Liquid Systems Nano Yard (LSNY)

[Loadout]

Is that an epic load of activation blocks for damage detection? I wish we had IF blocks that could access shield percentages and such :D
Nice to see more competition in the heavy drone market. I like how far R&D has come continue the work and go at least double digit drone count :p

Thanks for the kudos!

Yes and No... they do detect damage, but not to display, the detection is what launches the drones. Not enough space for double digits... could fit 6 (biguns, 12/14 little ones) if I flip her on the side. Gonna recess those missile silos on the side and see what else I can stuff inside this baby.

Note: having top/bottom drones is possible currently but the bottom drones will face backwards... which bothers my symmetry OCD. Slightly..

...*pause for thought*...

Definitely gonna flip now. It's an easy enough process, just have to remove some of those little 3x3 wedge squares on top and stick em on the outside. End result is side launching drones and top/bottom weapons.

A side thought, or question rather..... mega death beam on the front or no? Was thinking maybe 60 separate beams combined to form one big looking one. Might be a bit overkill on beam-draws though. Could cause lag and I wouldn't want that...hrmm...

 

[Thalanor]

Don't go multibeam, there is an extra power cost of 10% per weapon group after the first. What you do want though is a beam/pulse/ion doombeam in the front - this EATS shields, and the drones can then deliver hull damage. Beam/pulse/ion also doesn't require many module blocks to be effective, it will require your ship to have optimized power generation and large storage though.

 

[Loadout]

@Thalanor oh god... pulse beams @_@ they EAT power, so much so I think it's bugged. But man they sure are beautiful to behold when working properly..

Storage is NOT [:D] an issue I have a huge amount of systems space already laid out for just that. The side cannons, top now., I had planned on making Ions but I suppose one big one in the middle wouldn't hurt. Heck, maybe I'll make 3 of them and let the vertical launch nukes sort out the rest.

 

[Thalanor]

Remember, you usually only need to fire a pulse beam once :p Which means reload time doesn't matter, and how much power you have afterwards doesn't matter either if it is the drones that will do the hull damage once the massive ion beam has worn down the shields. I use multiple individual beam computers with pulse ion beams to do huge alpha anti-shield damage.

 

[Zyrr]

Meh. I use multiple arrayed beam + cannon + explosive and it works pretty well, but yeah, the power requirements are astronomical.

If you're looking for anti-shield damage, try the mentioned beam + pulse + ion or missile + beam/pulse + ion at 100%.

To be honest, I would use cannon + cannon + punch with about 50-75% cannon effect for anti-hull. Insane fire rate and great hull damage with minimal power requirement.

 

[Loadout]

Remember, you usually only need to fire a pulse beam once :p Which means reload time doesn't matter, and how much power you have afterwards doesn't matter either if it is the drones that will do the hull damage once the massive ion beam has worn down the shields. I use multiple individual beam computers with pulse ion beams to do huge alpha anti-shield damage.

Totally agree with what you're saying, but the drones aren't primary dps in this case. So I will still care somewhat about remaining power. As an escort the Ion beams will be plenty to help the swarm achieve what it's going for, but on it's own it will still need the missiles for major damage.

Hence.... Nukes!

Aaaaand multiple computers shouldn't be an issue either... Hopefully the AI understands that 13 weapons aren't meant to be fired all at once. Then again, D.E.R.P.S. which is the name of my logic system as well as Bobby AI's middle name. :p

@Zyrr I avoid the cannon-cannon-punch combo specifically because of the way punch works. Which is once the block is gone, remaining damage is spread to the block behind, it does not appear from testing to actually punch through a block and do damage behind it, rather the lifetime of the projectile is altered to last instead of (OnHit) to be (Until Damage = 0).

I'm not really looking to do major hull damage with this ship, mainly just to provide support for carriers and offer covering fire for drones. If any of my weapons do major hull damage it'll be the missiles, as it's a "Helicopter Cruiser" basically.[DOUBLEPOST=1415218650,1415217358][/DOUBLEPOST]Main cannon housing is moving into place shortly...

Should hopefully be attached soon. Also the hangars are shaping up nicely, once filled in I'll have more photos to share!

Also, missiles... ugh... So tough to design a decent looking silo these days..

 

[Zyrr]

Yes, pierce is the effect that shoots through blocks and does damage behind. Punch is essentially the newer way of doing the old shotgun AMC cone effect.

I suppose I wasn't getting the role of your ship :P If you're looking to "helicopter" I would suggest max range missile + beam 75-95% ion missiles.

On top of that, I would suggest a 4-6 array stop machinegun (cannon + cannon + stop). This can help you lock down enemy ships and allow other ships and drones to hit targets easier.

 

[Loadout]

Yes, pierce is the effect that shoots through blocks and does damage behind. Punch is essentially the newer way of doing the old shotgun AMC cone effect.

I suppose I wasn't getting the role of your ship :p If you're looking to "helicopter" I would suggest max range missile + beam 75-95% ion missiles.

On top of that, I would suggest a 4-6 array stop machinegun (cannon + cannon + stop). This can help you lock down enemy ships and allow other ships and drones to hit targets easier.

The term helicopter cruiser doesn't refer to helicoptering, just that it carries a few helis. It's an older ship type I found while dredging through some ship records. They're basically missile cruisers with a few dozen helicopters below deck for anti-sub warfare.

Pretty much nailed what I was aiming for with LR missiles + Ion Beams. Stop effect I have yet to have much luck with but I'll toss a few on and see what happens. Never hurts to go farm pirates for a bit... Worst case scenario i'll yank off the stop effect and use those turrets as anti-missile systems... or something of that nature.:p

Pierce in my tests has exactly the same effect as punch, only difference is the shield damage vs armor damage. Pick your poison basically, no shield damage or reduced armor damage. Hence I never use pierce since everyone has a shield. I believe I saw an asteroid floating around my docks with a shield as well...[DOUBLEPOST=1415222784,1415219719][/DOUBLEPOST]Updates!

Side work is mostly pre-filled now. Missing systems but close to having the general shape filled in.

Top Framework...

Filling it all in...

Ship is coming along nicely, still doing hull work for the most part. Did stop to add the docks though.:p

Edit2:
Progress so far on the front end. It's pretty much finished except for components...

Spoiler

..this is about the 12th incarnation so far so I have done. Any more and I'll go insane trying to do something wacky. Already said no to alot wierder shapes as well...

Spoiler

Edit3: Some insanity, hard cider, and an hour or two later and the picture right above becomes....

Spoiler

 

[Loadout]

So after completing a large swarm of drones one of our local warlords Clients decided to remit payment. Upon arriving at the designated home-world of said client we found this...

Spoiler: An interesting Planet

Further inspection revealed a strange object attached to the planet, as well as a large supply of fig newtons in a nearby shack. While my crew were intrigued and excited by the prospect of free snacks, I can't help but feel this structure will play a pivotal role in the future of our company.

Spoiler: A strange Object on the horizon...

 

[AtraUnam]

You have just rekindled my desire to build and my love of the Zerg in one fell swoop. But I'll probably still work on highly specialized ships rather than just jump on the drone bandwagon. Got a project in mind for a ship that actually requires multiple pilots.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

With all those overdrive weapons are those fleas even remotely power stable?

 

[Loadout]

With all those overdrive weapons are those fleas even remotely power stable?

Originally Yes! Pre 1.8 every drone was completely power stable.... however post 1.8 some of them do have some power issues beams apparently got MORE expensive. Cause of this a mk3 phaser flea, and a mk2 Kabuto will be released probably sometime later today. I'll post up some pics and let you all know when I have re-stabilized their power outputs.

They'll likely either do one of the following....

• remove some shields in exchange for reactors (no real cost increase I can see so far)
• remove OD altogether and re-optimize the weapons from the ground up. Only going to do this if I absolutely can not get enough reactors to re-balance.

Check back later for updates!

Update 1!

With advances in the latest thruster tiltulation technology and improvements in OD construction techniques from our suppliers we have had a pressing need to refit some of our older designs. We are proud to present the new power stable and slightly cheaper.. Phaser Flea mk3

Spoiler: Pics!

notes: The alpha damage of these fleas is even crazier than it was before, this is partly because beam-beam combos now do 2x damage at 2000m range! So knowing that, I dropped the missiles and one beam unit per setup. The damage is ~equal sans missiles but is more reasonable to cover the energy costs for. I also added an additional thruster to allow full 1:1 ratio. It should now be able to land on planets and take off from them (albeit somewhat awkwardly).

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I've only found Overdrive to be useful on small turrets myself, because these turrets leech power from the mother ship I don't really care about the 3x power consumed.

Support beams are completely trashed in the latest update but everything else other than beam slaves should be untouched. Sniper missiles take a bit of planning now as the increase in power not only by adding the beam modules into the equation but decreasing reload speeds makes them take a ton more power to shoot.

I love the use of circuits BTW

It should also be noted that any reactor smaller than 9 should be dismantled where possible. I know space isn't always available but 8 single reactors is better than 8 in a chain. 9 and beyond is all good.

 

[Loadout]

@Sven_The_Slayer The reactor note is interesting however I find my power chain is lower any way I split it on the flea currently. Just not enough space available but wherever possible I have been doing just that. I'll definitely keep 9 in mind while working on the kabuto however...

I too love the cicuits hence why I keep spamming the bejeesus outta them lol.:D

Quite a few have changed, some things I noted are....

• AMCs by default have a 1 second reload instead of 3.. Gotta work on my brawler flea cause of that, but it's shotgun dps has improved considerably.
• Missile - beam takes 30 seconds now but costs nearly 6x the default. Also travels at about double the speed with a 6400 m range...
• range in general has been increased for Missiles and beams.
• beam slaves now add damage, yay!

Kinda sucks about support beams I was going to have a "gas station" that charged your energy supply while allowing you to charge an expensive jump drive more quickly... oh well...

Overdrive in general only works on small things, like drones, where it adds considerable damage at a, if balanced properly, contained energy cost. The energy cost is one of the reasons it takes me so long to make new variants, it can take a whole day for some combos. Just look at the Kabuto... had planned to make a brawler version with shottys and a missile support version... but that energy... yeesh. Now that explosive isn't 8x the cost of OD anymore I'm considering adding it onto some drones.

Currently working on a re-balanced Kabuto... can't decide between lock-on missiles or pulse missiles though....

Some quick Pros and Cons... just to get it outta my head and on screen where I can see it...

Lockon

• High speed missiles hit sooner..
• ..but go vertical for alot longer. Thus making it less likely to hit except at Far ranges.
• Could be re-angled to face forward eliminating the above...
• ...but I LOVE vertical launch
• Greatly improved damage over older version
• Greatly increased cost over older version

Pulse

• Much slower than before about 1/2 the speed they were
• Range has been more than tripled though
• still does great damage
• still has massive cost implications

Edit: Did another pass optimizing the Phaser Flea mk3 and found a few two block reactor groups that could get moved around. End result slightly less energy, still stable though, one extra thruster (5 wasn't cutting it on my planet) and nearly double the original shield capacity. I will probably rework the older fleas now to include this new power setup as it is literally... as good as it gets.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I've been doing a lot of weapon testing recently so I know my way around them and intimate knowledge of the changes.

All weapons are based on sector size now. Cannons are capable of shooting across sectors, beams are only able to go half, and missiles are like 160%. Weapon speed is also based on the server setting.

If you find the cost of sniper missiles to high you can drop all beam modules. You only need a computer to get the tracking effect. These missiles will have the same DPS but will the faster fire rate and lower damage means you don't need as high a power capacity. You do sacrifice range (which AI can't use right now anyway) and missile speed.

I mostly use indirect fire for all my missiles, their range is good enough that you don't really sacrifice anything and it gets them out of the way of cannon fire.

 

[Loadout]

I've been doing a lot of weapon testing recently so I know my way around them and intimate knowledge of the changes.

All weapons are based on sector size now. Cannons are capable of shooting across sectors, beams are only able to go half, and missiles are like 160%. Weapon speed is also based on the server setting.

If you find the cost of sniper missiles to high you can drop all beam modules. You only need a computer to get the tracking effect. These missiles will have the same DPS but will the faster fire rate and lower damage means you don't need as high a power capacity. You do sacrifice range (which AI can't use right now anyway) and missile speed.

I mostly use indirect fire for all my missiles, their range is good enough that you don't really sacrifice anything and it gets them out of the way of cannon fire.

It's only too high on the flea chassis because there's just not enough space to pack on power capacitors otherwise the cost is fine. Was originally using that suggestion on the fleas btw. I love how it only takes the computer to make it a lock-on. You can likewise do the same with heat seekers too.

I kinda like the extra speed so I'll be keeping the extra beam modules. I ended up using an 'over the shoulder' configuration on my Kabutos and it looks pretty nifty. Indirect is fine for single ships but with clusters of AI you just can't afford to rely on that except for a few drones. As a mass produced drone you need that lock on to keep missiles (mostly) away from friendlies.

I'm looking at the missile computer right now, reload time is 30 seconds not 15. Not sure what you're doing to get the reload down below 15.... Using (@1:1:1) missile - beam - explosive. Unless you happen to be referring to using just a computer so 1:0:1. In which case yeah it'd be 15 seconds w/ lock-on but no additional cost is implied without blocks attached.

Also as my wife distracted me from posting this about 3 hours ago or so I've had time to work on the Kabuto mk2. It offers fully balanced weaponry with explosive effect long range missiles, Long Range OD beams and a hefty 10k shield. All for less than 150k.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Yes, pierce is the effect that shoots through blocks and does damage behind. Punch is essentially the newer way of doing the old shotgun AMC cone effect.

Your information is out of date. The "pierce" effect has been dropped for whatever reason. Pierce and Punch both have an effect called "Puncture" this is what punch had and still uses. The difference is pierce does double system damage at 100% but zero shield damage and punch is supposed to deal reduced system damage and full shield damage, although the proper configuration for this is up for debate currently.

 

[Zyrr]

Your information is out of date. The "pierce" effect has been dropped for whatever reason. Pierce and Punch both have an effect called "Puncture" this is what punch had and still uses. The difference is pierce does double system damage at 100% but zero shield damage and punch is supposed to deal reduced system damage and full shield damage, although the proper configuration for this is up for debate currently.

Well, that is just silly. Thanks for informing me.

 

[Loadout]

Well, that is just silly. Thanks for informing me.

As he said, up for debate, honestly because everything equips shields I can not justify doing 0 damage 90% of the engagement on my drones. If Ion had a stop recharge effect for a bit I'd definitely consider it but nothing flat out stops regen of anything in particular, just slows it down. So punch > pierce on my designs.

In other news I'm working on a variant of my kabuto drone. This one will be... I dunno, can't decide on what I want to use honestly. At this point the chassis is being rounded off and it looks to be a good shape so far. I was thinking shotguns + missiles but that doesn't really work very well. You tend to hit your own missiles as often as the enemies'.

Edit: Pics so far of the new Heavy Drone, This one is tentatively code named "Stag Beetle".

Spoiler: Beginning Chassis (left for posterity sake)

The new Heavy Drone is completed, weighing in at 71.5 mass, with a Length x Height x Width of 17 x 7 x 11, I present the Kuwaga

The Kuwaga, is a stag beetle type drone with heavy crushing pincers in the front and raised "second-leg" missile launchers. These drones are designed to deal heavy damage to large targets.
The Kuwaga comes standard with a pair of Ex5 Scatter Lasers, perfect for making mincemeat of smaller drones, chewing up missiles, and causing mass explosions everywhere! It's secondary armament consists of a pair of extended Range Io-Interceptor missiles with increased range and speed to penetrate all but the heaviest AMS defense nets. These missiles will deal a whopping 12k shield damage in a moments notice.

Total cost is 170k plus tax. Please call the corporate office for details on purchasing your new Kuwaga Cruiser Killer Drone today!

 

[Loadout]

I'm re-re-redesigning my drone cruiser. As of last night I felt inspired by the horn shape I accomplished with the Kuwaga. I've finally sketched out a picture of what I'm going for and now have a direction to work with, as opposed to... Imma use a hexagon, just because I can. I'll be keeping the major structures intact, particularly the guns, the silos, and the prop on the back. However the general shape is now going to change and I'll be removing a lot of the logic circuitry as well. It's just filling up space with a huge number of clocks. I will most likely keep the logic in the front for when the cruiser is facing the enemy and takes damage, but otherwise the sides don't need it.

Stay tuned for pics whenever I get around to this... It is a huge project I am aiming for, mostly because I don't build big, I build small.

Spoiler: For those who are curious...

The notes that you can barely see read:

• (Bow) Horn super structure "hercules beetle"
• Rounded "shell" sides contain drone hangars
• (dorsal) Vertical Launch Silos
• (Fore Sides) Primary Beam arrays
• (Keel) Underbelly hangars - downward facing, docking block faces fore.
• (Aft Sides) Thruster Legs
• (Aft Proper) Prop structure

The ones you can't read cause they're off to the side read:

• Minimum docking requirements for Heavy Drones.... 17 x 7 x 11.
• 3 docks wide means ship Beam (width) must be a minimum of 39.
• Potential racks do not affect Beam, only Length because of docking orientation.
• Possibly carries 4 racks of 3 drones each. OR 2 Racks of 6 drones each (leaning in this direction).

Well those are my thoughts so far, I'm currently in the process of determining the final width, length, and height of this ship after which I'll start fleshing it out and then detailing, and eventually adding systems.

Edit: Got some of the frame laid out, the hangar is being built first mostly because it's one of the largest pieces that needs to be incorporated. At least functionally that is... some pics!

Spoiler

Framing done so far...

The hangar bay with two drones for size comparison... and something else... This particular bay fits 2 racks of 6 heavy drones each. That's 12 Total for those too lazy to count :p

Note: blue lights are temporary they are only there to help me count blocks easier.