TC
SubCrid
Originally posted by Concordia
Not in WC!
There are carriers which fit this profile (most of them), but there are some which are quite autonomous, and others which are totally, such as the Midway-Class.
The Midway-Class isn't supposed to act independantly during hostilites. It's supposed to form the center of a battle group. A better example would be the Bengal class, which *is* supposed to work independantly. It, however, isn't a standard carrier, and is armed to the teeth.
It's stupid to design a carrier with no means to defend itself against capital ships. Most of carriers weapons are to fight off just fighters. The Vesuvius got it right... It had the power of an entire battlegroup focused in one ship.
That's blatant hyperbole though. It has the power of a battlegroup in it's fighters alone. It still needs escorts to protect it. The one ship we've seen it take on properly with it's own guns was another ship of the same class, which doesn't really tell you anything.
My design is supposed to be able to do the following
1.) Fight like the Vesuvius
The Vesuvius class' main weapon is it's fighters, like any carrier...
2.) Run independantly like the Midway
As mentioned before, it's not supposed to, as it's stupid to put your most expensive and important assets out where they're more likely to get damaged.
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5.) Carry LOTS and LOTS of anti-capship guns like Vesuvius
The Vesuvius doesn't carry an exessive number or strength of anti-capital ship guns...
6.) Be really fast, like Vesuvius, except better
The Vesuvius is incredibly slow, except when compared to carriers. All of Confed's military, non-carrier capital ships in Secret Ops can out run her.
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11.) Have anti-torpedo defenses like the Hakaga.
I like many of Confed's anti-torpedo defenses
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15.) Be resistant to flash-pack attacks.
Flash pack's really don't seem to be a huge issue tactically... either way, the current Confed armour is probably similar to that on the original Vesuvius.
I am basically conceptualizing a super-carrier which does not have all the flaws that other carriers have. I am basically righting the wrongs of carrier design.
You realize how stupidly expensive, and in some cases probably impossible, this would be to accomplish, realistically? An important part of any design is to look at benifits in relation to cost (in all forms, including man-power and deaths) and see what's going to work better. It's stupid to spend money making and designing engines that power huge ships at high accelerations if one doesn't need to, for example. In some cases it's just impossible due to problems with materials. Every time you up the armour, you have to up the thrust or lower the speed. You end up needing to make trade-offs to make things work and to make prices somewhat reasonable.
Carriers should have good defenses, but I say, give them some offensive weapons too. The Confederation-Class design got it right. It was basically a giant cruiser with 2 flight-decks strapped on. In fact it was originally listed as a Supercruiser (in Origin's development notes for WC2).
I was unaware of the Confederation Class being listed as a Supercruiser... are you sure you aren't confused with the Concordia class SuperCruiser in the movie? A better note would be that the Confederation Class is not a carrier class, but rather a dreadnaught class.
To continue on, it's stupid to have your most expensive ships fighting toe to toe with other ships if they don't need to. If they're destroyed you lose an expensive, hard to replace asset, and you can't recover the fighters that were flying off of it, the pilots of which are another rather limited asset.