oh boy where to begin? let's see first off as time has gone on the BattleTech universe has advanced except warships. the naval autocannons you used a day are the same Naval Auto cannons used in the 24th century that means the weapon system has remained essentially unchanged for 800 years. that's BS. there's also a question of scale. Originally a space hex was 6500 km. currently they are only 18 km. that is a humongous difference in range and speed for warships and drop ships. Lastly as originally envisioned warships in BattleTech or more like pre dreadnought ironclads and early Cruisers and battleships. Currently they are equipped more like age of sail frigates and Men of War. both analogies actually lend two very different Construction and play styles. I find it highly unlikely that advanced space combat ships would be constructed similarly to wooden sailing warships.
Development of space weapons technology and advancements in Naval Construction and Naval architecture has stagnated in the BattleTech universe and this is something that the game developers do not seem to have an interest in changing at this time even though it's pretty clear that a properly developed and supported BattleTech universe space combat simulator could and would sell well.
in making changes to the aerospace systems of this game the first thing needs to be making the ships actually work the way the written in the fluff. The second thing is technology must move forward. There are a large number of mechs scale advances that could be applied to spaceships. Unfortunately they have missed a massive opportunity in the clan invasion to do this and while there was some progression during the jihad it was mainly aimed at rendering warships impotent or obsolete.
This leaves us in the following position, the year is 3150 and the whole of human civilization has an ageing fleet of warships most of which are 100 or more years old. Fewer than a handful are constructed each decade and by all appearances little or no effort is being made to rectify this state of affairs. To make matters worse humanity is more divided then they have been at any time in the last 1000 years.
However all is not lost. This so-called dark age is not like the self inflicted collapses of the past. The last 120 years has seen a technological revival that has seen mankind surpass the heights of the starleage era. The stage is set for the age of battleships to truly dawn if we have the courage to stay the course.
In my mind this will require a multidrectional approach. Obviously a rules overhaul is long overdue but I am unable to speculate on exactly what because I'm finding that getting a handle on the current rules set is very frustrating because of how they are divided up. A single unified book is a must for aerospace players; something like the BattleMech Manual. The current setup doesn't suffer so much from rules blote so much as from just being really inefficient in its arrangement. After a several years long break from the game forced by real life I am appalled by how not user friendly this setup is. I think this was something that might have looked good on paper but in execution has become a nightmare for new players as they try to make heads or tails of everything. The rules don't need simplified or streamlined, they need rearranged to make stuff easier to find and use.
Fluff wise 2 major things need to be done. First the question of how the weapons are arranged on these ships must be settled. Are we dealing with fixed carronades like age of sail ships of the line or turrets, sponsons, and barbets like on warships at the dawn of the 20th century. A mixture of both is feasible but needs to be expressly stated so that the rules can then be written accordingly. This means both an expansion of the fireing arc rules and going over every single cannon hull to apply them. Second the post jihad period and the early dark age needs the appropriate fluff to cover the new technology that will be added and be coming of age in this time period. This isn't really a retcon so much as just filling out the fluff since in game we only learn what each government or organization wants us to know when they want us to know it so its not like the writers haven't left the door open for this.
Construction rules that need to change are a quite a few. 1st off are jump cores. While having the core take up a fixed percentage of mass is neat and tidy its not very realistic from a in universe physics stand point. A given drive of a given mass should be able to produce a field of a given volume. There's also the fluffy factoid that early jumpships need to carry big transit drives, huge hangers, and massive cargo facilities as well as the huge fule tankage needed to feed these drives. Yet we are supposed to believe they did all this with ships. A half million tons or less and jump cores taking up 95% of the ships mass. You ever tried to build one of those things? It can't be done with the current rules yet we know they existed so something doesn't add up. There's also the fact that listed mass of the ship is not the actual limit of mass the core can actually move. Take the Leviathan iii, she has a core rated for 2.3 million tons but in actual fact will move 3.3 million tons under full drop load. That's not a small difference. There's also the case of the Newgrange yardship that jumped a whole monitor to Tau Ceti from Sol. That was at least 450000 extra tons. So if the core can jump that much extra mass what is the actual limit? This component needs a complete rework because the rules don't line up with the history.
The second thing is weapons. To put it simply we need more variety in all sup cap and full cap weapons. It is also time to add super capital weapons and I don't mean mass drivers. Plasma cannons gauss and ppcs added to sub caps list. Capital plasma is also a must. At this point every weapons innovation made on mechs scale weapons should be evaluated to see if a sub capital and capital scale counterpart is feasible. Super capital weapons should include torpedos, ie big slow guided missiles, and at least one each of the following autocannon, ppc, gauss rifle. Naval lasers already do so little damage individually that I doubt scaling them up would provide damage on the same level as other super capital weapons. Autocannon, ppcs, and gauss are much easier to scale up. Especially autocannon.
Third time to add a new component of sorts. This is the citadel. Warships are big and expensive but the construction rules don't include all the logical viable options to enhance there survivability. The armored citadel would function basically like armored components on a battlemech except this would encompass multiple internal components like the jump core reactors and internal main drive components .
Fourth turrets. These are going to come in multiple types but need to be divided into three eras. To reflect the different weapons arrangements. Era one, traditional weapons bays which are arranged like ships of the line. Pros - traditional weapons setup essentially unlimited weapons in the traditional arc arrangement. Cons - these weapons require weapons ports. These compromise the armor integrity. These ships have a lower threshold. Era two, predreadnought ironclad type. These sweapons are arranged in barbets, sponsons, and small turrets. Pros - wider fields of fire than weapons bays. Traditional threshold levels. Cons - Barbets are litely armored. They take damage easily. All three require some extra equipment which means extra weight. Era three, Dreadnought/Battleship type. All turret gun battery. Divided into 3 types of turrets. Main battery turrets, secondary battery turrets, and anti-aerospace turrets. Pros - higher threshold due to improved armor integrity. Main battery is only type of turret that can mount super capitals. Secondary battery can have dule firecontrol. AA turrets get bonus to hit on small craft. Turrets have best foreign arcs and are the most efficient use of tonnage for weapons. Cons- main and secondary turrets can be truly massive constructs. Wide fields of fire open up turrets to equally wide counter batter fire making them more likely to get hit. AA turrets useless against capital ships due too a lack of firepower.
Adittional notes on turret weapons. Barbets lack fully in closed armor casemates. This is a weight saving measure but makes them very fragile especially when attacked by small craft. Sponsons are fully armored. Both amounted on a particular facing of the ship and have q maximum of 180 degree arc. Both have magazines inside the ship but these can be inside an armoured citadel. Small, main, secondary, and AA turrets are fully in closed self contained gun emplacements. They utilize maglev frictionless rotation and electromagnetic gforce compensation. All magazines are internal to the turret. Main battery and secondar guns habe multiple armor facings. I could go on for a while but this is turning into a book so ill come down off the sole box now.
