@Halinder the Astraeus' sides aren't symmetrical (left side). Or was it intentional?
NanoTrasen Systems (faction)
BlaZeyVoiD At the time of building this, every fix I tried to make to get it symmetrical was just a liiiittle off.
Your comment made me look a little harder and realize, dear god, the hydroponics bay is one tile higher than it should be.
Here's a fixed Astraeus (this time forward-facing):
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NanoTrasen has been experimenting with new designs. The idea was to develop ships that could not only work together as a fleet, but could also supplement Spearpoint Skirmishers to shore up the weaknesses of each modification. They are named after various surgical tools.
The Cautery
$97,450 credits
18 crew
A somewhat expensive fighter craft, intended to provide a little extra firepower and jam light shields. Although it might not matter on a ship of such small size, interior corridor design lets crew move quickly between each system.
The Scalpel
$106,700 credits
18 crew
An odd looking bomber intended to support Anti-Shield Spearpoint variants. Its backwards-facing thrusters were removed after captains kept behaving like harassers rather than escorts.
The Hemostat
$106,700 credits
18 crew
A decently agile strike craft designed to flank the enemy and shred their engines, or help the non-heavy Spearpoint variants chew through an opponent's armor.
The Bonesaw
$122,850 credits
24 crew
Typically used with the Basic and Anti-missile Spearpoint variants or in conjunction with a Hemostat. Notably, even the electrobolts can only fire directly forward on this ship.
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@Halinder It looks so much better now.
Btw, check the new ships that I've added to the Voidians Armada. And see if they are too OP or too weak.
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[VOIDIAN CONFLICT SHIPS -- REQUIRES MODS]
NanoTrasen's role in the war is interesting.
The company has major stations across the galaxy, linked together with FTL gateways that let them send personnel and shuttlecraft between one another -- anything larger will need an FTL drive of its own. Many independent one-planet governments purchase gateway tickets for their trade shuttles, or simply pay the company to bring supplies to them and do all their trading that way. Often times, these are colony worlds that can't afford (or don't know how) to build their own space stations. More than once, NanoTrasen's deterrence fleets have been requisitioned to act as planetary defense forces.
Never more so than now.
As the Voidians sink their hooks into the galaxy, NanoTrasen vessels are spread thin protecting their assets. The main Voidian fleet is unstoppable; the company can barely hold out enough to evacuate their stations, much less the worlds they orbit. Frantically, NanoTrasen has searched far and wide for new technologies unrestricted by military clearance or exorbitant cost. They aren't state-of-the-art by any means, but NanoTrasen and its desperate captains will take any edge over the invaders.
Fishtail Fighter
$79,800 credits
14 crew
Voidian raiding parties have stretched NanoTrasen's fleets thin; even Spearpoint Skirmishers are becoming scarce. The Fishtail-class is somewhat cheaper than a Skirmisher, but lacks FTL -- it can only move between stations equipped with FTL gateways. Its standard cannon and shielding are enough to eliminate Voidian fighters. New hardlight accelerator technology helps the Fishtail deal with the light shielding of Voidian bombers.
Bulk Gunship
$151,450 credits
32 crew
A Bulk-class is quick to make but not cheap. Against single targets, it's better than a Spearpoint. Two of these can handle a Voidian Corvette nicely. It uses standard technology, save for its payload of high-velocity shock missiles that do fairly low damage but move too fast for Voidian point defense to respond. Like the Fishtail, it can only stick to stations. These ships get produced so fast that their crews are often pieced together from whatever rookies are available. It's become a fast-spreading tradition for crews aboard these ships not to name their craft until after they survive their first battle.
Astray-class Minelayer
$481,050 credits
114 crew
There is no more Astraeus ship classification. Every single one has been turned into the Astray-class "science vessels". They still do research, mind, but by this point it's mostly a formality.
It only takes one good look at the Astray-class to know that NanoTrasen is losing. A winning side doesn't tell its crews to move all vital command functions into an escape pod, and it most certainly doesn't turn a hydroponics bay into a tracking mine factory. The front of the Astray-class is fitted with ion missile fabricators, volt disruptors, and gauss arrays.
The NSS Lethal Injection
$2,928,500 credits
128 crew
In one of the many skirmishes with the advancing Voidian fleet, something miraculous happened.
It was the usual story. Two Spearpoint Skirmishers and a few spacepods escorted a Rockpuncher into the fray, just a few ballsy captains having a morbid laugh about their impending doom. The plan was to disable an Annihilator's escort fleet so that it would have to fall back, giving NanoTrasen enough time to evacuate the next world. It went badly, as these fights always did. They focused fire and took out the destroyers and fighters, but not before losing three of the four spacepods and a Spearpoint. The other one had taken a nasty sniper round that ignited an ammo store and was burning, fast. Then the Annihilator closed in. In an effort to give the Spearpoint enough time to charge its FTL drive, the remaining spacepod rushed the Annihilator. Shots tore apart its control room and sent it spinning, and somewhere in that dizzing madness, the gunners actually got a shot off before their ship exploded. It hit an engine block on the Annihilator and started a fire.
The Spearpoint didn't get away. It came apart in a nuclear blast. The Rockpuncher tried to put some distance between itself and the Annihilator before spinning up the FTL drives, but strangely enough, the Voidian superweapon stopped chasing after a while. The Rockpuncher captain, taking a chance, canceled the drives and waited. The Voidians hadn't installed fire suppression systems on the Annihilators.
The nearest Syndicate Freighter was quickly called in, and they started to strip the disabled Voidian ship as fast as possible before reinforcements could arrive. None came, but the Freighter captain was so spooked that he called the salvage operation quits after looting three of the four remaining missile bays. The two ships jumped out of system.
The Rockpuncher that survived the skirmish, called the NSS Lethal Injection, was outfitted with several modified missile bays equipped with the stolen Voidian missiles. It has been given extra engines, shields, armor, and point defense cannons at the cost of all of its energy weaponry.
NanoTrasen has seen the Voidian flagship plenty of times. Usually, it's been through the last seconds of footage transmitted from the poor bastards who had to fight it. The flagship's escorts alone can do serious harm to a Spelunker-class Cruiser, and have so much point defense that missiles disappear in a wall of superheated plasma. The captain of the NSS Lethal Injection has thus been given a special mission:
Ram the flagship. From point blank, detonate the nuclear missiles. A fleet will be provided to distract the escorts.
MODS NEEDED:
Abh Mod, version 0.4.5: https://forum.cosmoteer.net/d/299-abh-mod
Decalmore Mod: https://forum.cosmoteer.net/d/914-decalmore-mod
Cannons Plus Mod: https://forum.cosmoteer.net/d/678-extra-cannons-cannons-plus-mod
Meranera's Additional Weapons Mod: https://forum.cosmoteer.net/d/968-additional-weapons-mod
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Pretty slick designs! I´ll have to stage an AI battle between the NanoTrasens and the Taoran Navy. There will be screenshots
I like having the faction that can't stand up to dedicated military anything but still manages to inflict losses.
New ship refits, decalmore mod recommended.
Secpod Refit
$102,050 credits
18 crew
An upgraded version of the Secpod. It is now a dedicated flanker, meant to set fires before running away using its rear-facing shields and point defense. Yes, part of its armor has been replaced with scaffolding, but NanoTrasen ensures its employees that this is solely to make the ship faster.
Budget-class Skirmisher Refit
$160,700 credits
36 crew
A version of the Budget-class Skirmisher that isn't quite total garbage. It was cheaper to fit them with new weapon systems than bog down the shipyards breaking them all down for scrap.
Pillar-class Frigate
$424,600 credits
90 crew
The Pillar-class has been in NanoTrasen's possession for a while, but has only just been considered for combat. Typically an armored cargo transport, much of its hull has been stripped away to make it more agile.
Impulse Corvette Refit
$466,600 credits
92 crew
A refit that adds a tad more shielding and a pair of heavy cannons, yet is inexplicably much more expensive.
Chapel-class Corvette Refit
$472,200 credits
104 crew
The Chapel-class frame gets the job done, but its previous loadout did not. The Chapel-class has been equipped with more frontal shielding, better-placed point defense, additional armor, increased thrust, and additional energy weaponry.
Neruda Refit
$502,400 credits
124 crew
The previous Neruda-class frame barely saw combat because of its over-exposed thruster wings. It has since been refitted with additional armor, and its array of standard cannons have been replaced with heavy guns.
Rockpuncher Refit
$586,700 credits
144 crew
It really did not make sense for a ship designed to get close and personal to be equipped primarily with laser weapons. They may be plentiful and simple to reload, but that hardly matters when the Rockpuncher is meant to get the fight over with quickly. It has since been given a new frontal shield and big cannons.
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Halinder Gearing for war Halindar? Looks good though for the battle cruiser refit people likely won't get to to the front side reactors in time (not sure if 2 people cut it) and the lasers/eBolts cant fire directly forward bc of armor.
edit: just tested it against a 550k battleship. The missiles from the back were pretty nasty and got my control room! But it wanted to broadside me which didn't work out very well, perhaps move the lasers to the front?
The thing I love about how the AI behaves with the Spelunker is that it fights in stages. The first stage is initial engagement, where it fights using the front of the ship, usually this ends up with half the beam weapons and one of the heavy cannon or forward missile compartments exploding. When that happens, it starts behaving like a broadside cruiser, which is especially devastating because the rear missiles only start firing when there's an enemy ship to the side or behind the Spelunker.
I cooould have put more missiles on the neck (or pushed the lasers way back and made a shield gauntlet) but I liked the broadsiding too much.
Good lord! I love it but your ship is seriously obese and turns like a brick
It's absolutely DISGUSTING to fly, I know. It's part of the charm for me.
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The Raven-class Frigate (frame)
$126,500 credits
2 crew
A modular frigate. It used to serve as a mobile shuttle dock and rescue vehicle, providing emergency services to governments that paid for coverage. Now, it serves as a modular frigate, just begging to have a mass of weapons strapped to its hull. There are plenty of things that can be done with a vessel like this.
[COMMON MODIFICATIONS]
Raven-class Cannon Frigate
$464,200 credits
92 crew
Some would argue that the Raven-class really should just have the two bays on its side replicated to form a symmetrical frigate. They're probably right, given that this cannon frigate performs fairly decently (all projected simulations showed its ability to quickly dispatch the Chapel-class Corvette with little damage). Most of this model is just empty space and could be shaved down to save on money and weight.
Raven-class Broadside Frigate
$533,400 credits
130 crew
A smaller but much more dense Raven-class frigate, using its side compartments as thruster bays while replacing the actual thruster bay with missiles. Technically, this ship could be split in half (horizontally) and operate just fine thanks to control room redundancy in either engine. The engineers wanted to add a bit more armor and point defense, but the ship was already getting quite expensive for a frigate.
Raven-class Missile Friguiser
$1,355,050 credits
278 crew
Because why not.
That must have been what was going through NanoTrasen's heads when they decided to strap a massive booster ring to the frigate, convert most of its habitable space into missile bays, replace all the windows with armor, and send crew to live next to the massive burning engines.
To its credit, it handles missiles well and can keep out of reach of most large ships.
That's... a lot of ships. Honk.