Need some help designing a warship

[Baldur Mekorig]

 In our current AToW campaign we found a hidden Roe Weapons System instalation deep in the periphery, and aside some very nice items, we found the design for a "light carrier". The idea is that RWS were doing a light carrier/patrol ship for the RWR when the Amaris Coup hit, and it was put aside for other proyects. The thing is....neither me or my GM have any experience making warships.
The concept was a light carrier that would work as a "patrol ship" along the very long RWR, facing mostly sub-capital threats, and leaving most of the anti-ship work to ASF and Pinto and Bonaventure escorts. Here is my first try, based in the Pinto hull. I am more than open to critism and suggestions:

AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
                                  VALIDATED

Class/Model/Name:  Pinto Carrier
Tech:              Inner Sphere / 2502
Vessel Type:       WarShip
Rules:             Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set:         AeroTech2

Mass:              160,000 tons
K-F Drive System:  (Unknown)
Length:            298 meters
Sail Diameter:     505 meters
Power Plant:       Standard
Safe Thrust:       5
Maximum Thrust:    8
Armor Type:        Ferro-carbide
Armament:         
    4 Light NPPC
   25 Large Laser
   60 Medium Laser
   10 AMS
    9 LRM 15+ArtIV
   10 Autocannon/5
    4 Autocannon/20
    4 Barracuda
    1 NL35
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name:  Pinto Carrier
Mass:              160,000 tons

Equipment:                                                            Mass 
Power Plant, Drive & Control:                                       48,000.00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 5
      Maximum Thrust: 8
Kearny-Fuchida Hyperdrive:  Compact (Integrity = 5)                 72,400.00
Lithium Fusion Battery                                               1,600.00
Jump Sail: (Integrity = 3)                                              38.00
Structural Integrity: 50                                             8,000.00
Total Heat Sinks:    550 Double                                        196.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps:                                                   5,100.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters:                400.00
Fire Control Computers:                                                   .00
Armor Type:  Ferro-carbide  (190 total armor pts)                      160.00
                           Capital Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Fore:                                 38
   Fore-Left/Right:                   31/31
   Aft-Left/Right:                    31/31
   Aft:                                  28

Cargo:
   Bay 1:  Fighters (18) with 3 doors                                2,700.00
   Bay 2:  Fighters (18) with 3 doors                                2,700.00
   Bay 3:  Small Craft (2) with 1 door                                 400.00
   Bay 4:  Cargo (1) with 1 door                                     4,025.00

DropShip Capacity:  2 Docking Hardpoints                             2,000.00
Grav Deck #1:  (90-meter diameter)                                      50.00
Life Boats:  25 (7 tons each)                                          175.00
Escape Pods:  20 (7 tons each)                                         140.00

Crew and Passengers:
     21 Officers (18 minimum)                                          210.00
     60 Crew (56 minimum)                                              420.00
     30 Gunners (29 minimum)                                           210.00
     60 Marines                                                        300.00
     82 Bay Personnel                                                     .00
Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Light NPPC               Nose        14     14     14     --  210  2,800.00
5 Large Laser              Nose     9(90)  4(40)     --     --   40     25.00
  10 Medium Laser                                                30     10.00
2 AMS(48 rounds)           FL/R        --     --     --     --    4     10.00
3 LRM 15+ArtIV(48 rounds)  FL/R     4(36)  4(36)  4(36)     --   30     60.00
5 Large Laser              FL/R     9(90)  4(40)     --     --   80     50.00
  10 Medium Laser                                                60     20.00
5 Autocannon/5(400 rounds) L/RBS    7(65)  3(25)     --     --   10    120.00
  2 Autocannon/20(100 rounds)                                    28     96.00
1 Light NPPC               L/RBS        7      7      7     --  210  2,800.00
2 Barracuda(60 msls)       AL/R         4      4      4      4   40  3,960.00
2 AMS(48 rounds)           AL/R        --     --     --     --    4     10.00
5 Large Laser              AL/R     9(90)  4(40)     --     --   80     50.00
  10 Medium Laser                                                60     20.00
1 NL35                     Aft          4      4      4     --   52    700.00
2 AMS(48 rounds)           Aft         --     --     --     --    2      5.00
3 LRM 15+ArtIV(48 rounds)  Aft      4(36)  4(36)  4(36)     --   15     30.00
10 Medium Laser            Aft      5(50)     --     --     --   30     10.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                              Heat: 985     160,000.00
Tons Left:                                                                .00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        9,152,318,000 C-Bills
Battle Value:      30,885
Cost per BV:       296,335.37
Weapon Value:      19,371 (Ratio = .63)
Damage Factors:    SRV = 1,073;  MRV = 627;  LRV = 331;  ERV = 132
Maintenance:       Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 208,858
                   (71,480 Structure, 115,890 Life Support, 21,488 Weapons)
                   Support Points (SP) = 132,345  (63% of MPV)
BattleForce2:      Not applicable

[Vition2]

Taken in a vacuum, this is a fine warship overall, there's really only one point where I find the light carrier to be a bit lacking.  The overall cargo bay is a little small for the size of the warship and its intended role.  Fortunately you have a few places where you can pull from which will not significantly reduce it's effectiveness (particularly given it's escorts), the LFB, structure, or (and my choice) the fuel.  I would only be looking at adding around 1-2kt, so reducing the fuel to 3500 tons would probably work fine.  I'll note that this is really just my personal preference though, with two docking collars you have enough room to play around with that what you have will work.

Now, looking at where the vessel is coming from, you have made some fairly significant modifications to the base Pinto hull, many of which either rarely or never happen in canon.  The biggest one, is the change in the internal structure, you've nearly doubled it, which is massive increase in the strength of the structure over the base design - my general thoughts on this is that small changes are pretty easy, but major changes are going to so massively redesign the original that it's not really based on the original anymore.  This also goes for the LFB, which while I think it is a great piece of equipment, this ship is also very unlikely to end up receiving one, primarily due to its intended role and where it was manufactured, LFBs still weren't a standard piece of equipment on all ships in the SLDF at the time of the Amaris Coup (they were fairly common, but older designs still often were missing them).  Dropship capacity is also something that rarely changes.  Those said, it still comes down to preferences, there's nothing stating that what I've just said is the only way things can change, but you asked for criticism and suggestions, so there you go.

[Dragon Cat]

I'd agree I'd drop the LF only the very best Amaris ships would get one

For the era she's manufactured I'd replace the AMS with Small Lasers
Remove the Artemis from LRMs again it's a periphery patrol boat not a front line fighter
I'd be tempted to add a second pair of small craft for SAR

EDIT - I read it earlier at work looked more into now

Nothing wrong with the design above

If it is purely built from the ground up (and not a modified ship which is the impression I get) then I'd make some more changes

1) I'd drop the speed probably to 4/6 - reason being a carrier doesn't need so much speed - although the original ship's engines would make logistics easier to build

2) I'd go more radical on the DropShip collars adding a third - for additional support

3) I'd still make the armament changes above but I'd probably also be happy to add the NAC/10s of the original back on to give it something it properly hit with

4) I'd drop the armour back to standard like the original but maybe increase it (essentially max it for the SI)

[Baldur Mekorig]

So far:

Vition2: + Cargo, - fuel , and posibly the LFB and less IE.

Dragon Cat: - AMS, + Small Lasers, drop to 4/6, +1 DS ring, , keep the broadside NAC/10 and change armor back to Standard.

 Drooping to 4/6 free something like 9.5K tons, so that covers cargo. As per the LFB and AMS, my GM got me something more about the ship`s background. Its basically the product of the bootlicker culture in the high circles of Amaris`RWR. Amaris made a coment about how nice was the Riga II patrolling around the Periphery, and the  RWS directives belived that the Presidnet wanted something similar. When they finished the schematics for the ship, Amaris was a bout to make the coup, and scoff at it, so the proyect was cancelled, and the enginner groups reditected to other proyects. The thing is, that for our present AU campiagn timeline (3067), the players have contact with a....lets say entity, that can build it (and LFBs).

 And about the weapons, asi already said, i do not have too much experience with the Aero rules, but what are the tipical configurations for capital weapons, and AAA batteries?

[Vition2]

And about the weapons, asi already said, i do not have too much experience with the Aero rules, but what are the tipical configurations for capital weapons, and AAA batteries?

For a ship this size, you've pretty much done it.  And there are huge differences between canon warship weapon configurations and custom warship weapon configurations.

In canon, most medium to large size warships use almost entirely capital sized weapons.  This forces their AAA weapons to be either heavily bracketed or naval lasers of various sizes.  Smaller ships, and couple of the more contemporary ones, get away with similar configurations as what you've placed or kept on your warship - large banks of standard sized weapons.  From a game perspective, these are often more efficient even when put up against naval lasers in anti-aerospace mode.

When most people are designing their own warships, they often build with bracketing in mind, often making sure it is a possibility.  This means many capital weapons are in bays of 3 or 4, then supporting these are larger, accurate, standard sized weapons.  Mounting capital weapons alongside massive numbers of standard sized weapons starts wasting tonnage quick, thus the penchant for "larger is better."  And given that heat sinks are a relatively small investment overall, it's pretty easy to optimize this way.

Personally, when I'm building a generalized corvette-sized warship from scratch, I tend to give it some punch, then fill out much of the rest of the warships with standard sized weapons to hold off fighters or take pot shots at incoming capital missiles.  Your ship fulfills that fairly well, especially with DC's suggestion to keep the NACs.  You have some threat to "real" warships, while also maintaining a significant amount of standard sized weapons to deal with the more likely threats the ship will face.

With the background you've given, I actually would suggest keeping a small number of AMS.  While they are very rarely put on warships at the point in time the warship was built, the resources at hand for the builders would make their inclusion plausible.