October 23rd, 1998.
Retooling complete. We now have two yards (eight slips in total) retooled for Sabre IVs.
Retooling complete. We now have two yards (eight slips in total) retooled for Sabre IVs.
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Another outside-the-box idea:
Our Carriers have a hangar capable of holding 8,000 tons of parasite craft. At the moment, that's around 30 Fighters.
If we loaded a Carrier with Sabres instead, it could carry four. Naturally, we would field a whole group of such Carriers, perhaps 24 Sabres in total.
This would allow us to use Sabres in a general fleet engagement, despite their 25-day fuel load.
Another (inferior) possibility is loading a Carrier with Cutlass class Box Launcher armed Torpedo Boats.
That would give us 56 missiles in a salvo. I suppose that's not really competitive with heavy Fighters, which can put 78 missiles in a salvo.
Our Carriers have a hangar capable of holding 8,000 tons of parasite craft. At the moment, that's around 30 Fighters.
If we loaded a Carrier with Sabres instead, it could carry four. Naturally, we would field a whole group of such Carriers, perhaps 24 Sabres in total.
This would allow us to use Sabres in a general fleet engagement, despite their 25-day fuel load.
Another (inferior) possibility is loading a Carrier with Cutlass class Box Launcher armed Torpedo Boats.
That would give us 56 missiles in a salvo. I suppose that's not really competitive with heavy Fighters, which can put 78 missiles in a salvo.
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I don't think we should give up carriers. Ther'es a reason that battleships were superceded by carriers during the war.
Can we terraform that athmosphere away?
I would also not count out missiles just yet. The sabres worked in a very specific circumstance against one enemy. Let's see how our ships do against other enemies.
How does the spare parts consumption interact with the rate of fire?
I know this is theory-crafting, but if the probability of failure is only checked when a weapon fires, and the spare parts cost to repair the bigger 37.5cm laser cannon per failure is the same as the 25cm laser cannon, you would get the same number of shots per ship before it was forced to withdraw due to weapon failure, but each shot would do in the order of twice the damage (at the absolute limit of range, they both do 1 damage if I understand the system correctly, but as soon as the range starts closing, the bigger one does 2x damage per shot). This would result in the same net "damage per unit time" (unless you are sticking strictly to the 1 damage range!) while doubling the "time in combat". Assuming my base assumption around spares consumption holds, of course.
This is pretty much my thinking. The sabres work against an opponent who they out-range, out armor, and out-run. If any of those conditions fail, won't they be in serious trouble?
Given my propensity for theory crafting I should probably volunteer for a position as either a theory researcher, or prototype/skunkworks commander.
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It's not an easy decision. Your analysis is correct, of course, for the factors it covers... but other factors also enter the picture.
One point is that these sort of battles often go to the party who scores the first effective hit... so against a heavily-armored opponent the bigger weapon might be preferable (shock damage!); while against an opponent with only the minimum of one layer of armor - and remember, we were penetrating and scoring internal hits with every single shot against every ship type except the Armageddon - the smaller, faster-firing weapon might be better.
The 37.5 cm weapon is hundreds of tons heavier anyway. And the repair cost is somewhat higher (not double, though).
Do you have the game installed?
You could use SM (space master) mode to set up the same techs, and start designing ships.
I do not, to be honest I hadn’t even heard about it until I started reading this thread.
I have so far resisted the temptation to try and get it running on Linux due to having to pretend to actually hold down a real job. Same reason I am avoiding Dwarf Fortress!
My theory crafting is done based on what I have read here, so I am sure I am often missing details!
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Well... if you decide to break down and get it, the game is a free download from the creator's website.
Just search for: Steve Walmsley C# Aurora
I was going to ask if this was possible, but when changing the page the answer was already there
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Maybe you shouldn't call them carriers but... sheaths
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A Scabbard-class FAC Tender (ie: a Carrier specialized to carry FACs into battle) wouldn't need a missile magazine - not if it was only carrying Sabres and Eyeballs - so that portion of the ship's tonnage could be used for something else.
Extra repair parts, for the Spinal Lasers.
Extra repair parts, for the Spinal Lasers.
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So is there any particular direction you people would like to see this game develop?
My own inclination is to build up methodically, setting up a Naval base in each system as we expand to host a squadron of Eyeballs and Sabres. That keeps the Pirates limited to smash-and-grab attacks, if they don't want to risk another major disaster (like losing 25 ships in one engagement!).
But I realize that might be boring to read.
Note that we haven't actually rebuilt ANY of our Navy yet... just looked at designs. We still have that 3,000 kps Navy. Our Sabres are still mostly old model, too.
My own inclination is to build up methodically, setting up a Naval base in each system as we expand to host a squadron of Eyeballs and Sabres. That keeps the Pirates limited to smash-and-grab attacks, if they don't want to risk another major disaster (like losing 25 ships in one engagement!).
But I realize that might be boring to read.
Note that we haven't actually rebuilt ANY of our Navy yet... just looked at designs. We still have that 3,000 kps Navy. Our Sabres are still mostly old model, too.
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Retooling now for Constellation II class Carriers (ready February 1999) and Admiral II class AWACS vessels (ready May 1999).
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Since game start, we have built 238 orbital refineries, 147 orbital mining platforms, and 67 orbital terraformers (four of which were destroyed by Pirates).
Currently building refineries five at a time, Grinders ten at a time.
Currently building refineries five at a time, Grinders ten at a time.
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I like it the way you've done it.
So just continue that way.
And as others said, then do it the way thar keeps you the most motivated.
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