An Analysis of Stock Ships and their Doctrines
Aug 26, 2018 20:34:50 GMT
jageriv, newageofpower, and 3 more like this
Post by gedzilla on Aug 26, 2018 20:34:50 GMT
I thought i would do something unusual for a change, and give the stock ships a (relatively) in depth look.
I'm going to look at stats and derive some doctrines the ship could fulfill. Also, feel free to add your own thoughts on the STOCK ships i showcase.
ALL OF MY SUBJECTIVE JUDGEMENT ARE RELATIVE TO OTHER STOCK SHIPS. Obviously relative to custom ships, all of the stats are terrible, but when i say something is good or bad, im judging the attributes relative to other stock ships.
The average ship mass is 4.009kt and 79.8Mc and 4.59 km/s Dv
BeamCraft
894t 14.3Mc 2.13km/s
The Beamcraft is obviously quite small and cheap.
its weapons are a single 1MW laser rod, and 5 turrets, and 4 cannons.
its armor is pretty bad, but its acceleration is great, while it's Dv is Shit.
this ship never appears in the campaign so there is not much to go off off, but i think that with this ships level of redundancy (5 turrets to 1 rod), this ship is an anti laser laser (or at least against the 13MW). Other than that, this ships is just some cheap muscle, so it might be manufactured with 2-bit asteroid gangster lord in mind.
It would most likely be seen around small asteroids, or other non-essentials posts.
This is an Ok design
Corsair
3.82kt 40.6Mc 5.61km/s
The Corsair is roughly average in mass, but far below average in cost, which means this ship is quite cheap for its mass.
its weapons are 1 flak coilgun and 4 autofire railguns. That sounds on paper like a lot of firepower, until you realize the ship only has enough MW to fire one of those at a time. So the reality is the ship probably would have been better off with a bunch of power-cheap cannons.
its armor is bad for a ship of its mass; the ship has a tendency to spin when hit, which leads to its quick death when broadside.
its acceleration is also complete garbage at 60mg. Its Dv is good, actually.
This ship only appears once; the mission Fall of Titan, under the command of the USTA. Unfortunately we can glean little from this cameo. Its placement in the USTA fleet does suggest a role as an escort.
Now i originally thought this ship would be a basic brawler, a CQC ship. Yet its terrible survivability in close combat seems to suggest otherwise. One role i can attribute to this ship is as a hunter of >1kt ships. What suggests this is; good Dv, and the fast firing weapons.
TBH, this design is pretty bad. the 5 13MW weapons are wasted when the ship only has 13.5MW total. The ship would be better off with 1 autofire railgun, and 4 cannons. Also if the armor is bad, than at least make the acceleration decent (why not, the ship has good DV) so the ship can run-and-gun. Simply put, there is bad synergy between the various components, even for a stock ship.
Corvette
4.94kt 99.9MC 5.18km/s
The Corvette has a moderately higher than average mass, and moderately higher than average cost.
Its weapons are 4 13MW Sniper Coilguns, and 7 13MW autofire Railguns. These are all good guns, HOWEVER, (just like the corsair) its only a lot of firepower on paper, as there are only enough MW to fire one weapon at a time.
Its armor is decent, considering that the corvette can go nose in.
Its acceleration is Ok, and its Dv is moderately good.
This ship appears in Predatory Opportunism (as the enemy), Main Belt Extraction (as a ship of yours), Vesta overkill (as an enemy and as one of yours), Solar Ties (as a Nippon ship), and Dusk over Triton. This commonality suggests that the ship is well liked across the system, which suggests this design is quite solid. Its role seems to be Gun Cruiser, added to provide CQC firepower. It also has the ability to launch decoys, a nice little addition to protect fleet ships from missiles.
I do believe is role is quite straight foward; use your Dv to get a good closing velocity, go nose in, and Blast away. Use your decoys to protect from missiles.
This design is ok/mediocre overall. I was going to say that this ship is good/great for its cost and mass, except its suffering from severe lack of MWs. Besides the lack of MW, there is really no big weakness, and the ship can tank decently (provided you stay nose in), and its reasonably well protected against missiles). To fix this, just apply more reactor, the ship definitely has the space for more radiators
Cutter
3.61kt 44.9Mc 4.3km/s
The Cutter has a slightly lower than average mass, much lower than average cost, so similar to the Corsair, it is pretty cheap for its mass.
its weapons are 4 60mm cannons, and 3 13MW lasers, which are both solid, reliable weapons.
The Armor actually seems decent (in the admitedlly limited tests i ran), stay at a very slight angle preferably, not completly nose in.
Its acceleration is pretty bad, and the Dv is Meh.
The Cutter appears in Vesta Overkill (good ol vesta overkill, love this mission), and Solar Ties, the Jovian Lunar tour, in the hands of the USTA and Nippon Prime. This suggests the Cutter is a mainstay design in the USTA-Nippon Prime alliance, perhaps first produced by the USTA and then given to their japanese allies. As befitting its seeming place as a mainstay deisign, the design is a good escort ship. It fits the point defense role well (especially against drones), with its cannons, lasers and decoys. Also befitting a escort, its below average mass and cost.
The role is simple, put it in a fleet, start the combat out broadside (so the decoys go away (horizontally) from the fleet to draw off missiles, and hit ignore range on the weapons, and blaze away.
This ship is Good, has good synergy among its parts (finally a ship that can fire all its weapons at once), and a clear roles, and not to much of a burden to produce.
Escort Carrier
4.04kt 77.9MC 4.54km/s
This Ship is darn close to dead average mass and cost.
The Primary weapon of the Escort Carrier is obviously the Stinger Drone, which is a good, effective Design. Although the EC is limited by the fact that you often have to luanch (at minimum) 8-12 Drones for an effective strike, meaning that at 25 drones you are only likely to get 2-3 effective blows in. Of course you can conserve the drone's Dv for multiple strikes but then you will have to stick to slow intercepts with the enemy, which means the drones are subject to the enemies PD for longer. The EC does have refueling capabilites, which is nice but the refueling is pretty limited by the EC's very limited Flourine supply. So you are unlikely to get more than one full refuel on one strike group (8-12 drones). All in all, if you stick to efffective strikes, fast intercepts (not too fast though, or the drones have issues targeting. The ideal intercept velocity is about 1km/s closing.), and manage a refueling for a strike group, you can get in 3-4 effective blows.
The EC also has 7 13MW railguns, which are solid weapons, but, -in a unfortunately common problem- only has enough MW to fire one of them.
The armor seems good actually (its quite thick), though the top part is one big flat surface that projectiles will hit at a 90 degree angle. The acceleration is Meh, and the DV is slightly bad.
The EC appears in Predatory Opportunism (as yours), in Retaking Ceres (as an enemy ship), and Dusk over Triton (as one of yours). I would say that its a mainstay design, except its cousin the Support Carrier is as common. I would guess one side produced the EC (and then the other side stole the design, or an actual ship), and the other side produced the SC (and the other side stole it). Its probably moderatly well liked by each side, and is produced in medium numbers.
More to come (i will edit it in)
I'm going to look at stats and derive some doctrines the ship could fulfill. Also, feel free to add your own thoughts on the STOCK ships i showcase.
ALL OF MY SUBJECTIVE JUDGEMENT ARE RELATIVE TO OTHER STOCK SHIPS. Obviously relative to custom ships, all of the stats are terrible, but when i say something is good or bad, im judging the attributes relative to other stock ships.
The average ship mass is 4.009kt and 79.8Mc and 4.59 km/s Dv
BeamCraft
894t 14.3Mc 2.13km/s
The Beamcraft is obviously quite small and cheap.
its weapons are a single 1MW laser rod, and 5 turrets, and 4 cannons.
its armor is pretty bad, but its acceleration is great, while it's Dv is Shit.
this ship never appears in the campaign so there is not much to go off off, but i think that with this ships level of redundancy (5 turrets to 1 rod), this ship is an anti laser laser (or at least against the 13MW). Other than that, this ships is just some cheap muscle, so it might be manufactured with 2-bit asteroid gangster lord in mind.
It would most likely be seen around small asteroids, or other non-essentials posts.
This is an Ok design
Corsair
3.82kt 40.6Mc 5.61km/s
The Corsair is roughly average in mass, but far below average in cost, which means this ship is quite cheap for its mass.
its weapons are 1 flak coilgun and 4 autofire railguns. That sounds on paper like a lot of firepower, until you realize the ship only has enough MW to fire one of those at a time. So the reality is the ship probably would have been better off with a bunch of power-cheap cannons.
its armor is bad for a ship of its mass; the ship has a tendency to spin when hit, which leads to its quick death when broadside.
its acceleration is also complete garbage at 60mg. Its Dv is good, actually.
This ship only appears once; the mission Fall of Titan, under the command of the USTA. Unfortunately we can glean little from this cameo. Its placement in the USTA fleet does suggest a role as an escort.
Now i originally thought this ship would be a basic brawler, a CQC ship. Yet its terrible survivability in close combat seems to suggest otherwise. One role i can attribute to this ship is as a hunter of >1kt ships. What suggests this is; good Dv, and the fast firing weapons.
TBH, this design is pretty bad. the 5 13MW weapons are wasted when the ship only has 13.5MW total. The ship would be better off with 1 autofire railgun, and 4 cannons. Also if the armor is bad, than at least make the acceleration decent (why not, the ship has good DV) so the ship can run-and-gun. Simply put, there is bad synergy between the various components, even for a stock ship.
Corvette
4.94kt 99.9MC 5.18km/s
The Corvette has a moderately higher than average mass, and moderately higher than average cost.
Its weapons are 4 13MW Sniper Coilguns, and 7 13MW autofire Railguns. These are all good guns, HOWEVER, (just like the corsair) its only a lot of firepower on paper, as there are only enough MW to fire one weapon at a time.
Its armor is decent, considering that the corvette can go nose in.
Its acceleration is Ok, and its Dv is moderately good.
This ship appears in Predatory Opportunism (as the enemy), Main Belt Extraction (as a ship of yours), Vesta overkill (as an enemy and as one of yours), Solar Ties (as a Nippon ship), and Dusk over Triton. This commonality suggests that the ship is well liked across the system, which suggests this design is quite solid. Its role seems to be Gun Cruiser, added to provide CQC firepower. It also has the ability to launch decoys, a nice little addition to protect fleet ships from missiles.
I do believe is role is quite straight foward; use your Dv to get a good closing velocity, go nose in, and Blast away. Use your decoys to protect from missiles.
This design is ok/mediocre overall. I was going to say that this ship is good/great for its cost and mass, except its suffering from severe lack of MWs. Besides the lack of MW, there is really no big weakness, and the ship can tank decently (provided you stay nose in), and its reasonably well protected against missiles). To fix this, just apply more reactor, the ship definitely has the space for more radiators
Cutter
3.61kt 44.9Mc 4.3km/s
The Cutter has a slightly lower than average mass, much lower than average cost, so similar to the Corsair, it is pretty cheap for its mass.
its weapons are 4 60mm cannons, and 3 13MW lasers, which are both solid, reliable weapons.
The Armor actually seems decent (in the admitedlly limited tests i ran), stay at a very slight angle preferably, not completly nose in.
Its acceleration is pretty bad, and the Dv is Meh.
The Cutter appears in Vesta Overkill (good ol vesta overkill, love this mission), and Solar Ties, the Jovian Lunar tour, in the hands of the USTA and Nippon Prime. This suggests the Cutter is a mainstay design in the USTA-Nippon Prime alliance, perhaps first produced by the USTA and then given to their japanese allies. As befitting its seeming place as a mainstay deisign, the design is a good escort ship. It fits the point defense role well (especially against drones), with its cannons, lasers and decoys. Also befitting a escort, its below average mass and cost.
The role is simple, put it in a fleet, start the combat out broadside (so the decoys go away (horizontally) from the fleet to draw off missiles, and hit ignore range on the weapons, and blaze away.
This ship is Good, has good synergy among its parts (finally a ship that can fire all its weapons at once), and a clear roles, and not to much of a burden to produce.
Escort Carrier
4.04kt 77.9MC 4.54km/s
This Ship is darn close to dead average mass and cost.
The Primary weapon of the Escort Carrier is obviously the Stinger Drone, which is a good, effective Design. Although the EC is limited by the fact that you often have to luanch (at minimum) 8-12 Drones for an effective strike, meaning that at 25 drones you are only likely to get 2-3 effective blows in. Of course you can conserve the drone's Dv for multiple strikes but then you will have to stick to slow intercepts with the enemy, which means the drones are subject to the enemies PD for longer. The EC does have refueling capabilites, which is nice but the refueling is pretty limited by the EC's very limited Flourine supply. So you are unlikely to get more than one full refuel on one strike group (8-12 drones). All in all, if you stick to efffective strikes, fast intercepts (not too fast though, or the drones have issues targeting. The ideal intercept velocity is about 1km/s closing.), and manage a refueling for a strike group, you can get in 3-4 effective blows.
The EC also has 7 13MW railguns, which are solid weapons, but, -in a unfortunately common problem- only has enough MW to fire one of them.
The armor seems good actually (its quite thick), though the top part is one big flat surface that projectiles will hit at a 90 degree angle. The acceleration is Meh, and the DV is slightly bad.
The EC appears in Predatory Opportunism (as yours), in Retaking Ceres (as an enemy ship), and Dusk over Triton (as one of yours). I would say that its a mainstay design, except its cousin the Support Carrier is as common. I would guess one side produced the EC (and then the other side stole the design, or an actual ship), and the other side produced the SC (and the other side stole it). Its probably moderatly well liked by each side, and is produced in medium numbers.
More to come (i will edit it in)