Introduction
Welcome to a Step by Step guide on how to get your carrier started with a few warnings and step by step instructions so you know how to get your craft ready.
Please note this is not a doctrinal guide. I will not be providing any suggestions on seeker type, engine, missile tuning, what craft should do what, aside from some very raw basics on where to find the information that you need to make the decision.
This guide is part of a series of guides prepared to help you get up to speed on carriers.
For a doctrinal guide: How to Win As a Carrier (Intermediate Doctrine and Tactics Guide)\
For how to load your craft onto your carrier and set it up: A Step By Step Guide to Setting Up Your Carrier and Loading Craft
For a guide to the Craft UI and how to launch and return craft: The Craft Management UI and Craft UI
For detailed Anti-Craft Missile Setup, I strongly recommend reviewing Comprehensive Craft Clobbering Compendium for Chic and Comely Captains: A guide on ACM design and usage
Step 1: Create Craft Launched Anti-Craft And Anti-Ship Missiles
Anti-Ship Missile Select Missile Body of Choice
a. Craft launched Anti-Ship missiles cannot be Hybrids, SDM-100 Lunge (SDM1), or SDM-200 Tempest (SDM1)s. The SDM2s are locked to Blast Frag warhead whilst the SDM1s are locked to Blast Frag Extended Lethality
Select Direct Guidance and Terminal Maneuvers of Choice
a. Select Seeker and adjust validators
b. An important consideration is that every craft has their own fire control radar and range. Bombers (Sturgeon, Claymore) have a 4km fire control radar with a lock. Fighters (Tanto, Barracuda) fire control radar is 1km range. The Pike and Halberd do NOT have Fire Control Radars. See the Craft Info Cards section for more detailed breakdown
c. Tantos, Barracudas, Pikes, and Halberds can only fire one Command (CMD) seeker missile at a time even if UNLIM(Unlimited) salvo is set. This restriction lasts until the CMD missile is destroyed or impacts the enemy craft
d. Claymores and Sturgeon bombers have no restriction to the number of Command or CMD missiles that can be fired.
d. If the launching craft is destroyed, the CMD seeker missile will lose guidance
Select Warhead Size (Player choice)
Tune Engine
a. The important note with the engines are the following. Anti-ship munitions are launched from craft at 95% of the missile’s maximum range, which may be further shortened by terminal maneuvers. Thus a missile you want to fire at 4km needs to be tuned to have 4.21km range
Anti-Craft Missile Create Size 1, Size 2, SDM-100 or SDM-200 Missile (You can try creating Container, Size 3 Hybrid and other anti-craft missile with the missile editor but these would be the most common craft-launched missile bodies)
Select Direct Guidance and if you would like, Terminal Maneuvers
Select a warhead type
a. Review the warhead type, armor penetration and component damage All craft have a degree of armor and hit points. If armor is not met or exceeded by the missile warhead, the missile will do half damage.
b. It is recommended you review the Craft Info Cards listed below to determine warhead sizes, but here’s a brief explanation of the warhead types.
i. HE Impact- does the component damage directly to craft. High armor penetration and damage, but it needs to physically impact the target and will only apply damage within a certain angle. You can hit a target and at the wrong angle it can do no damage. All radar seekers also have a slight positional error which significantly affects HE Impact warhead effectiveness. I do not recommend this warhead type for anti-craft purposes.
ii. Blast Frag - does the component damage in an explosion radius which will automatically trigger if in range. The chance to do component damage increases in probability relative to position to the target. This means there is a chance that the explosion does no damage depending on the position of the target to the missile explosion. Has a 40% increased chance to hit craft.
iii. Blast Frag Extended Lethality (EL) - works exactly the same of Blast Frag and does exactly the same damage compared to warhead size. However, has a higher chance to do damage against target and a higher armor penetration. Has a 40% increased chance to hit craft.
Tune Engine
a. It is important to note the following:
i. All Anti-Craft Missiles fire at 75% of the missile’s maximum range. Therefore, if you design a missile meant to be fired at 4km, you need to give it 5.37km fuel
ii. SDM missiles work differently than hybrids. Their first stage is fast to approach a target. The second stage triggers and then they slow down to manoeuvre to intercept. Consider that if your main (fast) stage cannot reach your target fast enough, your missile will never trigger because the enemy craft will outrun your missie and you will never get close enough to detonate. If your slower second stage is too slow, a craft can escape the slower second stage.
iii. Maneuverability is required for Anti-Craft missiles. If you fall under a certain maneuverability threshold, your missiles may not only fail to hit an enemy craft, but when they detonate they may not detonate at the right angle, leading to a failed hit. This is especially the case for blast frag explosions, which have the highest probability to do damage when hitting behind a craft, second best in front, and least on the side.
Select Seeker and adjust validators
a. You do not need to select ON to Detect Small Target, but you can do so. The game automatically locks anti-craft Blast Frag and BF EL missiles to Detect Small Targets On
b. An important note on Wake Seekers: craft have a rear aspect only wake signature. They also automatically know when to fire missiles based on what seeker. So if a craft is facing the front of an enemy craft, it won’t fire the Wake missile it is loaded with. If a craft gets onto the rear of an enemy craft, it will fire the Wake missile.
i. Craft will use both seekers to determine authorization to fire if a missile has two seekers.
Adjust colors
a. Missile colors show up in the Craft Loadouts and changing the missile body colors is a useful way to differentiate for when you load the craft
Step 2 Select Craft And Load
General notes: All craft have a 4km frontal radar only, with the exception of the Sundial and Halberd.
Craft Info Cards
BarracudaAn absolute menace to any Shelter Alliance carrier player, the Protectorate Barracuda may not have the Shelter fancy coilguns, but it’s Flechette 35mm access through gunpods or its nose gun will enable this beast of a fighter to overwhelm and destroy enemy fighter groups. It also has the ability to mount R1 rocket pods as well as light strike ordnance.
Name: Barracuda
Role and Notes: Strike Fighter
Armor: 0.30
Hitpoints/Frame Integrity: 60
Point Cost (unloaded): 8
Radar: 4km Frontal Radar, 1km Fire Control Radar
Size of Pad Needed to Launch: Small
PikeThe OSP’s light scout craft. While it can be used in a dog-fighting role, the Pike is primarily used as a scout which it can do thanks to its speed. It can also be equipped with an Electro-Optical pod that can identify and help friendly warships lock onto targets.
Name: Pike
Role and Notes: Scout - Can be equipped with 7.0km EO Targeting Pod
Armor: 0.10
Hitpoints/Frame Integrity: 40
Point Cost (unloaded): 8
Radar: 4km Frontal radar. No Fire Control Radar
Size Of Pad Needed to Launch: Small
SturgeonThis monster is the Protectorate Sturgeon. This bomber can carry a huge range of munitions from expensive torpedoes, size 2 missiles, gunpods and heavy R3 anti-ship rockets, do not underestimate this craft. It can actually mount anti-craft SDM-2 missiles to support its role as a bomber.
Name: Sturgeon
Role: OSP Bomber - Can Mount Gunpods, Rockets, Mixed Size 2 and Size 3 Missile armament
Armor: 0.30
Hitpoints/Frame Integrity: 135
Point Cost (unloaded): 15
Radar: 4km Frontal Radar. 4km Fire Control Radar
Size Of Pad Needed to Launch: Large
HalberdThe Halberd Skiff is available to both factions. You can equip this as a moveable point defense turret, or as a scout with ELINT (ANS) or Wake Sensor (OSP) modules. The Protectorate version has an 8km Advanced Radar to make up for their lack of a SEWAC.
Name: Halberd Skiff
Role: Skiff - Can be equipped with either a Pinard module (ANS) or a Wake tracker module (OSP). Both factions can also quip the skiff with turrets.
Armor: 0.30
Hitpoints/Frame Integrity: 130
Point Cost (unloaded): 15
Radar: Two types of Omnidirectional Radar. Basic Radar is 4km. OSP has access to the Advanced Radar, which is 8km. No fire control radar
Size Of Pad Needed to Launch: Small
SundialAn ANS only craft, the Sundial SEWAC (spaceborne early warning and control) provides a 10km radar range with an optional ELINT/PINARD module. Incredibly useful, this craft is also very expensive. Protect it at all costs.
Name: Sundial
Role: SEWAC (Space Early Warning and Control)
Armor: 0.30
Hitpoints/Frame Integrity: 135
Point Cost (unloaded): 75
Radar: 10km Omnidirectional Radar. No Fire Control Radar. Can be equipped with ELINT module
Size Of Pad Needed to Launch: Large
TantoThe Tanto is the primary Shelter Alliance interceptor fighter. The reason the Tanto looks like an atmospheric fighter is because it’s designed in part to operate in atmosphere and in the void. As such, the fighter is often is outgunned by its opponent.
That being said there are a couple of ways the Tanto can beat the Barracuda. Unlike the Barracuda, it has access to the 15mm Coilgun nose gun which is a great anti-missile tool and nasty at fighters. This means you can mix 20mm nosegun tantos with 15mm coilgun tantos backed up by long ranged SDM-2 munitions.
You can also use the S1 missile bay and spam Act Size 1 missiles with one or two CMD SDM-100 missiles.
Name: Tanto
Role/Notes: Interceptor
Armor: 0.30
Hitpoints/Frame Integrity: 50
Point Cost (unloaded): 8
Radar: 4km Frontal Radar. 1km Fire control radar
Size Of Pad Needed to Launch: Small
ClaymoreThe mainstay Shelter Alliance bomber. Similar to the Tanto, the Claymore can go in atmosphere and also in the void. This results in the dreaded and beautiful frame that serves as the ANS counterpart to the OSP bomber. While not as flexible as the OSP Sturgeon, it uses ANS superior seekers to deliver devastating strikes on protectorate warships. The Torpedo loadout is by far the most common and ubiquitous loadout with this craft.
Name: Claymore
Role and Notes: ANS Bomber - Choice of either Size 2 missile bay (4 misiles) or Size 3 missile bay (2 missiles)
Armor: 0.30
Hitpoints/Frame Integrity: 135
Point Cost (unloaded): 15
Radar: 4km Frontal Radar. 4km Fire control radar
Size Of Pad Needed to Launch: Large
Configuring Your Craft
Add your anti-craft and craft-launched missiles to the fleet You need to add missiles to your carrier fleet before you can load them to your craft
Once added to your fleet, the relevant missiles will show up in your craft configuration menu. This allows you to choose between a variety of loadouts and load missiles into it
Create a new craft from the available selection with the “Create New” button. You currently cannot rename craft in editor. This is known.
Select your nose gun/mount of choice. It needs to read “INSTALLED.” Nose guns cannot be changed mid-battle.
Create Loadout and Name It
Load your Nose Gun by selecting the matching ammunition under “Other Munitions.” If you cannot load it, you have not installed your nose gun.
Select which missiles and modules you wish to add to your Loadout. If you notice some X’s, that’s because some module and munition choices are mutually exclusive. Feel free to experiment. Every loadout can be launched in battle (so long as you have munitions to fulfill the loadout)
You may get this error screen. Do not panic, just hit RENAME to create a new template. Don’t panic if you hit overwrite though. You just may need to hit rename on another fleet
Use New Loadout, Update Template, as necessary. Note that ANS has a number of set configurations for its Tanto and Claymore that cannot be changed mid-battle. I suggest you view each and every one of them, but remember, these bays cannot be changed mid- battle, though the loadouts tied to each bay can be changed.
Make sure your loadout has nose-gun ammunition if you intended to do so. It is under “Other Munitions”
Important to note that modules and missiles have a mass that does not reduce your craft speed, but make it less maneuverable. This mass is updated as munitions on the loadout are expended in battle
All munitions and modules add to your loadout’s arming speed (unfortunately nobody has this data), calculated by volume of the armament. Unguided munitions however (rockets) always load faster than guided ones.
Craft Mass Note
It is important to note all craft loadouts at mass and contribute to a total mass to your loadout.
Exceeding the total mass of your loadout will lead to a 50% maneuvering penalty so be careful when you are loading out your craft.
Your craft are set up and ready for loading into your carrier!
If you would like you can click on ahead and read: A Step by Step Guide to Setting Up Your Craft
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3401191816
More NEBULOUS: Fleet Command guilds
- All Guilds
- Comprehensive Craft Clobbering Compendium for Chic and Comely Captains: A guide on ACM design and usage
- How to Win As a Carrier (Intermediate Doctrine and Tactics Guide)
- A Step By Step Guide to Setting Up Your Carrier and Loading Craft
- The Craft Management UI and Craft UI
- Salvo size = infinity; Cruise missile Time on Target attack handbook.
- Nebulous: Cap Fleet Commandments
- MD/Rail
- Jakub's Guide to not Dying to Missile Spam
- NEBULOUS: Fleet Command Guide 427