Blockade Runner ship class
 

I'm thinking of making a "Blockade Runner" ship hull available at the same tech level as LC. It would be something around 200 KT and could have 10 or 12 engines instead of 6. It shouldn't be able to have much in the way of armaments but would make a great explorer-type, and should be able to cross a single sector in one turn.

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this.

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

I use modified class like that also, well not as many engines, but similar idea.

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

Big problem with using it as an explorer.

Having more engines makes you go faster, but you still go the same distance before running outta fuel!

Every engine burns 10 fuel when you move 1 square. Each engine stores 500 fuel.

That means you can go 50 squares before you die.

With 1 engine, you go 50 squares in 5 years.
With 2 engines, you go 50 squares in 2.5 years.
with 50 engines, you go 50 squares in 1 turn, then you're outta fuel.

All you need to do is create a really expensive engine that dosen't guzzle fuel. Make it use up only 2 fuel, and give a hefty movement bonus, then your ship get 5x the range and be faster.

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

You could assign the extra movement ability to the hull class, I did that to the escort to create a scout type ship. You can give it any amout of movement you want this way and not have it abused to much cause the hull is small.

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

Marty,

Could you also assign extra supply capacity to a hull type. This would make an awesome explorer type ship if you could. I have not fooled around too much with components.

Geo

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

I gave my little hulls, escorts, frigates and destroyers, a lot of extras in hope that they would stay useful throughout the game.
I gave them supply, like you suggested, extra movement, extra combat movement and additional reduction to hit. They actually made it into the later stages as fast raiders, spies, PD ships etc.
I don't know if it still works in 1.35, I changed mine back in 1.19. Hope it still works!

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

Hmmm....Escort Class 6-QIII engines, SolarSail-3, Q-reactor and you good to go NOTHING can catch it without mods

------------------
mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

Not to mention if your propulsion experts http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif, it'll get you a combat speed of 7... who needs a retreat option?

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Hmmm....Escort Class 6-QIII engines, SolarSail-3, Q-reactor and you good to go NOTHING can catch it without mods<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, but I'm talking about an affordable solution early in the game that won't be useful as a major "attack fleet" type ship... and one that doesn't take 50 years of research to build. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif

It seems like it's at about the time I get LCs that I've met a few races and have explored out about as far as my escorts will go in any reasonable amount of time. The idea is that they'd be much faster than a regular ship, and would be handy for running through enemy turf in a hurry without either getting caught, or having to bring an entire fleet through. I like the comments on the supplies, I hadn't considered that. Thanks. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Also, I don't get how an escort with the mentioned components would be any faster than a cruiser with those same components. At that point in the game, why build the escort?

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

It does seem weird that all ships have about the same speed. Thats why I added speed to my smaller ships, along with the other stuff, it makes them different.
A few people have been working on something with "engines per move" but it sounds to complicated for me to do and I think there are some small problems with it.
If you want to quickly mod a fast ship I would suggest adding speed to a hull by giving it the "Standard Ship Movement" ability. That way you can oick the hull type(s) you want to speed up.

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

How does this sound for an idea. From what little I know about hull types I think it would be doable.

Leave the escort class that you start out with alone, then as you advance in ship construction tech, say level 3, along with the destroyer hull you discover an "enhanced escort" class hull. This would be the same size as a normal escort hull, but with the added abilities.

You could even advance it gradually. At level 3 say the enhanced escort gets +1 speed and some supply capacity, at level 4 a new escort class with +2 speed and more supply cap.

Explain it as better shipbuilding techniques allowing stronger structures with less mass in materials giving them more acceleration from the same engine power.

(Someone with more physics knowledge than me will have to tell me if thrust to weight ratio is applicable to to ships operating in a vacuum. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif )

Geo

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by geoschmo:
(Someone with more physics knowledge than me will have to tell me if thrust to weight ratio is applicable to to ships operating in a vacuum. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif )
Geo<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, technically it's a thrust to _mass_ ratio, since weight is mass * gravity (well, technically it's acceleration due to gravitational attraction, not "gravity", but why nitpick that much?) & there's not much gravitational attraction going on in deep space.

Anyway, the point is, thrust to mass ratio definitely has an effect, no matter how much or how little gravitational attraction is being exerted on the mass. After all, momentum and energy are functions of mass. To go a step further, the idea of thrust is that it expends energy to create an acceleration (i.e., change in velocity, which applies to changes in speed, direction, or both); that acceleration, when acting upon a mass, causes the mass to change velocity.

All right, now I'M confused. What the heck was I talking about? http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

That's definately do-able Geo and sounds like a great idea.
I used to build only 2 escorts each game, my first two scouts. After I got Destroyers I never built a smaller ship. Since I added speed and combat move to the smaller hulls I use them a lot more, as capture ships, sensor ships, fast supply ship etc. They still tend to lose some of their usefulness after everyone has DN's but in my current game, turn 300 or so, I still have them in action.
It's also a pretty easy mod and I think the AI would use them even if the increases were gradual. I modded all mine from the start so the AI doesn't have many problems using them, although they could vary their designs a little more. I wish I knew more about modding the AI ship building, I botch it every time http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

I recently had the idea for the following:

How about making all Ship Classes (the standard ones) available from the start. Escort would stay normal but all other ships would take HUGE amouts of resources to build. I mean really huge. So you COULD build a Battlecruiser but it would take several years to be completed.
Advanced levels in Ship Construction would make either the next ship (lvl 2: frigate, lvl 3: destroyer, ect.) cheaper (normal cost) or make all hulls a little bit cheaper.

This would have worked extremly well for SE3 since ships were build OUTSIDE the ship yard. This could prove interesting:
Empire A begins construction of a really HUGE Ship that would surely devastate EMPIRE B. Now Empire B could break the defense lines and directly head for the space yard the colosss is built and destroy it before it's done. Well, in SE4 the ships are contructed INSIDE the Space yard, making it necessary to destroy the space yard. Could prove difficult if it's built on the homeworld.

That was just an idea and I will test it out as soon as I got some time again...

MfG Happy_Dau

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

What was the discussion with mass, acceleration, gravity ?
To give you a clue, The Enterprise class ships from Star Trek would probably depart in three different directions when going warp, both gondles accelerate to warpspeed and the main body would just stay where it was cause the mere force of accelerating just at the outer edge of the structure would rip the lightweight gondles from their 'thin' attaching structures. Either you have the main body of the mass directly in front of the drive (but then you should try to accelerate relative slow else the front part of the ship would look like you drove it against a wall) or you have a superstructure that can withstand the acceleration. But putting the mass in front of the drive gives less trouble and need for high grade materials.
But there is also another thing to obey even without acceleration the mass of the ship itself will form a gravitational force on itself. So if you have a metal staff 1cm thick and more then a kilometer long the staff will twist and turn and break due to its own gravitational force. To counter this you need to shape a form that is balanced - easiest way is a spherical ship. But again this is gets only really important within a gravitational field or at a considerable size and mass of the ship.

murx

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by murx:
...The Enterprise class ships from Star Trek would probably depart in three different directions when going warp, both gondles accelerate to warpspeed and the main body would just stay where it was cause the mere force of accelerating just at the outer edge of the structure would rip the lightweight gondles from their 'thin' attaching structures...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not to get too picky, but what about their "Integrity Field" and "Inertial Dampeners"???

Re: Blockade Runner ship class
 

Gravitational forces would not have much of an effect on a ship unless it was really huge, and even then the forces would be static and not actually change during acceleration (at least if you only consider the problem in non-relativistic terms). The bottom line is that unless everybody wants to play a game where each turn represents hundreds of years and all commands are executed with a delay/lag, then some laws of physics are just going to be broken, no way around it.