Why are Carrier Cruisers Unarmed?

...its a game...

Weapons could make Carrier cruisers a bit too powerful. They already get 2-3 SC, which function as the cruiser's weapons and ability. There's no reason to give them additional weapons.

In the Star Wars Requiem (and a couple others as well) mod the carriers have weapons. However, this has the unintended effect of making the carrier's unit AI just as aggressive as any other combat unit. It's kind of a pain of having to change the area of engagement every time you build a new carrier, though at least they have some sort of last line of defense. Was the AI the reason the Devs didn't give them weapons I don't know, but it would take a bit more work than you would think to effectively implement it.

The United States Navy, that's who!

The Nimitz class supercarriers have very little in the way of shipboard weaponry. They have a few surface-to-air missiles to take down enemy aircraft, and they have a gun system network and a missile system network that are each designed to destroy incoming missiles... in SINS terms they have a few flakk batteries. That's about it.

Other than that they rely on their aircraft (strikecraft) to keep them safe. If anything, it could be said that strikecraft in SINS are underpowered when compared to their realistic equivalents.

-Itharus

1.  It was just done for game balance.  if you want armed multipurpose carriers, you have to make the capital carriers.

2.  If their primary role is to deliver strikecraft to a battlefield, they wouldn't want to be in a fight anyhow, so better to save money and save more space for strikecraft.  If you DID arm the carrier cruisers, they would have such weak armament that they still shouldn't be in the fight.  As you pile more capabilities onto the ship, you start to get something that looks more like a capital carrier, or you remove space for one of the strikecraft wings.

Hehe...this is true, but it could also be argued that EVERYTHING in Sins is underpowered compared to real world equivalents.  How much damage do you think would be produced by a spinal rail gun on a ship the size of a Kol?  Consider how much damage is caused by the 16" guns on an Iowa class Battleship.  Damage is scaled down for everything so the game is playable and people have time to react.

Well, you also have to imagine that a Kol probably has something utterly ridiculous like 12 meters of molecularly engineered crystalline steel or something for armor plating. I mean look at the armor sheathe on the prow of those things (ignore the lasers sticking out, look just to the sides). That's a pretty hefty amount of metal, plus it's being enhanced by some tripped out harmonic field of some sort that's reinforcing the molecular bonds that's retuning itself to better adjust to the dmg type(s) it gets hit with (and that's just w/ the shields brought down to hull level)

But yeah... the kinetic impact alone from one of those Kol gauss cannons (which is silly... rail > gauss), would probably be enough to flatten a square mile or two worth of city.

One thing that's always confused me in SINS is the phase missiles. Why do those things travel slower than the autocannon bullets in game? They use the same technology that's used for FTL... I realize they aren't applying anywhere near the same level of energy to thrust as a ship, and so that means they likely aren't travelling FTL, but you'd still think they'd be going faster than a bullet spat out of a railgun or by a chemical accelerant.

/geekspeak /nerdrage

-Itharus

I'm not saying make them a full offensive unit, like i said, just give them something like the weapons of a Scout or Colony Frig.  Neither of these are combat, but at least they can defend themselves.  What's a carrier captain to do if all his strikecraft are on the other end of a grav-well, and few enemy reinforcements come right u his backside?  It just doesn't seem right, that's all i'm saying.

i could see maybe on or two underpowered cannons, meant to only slow the destruction but not stop it. and one or two flak guns to guard against fighter/bomber attacks. Considering the real enemy to a Carrier is the units they carry.

exactly, though it occurs to me that the designers did somewhat fix this when they added the extra squadron. (It did used to be just one, right?)  Ah well.  If so many people are against it, who actually play the game, then perhaps i'm just trying to make one of my favorite units too powerful...

Ah, but the Nmitz has deenses besides aircraft. If you gave the carrier a BB gun, then it would be defended. Not very well, but defended.

P.S. the Nimitz has a lot more aircraft on board than a SINS carrier cruiser.

Probably because there are NO aircraft on board SINS carrier cruisers.

Zing!

still, the Nimitz is no wheres near the size of a Sova or Halycon. Which means the Sova and Halycon are undermanned when it comes to Strikecraft.

I would have to agree with the above statement.... i want a max of 16 squads out of a carrier class battleship!

Well... the human-based carriers have large banks of lasers for ship to ship combat, among other anti-ship weapons... and on top of that, strike craft in SOASE are probably quite a lot larger than our own fighters (think about all the extra equipment you'd need to cram into a spaceborne fighter). The Vasari carrier cap has weapons too, and huge banks of nanites and probably stacks of random elements laying around ready to be assembled into something. Oh, and the TEC carrier has missile satelites it can deploy - I'm sure those take up quite a bit of room, too.

Modern carriers are really more dedicated to 'strikecraft' than that. I think the Nimitz carry like 90 or so planes... The Advent carrier cap carries 99 or some such, the Vasari one has only about 32, and the human one I think has 48? Well, that's when all are deployed... each carrier cap manages to replace it's losses somehow, so... I'm guessing they have spare strikecraft on board (or the materials to quickly assemble them).

16 squads for the advent is something like a full gross (144) of strikecraft. Hhhm, Vasari get shafted on the number of strikecraft they get... but that's another thread .

Edit: As for the Light Carriers... they used to only get 1 squad, so be happy that they got improved!

yes but your thinking about a ship thats kilometers long. compared to a ship which is what......a quarter of a mile long. And that Quarter of a mile long ship has plenty of weapons, equipment, and still buttloads of Aircraft and Helicopters. It also houses up to 6,000 personell on some of the bigger ships. The SoaSE Carrier Caps are god damn asteroid sized ships that should be able to house multiple times the max of personell on a modern carrier, as well as SC. I can see why a light carrier only carries two squads they arent big enough. And if you zoom into the SC for the TEC atleast you can see that the relative observation bubble where the pilot sits its relatively the same size as a F22. The modern day Fighters arent small, you may think they are. But their huge when in person. I think the "reassemble or spare" is just in game. If it was real life they wouldnt be able to do that, its just one of the game mechanics that keeps you from stopping and starting like you would have to in real life after amassing large SC casualties. But the reality of SoaSE is another topic all together.

I hope that some day they actually give us dimensions on their vessels... because I know this game is not to scale in any way shape or form. I mean really, the Jarrasul would have to be several times the size of a Kol, lol... of course then it'd have several times the hitpoints, you'd think... and that would be imba as hell in game .

Yeah, it would be bigger, but not necessarily any tougher than it is now.  The Jarrasul is a big colony ship with combat capabilities  -- the Kol is a brick of matrix steel wrapped around weapons and propulsion systems.

Yeah, if it were to scale, the Jarrasul would be about the size of the TEC SB.

I can accept that point Cykur. I think that there is room for argument, but I give you this victory .

The Nimitz also has a task force of destoryers, attack subs and support ships guarding it.  Food for thought when trying to figure out how to keep your carriers safe in Sins.

unfortunately SINs has a ship cap much like Warcraft and Starcraft has a cap on units. If that wasnt the case it be much easier to create support task groups for the LC's and still have a large enough Fleet to do the actual fist fighting.

Your computer can only handle so many units. LOL, well mine can.