Battleships (Cont.)

[Necromancer]

It's quite a bit larger than most stock cruisers, but, as with most of SS stock ships, it has it's weaknesses, it's just a matter of getting there...[;)]

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: Necromancer

It's quite a bit larger than most stock cruisers, but, as with most of SS stock ships, it has it's weaknesses, it's just a matter of getting there...[;)]

Haha! Park Stormhawk to its hangar and blast it from inside out! [:D]

[Diabolico]

Hegemony BB test drive



BBs is something that I take deeply to heart, as most of you have noticed - specially stock SS balanced.
It was with great joy and not without some degree of hurry that I installed the "Grand Hegemony" class BB in my ships folder.

My first attention went to the lines, sleek and most fitting to the "usual" Hegemony naval architecture. Nice, very nice indeed!
Aesthetically speaking it looks very cool. I love the sub-type bridge complex.

It was time now to get "practical".
For the purpose of this "review" I have decided to create a military exercice.
The wargames took place in the Renser system. The wargames theme was a simulated invasion of the Renser prefecture by Alliance forces.

The ODB was as follows :

Blue fleet :

1 Hegemony Class BB

1 Dragon class CV

1 Vendetta Class CA

2 Broadsword Class DDs

2 Tiger Class FFs.

Both BB and CV carried fighters, attack and LCA, to a total of approximately 80 craft.



The picture above depicts Blue fleet, somewhere in the Khaital sector, just before the jump to Renser.

Red Fleet :

1 Space station

1 Grand Hegemony Class BB

1 Vendetta Class CA

2 Broadsword Class DDs

2 Tiger Class FFs.

Both BB and Space station carried fighters, attack and LCA, to a total of approximately 80 craft.



We systematicaly removed threat by threat, untill there were only the ON-9 station and the enemy fighters. After all Red Capital ships were destroyed (we only lost 1 DD, 1 FF and a few fighters...) pounding of the space station started :

After jumping into Renser, the fleet regrouped and headed for the ON 9 space base :







Obviously it was a matter of time before we destroyed the station.

To conclude...

The BB turns on the snap like I expected for any big SS capital ships. Accelaration is correct but I still think decelaration should be increased to at least 1 km/hour, as it takes for ages for the retros to stop the BB ("we break for nobody"...). Ok, it's a big ship but perhaps the retros should be a bit more powerfull (meaning seeing speed braking down when you press the "end" button...).

In what concerns weaponry, Torpedoes are ok but all big Hegemony Capital ships use Nike Missiles.
I suggest a refit with Nikes, instead of the torpedoes.

Unless it was "intentional" I'd rather see a bit more armour.

To conclude it is an excellent design that gave me a couple of hours of great pleasure and the usual "teardrop" in my eye!
Keep it up Nec!!!

=S=

[Necromancer]

doh!...good point...something I missed.... The Torpedos shall be refitted accordingly...

Playing around with them myself, I did notice that the retro's were a bit weak... both good suggestions Diab, I'll get them changed tonite. As far as the armor goes, the Grand Hegemony is armored identical to the Nexus, concentrated fire from an entire battlegroup takes them down quickly almost like any other ship in SS, also, if you pit the Nexus vs. the Grand Hegemony you'll see that the Nexus is at a distinct dis-advantage due to the fighter wing stationed aboard the G.H.

I might play with the armor a bit more, I'm still using the initial settings I picked. I'd really like to see them more as a prize that you are either protecting until the last moment or one your trying to take out...

More to come though... The Freedom is next up on my list of big boys, then the Zolon BB, and last but not least, a little supprise.... [8D]

Nec

[Diabolico]

Dying to test the refitted version of the Grand Hegemony and the upcoming version of the freedom.
In fact, I suggest you work your way to making a .DAT version with all 3 + the commerce raider and whatever other stock SS ships balanced vessels you may have.
With a .dat, I may trick Gordon into making a MP night or 2 with it, on his server!
[;)]

=S=

[Diabolico]

After the Grand Hegemony class BB review, it was time to check Necromancer's refit options on the Alliance's Nexus class BB.



I sette myself up for a large fleet engagement.
I sent the Nexus and it's escorts against a CVBG.
My BB squadron engaged the carrier BG, picking on targets as they closed.
Fighters swarmed in by tenths... they just kept coming...
In the end, we got control of the Moneta sector, as the enemy CV and CA jumped out of the sector.
We dealt with 2 remaining enemy DD and FF before going "carrier hunt".

We jumped to the Adantar system to find a 60% Courageous class cruiser and a 100% strong carrier, with what was left of the fighters CAPing around the CV.

Me and my escorting Vendetta class CA went for the Courageous and reduced it to pieces. We slowly closed on the enemy CV and started pounding.



Strangely, we were off the map (off the grid) and my escorting cruiser message me as he was engaging the carrier but without doing so. Is there a bug about AI ships having trouble engaging targets outside the grid, even if ordered to do so?

Anyway, I kept pounding the CV untill it was done :



This mission took over 1h20 min to finish [8D] and I loved it. I got in control of my system

To conclude, I'd see only the following things left to do :

1) Improve braking power;

2) Replace the Torpedoes with Athena Missiles for the Nexus and with Nike for the Grand Hegemony.

And that's it! Ready to .dat!

Nice work Nec, very nice work indeed!!!

=S=

[Diabolico]

Is it intended that neither Grand Hegemony or Nexus class BBs don't carry probes?
Because none of them carry probes... they have to rely on their escorts to launch probes and that is a pitty...

=S=

[Jarhead0331]

Any idea when these beauties might be released? Looking real good!

Semper Fi

[Necromancer]

Breaking power will be changed in the next release, The Nexus is the first Battleship designed, and her missile launch bays are internal, hense, as a point of story, I decided to go with Fusion Torpedos instead of Athenas for the Nexus, the Grand Hegemony is now armed with the Nike Missiles used by the Hegemony, again as a background story point, the Hegemony's battleship line is a reaction to the Alliance battleship line of ships, hense, newer technology was avalible.

Yes, it is intentional that the battleship rely on her escorts for probe duty, in order to balance them with stock ships I had to do alot of give and take, and since I gave them lots of firepower, I took they're eyes...8) besides, if escorted properly, they can use their escorts and pickett screen to spot any dangers long before they ever get close to the battleship.

Jarhead0331, I've got three more ships to finish before I release the battleship ship-pack, I finished up on ship this weekend which shall remain unnamed...hehe...and I'm working on the Dantari seperatist's Freedom class and a Zolon Battleship... shouldn't take too much longer actually, maybe 2 weeks at most....

Thanks for the help Diab, I'll have another ship for you very very soon....8)

Nec

[Diabolico]

Bravo for your Work, Dr. Necromancer! Really enjoyed testing them! Great fun!
Dying to test the next release!!![&o][&o][&o]

=S=

[Diabolico]

The fact is that I love BBs with turrets, like old WW2 warships, with big central towers and turrets with those long barrels in double, triple or quad mountings.
I was dying to try the Yamato class BB by Dragonlead. Here is what it looks like :



Ok, I prefer the Space BB Yamato style ships like the Arcadia, etc. Yet this one has its place with the concept.

As Dragonlead had told me that those ships were not balanced with SS and more powerfull than stock SS ships, I really had to try this.
I have decided to create a 1 man show so listen carefully...

"The time is now. The Terellian Alliance has grown and brought "freedom" to what was known as the Marakan Hegemony and the independent systems.
Contact with distant earth, the berth of Mankind, has been rare and scarce untill now.
Time has passed and the fact is that with the war against the Denatari separatists and the Marakan Hegemony, no one really cared about Earth...
Untill today!
Earth has become a very big empire, submitting it's authority through wherever it passes. It's technology is more advanced than the Alliance's.
This time the Earth Empire is interested in the Terellian Alliance.
To Judge "Force Space" strength, the Earth Empire has dispatched a Yamato Class BB, the "INS Yamato" to deploy into an Alliance controlled system and assess Force Space's Naval strength.
The Target system contained 1 colony style space station beeing built in a space dock. Military presence was assured by a space fortress and a Battleship squadron composed of a Nexus class BB, 1 Orion class CV and it's fighter/attack wing (72 fighter/attack craft), 1 CA, 1 CLA, 2 DDs, 2 FFs.
This should be an interesting "testbed" for our invasion plans... thought the naval specialists at the Imperial Navy's HQ.
The INS Yamato started 200 Km off from the Alliance fleet."



I've setted the turrets and X-lasers on auto, the torpedoes on manual and the pdbs on defense.
As enemy ships beared in range (125 Km), I started engaging them with torpedoes - wich prooved very usefull against the frigates, that didn't last long.
The Yamato has an impressive range of main weapons :



All those turrets are supported by 3 X-ray lasers and the PDBs.
As enemy ships got within 90 Km of range (around 86) the turrets started firing :



This is just awesome! Everything is ripped appart very quickly, even the devastator and BB doesn't last long :





This is what it looks like when the 8 turrets engage the same target simultaneously :



In fact, here are the leftovers from the Alliance fleet :







One other interesting topic to mention is point defense. This seems to have been a seriously studied topic by Dragonlead.
Point defense covers all areas around, above and below the ship. Look at these circling fighter patterns to have an idea :





As you can see by the score sheet above, the Yamato makes justice to it's name, inspired on the 20th century WW2 Japanese BB.
The final score was over 10.600 points as soon as I added the space fortress (the one with the grasers) and Milo's Colony ship.

I reccomend this ship, specially if you are a fan of big ass capital ships that destroy everything, everywhere.
This model is available for download at SSC, on the small mods, source related folder, courtesy of Dragonlead. Enjoy!!!

Great work there, Dragonlead! I am dying to test-drive this one now :



[:D]

=S=

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Very neat

[Mr. D]

I try to keep my promises.
Though not a BB it is still pretty big.
Attention all Klingon starship commanders:
Are you unhappy with your firepower?
Do you feel your D7 is just too fragile?
Don't have enough bloodwine to get your hands on a C7?
If the answer to all three answers is yes, then consider the D10!
It has all the firepower of the D7 and even more.
It comes with a sturdy hull and pretty strong shielding.

[Mr. D]

And if that still doesn't convince you think about this:
This ship comes whith the same command pod used on the D7, making you feel home on your new bridge in no time.
As an added bonus the D10 features two large shuttle bays perfect to subdue any enemy colony you may encounter during your journeys.
The first fifty captains who sign up for command will get a free load of assault shuttles ready in their hangar bays.

[Diabolico]

Looks very neat!!![:D]

Keep it up![&o]

=S=

[Diabolico]

This review is available on Starshatter Central RIGHT HERE, enjoy!!!



=S=

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I love the look!

I should thi nk the firepower should be a little more distributed, though.