The Alternative Fleet Project

Anarki · Post by **Anarki** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:41 am

Time to make custom weapons specifically designed to exploit stock ships defensive mechanisms, without increasing DPS or range absurdly.

Like twin fire blasters with short range to overwhelm PD.

Ixranin · Post by **Ixranin** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:22 pm

Here's a patrol I'd made recently:

Missile Stats: (Firing arc, 105degrees)
-Fire rate: 5
-Clipsize: 6
-Damage: 8
-Deviation: 10
-Turning: 0.90

A support fire craft that bombards the target with rockets from a distance. Deals wide-spread damage at long range, and can be more concentrated if brought to short range, but still suffers from deviation. Not a particularly fast patrol craft, but has some survivability.

Not sure how much HP it should have though. It's most similar to the Proteus, which has 150. (The two smaller armor pieces don't do much, they're parented to the front pieces so they're as much a disadvantage as advantage.)

Cerebrus wrote:

Six forward Railguns on a destroyer sounds like a bit much, considering its like taking both Athena broadsides at once, but I'm not sure. Thrown it through any testing yet?

Cerebrus · Post by **Cerebrus** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:25 pm

Indeed, I have, and it's not as powerful as it might seem to be. While it's forward firepower is overwhelming, the Railguns have reduced firing arcs, which I unfortunately failed to note before. In addition, all but the most abysmally slow ships can flank it with ease.

Seriously, this thing is getting flanked by Enyos. I should probably knock it's HP down a bit further, though.

Cycerin · Post by **Cycerin** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:40 pm

I decided to make a battleship:

Name: Lachesis
Class: Battlecruiser
Role: Fleet Bombardement and Suppression

http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... chesis.shp

I decided to make a Battlecruiser true to the thinking behind the word: a small, fast and lightly armored battleship with great firepower. Its broadsides are devastating, and if micromanaged, the shock beamers can take care of smaller pests while the broadsides work on slow ships to both sides. However, it's very vulnerable if flanked or ganged up on by other Battleships, lacking any sort of panic button or deflectors, and having barely half the HP of a Cronus.

It worked well in Grinder when I supported it with tougher battleships, because it's just so incredibly destructive - and quite elusive for a vessel of such size. The speed lets you flank other battleships and rip through them with broadside barrages. They're also great fun to micromanage.

Cerebrus · Post by **Cerebrus** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:33 am

Bump. C'mon, people, we can't have a fleet of 3 ships.

Post by **Aralonia** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:47 am

The Repulse-class battleship-class vessel, designed to serve as a long range bombardment ship.

http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... e_BB=2.shp

Screwed up a bit on writing the link, sorry. Broadside AI, one beamer per side, three railguns on centreline, two gatling blasters on centreline. 6 PD guns overall. Replaces Cronus in game. Maneuvering around weapons will have best results.

Cycerin · Post by **Cycerin** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 5:08 am

Judging from that pic, it doesn't seem like Broadside AI is a good deafult choice. But I can't know the firearcs from that picture.

L0oking Glass · Post by **L0oking Glass** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 5:36 am

I made a destroyer. I based it on the Athena. It's meant to fire broad side though.

The picture doesn't seem to uplload so I'll leave a link to upload the file.

http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... Vulcan.sb2

wonderwhy-er · Post by **wonderwhy-er** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:48 am

Aralonia wrote:

The Repulse-class battleship-class vessel, designed to serve as a long range bombardment ship.

http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... e_BB=2.shp

Screwed up a bit on writing the link, sorry. Broadside AI, one beamer per side, three railguns on centreline, two gatling blasters on centreline. 6 PD guns overall. Replaces Cronus in game. Maneuvering around weapons will have best results.

Wah. Epic ship. Looks so human

Anarki · Post by **Anarki** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:53 am

This include alien ships? I want to build alien ships.

Cerebrus · Post by **Cerebrus** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:54 am

Sure, why not?

Post by **Arcalane** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:24 am

L0oking Glass wrote:I made a destroyer. I based it on the Athena. It's meant to fire broad side though.

The picture doesn't seem to uplload so I'll leave a link to upload the file.

http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... Vulcan.sb2

Going by the previous content of this post (which I note was a link to your own hard drive

) I suggest you examine the Guide on Posting Custom Ship Screenshots.

Captain Trek · Post by **Captain Trek** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:28 am

Before I present some of my ideas, let me just give my opinions on the ships so far...

First, the Stinger is a wonderfully creative little ship... Nice one, Ixranin...

If you ask me, though, the 'Balanced Destroyer' is really ugly and looks far too much like a really cheap way of getting a bunch of railguns into the air. I man, the stock Oenone does that with beamers, but it doesn't look cheap doing it, whereas the Pirate Battle Barge does. In fact, this ship looks even cheaper than the Barge... I don't like it...

The Lachesis' only real problem, I think, is that its booster is going to run out really quickly trying to boost four blasters at a time... Other than that, though, it's not bad (and actually seems surprisingly balanced, considering its massive broadside loadout).

The Vulcan seemed frail when I first saw it, but I think that, with a bit of tweaking, it could serve well as a Terran ageis destroyer. It's got the right weapons loadout (except for the four flak guns, which should be removed partly or entirely (the Athena has only 1 particle gun to the Hecate's 2 particle guns and a falk)), but I personally think the hull structure needs to be changed. The parenting is pretty screwy, BTW...

The repulse has potential to serve as a Hecate-style mainline dreadnought methinks... It has great potential with its six particle guns (which i think is exactly the right number for it).

Anyway, here is my first design idea...

Vanguard class "sword and buckler" frigate

The Vanguard class is a light craft of a tonnage between that of the 'Singer' class missile gunboat and the experimental 'six shooter' railgun barge. The class is being designed largely as an inexpensive method for producing a large number of powerful, surivable ships in a short time framely. The designed will feature several powerful weapons (the 'sword') protected by at least one, if not two deflector modules with armoured sections designed for them to target (the 'buckler').

Currently, there are two main designs on the table...

"The Crabby Vanguard", as it's known for its crab-like appearence, is the first of the two proposed designs. It's design is almost identical to its cousin's, except that it trades out complete defense for a much stronger hull...

http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... uard_1.sb2

The second design, affectionately known as the "Tower Shield", has extremely flimbsy hull integrity, but has an armour design that allows its deflectors to protect it much more completely than the "Crabby Vanguard" design can...

http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... uard_2.sb2

If you guys like, I could expand the Vanguard to full destroyer status (make it more of a Hestia equivalent)...

Note: Since I took the pictures, I have reduced the firing are for the gat blaster from 45 to 40 and I have fixed the AI range (now 500 on both. I could have made it longer, but the ship is supposed to absorb enemy fire). I've also set the AI to flanking...

Ixranin · Post by **Ixranin** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:33 am

L0oking Glass wrote:I made a destroyer. I based it on the Athena. It's meant to fire broad side though.

http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... Vulcan.sb2

Is it supposed to have both Aegis deflectors guarding the same piece, and two pieces stacked exactly atop each other in the front? Not quite sure what's going on there.

Tachyon Stats: (Firing arc, 145degrees)
-Reload: 55
-Range: 420

The Zelus spin-off. Has the same two Pulse Guns, though with only half the firing angle, and a double-rate Tachyon in place of the Gattling Pulse. It works in the same way of flanking the enemy, though has to stay more focused due to its smaller firing arcs. Despite this though, the Tachyon is surprisingly effective, and it doesn't have to get as close to the target as the Zelus does.

This one took a while. Originally it had two more broadside pulse guns and a 4-clip Tachyon with really low damage to screw point defenses. I found out though, that the splash damage of the Tachyon doesn't take into account the custom damage, so having multiple Tachyon balls on the enemy ship tore it apart much faster then any Zelus could. It's still rather close to what the Zelus is though, so if anybody thinks the ship taking the Zelus role should be more significantly different, I can try making another.

Stinger sb2 (Raised its movement values some.)

Chigriki sb2

EDIT: Vanguard looks rather armored for a patrol craft. You sure it wouldn't be more fit as a destroyer? Seems pretty Hestia-like, especially in having two versions, which is what makes me think of it more like a destroyer.

Post by **Arcalane** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:35 am

Captain Trek wrote:The parenting is pretty screwy, BTW...

"Pretty screwy" barely begins to describe this diagram of it;

Sorry dude, but, uh, try harder.

EDIT: Trek, can you please not post such huge images? Official request to shrink them down.