Ship Design:
All ships are assumed to have the same generic attributes and the player's main responsibility in customizing his fleet is in the fine details. To design a ship, a player has to select a hull size, select the ratio of beam weapons/ballistic weapons/missile weapons, and then select any modules he or she may wish the ship to have. Modules are listed as either Large or Small modules. Two small modules can fit in the same space as one large module. A large module CANNOT fit in two small modules. Furthermore, any ship class that has Cruiser in the name is made in the Cruiser slipway, anything smaller in the Escort slipway, and anything bigger in the Capital Slipway.
Escort Slipway: 5 points, 150cr, 1 Year
Cruiser Slipway: 10 points, 300cr, 2 Years
Capital Slipway: 20 points, 600cr, 3 Years
Scout Hull
Cost: 15 credits
Construction Time: 6 months
Modules: 1 Small
General Rundown: Very lightly armed and armored. Extremely fast. Has one light module to customize for mission set. Can land on planets.
Corvette Hull
Cost: 25 credits
Construction Time: 9 Months
Modules: 2 small
General Rundown: The smallest ship suitable for long-range patrol duties. Has double the mission capability of the scout, but at the same time is less expendable. Can serve as the basis for an escort, electronic warfare ship, picket, marine assault ship, etc. Can land on planets.
Frigate Hull
Cost: 40 credits
Construction Time: 1 Year
Modules: 1 Large
General Rundown: The smallest ship normally intended for ship to ship combat. Its large module gives it more flexibility than the corvette, and it is generally more heavily armed and armored. It is somewhat slower than the corvette, but realistically is superior in all respects to the lighter craft. The smallest hull that can mount large modules, making it the smallest possible carrier. Can land on planets.
Destroyer Hull
Cost: 60 credits
Construction Time: 15 months
Modules: 1 Large, 2 Small
General Rundown: A verstile hull design with a good mix of attributes. Often one of the workhorse masses in most interstellar fleets. Capable of filling a variety of roles. Can land on planets.
Light Cruiser Hull
Cost: 100 credits
Construction Time: 18 months
Modules: 2 Large
General Rundown: The smallest cruiser mass vessel, often used as an independent patrol ship or as a picket ship for heavier vessels. Very flexible, functionally a larger destroyer. Indeed, often used as a destroyer leader in some navies. The largest ship that can land safely on a planetary surface.
Heavy Cruiser Hull
Cost: 150 credits
Construction Time: 2 Years
Modules: 2 Large, 2 Small
General Rundown: The backbone of many fleets, the heavy cruiser is the largest warship one will normally encounter on the frontier. Favoring weapons and armor over speed when compared to the light cruiser, the CA is nonetheless a capable ship in all fields. Often used as the basis for a carrier design.
Battlecruiser Hull
Cost: 250 credits
Construction Time: 30 months
Modules: 3 Large
General Rundown: The heavy cruiser's track fiend bigger brother, the BC marries the firepower and protection of the CA on a hull capable of accelerating like a destroyer. Somewhat more verstile in mission role than its smaller cousin, it is not as well protected for a ship of its size, which is comparable to a battleship.
Battleship Hull
Cost: 300 credits
Construction Time: 3 Years
Modules: 4 Large, 1 small
General Rundown: The smallest capital ship, battleships form the backbone of a race's capital ship fleets. Emphasizing firepower and protection over speed, battleships tend to be slow and lumbering, but can generally outmaneuver dreadnoughts and monitors.
Dreadnought Hull
Cost: 500 credits
Construction Time: 40 Months
Modules: 5 Large, 2 small
General Rundown: The monster of space, the dreadnought is the battleship's bigger brother. Dreadnoughts have enough firepower to glass a planet's surface in a long weekend and are well protected enough to survive the fires of a full fleet engagement. They're also somewhat vulnerable to fighter attack, are extremely expensive, and take a long time to replace, so be smart about using them. One does not deploy dreadnoughts casually...
Monitor Hull
Cost: 1000 credits
Construction Time: 4 Years
Modules: 6 Large, 4 small
General Rundown: Are you seriously going to build something that eats 10% of your starting military in one go? Sure, it's a planet killer and a ruiner of afternoons, but it can only be in one place at a time. Slower than a snail in the desert, the Monitor should not be left unprotected lest someone's astrotech droid find a weakness to exploit...
Module List:
Small Modules:
Additional Engine Capacity: Allows your ship to go faster. Pretty obvious. More effective on smaller ships than on larger ones.
ECM: Additional Electronic Warfare tonnage allow this ship to act as a scout, with advanced sensors, and operate under stealth. More effective on light ships than on heavy ones.
Passive Protection: Reinforced Armor plates and extra shield generators afford this ship extra protection
Point Defense Array: Protects the ship and its consorts against enemy fighters, gunboats, and seeking weaponry.
Additional Weaponry: More guns/beams/bombs, in the percentage in the class writeup.
Planetary Assault Weaponry: Specialized railguns and submunition launchers, with the additional sensor equipment that makes pinpoint orbital bombardment possible.
Marine Landing Force: The ability to emplace marines and their support on a planet's surface under combat conditions
Support: Allows the ship to provide repair, replenishment, and resupply operations to an attending squadron or fleet.
Large Modules
Fighter Hanger: A hanger facility for a wing of fighters and bombers and the equipment needed to sustain them.
Gunboat Hanger: A hanger facility for a squadron of gunboats and the equipment needed to sustain them.
Support: Allows the ship to provide, repair, replenishment, and resupply operations to an attending squadron or fleet
Passive Protection: Reinforced Armor Plates and extra shield generators afford this ship even more protection.
Additional Weaponry: More guns/beams/bombs, in the percentage in the class writeup.
C3 Equipment: Equipment that allows for the coordination of fleet engagements with greater accuracy.
Example:
Lennart Torstenson class Destroyer
Destroyer Hull, 60 credits
% Beams/Missiles/Ballistics: 40/40/40
Modules:
ECM, Additional Weaponry
Technologies: Datalinked, Predictive Gunnery, AI Fire Control
System Defenses
In addition to your FTL capable fleets, your systems are defended by an array of orbital defense platforms, large battlestations, in-system patrol ships, and fighter and gunboat squadrons. The upkeep of these defenses is attended to by the various planetary governments of your empire and is free to you, the player. The growth of these defense forces is organic with each sector's growth in GDP, and declines should they decline-this represents the system governments scrapping defenses to save money in a tight economic time. These defenses pound for pound are generally more effective than warships, however they are restricted to the systems they are deployed in and in many cases have restricted mobility even in-system. Orbital stations and OWPs, for example, lack engines more powerful than station keeping thrusters. Each planetary assault of a node system will be handled on a case-by-case basis by the admin staff, however some typical designs you might see in a node system and their relative combat power ability is listed below.
As a general rule of thumb, clear zones to revert to real space in a major system tend to be limited. The amount of in-system traffic, orbital colonies, and general clutter make reverting, say, directly into Earth orbit a bad joke at best and a catastrophe at worst. This even applies to invading fleets-your shiny fleet flagship dropping out of hyperspace and interpenetrating with a garbage scow is a wee bit embarrassing. Typical galactic convention dictates that a lagrange point or other recognized gravitational 'balance point' be used near a major world, as well as a number of outer-system approach vectors. Needless to say, these approach vectors are closely watched. If an enemy fleet drops out of hyperspace in one of these zones, system defenses are standing by to engage. If an enemy is foolish or brave enough to try a non-standard hyperspace exit point, well, it could work really well or really badly. This doesn't apply to minor systems, as traffic there isn't anywhere near major enough to be a concern.
Police Cutter - 15cr
Scout Hull, used for customs duties around a system. Lightly armed and armored, Cutters have a high speed and excellent sensors for detecting smugglers. Generally one or two of these will be present in almost any system, as they can be shipped in parts in crates and assembled by a tech team on the ground. Not designed for engaging warships.
Orbital Weapons Platform - 60cr
A basic unmanned weapons platform designed for orbital work, the OWP usually mounts a large quantity of missiles to allow it to fire for maximum effect before it is destroyed. Designed to be expendable and generally controlled from the ground. Normally a couple of these can be found in almost any system, as they are useful as a deterent to pirates. Even in the numbers normally seen around semi-major colonies-10 to 12-not a serious threat to anything larger than a destroyer.
Systems Control Station - 80cr
Generally found orbiting minor planets in node systems, Systems Control Stations act as a customs checkpoint and military outpost for a world. Found occasionally over major settlements outside of node systems, SCS combine the firepower of a cruiser in a package more economically efficent than a destroyer. However, they are functionally immobile.
System Monitor - 100cr
A STL ship with the mass of a light cruiser, there are a number of variations on the basic design, from carrier-type monitors to heavily armored designs primarily designed for orbital work. Monitors have all the advantages of mobile units in the defense of a star system and often operate in datalinked squadrons just like FTL-capable starships. Indeed, many monitors are actually retired starships converted to system defense duties.
Battlestation - 200cr
A heavy defense platform designed to defend a heavily inhabited world, a major shipyard, or other expensive economic investment. Battlestations, while generally not mobile, have the firepower to standoff cruisers and even battleships and are the keystone to most planetary defense networks. While the specific design varies from race to race, it is generally a bad idea to underestimate what a half dozen of these with their integrated fighters, gunboats, and OWPs can do to a careless raiding squadron.
Heavy System Monitor - 300cr
Generally only found in capital systems, the Heavy Systems Monitor is almost always a retired capital ship converted to system defense duties. For example, several damaged national battleships were converted to the system defense role after the First Interstellar War and the formation of the SCSN. These are capital ships with bad attitudes, even though they generally won't have the latest upgrades.
Capital Defense Station (You'll only see one of these, this is Starbase 1/Babylon 5 style) -500cr
These mammoth stations are generally only found over your homeworld, and generally there's not more than one of them. They will ruin anyone's day, however, and invading fleets must be prepared to deal with them. (Monitor level firepower plus we're talking here.)
Additional Support
When sustaining a major deployment of your military into neutral or hostile space, there are costs. There are two ways to mitigate these costs-the first is through the spending of money, representing the hiring of private shipping to bring supplies forward, and the other is through the use of supply ships. These are ships that utilize the support module. When posting a major deployment, a moderator will assign a cost. This cost will vary greatly depending on circumstance. If you are using any supply ships to assist in the operation, inform the moderator and they will take them into account. This is not necessary on small deployments-say escorting convoys, or cruisers patrolling in neutral territory.
Sensor Nets in Neutral Sectors:
One of the major factors in rendering a claimed region safe for interstellar commerace is a series of monitoring stations and unmanned sensor nets that make it very difficult for pirates to operate by restricting the viable places for them to hide out, repair ships, and fence goods in a region. Establishing these sorts of sensor nets is a major step for an interstellar nation to exercise soveriegnty over a region.
Establishing a network of this nature takes two years and $2000 to establish. You should at least vaguely mention this sort of thing in an action post. This is a pretty big step in the entire process for building a claim in a sector and also has positive benefits for trade.
Last edited by Cthulhuvong on Tue Aug 02, 2011 9:16 pm; edited 1 time in total