Scout-class Primitive Warship

[Ramblefire]

You thought I was done but YOU ARE WRONG! THE PRIMITIVE WARSHIPIFICATION OF BATTLETECH JUMPSHIPS CONTINUES!

The Scout-class Primitive Jumpship.
I dropped three lightyears, and that frees up enough mass to not only add a 1/2 engine but also another smallcraft bay and grav deck also another hardpoint.
Yes. The Scout can now carry two dropships.
But why not just use a Merchant?

Well I mean you could. The both have two collars and two smallcraft bays. I lifted the Grav deck from the Merchant and stuck it to the Scout. The Scout warship has a bit less than twice the Merchant's cargo capacity which extends crew endurance or lets you put crew amenities. Scout warship has a 1/2 transit engine which means it can actually go places rather than just sitting at jump points all day. It's got a bit more armor though that's not saying much. I put some guns on it for asteroid and space debris diversion reasons. (IIRC standard jump points are self cleaning after a while. Pirate points aren't)

I presume that the Scout wouldn't have as much economic usefulness, but really the idea is that any yard that can make a scout can make a scout warship. It does about the same job as a merchant, but the merchant breaches 100,000 tons while the Scout does not. I don't know if that has any effectiveness on the emergence signature

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Scout Primitive Warship
Mass: 90,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2470
Mass: 90,000
Battle Value: 1,282
Tech Rating/Availability: D/D-X-X-X
Cost: 5,372,708,680 C-bills

Fuel: 460 tons (4,600)
Safe Thrust: 1
Maximum Thrust: 2
Sail Integrity: 3
KF Drive Integrity: 6
Jump Range: 27
Heat Sinks: 118
Structural Integrity: 25

Armor
    Nose: 6
    Fore Sides: 6/6
    Aft Sides: 6/6
    Aft: 3

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Small Craft (2)         2 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Cargo (563.5 tons)      1 Door   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (563.0 tons)      1 Door   

Ammunition:
    90 rounds of AC/2 ammunition (2 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 2
Grav Decks: 1 (50 m)
Escape Pods: 11
Life Boats: 0
Crew:  11 officers, 52 enlisted/non-rated, 2 gunners, 10 bay personnel

Notes: Mounts 42.5 tons of primitive aerospace armor.

Weapons:                  Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)            Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
FRS/FLS (9 Heat)
1 Large Laser          8    1(8)    1(8)    0(0)     0(0)   Laser       
1 Small Laser          1    0(3)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   Point Defense
RBS/LBS (1 Heat)
1 AC/2                 1    0(2)    0(2)    0(2)     0(2)   AC         
    AC/2 Ammo (45 shots)
ARS/ALS (9 Heat)
1 Large Laser          8    1(8)    1(8)    0(0)     0(0)   Laser       
1 Small Laser          1    0(3)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   Point Defense

Though the two collars means that you can actually do raids that steal a significant amount of stuff. Jump into a pirate point to give the enemy Zero response time, and then while the Dropships are headed to the planet for their mission, and then burn for the standard jump point, hotcharging all the way. The dropships will finish their mission, and both will arrive at the jump point within one or two days of each other and they can jump out together.
The idea is that if the mission is a failure, you don't just have a jumpship sitting at a pirate point within easy reach of a local smallcraft filled with marines.

No, by the time the enemy has defeated the landing force and loaded up his marines for intercept, the Scout is already on its way out.

I can of course just drop two more lightyears to add four more smallcraft bays, 18 fighter bays, enough fuel to give it true deep raiding capability through uninhabited systems or even deep space, and enough cargo capacity to install enough amenities to keep the crew and "cargo" from getting too stir crazy during deep penetration runs.

Code: [Select]

Scout Primitive Warship
Mass: 90,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2470
Mass: 90,000
Battle Value: 1,282
Tech Rating/Availability: D/D-X-X-X
Cost: 5,374,375,000 C-bills

Fuel: 1,000 tons (10,000)
Safe Thrust: 1
Maximum Thrust: 2
Sail Integrity: 3
KF Drive Integrity: 6
Jump Range: 25
Heat Sinks: 118
Structural Integrity: 25

Armor
    Nose: 6
    Fore Sides: 6/6
    Aft Sides: 6/6
    Aft: 3

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Fighter (18)            3 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Small Craft (6)         2 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (1238.5 tons)     1 Door   
    Bay 4:  Cargo (1238.0 tons)     1 Door   

Ammunition:
    90 rounds of AC/2 ammunition (2 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 2
Grav Decks: 1 (50 m)
Escape Pods: 11
Life Boats: 0
Crew:  11 officers, 52 enlisted/non-rated, 2 gunners, 66 bay personnel

Notes: Mounts 42.5 tons of primitive aerospace armor.

Weapons:                  Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)            Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
FRS/FLS (9 Heat)
1 Large Laser          8    1(8)    1(8)    0(0)     0(0)   Laser       
1 Small Laser          1    0(3)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   Point Defense
RBS/LBS (1 Heat)
1 AC/2                 1    0(2)    0(2)    0(2)     0(2)   AC         
    AC/2 Ammo (45 shots)
ARS/ALS (9 Heat)
1 Large Laser          8    1(8)    1(8)    0(0)     0(0)   Laser       
1 Small Laser          1    0(3)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   Point Defense



[Daryk]

Station keeping drives are perfectly capable of moving a ship anywhere in a system... just 1/3 slower using the "thrust half way and decelerate the other half" method... 

[idea weenie]

Station keeping drives are perfectly capable of moving a ship anywhere in a system... just 1/3 slower using the "thrust half way and decelerate the other half" method... 

Even better is that you use less fuel to get there too.  Basically if your acceleration is 1/N, you will take SQRT(N) times as long to get there, while burning 1/SQRT(N) the amount of fuel.

So if you are thrusting at 1/9 of a G, it will take SQRT(9) = 3* as long to get there, and burn 1/SQRT(N) = 1/SQRT(9) = 1/3 the amount of fuel.  (the lower fuel usage is because even though you are taking SQRT(N) times as long to get there, you are burning 1/N the amount of fuel -> SQRT(N)/N -> 1/SQRT(N).  Note: only use the positive root when taking the square root, so you don't get into negative time and fuel consumption)

It also works the other way around:
If you burn at 4 Gs the entire trip (accel and decel), that is effectively 1/(1/4) the standard acceleration of 1G.  So N is 1/4.  So you will take SQRT(1/4) = 1/2 the time to travel, while consuming 1/SQRT(1/4) = 1/(1/2) = 2* as much fuel.

I presume that the Scout wouldn't have as much economic usefulness, but really the idea is that any yard that can make a scout can make a scout warship. It does about the same job as a merchant, but the merchant breaches 100,000 tons while the Scout does not. I don't know if that has any effectiveness on the emergence signature

IIRC, the only thing that affects jump signature duration is distance traveled multiplied by Dropship capacity.  No change in brightness for a regular Scout Jumpship with 1 Collar vs a 2.5 MTon ship with 1 Dropship Collar.

Though you are right, there should be some difference.  Even if the field is just annihilating matter at the arrival point, the larger ship should be annihilating over 25* the amount of matter.

[AngryButler with a KNIFE!]

Ramblefire, try doing a Monolith your method (27ly range), but also knock 3 collars off as well to add in some ASF bays. Sort of like a WW2 'jeep' carrier, like the Bogue, Sangamon, Casablanca, or Commencement Bay class carriers. The ultimate periphery pirate 'mothership'.

[glitterboy2098]

personally i'd say knock another couple Ly off the jump distance (down to 25 perhaps, or even 20) and fit that thing with a 2/3 engine, so that when it does have to engage in combat, it can actually do at least some useful manuevering. i'd also keep the single dropship collar (so there is less outward visual difference that would give away it isn't a normal scout, and to preserve the small jump sig), and fit the thing with more supplies and point defense guns. the most common enemy it is going to face is fighters, so it needs the ability to 'open gunports' and reveal enough anti-fighter guns to make ASF attacks more dangerous for pirates/raiders than it is worth. i'd also turn one of those cargo bays into a Fighter deck, capable of carrying a pair of fighter lances minimum (4 fighters). so that you don't have to rely on those point defenses to stop enemy fighters, and can run them down when they bug out from your defensive firing solutions.

and honestly, for a 'jeep carrier' i'd not use a Monolith, which is a large and rare frame. makingit harder to build (size) and more conspicuous. i'd use an Intruder class Jumpship as the base. you can easily drop 1 or 2 collars and fit it with the fighter capacity from the Quetzalcoatl variant of the scout class, which could carry two full squadrons (12 fighters). being able to carry 1- or 2 dropships plus those fighters would let you use them as escorts for standard jumpships. you'd just have to accept a few extra jumps on the way to accommodate the lower jump range of the escorts.

[Ramblefire]

personally i'd say knock another couple Ly off the jump distance (down to 25 perhaps, or even 20) and fit that thing with a 2/3 engine, so that when it does have to engage in combat, it can actually do at least some useful manuevering. i'd also keep the single dropship collar (so there is less outward visual difference that would give away it isn't a normal scout, and to preserve the small jump sig), and fit the thing with more supplies and point defense guns. the most common enemy it is going to face is fighters, so it needs the ability to 'open gunports' and reveal enough anti-fighter guns to make ASF attacks more dangerous for pirates/raiders than it is worth. i'd also turn one of those cargo bays into a Fighter deck, capable of carrying a pair of fighter lances minimum (4 fighters). so that you don't have to rely on those point defenses to stop enemy fighters, and can run them down when they bug out from your defensive firing solutions.

and honestly, for a 'jeep carrier' i'd not use a Monolith, which is a large and rare frame. makingit harder to build (size) and more conspicuous. i'd use an Intruder class Jumpship as the base. you can easily drop 1 or 2 collars and fit it with the fighter capacity from the Quetzalcoatl variant of the scout class, which could carry two full squadrons (12 fighters). being able to carry 1- or 2 dropships plus those fighters would let you use them as escorts for standard jumpships. you'd just have to accept a few extra jumps on the way to accommodate the lower jump range of the escorts.

Well here you go I guess. I dropped it down to 20 Lightyears to accommodate the stuff you wanted. 2/3 thrust. More armor, and enough weapons to make attacking it an expensive proposition.
24 Large Lasers, 12 on each side, 6 in the FRS/FLS and RRS/RLS so that you've got full coverage.
6 AC2s, 3 per broadside.
9 SRM6, 3 per broadside and 3 aft
Small lasers for point defense. 3 aft, 7 in the RRS/RLS bays and 4 in the FLS/FRS bays.
6 LRM20, 3 in the FLS/FRS
6 AC-20s, 3 per broadside just in case.
One nose mounted NAC/25 with 20 shots. A quick check through of Megameklab's files says that the NAC/25 should reliably oneshot any non-clan non assault/PWS dropship other than the Intruder which frankly has a massive amount of armor.
And the same air compliment as the 25 ly version. One tactical fighter wing, and 6 smallcraft.

And because there's free tonnage, I put in enough heat sinks to fire all of the weapons at once simultaneously with zero heat.

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Scout Warship
Mass: 90,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2800
Mass: 90,000
Battle Value: 11,438
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-X-X-X
Cost: 4,615,122,500 C-bills

Fuel: 1,000 tons (10,000)
Safe Thrust: 2
Maximum Thrust: 3
Sail Integrity: 3
KF Drive Integrity: 6
Jump Range: 20
Heat Sinks: 375
Structural Integrity: 30

Armor
    Nose: 9
    Fore Sides: 7/7
    Aft Sides: 6/6
    Aft: 4

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Fighter (18)            3 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Small Craft (6)         2 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (3582.0 tons)     1 Door   
    Bay 4:  Cargo (3582.5 tons)     1 Door   

Ammunition:
    540 rounds of AC/2 ammunition (2 tons),
    20 rounds of NAC/25 ammunition (12 tons),
    90 rounds of AC/20 ammunition (2 tons),
    270 rounds of SRM 6 ammunition (3 tons),
    108 rounds of LRM 20 ammunition (2 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 1
Grav Decks: 1 (50 m)
Escape Pods: 13
Life Boats: 13
Crew:  13 officers, 50 enlisted/non-rated, 14 gunners, 66 bay personnel, 21 passengers

Notes: Mounts 54 tons of primitive aerospace armor.

Weapons:                         Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                   Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
Nose (85 Heat)
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/25)  85   25(250) 25(250) 25(250)   0(0)   Capital AC 
    NAC/25 Ammo (20 shots)
FRS/FLS (70 Heat)
4 Small Laser                 4   1(12)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   Point Defense
3 LRM 20                     18   4(36)   4(36)   4(36)     0(0)   LRM         
    LRM 20 Ammo (54 shots)
6 Large Laser                48   5(48)   5(48)    0(0)     0(0)   Laser       
RBS/LBS (36 Heat)
3 AC/20                      24   7(66)    1(6)    1(6)     1(6)   AC         
    3 AC/2
    AC/20 Ammo (45 shots)
    AC/2 Ammo (270 shots)
3 SRM 6                      12   2(24)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   SRM         
    SRM 6 Ammo (90 shots)
ARS/ALS (55 Heat)
7 Small Laser                 7   2(21)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   Point Defense
6 Large Laser                48   5(48)   5(48)    0(0)     0(0)   Laser       
Aft (15 Heat)
3 SRM 6                      12   2(24)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   SRM         
    SRM 6 Ammo (90 shots)
3 Small Laser                 3    1(9)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   Point Defense

Though, I could probably also drop more cargo space to stick on an NAC/35 which would also oneshot most clan dropships too, though surprisingly still not the Intruder nose on, which would have 10 armor points left, but would still keep flying. Though if you've got 10 armor points left, it's about high time to skedadle right quick.

[Daryk]

I think 5 is a better number for Small Laser bays... 

[Ramblefire]

Well, they're only small lasers so really you can go nuts. Heck, put 15 in each corner bay in case you run into loonies.

[Daryk]

That MIGHT be enough....