Pre-made spaceships?

[Eltharon]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

You've got no weapon with a rear firing arc to defend yourself against missiles up the chute. Move the medium battery into the centre section and put it in turrets. And my advice would be to replace it with a tertiary battery of very-rapid-fire [improved] lasers so that you can't be swamped.

You can just spin your ship around to fire at what was your rear. There's no air friction in space.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Eltharon

You can just spin your ship around to fire at what was your rear. There's no air friction in space.

There is still a moment of inertia. Spinning a massive great ship is not trivial.

And you will find if you use the combat rules in GURPS Spaceships that you need a rear firing arc for point defence against shells and 'missiles' fired by a ship in your rear arc.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by KlausPrinceOfTheUndeads

It's a single-crewman ship, two batteries are even too many. ;-)

Good point. Axe the second battery.

[thtraveller]

Originally Posted by KlausPrinceOfTheUndeads

Something like that, you mean:

SM: 5
Front
[1-2] Armor: Nanocomposite
[3] Defensive Ecm
[4!] Weapons: Major Battery
[5!] Weapons: Medium Battery
[core] Control Room
Center
[1-2] Armor: Nanocomposite
[3-4] Fuel Tank
[5] Power Plant: Fusion
Rear
[1-2] Armor: Nanocomposite
[3-4] Reaction Engine: Antimatter

I don't think you should ever have a military ship with unused spaces.

If you need a gunner or two stick in a seating module next to the bridge and put in a turret weapon or two in the center hull.

If you need more protection you can have up to 3 ECM modules.

A tactical sensor wouldn't go amiss.

If you still have space left over slap on some more armor, more fuel or a bigger drive.

[KlausPrinceOfTheUndeads]

Originally Posted by thtraveller

I don't think you should ever have a military ship with unused spaces.

If you need a gunner or two stick in a seating module next to the bridge and put in a turret weapon or two in the center hull.

If you need more protection you can have up to 3 ECM modules.

A tactical sensor wouldn't go amiss.

If you still have space left over slap on some more armor, more fuel or a bigger drive.

You're right, but all these things are damn expensive and that is supposed to be a very "baseline" fighter. A more "advanced" version would probably have a second major battery, a gunner and some other upgrades.

[thtraveller]

Originally Posted by KlausPrinceOfTheUndeads

You're right, but all these things are damn expensive and that is supposed to be a very "baseline" fighter. A more "advanced" version would probably have a second major battery, a gunner and some other upgrades.

The ship costs around M$ 2.5. Filling up the tanks with antimatter boosted hydrogen costs M$ 36.

I think they throw in one of these fighters free every time you fill the tank ;-)

[KlausPrinceOfTheUndeads]

Originally Posted by thtraveller

The ship costs around M$ 2.5. Filling up the tanks with antimatter boosted hydrogen costs M$ 36.

I think they throw in one of these fighters free every time you fill the tank ;-)

Economics definetly isn't my subject. :-(
Antimatter engines, OTOH, were the only way to get a decent acceleration... Should I downgrade them, perhaps?

[Anaraxes]

I think they throw in one of these fighters free every time you fill the tank

Not quite. But it is the shipping container when you buy the fuel for home delivery. And you get always free shipping with Antimatter Prime membership.

[yffub]

I use TL11 Fusion Torches. I suppose it's cheating to use TL11 engines for TL9-10 ships, but they're the only engines that provide the performance that I want. Since it's my campaign, I don't worry about the discrepancy; Torch Drives are considered superscience anyway.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by thtraveller

2 or even 3 layers of armor and some ECM are appropriate on small military craft.

That leaves very little space for anything else however - clearly a design philosophy favouring defence over manoeuvre or offence.