First , allow me to introduce myself. I am Gothic Vandelia, minister of the economy of Novus Lucidium.
In NL, we have a custom made resource and manufacturing system based off the score you have in different stats as well as an external bank system. When it comes to arms you basically use your arms manufacturing, your science and your mining score to provide which arms you can buy and how good they are. In a war the quality of the weapons you have is important, that together with your defense forces is how effective you are in a war.
Anyways, I made this post to show what I am currently working on and to get some feedback. The following is a quote from our forum:
The idea of this system is to allow you to design a fighter plane just the way you want it. The design options will require you to have certain stat scores and resources and you can pick a lot of details which will give your plane specific attributes. This is by no means a finished system, just a thought experiment that might make it into the manufacturing system with some pre-made templates and everything will have to be looked over (and can be changed) by the minister of war. Please feel free to comment, make suggestions or create a plane in the thread below. Consider that each mining resource cost a thousand point here (besides a few precious).
All pictures and most of the formatting have been removed to save space.
1. Engine[/b]
[b]Turbojet (arms manufacturing 1000 points, aluminum or Titanium)
A turbojet engine is the basic jet engine that have been used since WW2 even if later engines have been improved a lot since those days. It requires oil to operate.
Stats: Speed mach 3.
Ramjet (arms manufacturing 30 000, platinum and titanium)
A ramjet engine is hydrogen powered but it performs terrible at supersonic speed. Most ramjet planes use a start engine for take-offs and sometimes for landing as well, be that a small turbojet engine or a rocket engine. It runs on hydrogen.
Stats: speed mach 5.
Scramjet (arms manufacturing 50 000, platinum, titanium)
A scramjet engine works on the same basic principle as the ramjet but performs better at subsonic speed. It uses hydrogen as fuel.
Stats: speed mach 6
Anti matter (arms manufacturing 65 000, science 650, titanium, sapphire, gold)
This engine engine uses antimatter confined in a strong magnetic field to run. You need an antimatter reactor to fuel it.
Stats: speed mach 8
2. Wing configuration
Delta wing
The delta wing configuration is popular since it offers a large wingspan to lower fuel consumption and offers additional room for weapons. It is also durable.
Stats: Speed - 20%, Hard points +5, range 3 000 kilometers, maneuverability 5.
Delta wing with canards (arms manufacturing 30 000)
The canards are small wings usually placed before the delta wings. It makes the plane maneuver better.
Stats: Speed -25%, hard points +4, range 2 750 kilometers, maneuverability 8.
Trapezoidal wings (arms manufacturing 35 000)
Aircrafts with trapezoid wings stalls at lower speeds then delta wings, perform better at trans sonic speed and have advantages at stealth.
Stats: Range 2 000 kilometers, maneuverability 7, stealth +1.
Sweptback wings (arms manufacturing 10 000)
The sweptback wings are somewhat in the middle of delta and trapezoid wings, offering more lift then trapezoid but higher speeds then delta.
Stats: Range 2500 kilometers, maneuverability 6. Speed -10%, hard points +2.
3. Size
Small
Hard points :7, range -25%, maneuverability +2.
Medium
Hard points: 10.
Large
Hard points: 15, range +25%, maneuverability -2.
4. Stealth capabilities
Stealth (Science 300, arms manufacturing 30 000)
Hard points -1, Stealth 5.
Advanced stealth (Science 500, arms manufacturing 50 000)
Hard points -1, Stealth 7.
5.VTOL
VTOL means vertical take off and landing. The advantages is that you don't really need an airfield to take off from, you can put a VTOL plane on a cruiser or hide them in a barn. Sounds great? Well, there is a huge disadvantage with the system, it increases the speed of the plane a lot. The most famous VTOL plane, the Hawker Harrier was just capable of subsonic flight.
VTOL capability (arms manufacturing 10 000)
Speed -60%, hard points -3
6. Armament and additional features
There are 2 kinds here, built in and attached. Attached weapons can easily be changed between missions while the built in features can not be changed. Note: if your alternative armament change built in features your plane have a "A" and "B" version while if it just changes attached weapons that means you have 2 different standard load-outs.
Built in:
AI or remote control
1 hard point
Chaffs (against radar missiles)
1 hard point
Flairs (against heatseekers)
1 hard point
Armor
1-3 hard points
Autocannon
1 hard point
No cockpit (requires AI/remote control
Takes away the hard point cost from the AI controller and adds an additional hard point to the plane. The plane is considered a large drone
Attached:
Drop tank (+ 1000 kilometers range, -2 maneuverability until dropped)
2 hard points
Heatseeking air to air missile (Sidewinder)
1 hard point
SARH missile (radar guided air to air)
1 hard point
Air to surface missile (Maverick missile)
1 hard point
Air to ship missile (Harpoon missile)
1 hard point
Auto cannon attachment (can fire at up to 180 degrees depending on placement)
2 Hard points
7. Bonuses (does not stack, added last)
Arms manufacturing 25 000: +1 hard point
Arms manufacturing 50 000: +1 hard point, +1 maneuverability
Arms manufacturing 75 000: +1 hard point, +1 maneuverability, +1000 kilometers range
Arms manufacturing 100 000: +2 hard point, +2 maneuverability, +1000 kilometers range
Guide
First select the engine which gives you the builds base speed.
Then you select your wing configuration. Apply any changes to speed.
It will give you maneuverability, range and maybe some bonuses to hard points and stealth.
Thirdly you pick you size which will give you the base hard points and might change your range and maneuverability. Remember to add the bonus hard points if you have a delta or delta with canards wing configuration.
If you want stealth either version will cost you one of your hard points.
Then you buy your armaments and additional features.
Each thing have a hard point cost, having chaffs cost 1 point, putting on a missile will cost 1 point and so on. You can't put on more then your hard points.
Finally, you get a bonus if you have at least 25 000 in arms manufacturing, increasing things like hard points, maneuverability and range depending on your score.
