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The Cataphract class attempts to combine the speed of a Light Cruiser and the defensive profile of a heavier Cruiser, with compromises made to Weaponry, Maneuverability, and Endurance. Most easily compared to Viper’s Apollo class, it has comparable shields, a slightly better armored hull, a more diverse set of engagement ranges and angles, and more system redundancies, in exchange for a less efficient warp system, weaker maneuvering systems, slightly less DPS and a much smaller optimum engagement zone.
A pair of point defense beams provide close in defense, with an overlapping rapid fire zone just in front of the nose. These beams do a quarter damage per shot on a 2 second cooldown. This defense grid provides many of the benifits of the Project Deathblossom Paris-class Experimental ship in a much more elegant form factor, including reliable, repeatable fighter defense, but are very energy intensive- good for crippling precision fire, but inefficient for raw damage.
The midrange Heavy Beam is the same class that Viper carries two of, offering a good balance of damage, range, coverage and fire rate.
The Inertial Cannon offers an extreme range punch, doing 10 damage on only a 15 second cooldown. On a chassis that prides itself on it’s survivability, this weapon offers a solid first punch, or a chance to recover from battle damage without disengaging, although doing so cuts the ship’s overall damage output to a bit less than Horizon’s beam output.
The Cataphract fields approximately 6% more hull armor than a standard Light Cruiser, and almost doubles the number of forward shield nodes available for abuse in battle. In addition, redundancies and backups have been dispersed throughout the ship structure, including an emergency Warp Core at the base of the saucer, if the primary nacelles are crippled in battle.
The vesseldata is summarized below, and the .snt is available by request.
<vessel uniqueID="2" side="0" classname="Cataphract Class" broadType="player"> <art meshfile="dat/Cataphract.dxs" diffuseFile="dat/artemis_diffuse.png" glowFile="dat/artemis_illum.png" specularFile="dat/artemis_specular.png" scale="0.2"/> <internal_data file="dat/Cataphract2.snt"/> <!-- Weapons and Shields modified (1/4)--> <shields front="28" back="22"/> <performance turnrate="0.0035" topspeed="0.6" shipefficiency=".6" warpefficiency=".8" jumpefficiency="1.1"/> <beam_port x="0" y="8.35" z="1" damage="0.25" playerdamage="8" arcwidth="0.05" cycletime="15.0" range="1500"/> <beam_port x="0" y="8.35" z="1" damage="0.25" playerdamage="3.75" arcwidth="0.275" cycletime="5.0" range="1000"/> <beam_port x=" -1" y="8.35" z="0.34" damage="0.25" playerdamage=".25" arcwidth="0.55" cycletime="2.0" range="500"/> <beam_port x="1" y="8.35" z="0.34" damage="0.25" playerdamage=".25" arcwidth="0.55" cycletime="2.0" range="500"/> <torpedo_tube x="4" y="2" z="3"/> <torpedo_tube x="0" y="2" z="3"/> <torpedo_storage type="trp" amount="8"/> <!-- Homing"--> <torpedo_storage type="nuk" amount="1"/> <!-- LR Nuke--> <torpedo_storage type="min" amount="2"/> <!-- Mine"--> <torpedo_storage type="emp" amount="2"/> <!-- EMP"--> <torpedo_storage type="shk" amount="6"/> <!-- Plasma Shock"--> <torpedo_storage type="bea" amount="2"/> <!-- Beacon"--> <torpedo_storage type="pro" amount="4"/> <!-- Probe"--> <torpedo_storage type="tag" amount="1"/> <!-- Tag"--> <engine_port x="0" y="-9.22" z="-300"/> <engine_port x="0" y="29.64" z="-300"/> <engine_port x="-111.755783" y="-44.202168" z="-242.740082"/> <engine_port x="111.755783" y="-44.202168" z="-242.740082"/> <engine_port x="0" y="97.875313" z="-181.449524"/> <long_desc text="TSN Cruiser^2 Point defense turrets, 1 Heavy Beam, 1 Inertial Cannon^2 Torpedo tubes^Stores for 1 nuke, 8 homing, 2 mines, 2 EMP, 6 PShock.^Battle hardened systems and redundant shield nodes."/> </vessel>Vesseldata file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9qcut8c7neet5gk/vesselData.xml?dl=0
.DXS file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nrdtw2xal92577u/Cataphract2.dxs?dl=0
.SNT file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4pnjs2nz6u2mkzq/cataphract2.snt?dl=0Can you post a beam diagram for reference?
Despite having above average shields, the damage seems a little anemic to match what comes to mind for a knife fighter. For this ship, I think I’d be tempted to push the point defense beams up to 1 point of damage each so that you aren’t loading most of the offensive capacity in the long range beam. This would also give it the rough damage output of a light cruiser while keeping most of it at very close range.
Some leg work that would also be good to do, since you have changed the top speed away from the norm of 0.6, is figure out the warp power % that makes the ship match relative pace with a standard speed vessel.
Lets see if this works…
If I boost the point defense damage, that’s a good chance to boost the range to 600 or 700, as Mataisan suggests- enough that you dont have to actually ram a target to engage them, but still shorter than even the RAM beam.
As for the top speed, it’s probably easier to make the top speed .6 again and bump up the warp (in)efficency further. Ideally, I would want over 500 energy drained when crossing 4 sectors at fleet warp, which will take a bit of tuning.
Did a basic endurance test on my own- at .8 warp efficency, Warp 2 to the corner, then two “diagonal transitions” at warp 3, 100% power, drops the Cataphract to almost exactly 50% power, full batteries. Not so low as to cripple it, but definately a drawback on long duration missions, as intended.
Does anyone know how to add Shield Nodes to a ship? The idea being that, instead of stronger shields, it would be able to run at 300% longer.
I tweaked the ordnance loadout, added a few shields as a placeholder for more nodes, raised point defense range to 650 and damage to 1 per shot.
Current version:
<vessel uniqueID="2" side="0" classname="Cataphract Escort Destroyer" broadType="player"> <art meshfile="dat/artemis-3.dxs" diffuseFile="dat/artemis_diffuse.png" glowFile="dat/artemis_illum.png" specularFile="dat/artemis_specular.png" scale="0.2"/> <internal_data file="dat/artemis-3.snt"/> <!-- Weapons and Shields modified (1/4)--> <shields front="30" back="25"/> <performance turnrate="0.004" topspeed="0.6" shipefficiency=".6" warpefficiency=".8" jumpefficiency="1.1"/> <beam_port x="0" y="8.35" z="1" damage="0.25" playerdamage="2" arcwidth="0.05" cycletime="6.0" range="1500"/> <beam_port x=" -1" y="8.35" z="0.34" damage="0.25" playerdamage="1" arcwidth="0.55" cycletime="3.0" range="650"/> <beam_port x="1" y="8.35" z="0.34" damage="0.25" playerdamage="1" arcwidth="0.55" cycletime="3.0" range="650"/> <torpedo_tube x="0" y="8.35" z="258.74"/> <torpedo_tube x="0" y="8.35" z="258.74"/> <torpedo_storage type="trp" amount="12"/> <!-- Homing"--> <torpedo_storage type="nuk" amount="2"/> <!-- LR Nuke--> <torpedo_storage type="min" amount="4"/> <!-- Mine"--> <torpedo_storage type="emp" amount="2"/> <!-- EMP"--> <torpedo_storage type="shk" amount="8"/> <!-- Plasma Shock"--> <torpedo_storage type="bea" amount="4"/> <!-- Beacon"--> <torpedo_storage type="pro" amount="2"/> <!-- Probe"--> <torpedo_storage type="tag" amount="4"/> <!-- Tag"--> <engine_port x="0" y="-9.22" z="-300"/> <engine_port x="0" y="29.64" z="-300"/> <engine_port x="-111.755783" y="-44.202168" z="-242.740082"/> <engine_port x="111.755783" y="-44.202168" z="-242.740082"/> <engine_port x="0" y="97.875313" z="-181.449524"/> <long_desc text="TSN Escort Destroyer^High precision Beam combat specializing in disabling enemy systems^2 short range point defense turrets, 1 extended range sniper beam^2 Torpedo tubes^Stores for 2 nukes, 12 homing, 4 mines, 2 EMP, 8 PShock."/> </vessel>Cataphract class Cruiser
<vessel uniqueID="2" side="0" classname="Cataphract Class" broadType="player"> <art meshfile="dat/Cataphract.dxs" diffuseFile="dat/artemis_diffuse.png" glowFile="dat/artemis_illum.png" specularFile="dat/artemis_specular.png" scale="0.2"/> <internal_data file="dat/Cataphract.snt"/> <!-- Weapons and Shields modified (1/4)--> <shields front="28" back="22"/> <performance turnrate="0.0035" topspeed="0.6" shipefficiency=".6" warpefficiency=".8" jumpefficiency="1.1"/> <beam_port x="0" y="8.35" z="1" damage="0.25" playerdamage="4" arcwidth="0.05" cycletime="12.0" range="1500"/> <beam_port x="0" y="8.35" z="1" damage="0.25" playerdamage="2" arcwidth="0.275" cycletime="6.0" range="1000"/> <beam_port x=" -1" y="8.35" z="0.34" damage="0.25" playerdamage="1" arcwidth="0.55" cycletime="3.0" range="650"/> <beam_port x="1" y="8.35" z="0.34" damage="0.25" playerdamage="1" arcwidth="0.55" cycletime="3.0" range="650"/> <torpedo_tube x="0" y="8.35" z="258.74"/> <torpedo_tube x="0" y="8.35" z="258.74"/> <torpedo_storage type="trp" amount="12"/> <!-- Homing"--> <torpedo_storage type="nuk" amount="2"/> <!-- LR Nuke--> <torpedo_storage type="min" amount="4"/> <!-- Mine"--> <torpedo_storage type="emp" amount="2"/> <!-- EMP"--> <torpedo_storage type="shk" amount="8"/> <!-- Plasma Shock"--> <torpedo_storage type="bea" amount="4"/> <!-- Beacon"--> <torpedo_storage type="pro" amount="2"/> <!-- Probe"--> <torpedo_storage type="tag" amount="4"/> <!-- Tag"--> <engine_port x="0" y="-9.22" z="-300"/> <engine_port x="0" y="29.64" z="-300"/> <engine_port x="-111.755783" y="-44.202168" z="-242.740082"/> <engine_port x="111.755783" y="-44.202168" z="-242.740082"/> <engine_port x="0" y="97.875313" z="-181.449524"/> <long_desc text="TSN Cruiser^2 point defense turrets, 1 standard beam, 1 extended range beam^2 Torpedo tubes^Stores for 2 nukes, 12 homing, 4 mines, 2 EMP, 8 PShock.^Battle hardened systems and redundant shield nodes."/> </vessel>Since apparently the edit trick only works on topic posts, I need to make a new one:
The Cataphract has been slowly evolving from “less guns, more armor” to “less endurance/maneuverability, more armor”, going from being an anti-glass cannon, to “A Medium Combatant that shows why Light Combatants exist.”
The original point defense guns used to be 2/3 of the DPS, and on Matiasan’s suggestion, the range was extended from the 500 range of the original gun shared with the Scout II, to 650, still short of even the other short range weapons, but usable without ramming.
With the shift from “firepower weak” to “cruiserness-weak”, the Cataphract could use another beam. A standard Horizon low-powered beam gave a reasonable “all beams” DPS while extending the zone where the Cataphract can engage at all. But the horizon’s beam cycle was already used for the long range beam, so I changed up the long range beam to be a stronger punch on a longer cooldown, keeping the same DPS, while matching the Damage Per Cycle to Lancer. (which isnt lancer’s strong suit)
After a bit of expirimental testing, it appears that under engineering settings of 300% beams, 300% shields, 8 coolant to beams, it takes approximately 32 seconds to burn out a beam node, and 34 seconds to burn out a 4th shield node of the appropriate type. (shields will remain at 300% output until the last node is destroyed)
Given that the Cataphract will be fielding massively redundant shield nodes, I reccomend Starry for writing the Engineering Standing Orders for this vessel. We can afford to go into combat with half our nodes offline.
Just did a solo test flight of the Cataphract on Level 4. The ship can take a serious beating, but at least when I’m juggling weapons/helm/engineering without knowing shield frequencies, it doesnt kill an entire krailen group in one engagement without torps.
it does have the tools to deal with torgoth reinforced battlegroups. And the one carrier i encountered, I disabled the fighters around me but had to evac because a torgoth was about to enter range. They ended up being blown up with the carrier that got mine+pshockked.The ship is a good idea and after the testing I think the only recommendation I would make is to modify the point defense beams to pack a little more of a punch by adjusting the speed in witch they cycle. maybe even give it a new skin to give it a more defensive look.
Changelog:
Extended range beam is now called “Inertial Cannon” with 10 damage on a 15 second cooldown for .6666 DPS (up from 4 damage every 12, or .3333 DPS) for a sustained combat in safe FCS at a bit less than Horizon’s beam damage output.Midrange beam changed to a single Viper “Heavy beam” (5 second cooldown, .75 DPS), Which when combined with the Inertial cannon gives a sustained combat damage a bit less than Viper, or more than twice Saber’s
Point defense beams dropped from 650 range to 500, damage per shot from 1 to .25, and cycle time dropped from 3 seconds per shot to 2 seconds per shot, lowering each point defense beam’s DPS from 1/3 to 1/8th.
The point defense beams cycle faster when in range, but are less important to the ship’s overall damage output. They are good at disabling fighters (or Torgoths), but are massive energy hogs, costing 1 full energy each time EACH beam is fired, potentially multiple times per second.Ordnance stores cut significantly.
-Homings from 12 to 8
-Pshocks from 8 to 6
-Nukes from 2 to 1
-Mines from 4 to 2
-EMP from 2 to 2 (no change)
-Tags from 4 to 1
-Beacons from 4 to 2
-Probes from 2 to 4 (increased)Links to an internal layout file of Cataphract2, instead of Cataphract, to ensure proper implementation of the following internal changes.
Reduced foward armor section from 19 nodes to 13
Reduce Rear Shield nodes from 8 to 4
Reduce Front shield nodes from 11 to 9
Reduce Primary Beam nodes from 8 to 6
Reduce Impulse nodes from 9 to 7
Moved nodes around. (there was a front shield node in the corridor between the bow and stern which could limit damcon mobility even during routine operations. this has been fixed, along with other lesser problems)<vessel uniqueID="2" side="0" classname="Cataphract Class" broadType="player"> <art meshfile="dat/Cataphract.dxs" diffuseFile="dat/artemis_diffuse.png" glowFile="dat/artemis_illum.png" specularFile="dat/artemis_specular.png" scale="0.2"/> <internal_data file="dat/Cataphract2.snt"/> <!-- Weapons and Shields modified (1/4)--> <shields front="28" back="22"/> <performance turnrate="0.0035" topspeed="0.6" shipefficiency=".6" warpefficiency=".8" jumpefficiency="1.1"/> <beam_port x="0" y="8.35" z="1" damage="0.25" playerdamage="8" arcwidth="0.05" cycletime="15.0" range="1500"/> <beam_port x="0" y="8.35" z="1" damage="0.25" playerdamage="3.75" arcwidth="0.275" cycletime="5.0" range="1000"/> <beam_port x=" -1" y="8.35" z="0.34" damage="0.25" playerdamage=".25" arcwidth="0.55" cycletime="2.0" range="500"/> <beam_port x="1" y="8.35" z="0.34" damage="0.25" playerdamage=".25" arcwidth="0.55" cycletime="2.0" range="500"/> <torpedo_tube x="4" y="2" z="3"/> <torpedo_tube x="0" y="2" z="3"/> <torpedo_storage type="trp" amount="8"/> <!-- Homing"--> <torpedo_storage type="nuk" amount="1"/> <!-- LR Nuke--> <torpedo_storage type="min" amount="2"/> <!-- Mine"--> <torpedo_storage type="emp" amount="2"/> <!-- EMP"--> <torpedo_storage type="shk" amount="6"/> <!-- Plasma Shock"--> <torpedo_storage type="bea" amount="2"/> <!-- Beacon"--> <torpedo_storage type="pro" amount="4"/> <!-- Probe"--> <torpedo_storage type="tag" amount="1"/> <!-- Tag"--> <engine_port x="0" y="-9.22" z="-300"/> <engine_port x="0" y="29.64" z="-300"/> <engine_port x="-111.755783" y="-44.202168" z="-242.740082"/> <engine_port x="111.755783" y="-44.202168" z="-242.740082"/> <engine_port x="0" y="97.875313" z="-181.449524"/> <long_desc text="TSN Cruiser^2 Point defense turrets, 1 Heavy Beam, 1 Inertial Cannon^2 Torpedo tubes^Stores for 1 nuke, 8 homing, 2 mines, 2 EMP, 6 PShock.^Battle hardened systems and redundant shield nodes."/> </vessel>Vesseldata file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9qcut8c7neet5gk/vesselData.xml?dl=0
.DXS file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nrdtw2xal92577u/Cataphract2.dxs?dl=0
.SNT file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4pnjs2nz6u2mkzq/cataphract2.snt?dl=0Video of testing session as requested: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/497471398
Cataphract 0.2.1 changelog:
More node type changes (things I didnt notice I messed up)
Point Defence batteries dropped from .25 damage to .1 damage, cycle time dropped from 2 seconds to 1 second.Ordnance loadout tweaks.
DXS file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pBoxgcdYsa89-IEFeslXhHzeos15EFL6
SNT file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vJ13jTOmEihkOerwMSBxnwFFF-UFZ7ob
Vesseldata: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1zm0hm-EXLQRsVq-lcELiTVwOLZytfPFA
Raw ship data:<vessel uniqueID="2" side="0" classname="Cataphract Class" broadType="player"> <art meshfile="dat/Cataphract.dxs" diffuseFile="dat/artemis_diffuse.png" glowFile="dat/artemis_illum.png" specularFile="dat/artemis_specular.png" scale="0.2"/> <internal_data file="dat/Cataphract2.snt"/> <!-- Weapons and Shields modified (1/4)--> <shields front="28" back="22"/> <performance turnrate="0.0035" topspeed="0.6" shipefficiency=".6" warpefficiency=".8" jumpefficiency="1.1"/> <beam_port x="0" y="8.35" z="1" damage="0.25" playerdamage="8" arcwidth="0.05" cycletime="15.0" range="1500"/> <beam_port x="0" y="8.35" z="1" damage="0.25" playerdamage="3.75" arcwidth="0.275" cycletime="5.0" range="1000"/> <beam_port x=" -1" y="8.35" z="0.34" damage="0.25" playerdamage=".1" arcwidth="0.55" cycletime="1.0" range="500"/> <beam_port x="1" y="8.35" z="0.34" damage="0.25" playerdamage=".1" arcwidth="0.55" cycletime="1.0" range="500"/> <torpedo_tube x="4" y="2" z="3"/> <torpedo_tube x="0" y="2" z="3"/> <torpedo_storage type="trp" amount="6"/> <!-- Homing"--> <torpedo_storage type="nuk" amount="1"/> <!-- LR Nuke--> <torpedo_storage type="min" amount="2"/> <!-- Mine"--> <torpedo_storage type="emp" amount="2"/> <!-- EMP"--> <torpedo_storage type="shk" amount="8"/> <!-- Plasma Shock"--> <torpedo_storage type="bea" amount="2"/> <!-- Beacon"--> <torpedo_storage type="pro" amount="4"/> <!-- Probe"--> <torpedo_storage type="tag" amount="1"/> <!-- Tag"--> <engine_port x="0" y="-9.22" z="-300"/> <engine_port x="0" y="29.64" z="-300"/> <engine_port x="-111.755783" y="-44.202168" z="-242.740082"/> <engine_port x="111.755783" y="-44.202168" z="-242.740082"/> <engine_port x="0" y="97.875313" z="-181.449524"/> <long_desc text="TSN Fighter suppression Cruiser^2 Fast Point defense turrets, 1 Heavy Beam, 1 Inertial Cannon^2 Torpedo tubes^Stores for 1 nuke, 6 homing, 2 mines, 2 EMP, 8 PShock.^Battle hardened systems and redundant shield nodes."/> </vessel>After the second week of testing:
It functions well in the fighter suppression role, but in a direct 1:1 comparison, same crew same formations, Lancer was suprisingly capable in the same role, and it’s higher DPS led to easier cleanup afterward. This may be an insolvable problem, in that it may be impossible to be an effective antifighter chassis that isnt directly comparable to either Lancer (beams) or Horizon (Pshocks), or else so powerful that it cleans up fleets as easilly as it cleans up fighters, because fighters are effectively fleets. Overall, the ship had a positive experience from the crew and did not make other ships feel like they were being replaced. It did the job it set out to do. But it isnt “head and shoulders better” than other ships as an anti-fighter vessel.
I may want to make a few quality of life tweaks, but overall, I support it for the mod.
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