|
|
Post by cutterjohn on Dec 1, 2016 9:32:59 GMT
Anyone tried this yet? I've found it surprisingly cost effective compared to flairs. Here's the decoy. 6.75GW brings in missiles like a moth to a flame.  Here's the reactor that powers it. A highly bastardized 1GW reactor from Apophys(Thanks!).  I optimized everything for cost effectiveness, replacing the tungsten/tantalum with carbon/molybdenum, which gives me enough energy to run the pumps(all I need). The heat sinks are barebones paper thin. Its slightly lighter, and roughly half the price, as a 10s flare of the same wattage, but this decoy is permanent until destroyed, meaning there's no need to spam them. I added an engine so it can lure missiles well away from the fleet, and I put on a remote and turret so I could give it commands. Can even pre launch it and keep it in your fleet! Attachments:
|
|
|
|
Post by nerd1000 on Dec 1, 2016 11:42:19 GMT
I had the idea that you could replace the reactor with a NTR and use the propellant (ejected without an nozzle) as the heat emitter to save cost/mass on those big radiator arrays. It sorta worked- I got more power for far less cost. Sadly I think the game doesn't count your superheated propellant as a heat signature (the displayed heat signature from my >7GW reactor was 800kW) and the NTR I built consumes over 2 tonnes of propellant per second, meaning that for a measly 10s burn time you need more than 20 tonnes of water in each decoy  |
|
|
|
Post by apophys on Dec 2, 2016 2:17:35 GMT
I don't have dedicated decoy drones optimized for being a decoy (nice idea there btw), but I have laser drones using MPD thrusters that fulfill the same purpose in addition to doing damage. I feel that it's probably more efficient overall to do things that way.
|
|
|
|
Post by newageofpower on Dec 2, 2016 2:59:37 GMT
I don't have dedicated decoy drones optimized for being a decoy (nice idea there btw), but I have laser drones using MPD thrusters that fulfill the same purpose in addition to doing damage. I feel that it's probably more efficient overall to do things that way. Your laser drone costs 240 KC? My 1 GW lasersats run almost 10x that... Granted, half the cost is carting around kilotons of decane... |
|
|
|
Post by apophys on Dec 3, 2016 1:17:23 GMT
I have 1GW drones (7x 100MW laser, 3x 100MW MPD) for 1.25 Mc, as well as 100MW ones (70MW laser, 3x 10MW MPD) for 125 kc. Still mucking around with them.
My point on efficiency is that you can kill two birds with one stone by having optimized firepower on drones while also drawing missiles away from source ships, eliminating the need for dedicated flare drones (although the flare-like behavior on laser drones wouldn't be anywhere close to cost effective on its own).
Laser drones in particular will shoot down missiles on their way. A missile attack would be forced to use a large enough missile group to get through in the first place, and then all the survivors focus down just one or two of the laser drones (which could be spread out to minimize nuke AoE). Quite annoying for the missile user.
Laser drone swarms would need to be pre-launched.
Neon MPD thrust is quite nice when power generation is light and cheap. My 1GW drone only carries 19 tons of propellant for over 11 km/s dV.
|
|
|
|
Post by goduranus on Dec 5, 2016 16:59:12 GMT
i tried this before, unlike chemical flares it only works if you pre launch it and keep it with the fleet, doesn't work if you launch it after missiles have already locked on to your main ship.
|
|
|
|
Post by spacechicken on Dec 5, 2016 17:52:02 GMT
Add a second set of radiators. You can keep them deactivated until the first set is destroyed, then deploy. It will become a reusable flair.
|
|
|
|
Post by cutterjohn on Dec 5, 2016 19:40:52 GMT
i tried this before, unlike chemical flares it only works if you pre launch it and keep it with the fleet, doesn't work if you launch it after missiles have already locked on to your main ship. Odd. Works for me. |
|
|
|
Post by newageofpower on Dec 5, 2016 21:39:00 GMT
i tried this before, unlike chemical flares it only works if you pre launch it and keep it with the fleet, doesn't work if you launch it after missiles have already locked on to your main ship. Odd. Works for me. Its possible it fails if the main ship emits more heat... |
|
|
|
Post by concretedonkey on Dec 6, 2016 7:02:55 GMT
I use something similar , only a lot smaller , 2kw 2600K reactor on a small drone... its not very effective in tactical range - makes the missiles flinch when passing trough, but if you use it to intercept flocks in the strategic layer its a very cost effective way to make them waste their delta V.
|
|
|
|
Post by cutterjohn on Dec 6, 2016 23:22:01 GMT
You can use basically anything to do that. Missile AI is dumb as a brick, and will always go for the largest heat source on the map. If there is only one heat source, missiles go for that.
It's super cheesy, though. Basically an exploit.
|
|
