Ad Astra! ... an Aurora Forum Game, run by blue emu

[PB-DK]

Oh great avian leader

may i humbly suggest we expand our civillian sector a bit more to support our nessesary expantions to come? economic facilities, some academies to train more of our talented people and more research laps to bring us to equality with the prix.

In many ways the combat system is HH-based. Missiles with ranges in the tens of millions of km, launching in salvos 20-40 seconds apart. Short ranged, fast firing beam weapons with ranges of 500,000 km or less. Point defence comprising anti-missiles and point blank beam weapons, etc.

only thing i dont really think works that well for aurora is the limited beam ranges, i understand it for things like gauss and rail due to the speed of the projectiles but otherwise it is actually one of the greatest little indie games in a long time, would do with a more streamlined interface and some more hints... but it is aweeeeeesum anyways

 

[Darkrenown]

In many ways the combat system is HH-based. Missiles with ranges in the tens of millions of km, launching in salvos 20-40 seconds apart. Short ranged, fast firing beam weapons with ranges of 500,000 km or less. Point defence comprising anti-missiles and point blank beam weapons, etc.

Hmm, I kind of see that, I suppose. The ships are much slower though, and the lack of wedges mean internally launched missiles are still deadly at long ranges. Then again, HH humans have a bit of a tech lead over the Emu federation.

 

[blue emu]

I think people were expecting ground combat. I take it the Prix didn't have any troops?

Not yet. Chances are high that once we start digging into those ruins, we will awaken mechanical horrors from the distant past.

Oh great avian leader

may i humbly suggest we expand our civillian sector a bit more to support our nessesary expantions to come? economic facilities, some academies to train more of our talented people and more research laps to bring us to equality with the prix.

Currently building Research Labs, Financial Centers, Automated Mines and Mag Catapults. Also converting some of Earth's Mines to Automated Mines, as our domestic ores run out.

 

[Iche_Bins]

Also converting some of Earth's Mines to Automated Mines, as our domestic ores run out.

I'm not a fan of this, as soon as earth minerals run out you can ship the mines to other populated mining colonies, no need to refit them, just build new automated mines

 

[blue emu]

I'm not a fan of this, as soon as earth minerals run out you can ship the mines to other populated mining colonies, no need to refit them, just build new automated mines

I am in fact building craploads of Automated Mines. The conversion is on a rather small scale, and is intended as a stop-gap. Given the small work-force on our colonies, I would prefer to use them in factories and terraforming installations rather than in mines.

 

[Gwalcmai]

May I ask what inspiration you got from Honor Harrington? I'm a huge HH fan, but so far nothing has brought it to mind, other than both being awesome and set in space

In my case, the whole concept of "jump point FTL" and "space navies" blowing away at each other with missiles immediately made me thing of Honor Harrington. For instance, Basilisk Station was placed in a completely uninteresting system that happened to have several jump points, and that led to the need for a permanent presence by the RMN, setting up an outpost where there was no real point in having one otherwise. A bit like Emu's Nexus.

But it might be I thought of that first because I read Harrington books before I read any of the books David Weber based on Starfire. Those might be closer matches in that they have fighters and carriers. I can't remember any of that in HH books.

 

[blue emu]

How do these look for fourth-generation missile designs?

Size 4d 2039 ASM : 1 / 1.728 / 0.39 / 0.882

This replaces our 4c ASM missiles which have speed 25,500 and range 16.9 m-km.
So the new missile is 9,100 kps faster, 50% longer range, and 72.7% to-hit instead of 56% (against 10k-kps targets).

Missile Size: 4 MSP (0.2 HS) Warhead: 5 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 21
Speed: 34600 km/s Endurance: 12 minutes Range: 25.1m km
Cost Per Missile: 3.829
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 726.6% 3k km/s 231% 5k km/s 145.3% 10k km/s 72.7%
Materials Required: 1.25x Tritanium 3.1124x Gallicite Fuel x975

============ =============== ============= ================

Size 1d 2039 AMM : 0.2 / 0.572 / 0.04 / 0.188

This replaces our 1c AAM missiles which have speed 34,200 and range 6.7 m-km.
So the new missile is 11,600 kps faster, 50% longer range, and 87% to-hit instead of 68% (against 10k-kps targets).

Missile Size: 1 MSP (0.05 HS) Warhead: 1 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 19
Speed: 45800 km/s Endurance: 4 minutes Range: 10.3m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.2377
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 870.2% 3k km/s 285% 5k km/s 174% 10k km/s 87%
Materials Required: 0.25x Tritanium 0.7383x Gallicite Fuel x100

 

[Lord Martin]

Good improvements from the last mk of missiles.
The longer ranges sure comes in handy against the Prix disturbing systems.

 

[blue emu]

Good improvements from the last mk of missiles.
The longer ranges sure comes in handy against the Prix disturbing systems.

Naturally, these are just our "Standard Load-Out" for general purpose ship-to-ship combat. We will also be designing long-range versions, deciy versions, MIRVed bombardment versions, etc.

 

[Lord Martin]

Are you btw gonna stick with the size 4 missile launcher on the next generation of ships?
They seemed to be a bit ineffective against the Prix in the latest ship battle.

 

[blue emu]

Are you btw gonna stick with the size 4 missile launcher on the next generation of ships?
They seemed to be a bit ineffective against the Prix in the latest ship battle.

Hard to say. Standardized ordinance has its own benefits, so if we upgraded our new ships to size-6, we might want to refit all of our old ships to the same standard. At the moment, I'm looking at redesigns of our existing ships, with an eye to an eventual fleet refit... I have no immediate plans to do so, but if we are going to be building any additional vessels at all (eg: non-jump warships) then it's worth looking at what an eventual fleet refit will bring.

Here's a possible design for an Attitude-III class Light Cruiser. I'm not very happy with it, to be honest. Our Gauss cannon tech is still so primitive that it may be just a waste of displacement including that middle layer to our PD defense:

Attitude III class Light Cruiser 12,000 tons 1152 Crew 2703 BP TCS 240 TH 672 EM 0
5600 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 4-46 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 10 PPV 31
Annual Failure Rate: 115% IFR: 1.6% Maint Capacity 1408 MSP Max Repair 576 MSP Est Time: 1.56 Years
Magazine 230

J12000(3-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 12000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Magneto-plasma Drive E7.7 (16) Power 84 Fuel Use 77% Signature 42 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres Range 77.9 billion km (161 days at full power)

Single Gauss Cannon R2-100 Turret (1x2) Range 20,000km TS: 20000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 2 ROF 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
CIWS-120b (1x4) Range 1000 km TS: 12000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Fire Control 2039 S04 24-12000 H70 (1) Max Range: 48,000 km TS: 12000 km/s 79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0

Size 1 Missile Launcher (6) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 10
Size 4 Missile Launcher (4) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 40
Missile PD Fire Control 2039 FC10-R1 (70%) (2) Range 10.1m km Resolution 1
Missile Fire Control 2039 FC45-R100 (70%) (1) Range 45.4m km Resolution 100
Size 4d 2039 ASM (40) Speed: 34,600 km/s End: 12.1m Range: 25.1m km WH: 5 Size: 4 TH: 242 / 145 / 72
Size 1d 2039 AMM (70) Speed: 45,800 km/s End: 3.7m Range: 10.3m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 290 / 174 / 87

Active Search Sensor 2039 MR42-R100 (70%) (1) GPS 5250 Range 42.0m km Resolution 100
Active Search Sensor 2039 MR10-R1 (70%) (1) GPS 126 Range 10.1m km Resolution 1

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

Compared to its predecessor the Attitude-II, it's 40% faster, 33% better armored, 35% larger magazine storage, 50% longer weapon range, double the sensor range, and has three layers of PD defense instead of two (although, as I say, the third layer might not be worth the tonnage used)... all on the same 12,000-ton displacement.

 

[Ayeshteni]

Hard to say. Standardized ordinance has its own benefits, so if we upgraded our new ships to size-6, we might want to refit all of our old ships to the same standard. At the moment, I'm looking at redesigns of our existing ships, with an eye to an eventual fleet refit... I have no immediate plans to do so, but if we are going to be building any additional vessels at all (eg: non-jump warships) then it's worth looking at what an eventual fleet refit will bring.

Here's a possible design for an Attitude-III class Light Cruiser. I'm not very happy with it, to be honest. Our Gauss cannon tech is still so primitive that it may be just a waste of displacement including that middle layer to our PD defense:



Compared to its predecessor the Attitude-II, it's 40% faster, 33% better armored, 35% larger magazine storage, 50% longer weapon range, double the sensor range, and has three layers of PD defense instead of two (although, as I say, the third layer might not be worth the tonnage used)... all on the same 12,000-ton displacement.

It's still a superior design. I'd go with it.

Aye.

 

[blue emu]

It's still a superior design. I'd go with it.

Aye.

Yah... still not happy about the third PD defense layer. Until we get our FC missile tracking speed up, and perhaps one more level of Gauss Cannon ROF and Range, it hardly seems worth the tonnage those turrets and beam FCs require.

Note that the FC gets to-hit penalties against any missiles moving faster than 12,000 kps... which means, against ALL missiles. And that's what it's THERE for, to shoot down incoming missiles.

EDIT: actually, if I put Elise Mueller to work on it with a bunch of Labs, it will only take six or seven months to get the next level of FC tracking speed, and design and research the needed ship component. I think I'll hold off designing new ships until the new year.

 

[blue emu]

Scientist Bo Mosberg has completed his theoretical studies for adapting our Magneto-Plasma drive technology to Fast Attack Craft, and it should only take him another three or four weeks to complete his work on a practical FAC engine design. After that, we can design a decent FAC for colony defense.

 

[blue emu]

Scientist Bo Mosberg has completed the practical design for a M-P FAC engine. How does this design look?

Wasp FAC class Fast Attack Craft 950 tons 123 Crew 181.5 BP TCS 19 TH 84 EM 0
8842 km/s Armour 1-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 8
Annual Failure Rate: 28% IFR: 0.4% Maint Capacity 30 MSP Max Repair 63 MSP Est Time: 1.32 Years
Magazine 40

GB Magneto-plasma Drive E77 (1) Power 168 Fuel Use 770% Signature 84 Armour 0 Exp 21%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 12.3 billion km (16 days at full power)

Size 4 Missile Launcher (2) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 40
Missile Fire Control 2039 FC45-R100 (70%) (1) Range 45.4m km Resolution 100

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

It is intended to either operate from a Fleet FAC Carrier or from a planetary PDC. In either case it will be relying on another ship or ground installation to paint its target for it... so it doesn't require long flight endurance since it won't be going far from home. I'm thinking of designing a PDC to base them, and deploying then for colony defense.

EDIT:

This is a different option... instead of having a magazine and normal-sized missile launchers (reload time 40 seconds) capable of five salvos before returning to base, this version has eight miniaturized missile launchers and no magazine, so it needs to return to the hangar and spend half-an-hour reloading between salvos. On the other hand, it attacks with eight missiles in a single salvo instead of with five salvos of two missiles at a time, 40 seconds apart.

Wasp-X FAC class Fast Attack Craft 950 tons 56 Crew 164.74 BP TCS 19 TH 84 EM 0
8842 km/s Armour 1-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 10.56
Annual Failure Rate: 28% IFR: 0.4% Maint Capacity 27 MSP Max Repair 63 MSP Est Time: 1.24 Years
Magazine 32

GB Magneto-plasma Drive E77 (1) Power 168 Fuel Use 770% Signature 84 Armour 0 Exp 21%
Fuel Capacity 45,000 Litres Range 11.1 billion km (14 days at full power)

Size 4 Missile Launcher (33% Reduction) (8) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 2400
Missile Fire Control 2039 FC45-R100 (70%) (1) Range 45.4m km Resolution 100

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

I think the gauss cannon layer of PD should be left to dedicated ships. After your current research is completed, a quad turret could actually be pretty useful, but would take an awful lot of overhead space in terms of x4 tracking speed and x something range beam FC. Design your missile cruisers and destroyers without it, and later design a non-jump gun PD ship. It'll have a really limited role, but it may even provide protection against 70000 kps missiles if done right, and with no jump won't be too expensive.

As for the FAC, what do you envisage it doing? It's too slow reloading/too small an alpha strike for effective jump point defence, and while it outranges a fighter it won't be able to out run (and thus out manoeuvre) Prix.

 

[blue emu]

As for the FAC, what do you envisage it doing? It's too slow reloading/too small an alpha strike for effective jump point defence, and while it outranges a fighter it won't be able to out run (and thus out manoeuvre) Prix.

Except for general-purpose colony defense, I haven't settled on a role for the FAC yet. It can certainly provide colony PPV to prevent revolts.

Check my edit above for an alpha-strike version.

 

[blue emu]

I think the gauss cannon layer of PD should be left to dedicated ships. After your current research is completed, a quad turret could actually be pretty useful, but would take an awful lot of overhead space in terms of x4 tracking speed and x something range beam FC. Design your missile cruisers and destroyers without it, and later design a non-jump gun PD ship. It'll have a really limited role, but it may even provide protection against 70000 kps missiles if done right, and with no jump won't be too expensive.

If I remove the Gauss Cannons and associated Fire Control, I could probably fit in an anti-FTR/anti-FAC Fire Control instead.

 

[Boris ze Spider]

I like the second one better, because if this is used for colony defense, 40 seconds is way too much time to wait for a chance to get attacked a gain.

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

Except for general-purpose colony defense, I haven't settled on a role for the FAC yet. It can certainly provide colony PPV to prevent revolts.

Check my edit above for an alpha-strike version.

Colony PPV would be a good use of a FAC. Whether to go with a magazine or alpha strike really depends what you want it to do. If it's a long range patrol ship fielded in large numbers you want a lot of salvos over a long time. If it's meant for low numbers or ambush, you want a high alpha - although preferably with a high salvo count, too. If you can fit a second fire control in the fifty tonnes left it would improve the ability to penetrate PD.