Re: Carrier design in FT

Charles Gray wrote:

> Has anyone tried Nimitz style carrier designs in FT, (i.e. no weapons
> and lots of fighters?) 

Sure. I don't consider point defences "weapons" in this respect, though,
and C batteries aren't much better, so the "Light" and "Escort" carriers
from FTII and MT come very close to your definition. 

> When I first started to play, they weren't
> workable, but now, with the new fighter endurance rules from the Fleet
> book, they look much more feasable.

I assume that you started to play with the MT fighter rules directly...
under the FTII fighter rules (fighters move after ships, no endurance
limits) the Nimitz-style carriers were *very* powerful as long as ship
speeds were low. If the average velocities go above about 15, fighters
lost their punch very fast since they were unable to keep up... (As a
side note: I prefer to fly my ships at approx. 4-5x Thrust, so speeds of
30-40 are common for my escorts and 20-25 is the norm for my cruisers
:-/
)

>	Also, does anyone have any ideas on how to make a PT boat in FT?
 The
> base ship design rules don't allow for that much comparitive firepower
> on a small hull.

Small non-FTL ships with loads of SMPs or MT missiles, preferrably
operating out of an asteroid belt to avoid being blasted to bits at long
ranges. PT boats shouldn't have any staying power - their punch lies in
expendable ordnance.

Regards

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@nacka.mail.telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry