Warships and Areotech musings

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  • Last Post 19 April 2020
Prince posted this 09 April 2020

Anons on the /btg/ boards turned me onto the fact that MegaMekLab now supports warships and nearly every kind of unit creator- my use of the program has pretty much only been aerotech, though it's quickly displacing SSW (end of an era...) for many in the fandom.

I didn't just start making ships either- I started poking through 3057 upgrade and the JHS: Terra listings for ships to modify in "sensible" and unique ways, mostly based around how the description of subcaps states it's another star league idea that was never followed through on (LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN-UNIVERSE) or how the Word might have redesigned the warships they used if they had the time and ability to.

Make a note tho- MML is not perfect. It didn't list the total number of heat sinks on most of my creations, so be forewarned you gotta export to text with MML still open and double-check everything; I only just realized like, 10 ships later .

 

sub-capital aerotech warships capital
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Prince posted this 09 April 2020

Here you go, Gregory!

The Farragut is cool, and the fluff *kinda* makes sense as to why such a massive vessel like the Monsoon was eventually decommissioned- makes me wonder tho, if it's cheaper to recycle a warship than build a new one for something like the League.

I try not to simply cut into cargo space and swap to double heat sinks on these, though you wouldn't know it here. To improve it, I decided to add in Subcaps like the rest of the Word ships in 3078 but UNLIKE them, I added the subcaps as an assist. Here, the Piranha's are used to tie up AMS more than cause damage to anything (allowing Pacemaker nuke-carrying Killer Whales to sneak in) and the heavy SCCs are paired with the NAC/40s for more damage and bracketing accuracy- though why you'd bracket fire at medium range I don't know. Large lasers are replaced  for VS large pulses like the rest of the Word ships, and the 3-bay heavy N PPCs have one more added because that just seems like a good idea. I decided to not add AMS- though it should absolutely have it, having a weakness in a metal gear REX style is kinda cool and all the Word ships didn't use AMS properly anyway.

Finally, there's a couple of other "little" changes to make it copacetic. Marines are now in 4 level 3s, the 150m Grav deck was copied (I fluff it as you should always use 2 so one cancels the other's rotational forces out) and each crewmember has their own quarters. With nearly 700 people on one of these, it is one packed ship!

 

Farragut II Battleship Righteous Justice
Mass: 1,680,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Experimental) 
Introduced: 3078
Mass: 1,680,000
Battle Value: 308,240
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-F-X
Cost: 16,038,793,000 C-bills

Fuel: 4,000 tons (10,000)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 7
KF Drive Integrity: 33
Heat Sinks: 2,500 (5,000)
Structural Integrity: 95

Armor
    Nose: 460
    Fore Sides: 470/470
    Aft Sides: 418/418
    Aft: 377

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Fighter (12)            2 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Fighter (12)            2 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Fighter (12)            2 Doors   
    Bay 4:  Small Craft (10)        2 Doors   
    Bay 5:  Cargo (133,524.0 tons)   4 Doors   

Ammunition:
    420 rounds of NAC/40 ammunition (13.2 tons), 
    180 rounds of Killer Whale ammunition (300 tons), 
    220 rounds of Heavy N-Gauss ammunition (2.5 tons), 
    340 rounds of Piranha ammunition (40 tons), 
    20 rounds of Peacemaker ammunition (100 tons), 
    640 rounds of Heavy SCC ammunition (1 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 2
Grav Decks: 2 (150 m, 150 m)
Escape Pods: 66
Life Boats: 66
Crew:  381 enlisted/non-rated, 127 gunners, 122 bay personnel, 144 marines      

Notes: Mounts 3,192 tons of ferro-carbide armor.

Weapons:                                       Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                                 Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
Nose (479 Heat)
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy)                      36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Heavy N-Gauss Ammo (40 shots)
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy)                      36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Heavy N-Gauss Ammo (40 shots)
5 Large VSP Laser                          50   5(50)   4(35)    0(0)     0(0)   Pulse Laser 
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/40)                135  68(680) 68(680)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC 
    4 Sub-Capital Cannon (Heavy)           168                                   Sub-Capital Cannon 
    NAC/40 Ammo (20 shots)
    Heavy SCC Ammo ( shots)
6 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   54   18(180) 18(180) 18(180)   0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (120 shots)

FRS/FLS (1,484 Heat)
3 Capital Missile Launcher (Killer Whale)  60   12(120) 12(120) 12(120) 12(120)  Capital Missile
    Peacemaker Ammo (10 shots)
    Killer Whale Ammo (30 shots)
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy)                      36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Heavy N-Gauss Ammo (40 shots)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                        900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
5 Large VSP Laser                          50   5(50)   4(35)    0(0)     0(0)   Pulse Laser 
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/40)                135  54(540) 54(540)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC  
    2 Sub-Capital Cannon (Heavy)           84                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
    NAC/40 Ammo (40 shots)
    Heavy SCC Ammo ( Shots)
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/40)                135  54(540) 54(540)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC  
    2 Sub-Capital Cannon (Heavy)           84                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
    NAC/40 Ammo (40 shots)

RBS/LBS (1,484 Heat)
3 Capital Missile Launcher (Killer Whale)  60   12(120) 12(120) 12(120) 12(120)  Capital Missile
    Killer Whale Ammo (30 shots)
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy)                      36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                        900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
5 Large VSP Laser                          50   5(50)   4(35)    0(0)     0(0)   Pulse Laser 
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/40)                135  54(540) 54(540)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC  
    2 Sub-Capital Cannon (Heavy)           84                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
    NAC/40 Ammo (40 shots)
    Heavy SCC Ammo ( Shots)
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/40)                135  54(540) 54(540)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC  
    2 Sub-Capital Cannon (Heavy)           84                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
    NAC/40 Ammo (40 shots)  
    Heavy SCC Ammo (shots)                                                  

ARS/ALS (620 Heat)
3 Capital Missile Launcher (Killer Whale)  60   12(120) 12(120) 12(120) 12(120)  Capital Missile
    Killer Whale Ammo (30 shots)
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy)                      36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
5 Large VSP Laser                          50   5(50)   4(35)    0(0)     0(0)   Pulse Laser 
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/40)                135  54(540) 54(540)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC  
    2 Sub-Capital Cannon (Heavy)           84                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
    NAC/40 Ammo (40 shots)
    Heavy SCC Ammo ( Shots)
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/40)                135  54(540) 54(540)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC  
    2 Sub-Capital Cannon (Heavy)           84                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
    NAC/40 Ammo (40 shots)  
    Heavy SCC Ammo (shots)                                                  
4 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   36   12(120) 12(120) 12(120)   0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (80 shots)

Aft (1,451 Heat)
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy)                      36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Heavy N-Gauss Ammo (60 shots)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                        900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
5 Large VSP Laser                          50   5(50)   4(35)    0(0)     0(0)   Pulse Laser 
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/40)                135  54(540) 54(540)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC  
    2 Sub-Capital Cannon (Heavy)           84                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
    NAC/40 Ammo (40 shots)
    Heavy SCC Ammo ( Shots)
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/40)                135  54(540) 54(540)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC  
    2 Sub-Capital Cannon (Heavy)           84                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
    NAC/40 Ammo (40 shots)  
    Heavy SCC Ammo (shots)                                                  
3 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   27   9(90)   9(90)   9(90)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (60 shots)

Prince posted this 12 April 2020

There's very few jumpships in battletech, but even odder is there's very few Jumpships that seem to be purpose-built as transports. As far as I know, the Star Lord has never had it's stats updated and fixed properly and neither did the Monolith, which is supposedly only a military unit instead of a shipping design. The final one- and only one that fits this mold- is the Leviathan jumpship, which in-game has not been produced in nearly 500 years.

So here's the "Great Spire", the equivalent to a shipping container vessel in space. Probably could dump armor for cargo and another grav deck, but otherwise it's purpose is having 10 goddamned-docking collars so that (in game-theory) it could move nearly 750,000+ tons of cargo in 10 Behemoth dropships to a system. In my head, this 1.8 billion C-bill ship is literally *just* a transporter for house militaries and corporations, and while it does have some fighters and small shuttles to protect it would only be seen in an invasion if they absolutely needed every ship possible.

Great Spire Mass Transport Jumpship
Mass: 500,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced) 
Introduced: 3145
Mass: 500,000
Battle Value: 1,984
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-X-X-F
Cost: 1,830,440,167 C-bills

Fuel: 1,200 tons (3,000)
Safe Thrust: 0
Maximum Thrust: 0
Sail Integrity: 6
KF Drive Integrity: 10
Heat Sinks: 0
Structural Integrity: 1

Armor
    Nose: 20
    Fore Sides: 20/20
    Aft Sides: 17/17
    Aft: 11

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Small Craft (2)         2 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Fighter (6)             2 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (1203.0 tons)     4 Doors   

Ammunition:
  None

Dropship Capacity: 10
Grav Decks: 1 (95 m)
Escape Pods: 9
Life Boats: 0
Crew:  31 enlisted/non-rated, 22 bay personnel      

Notes: Mounts 262.5 tons of standard aerospace armor.

Weapons:     Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
None

 

Prince posted this 14 April 2020

*Can* you improve the Black Lion? Maybe if you have no taste and toss buckets of naval PPCs at it, or you could attempt something in the original's vein. With current bracketing rules, the Black Lion sometimes looses out on long-range accuracy...

18 NAC/30s... and 32 NAC/20s, all in separate bays! We toss the 20s completely to double the number of 30s to 36 total cannons, and then mount enough Light Sub-Cap cannons to boost each bay to 5 guns each. We only toss out the 3rd rear 60-point bay- little reason to have the most damage on the rear- and collapse the separate tubes into 8 AR-10s. We add some LAMS to each bay, increase the armor by ~400 tons and jack up the heat sinks to 2,200 DHS. I didn't add more fuel; cargo space can store some instead.

For a loss of ~4,000 tons in cargo space, this "Black Lion II" gives a huge boost in accuracy and an increase in damage and protection, though it's still reliant on it's own fighters and shuttlecraft to truly defend it against aero. But better yet is it can totally work within canon- the JFS Jade Aerie is known to have undergone repair in the Chainelaine Isles in ~3090 and it's the one Black Lion left, so a refit into this would not be odd, especially when it cuts down the used ammo types to only ~3 at a minimum, POTENTIALLY 5 if you wanted White Sharks for some reason.

 

Black Lion II Jade Aerie
Mass: 810,000 tons
Technology Base: Clan (Advanced) 
Introduced: 3090(?)
Mass: 810,000
Battle Value: 143,193
Tech Rating/Availability: F/X-X-X-F
Cost: 20,494,440,000 C-bills

64 Light Sub-Capital Cannons
36 NAC/30s
8 AR/10s
32 LAMS

Fuel: 1,000 tons (2,500)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 5
KF Drive Integrity: 17
Heat Sinks: 2200 (4400)
Structural Integrity: 75

Armor
    Nose: 182
    Fore Sides: 225/225
    Aft Sides: 225/225
    Aft: 181

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Fighter (20)            4 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Small Craft (10)        2 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (65907.0 tons)    1 Door    

Ammunition:
    40 rounds of AR10 Killer Whale ammunition (2000 tons) 
    40 rounds of AR10 Barracuda ammunition (1200 tons) 
    1,280 rounds of Light SCC ammunition (1280 tons) 
    720 rounds of NAC/30 ammunition (576 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 4
Grav Decks: 2 (95 m, 95 m)
Escape Pods: 0
Life Boats: 52
Crew:  207 enlisted/non-rated, 108 gunners, 90 bay personnel       

Notes: Equipped with 
    lithium-fusion battery system
  1,215 tons of lamellor ferro-carbide armor.

Weapons:                                        Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                                  Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
Nose (492 Heat)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 200  66(660) 66(660) 66(660)   0(0)   Capital AC  
  3 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        36                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 200  66(660) 66(660) 66(660)   0(0)   Capital AC  
  3 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        36                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
4 Laser AMS                                 20   1(12)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         

FRS/FLS (572 Heat)
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher)  80   8(80)   8(80)   8(80)    8(80)   AR10        
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 200  66(660) 66(660) 66(660)   0(0)   Capital AC  
    3 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        36                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 200  66(660) 66(660) 66(660)   0(0)   Capital AC  
  3 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        36                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
4 Laser AMS                                 20   1(12)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         

RBS/LBS (640 Heat)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 200  66(660) 66(660) 66(660)   0(0)   Capital AC  
  3 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        36                                    Sub-Capital Cannon 
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 200  66(660) 66(660) 66(660)   0(0)   Capital AC  
 3 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        36                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 100  38(380) 38(380) 38(380)   0(0)   Capital AC  
  4 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        48                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
4 Laser AMS                                 20   1(12)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         


ARS/ALS (640 Heat)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 200  66(660) 66(660) 66(660)   0(0)   Capital AC  
  3 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        36                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 200  66(660) 66(660) 66(660)   0(0)   Capital AC  
  3 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        36                                    Sub-Capital Cannon 
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 100  38(380) 38(380) 38(380)   0(0)   Capital AC  
 4 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        48                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
4 Laser AMS                                 20   1(12)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         

Aft (492 Heat)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 200  66(660) 66(660) 66(660)   0(0)   Capital AC  
  3 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        36                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)                 200  66(660) 66(660) 66(660)   0(0)   Capital AC  
  3 Sub-Capital Cannon (Light)        36                                    Sub-Capital Cannon
4 Laser AMS                                 20   1(12)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS

icehellion posted this 15 April 2020

For a loss of ~4,000 tons in cargo space, this "Black Lion II" gives a huge boost in accuracy and an increase in damage and protection,

 

How?

Prince posted this 15 April 2020

For a loss of ~4,000 tons in cargo space, this "Black Lion II" gives a huge boost in accuracy and an increase in damage and protection,

How?

Protection: 400+ more tons of armor, a bay of LAMS in each arc that can one-shot a barracuda.

Accuracy: Adding the Light subcaps to the NAC/30s now means they can bracket-fire, lowering the to-hit by -1 in exchange for loosing 20% total bay damage. With the max of 5 guns, each bay can potentially go -3 for only 40% of the total damage.

Damage was -slightly- improved overall from the swap of NAC/20s for the light cannons and NAC/30s, but the real gain and improvement was the ability to hit. It might also be better to alter the stock version for bays of one /30 and two /20s so you got 70 capital and could still bracket (-1 to hit at 56 damage) but the stock Black Lion also had heat troubles and I dumped another ~500 heat sinks into it.

Prince posted this 19 April 2020

Here's a goofy idea I had recently.

Ever hear about project: Longshot? Longshot is a wild idea that came about because of men like Freeman Dyson back in the 60s whom tried to come up with a feasible idea to go to other solar systems- Alpha Centauri namely- using technology available in the 60s. Dyson and others came up with the concept of the "Nuclear Pulse Engine" to drive the vessel; literally slamming specially-built nuclear bombs out the rear and riding the bow shock to fly through interstellar space. If you get interested in the science, it's WAY more feasible than you'd ever think simply because few things release the energy needed quite like a nuke. At the time it was thought you could get a ship moving ~0.13c, or 13% the speed of light, with such a drive; nowadays you could go a few percent faster, but I'm not sure if that's due to enhancements in nuclear technologies or something else. But back to SciFi!

The idea of this is actually a fluff exercise, detailing a periphery nation whom had a functional (enough) chassis and compact core but had NO provisions to build the transit drive, which if you remember the Fox writeup in old TRO057 will know said engine was the real hangup to the FedCom making warships. So said nation decides to make Lemonade out of lemons, and builds the ship (and it's massive pusher plate and nuke stowage, which is how fluff-wise I explain all the weight) as some kind of violent slasher with basic, standard weapons. Since it's forward movement literally requires detonation of a nuclear warhead (turning likely from some kind of dropship engine) it's causing huge amounts of ECM wherever it goes, so make it a wacky slasher while your dropships barrel into them.

Speedy Boi Advanced Dumbassery Warship
Mass: 240,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced) 
Introduced: 3067
Mass: 240,000
Battle Value: 23,157
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-E-F
Cost: 4,682,828,000 C-bills

Fuel: 4,000 tons (20,000)
Safe Thrust: 8
Maximum Thrust: 12
Sail Integrity: 4
KF Drive Integrity: 7
Heat Sinks: 525 Weight Free DHS (1,050)
Structural Integrity: 30

Armor
    Nose: 30
    Fore Sides: 26/26
    Aft Sides: 26/26
    Aft: 28

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Small Craft (2)         1 Door    
    Bay 2:  Cargo (2134.0 tons)     1 Door    

Ammunition:
    None

Dropship Capacity: 0
Grav Decks: 1 (55 m)
Escape Pods: 9
Life Boats: 9
Crew:  93 enlisted/non-rated, 11 gunners, 10 bay personnel       

Notes: Mounts 144 tons of ferro-carbide armor.

Weapons:          Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)    Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
Nose (276 Heat)
17 Heavy PPC  255  26(255) 26(255)  0(0)     0(0)   PPC         
3 Laser AMS   21    1(9)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS 
        
FRS/FLS (111 Heat)
3 Heavy PPC   45    5(45)   5(45)   0(0)     0(0)   PPC  
3 Heavy PPC   45    5(45)   5(45)   0(0)     0(0)   PPC       
3 Laser AMS   21    1(9)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS    
     
RBS/LBS (111 Heat)
3 Heavy PPC   45    5(45)   5(45)   0(0)     0(0)   PPC  
3 Heavy PPC   45    5(45)   5(45)   0(0)     0(0)   PPC       
3 Laser AMS   21    1(9)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS
        
ARS/ALS (111 Heat)
3 Heavy PPC   45    5(45)   5(45)   0(0)     0(0)   PPC  
3 Heavy PPC   45    5(45)   5(45)   0(0)     0(0)   PPC       
3 Laser AMS   21    1(9)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS
       
Aft (216 Heat)
13 Heavy PPC  195  20(195) 20(195)  0(0)     0(0)   PPC         
3 Laser AMS   21    1(9)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS

icehellion posted this 19 April 2020

But you still got sails?

Prince posted this 19 April 2020

But you still got sails?

Still gotta jump

It's also as a "replacement" for most of the fusion drive. In-game it never gets built because it's using very expensive "fuels".

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