above. All of them sounds fun, too.
Though really, choose whatever makes you happiest

 

[blue emu]

Quad 30cm turret with three layers of armor and optimized for 10,000 kps targets - comes in at just under 2,500 tons including traversing gear.

Four barrels equals 96 damage, with a 20 second cycle time. That's pretty hard-core.

Time for some Battlecruisers, perhaps?

 

[blue emu]

Referring back to the Known Space map in post #1805 above:

If we're going to set up a Naval base in P Eridani, then we'll need to keep the Pirate riff-raff out of Xi Bootis as well. It's directly in between us and P Eridani.

That system does have a (barren) semi-habitable planet, but the planet's gravity is too low for Humans unless we use special low-g infrastructure. So to Hell with that. We'll just build a Deep Space Naval base directly on top of the only important mineral deposit in the star system. Maybe we'll back-fill that low-g planet later.

At the moment, all we really want is uncontested control of the system... and a mineral bonus would be nice.

 

[blue emu]

At the moment, our rate of expansion is limited by a few different factors.

One of the important limits is repair parts. Each Naval base includes several Maintenance Modules, without which the base could not support or overhaul warships or keep their mission clocks stopped while they were docked. Maintenance modules carry tens of thousands of repair parts (50,000 each is typical) and these repair parts have to be manufactured, which consumes minerals. Duranium, Uridium and Gallicite, to be exact.

So let's do some math: Each time we build a Maintenance module, we reduce the stockpile of spare parts on Earth by 50,000 (plus change). We typically build space station modules four or five at a time. So that means up to a quarter of a million spare parts consumed by each space station build.

So in a few months, we can use up the spare parts that it took decades to accumulate.

If we're planning to expand signifigantly, we should start by ramping up first our Duranium, Uridium and Gallicite mining, then increasing our spare part production, then our shipyard's Maintenance Module production.

 

[blue emu]

Four more 6,600 kps Fleet Carriers have been launched, bringing us up to sixteen in total.

I'm thinking of trying them out as Sabre tenders. Each Carrier could hold four Sabre V.

Ideally, we would make a sub-class with the magazines replaced by spare parts stowage.

 

[blue emu]

General class Gunship (P) 7,972 tons 169 Crew 2,738.8 BP TCS 159 TH 302 EM 0
7902 km/s Armour 3-35 Shields 0-0 HTK 68 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 2-2 PPV 82.65
Maint Life 0.58 Years MSP 929 AFR 254% IFR 3.5% 1YR 1,596 5YR 23,938 Max Repair 1260.00 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Morale Check Required

Magnetic Fusion Drive EP1260.00 (1) Power 1260.0 Fuel Use 53.79% Signature 302.4000 Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 450,000 Litres Range 18.9 billion km (27 days at full power)

Quad 30cm C6 Far Ultraviolet Laser 2004 Turret (1x4) Range 320,000km TS: 10000 km/s Power 96-24 RM 50,000 km ROF 20
Quad Gauss Cannon R400-100 2001 Turret (1x16) Range 40,000km TS: 25000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 40,000 km ROF 5
1998 Beam Fire Control R320-TS10000 MW (1) Max Range: 320,000 km TS: 10,000 km/s ECCM-1 97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
1998 PD Beam Fire Control R160-TS20000 (1) Max Range: 160,000 km TS: 20,000 km/s ECCM-1 94 88 81 75 69 62 56 50 44 38

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

---

Not... quite... there, yet. MAN, this is really close!

Maybe try a three-barreled Gauss turret?

I'm trying to keep the design under 8,000 tons so that it can be carried to the site of the battle inside a Carrier.

 

[blue emu]

How about this?

---

General class Gunship (P) 7,674 tons 156 Crew 2,757.9 BP TCS 153 TH 302 EM 0
8209 km/s Armour 6-34 Shields 0-0 HTK 62 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 2-2 PPV 63.9
Maint Life 0.96 Years MSP 1,274 AFR 236% IFR 3.3% 1YR 1,324 5YR 19,856 Max Repair 1260.00 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Morale Check Required

Magnetic Fusion Drive EP1260.00 (1) Power 1260.0 Fuel Use 53.79% Signature 302.4000 Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 450,000 Litres Range 19.6 billion km (27 days at full power)

Triple 30cm C6 Far Ultraviolet Laser 2004 Turret (1x3) Range 320,000km TS: 10000 km/s Power 72-18 RM 50,000 km ROF 20
Triple Gauss Cannon R400-100 2001 Turret (1x12) Range 40,000km TS: 25000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 40,000 km ROF 5
1998 Beam Fire Control R320-TS10000 MW (1) Max Range: 320,000 km TS: 10,000 km/s ECCM-1 97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
1998 PD Beam Fire Control R160-TS20000 (1) Max Range: 160,000 km TS: 20,000 km/s ECCM-1 94 88 81 75 69 62 56 50 44 38
Tokamak Fusion Reactor R24 (1) Total Power Output 24.4 Exp 5%

1992 CIV PD Sensor AS11-R1 (1) GPS 28 Range 11.2m km MCR 1m km Resolution 1
1992 CIV Sensor AS51-R100 (1) GPS 2800 Range 51.8m km Resolution 100

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

 

[randakar]

What about the speed? 8200 kps is a fair bit slower than the 11000 kps sabre v. Not sure I understand why though, don't the two designs use the same engine?

Normally you have everything in the same formation use the same (fleet) speed. I'm sure this is fast enough for the pirates and the precursors we've seen, but if this is going to be part of a sabre formation the next generation of these designs might benefit from a round of standardization.

 

[randakar]

Oh wait, this would be part of the main fleet, wouldn't it? In which case it's a tad faster but that makes sense, it being a laser destroyer, it needs to be able to operate ahead of everything else.

Apologies.

 

[randakar]

Yeah, read right over the 'inside a carrier' bit.

Don't know about that, it has 27 days worth of fuel and plenty of maintenance life to operate on it's own, doesn't it?

Also, I half expected a laser destroyer to carry a spinal mount laser. Is that because you want the tracking speed higher so it can shoot at missiles?

I think that if you really want to optimize this further I'd take out the gauss cannons and make a same-speed storm class upgrade to put in the same formation. More space for lasers and all kinds of other fun stuff if you put the gauss cannons in it's own specialized ship.

 

[randakar]

Suggestions? Which direction would you like to expand?

All of them?

One thing to take into account. I've been looking back at the game setup criteria. The LY measure may not matter for how far away in terms of time something is from sol, but it does matter for one thing: Minimum distance to the NPR.

Which was set to 40 LY, according to that setup screenshot. Meaning that exploring from Eridani is right now the biggest chance you have of encountering it.

From that same screen it takes 20 star systems explored to get a chance to trigger the swarm and the raiders (check, we triggered the latter for sure), and 40 to get a chance to trigger the invaders. Right now we're at 30 systems known if I count correctly ..

So yeah, explore away

 

[Blaaat]

How about this?

---

General class Gunship (P) 7,674 tons 156 Crew 2,757.9 BP TCS 153 TH 302 EM 0
8209 km/s Armour 6-34 Shields 0-0 HTK 62 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 2-2 PPV 63.9
Maint Life 0.96 Years MSP 1,274 AFR 236% IFR 3.3% 1YR 1,324 5YR 19,856 Max Repair 1260.00 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Morale Check Required

Maybe include a CIC module. (not sure if it helps much)

 

[blue emu]

Yeah, read right over the 'inside a carrier' bit.

Don't know about that, it has 27 days worth of fuel and plenty of maintenance life to operate on it's own, doesn't it?

Also, I half expected a laser destroyer to carry a spinal mount laser. Is that because you want the tracking speed higher so it can shoot at missiles?

I think that if you really want to optimize this further I'd take out the gauss cannons and make a same-speed storm class upgrade to put in the same formation. More space for lasers and all kinds of other fun stuff if you put the gauss cannons in it's own specialized ship.

I'm still collecting suggestions.

If we equip the Battlecruiser with a Doomsday Device Spinal Laser (the one that does 53 damage) then bear in mind that it will only fire once every 45 seconds. Naturally, any turreted or hull-mounted weapons will fire more often than that.

The question of whether or not to put the armament in turrets (or just in casemates on the hull) depends on a couple of factors.

(1) Turrets use their traverse speed instead of the firing ship's movement speed when calculating to-hit penalties... so if we can get the Battlecruiser's speed up to 10,000 kps (or more) then a turret offers no improvement when it comes to to-hit modifiers against ships. Only PD would require turrets.

(2) Each gun after the first in a turret reduces the displacement required by 10%. So a four-gun turret uses 30% less displacement than four seperate casemated guns. This is counterbalanced by the fact that turrets require traversing gear, which adds displacement.