Pre-SysNES2: Beta-testing and Submission

[Disenfrancised]

Abbreviated Confederate Military and Civil Rankings

Civil Planetary Government

Provisioner-General (planetary executive for major planets, appointed by the fleet, mostly security role as commander of planetary army)
Advocate-General (popularly elected planetary judicial chief, sits on Provisioner-General's cabinet, mediates disputes between Wards)
Ward Marshal (popularly elected, partially-autonomous regional governors over continent-sized Wards, much leeway for determining local laws, no term limits but subject to popular referendum)
Marshal Plenipotentiary (appointed governor for a remote area or a small offworld colony)
Deputy Marshal (represents the Ward Marshal in large Wards, in charge of regional law-enforcement)
Warden (elected mayor of local communities and cities, more of a judge and less of an executive)
Sheriff (local law enforcement and rural conflict resolution)

Military Structure

Commodore-in-Chief (rotating position among the senior Commodores of the military; traditionally selected from the space fleet)
Commodore (in charge of an entire fleet, and typically a star-system's aerospace)
Captain Commander (lead captain of a squadron, elected by junior officers)
Captain (in charge of a larger ship)
Commander (in charge of a smaller ship)
First Commandant (deputy ship captain, in command when the senior officer is off duty or incapacitated)
Commandant (officer in charge of a duty roster, such as engineering, communications, weapons systems, life support, etc.)
Adjunct (junior officer, subdivided into First, Second, Third Grade)
Voidsman (enlisted man)

Thats an awful lot of ranks for a libertarian polity .

 

[Matt0088]

By no means a finalized design in any way. I was simply trying to see how far one could go with the idea of building a low-tech (T3) installation. The Albatross is also not optimized in any way either. I merely aimed for 100 armor and shields as a nice number. Component refinement brings down costs massively because of the few but numerous components. Refining interceptors alone reduces cost in e by about 100. m and v costs are not too high.

Albatross V2 class Planetside Installation:

1x Stationary Orbiter
13x Metal Capacitors (Refined)
1x Command Deck
1x Comp Module
1x Jammer
1x Algorithmic Interlocks
13x Interceptors (Refined)
4x Microwave Laser
7x Plasma Shields
40x Carbon Armor (Refined)
1x Heavy Cladding

Cost: Cost: 214e (91e) / 70m / 46v / 0a / 0t / 75s
Size: 112 / Mass: 115 / HP: 119 / Power: 62 / Heat: -10
IS Rating: 0 / IP Speed: 0 / Range (years): 0
Init: 5 / Dodge: -100 / Avoid: 0 / Armor: 100 / Shield: 95
Refine: 340e / 85s

4 Short Range lasers cause 44 damage, for a total of 176 EM damage.
13 Interceptors cause 13 missile damage at any range.

 

[Thlayli]

Thats an awful lot of ranks for a libertarian polity .

The actual structure of government is very similar to that of Texas; the Marshals are mostly private farmers/entrepreneurs who meet for a few weeks every year or two to make sure that society isn't falling apart.

Outside of that, and law enforcement, people are left to go about their lives. Communities have a lot of leeway for making their own laws (through the Wardens, who enforce them) and the Marshals don't really interfere with that, outside of the few trade entrepots on a major continent. Ad hoc governments also flourish in small out of the way areas.

 

[Matt0088]

Nigh-impregnable space station. It's only weakness is very very high int missile ships, and actually getting the thing built.

Albatross v4 class Defense Platform:

1x Stationary Orbiter
16x Metal Capacitors (Refined)
1x Comp Module
1x Jammers
1x Algorithmic Interlocks
6x Space Marines
1x Grapples
1x Jet Packs
48x Coilguns (Refined)
1x Lubricants
1x Autoloaders
4x Plasma Shield
51x Carbon Armor (Refined)
1x Heavy Cladding

Cost: Cost: 394e (177e) / 152m / 19v / 0a / 0t / 119s
Size: 140 / Mass: 115 / HP: 133 / Power: 57 / Heat: -10
IS Rating: 0 / IP Speed: 0 / Range (years): 0
Init: 1+2 / Dodge: -100 / Avoid: 37 / Armor: 127 / Shield: 59 / StS: 73
Refine: 634e / 159s

You’ll need to have an Int of 18 to touch the Albatross v3 with any missiles. Otherwise, beamers and particle will need brute force, which won’t be available until about Con5 or so I’d guess, which is nice considering this is a T3 installation. The issue is, it costs huge amounts of resources, and the three components required to be refined cost 900e and 350s. On the flip side, just put one up around a planet and it’s completely safe (until someone finds a glaring weakness ).

 

[Kal'thzar]

Ehhh, a bunch of EW ships will wreck that (say 3-4), plus a single ship to do something.

I've been working on EW/Lancers in Close range instances, they work out a nice treat, low KL dmg tied with annoying EW stuff.

 

[Matt0088]

I added a level of algorithmic interlocks (cost is now 401e). It's EW Vul is now 0, so it can't be touched be EW either!

 

[Kal'thzar]

Ok, well the other obvious counter is a fairly basic catapult set up...

(N.B Platforms are really easy to make invulnerable, but stick something long ranged on it....)

 

[Matt0088]

Ok, well the other obvious counter is a fairly basic catapult set up...

(N.B Platforms are really easy to make invulnerable, but stick something long ranged on it....)

The catapult would need to do 32 damage, but yeah that's a weak area. I didn't bother putting anything long range on it, because no one would bother engaging the station if they knew they weren't able to touch the it. (and if they could, then I wouldn't be using the station in the first place! )

 

[Kal'thzar]

So whats to stop people ignoring it and bombarding the planet (theoretically, not sure if Dis would allow that)? Destroy the power facilities and then come up close and inspect the useless station...

 

[Matt0088]

So whats to stop people ignoring it and bombarding the planet (theoretically, not sure if Dis would allow that)? Destroy the power facilities and then come up close and inspect the useless station...

I don't think that's been clarified. If you could ignore a defense installation, then yes a long range weapon would be needed.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Huh, thats new. I do not remember that Catapult Damage is Catdmg - shields^0.85 that makes them quite efficient at demolishing stations that can't fight back (because you need to stack everything and the sink on they die horribly to anything with the smallest amount of long range at T3)

 

[qoou]

Nigh-impregnable space station. It's only weakness is very very high int missile ships, and actually getting the thing built.

Same mistake I made on my first space-station design: catapults will tear it up. It'd take 2 Hyenas, or down to only 2 if I couple all my catapults (like I perhaps should). You should also couple some of your coilguns, because right now you could easily sneak a boarding craft through with minimal shields.

 

[Matt0088]

New design.

Albatross v5 class Defense Platform:

1x Stationary Orbiter
35x Metal Capacitors (Refined)
1x Comp Module
1x Jammers
1x Algorithmic Interlocks
6x Space Marines
1x Grapples
1x Jet Packs
48x Coilguns (Refined)
1x Lubricants
1x Autoloaders
5x Plasma Shield
120x Carbon Armor (Refined)
1x Heavy Cladding

Cost: Cost: 481e (217e) / 186m / 20v / 0a / 0t / 140s
Size: 231 / Mass: 115 / HP: 179 / Power: 205 / Heat: -10
IS Rating: 0 / IP Speed: 0 / Range (years): 0
Init: 1+2 / Dodge: -100 / Avoid: 37 / Armor: 234 / Shield: 181 / StS: 55
Refine: 789e / 197s

It now takes 83 catapult damage to touch the Albatross, and 259 EM damage. @Qoou, I'd certainly couple some of coil guns. If I was thinking of any use, I'd probably have a pair of 5x or 6x coupled coilguns, and the rest would probably be singles?

 

[Kal'thzar]

Dis, why do all the stationary power sources provide cooling (as is or refined)?

Don't those power sources have enough advantages? Namely (fairly) cheap price and awesome power output? Stick some heat onto them! At the moment they are a competitive source of cooling for any planetary defender (power and cooling in one packet!)...

Also could you take another look at Missile Avoid? It seems a bit extreme. Specifically: IF(dodge<0, Miss>0; 2/missavoid;1)*Dodge-missavoid (assuming dint and aint in general cancel), this will cancel out when missavoid=SQRT(2*Dodge), i.e. 14 missile avoid will cancel -100 dodge giving 50:50 hit chance (well roughly).

 

[Matt0088]

This is why I shouldn't bother posting successful designs.

The Albatross can be easily defeated by out-teching it (namely via Con4+), not to mention that unless we truly are swimming in hundreds of e and m/v at the start, it'll take turns to ever get an Albatross into space. Hell, by the time you even build it, it might already be outdated.

 

[Symphony D.]

And I'm hoping that in later versions/prop tech levels Maneuvering Jets won't be "useless junk" as they currently are.

The question is whether you'll still be using a low-tech, low-capability general purpose ship at such a tech level instead of scrapping it for resources or consigning it to the merchant fleet to justify the opportunity cost of making a much more expensive ship.

I don't think the benefit of 1 Init justifies the additional cost of the Jets, personally, if you've got to do all the rest of that in one ship.

It now takes 83 catapult damage to touch the Albatross, and 259 EM damage.

Two refined, twin-coupled, Barrel Cased Linear Catapults at CON4 or three refined, tri-coupled, Barrel Cased Ring Catapults at T3 will do this much damage (96 or 102).

 

[Thlayli]

Can you even build a ship that powers tri-coupled ring catapults and stays under CON 4? Now that's a design I'd like to see.

I don't want Missile Avoid getting nerfed! D:

 

[qoou]

Can you even build a ship that powers tri-coupled ring catapults and stays under CON 4? Now that's a design I'd like to see.

I don't want Missile Avoid getting nerfed! D:

The Hyena has 4 ring catapults. Which is actually really quite daft when I can fit three linear catapults on there for less resource, less hassle, and slightly more damage. Not quite sure why I didn't do that in the first place. Perhaps I should refrain from designing ships so early in the morning.

 

[Thlayli]

qoou, post a background already so that dis can actually let you play in the NES!

CSS Railspike

20x Burst Drive
1x Basic Fusion Core
1x Fission Rocket
1x Deuterium Drive
2x Computational Module
1x Scanners
2x Jammers
4x EW Broadcasters
1x Ice Sinks
1x Interceptors
1x Titanium Armor (Refined)

Cost: 161e (72e) / 36m / 26v / 0a / 0t / 58s
Size: 70 / Mass: 56 / HP: 66 / Power: 0 / Heat: -10
IS: 2 / IP: 1 / Range: 0
Init: 3 / Dodge: -18 / Avoid: 0 / Armor: 10 / Shield: 0
Refine: 240/ 60s
EW Score: 22 / EW Vulnerability: 15 / Close Int Debuff: 4 / Long Int Debuff: 3

Description: Kind of cool generic T3 electro-ship. Higher IS Rating means it can get in, steal data, and get out. This just in, EW bugs are expensive.

Version 2 sacrifices survivability (and affordability) by dumping the Interceptors and/or the Armor and packing on the EW.

 

[Symphony D.]

Can you even build a ship that powers tri-coupled ring catapults and stays under CON 4? Now that's a design I'd like to see.

T3, Advancer, Poor Safety:

---

13 Metal Capacitors
2 Pulse Drive
3 Ring Catapult (Refined) [TRI-COUPLED]
1 Barrel Casings
1 Heavy Cladding

Cost: 89e (40e) / 77m / 6v / 0a / 0t / 36s
Size: 43 / Mass: 49 / HP: 48 / Power: 0 / Heat: -7
IS Rating: 0 / IP Speed: 1 / Range (years): 0
Init: 2 / Dodge: -11 / Avoid: 0 / Armor: 10 / Shield: 0
Refine: 126e / 32s

Catapult Total Damage: 102

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Refine the Metal Capacitors and you can get away with just 7 of them and pack a lot more armor on. Mix them in with some close-range designs and for cheap you have a defensive unit that can kill almost all CON4 ships in one shot.