Now, with that all said and done, here is my present draft for our first Heavy Cruiser. Again, subject to change based on unlocks achieved by then.
[] Leo-primus Testbed Heavy Cruiser
-[] Length - 4.600 Meters (-1 DP)
-[] Width - 600 Meters (-1 DP)
-[] Acceleration - 2.5 Gravities (-3 DP)
-[] Armor - Medium Triple Hull (-1 DP)
-[] Shields - Two Matrixes
-[] Weapons - 1x Medium Boarding Hangar/2x Heavy Rotary Macrocannon Turrets (-9 DP)
-[] Equipment - Armored Lifepods/Ship Shrines/Autoloaders/Advanced Alloying/Strict Pilot Training/Superior Gravimetric Engine Calculations/Harsh Crew Training/Yeeni Auxiliary Engineer Division(-13 DP)
Writeup:
The first attempt of the Glimmering Federation's magi to forge a true Capital Ship. The engineering challenges of forging a functioning Voidship that exceeds twenty megatonnes in net mass have been especially daunting--a task that has only become plausible with the benefits of the anchorage of at End of Line, and the lack of a native gravity well to influence the construction process. To that end, the Leo-primus has been born, a prototype and proof of concept rather than what can be called a "True" finished product. It nonetheless meets the logistical challenges with strength to spare. A pair of heavy rotary macrocannon batteries supplemented by bespoke autoloading systems grant the prototype an exceptional volume of fire, which when coupled with its overcharged engines and artificer crafted gravimetric geometries to go from a lumbering beast to... Still a lumbering beast, but one capable of surprising agility when provoked. The additional of a wing of assault boats--while relatively new, is simple enough in concept--though teething issues will certainly remain as doctrine is developed for the differing approach--completes the ship's intended role. A spearhead plunged deep into enemy formations, using withering macrobattery fire and stalwart defenses to break up formations and point defense networks, to enable the rest of the Fleet to single out targets and remove them from the stars sequentially.
A prototype, a proof of concept. It is for these reasons that this iteration of Leo bears the moniker of "Primus". For it is through the young Lion's strength and courage that the path to the upper echelons of void artistry can be found.
Stepping out of Lore for a moment here, "Primus" is a new moniker I'm adding on to the Prototype Ship of a new hull classification, where we construct an example and shake it down for its gimmicks so we can do it better in the future. The Scuffed First Draft that informs our future efforts in that field. The next version of the Leo-P would simply be the Leo, once we've hashed out the bugs anyway.
You can see where this is going though, a pair of Heavy Rotary Macrocannons boosted by Autoloaders is going to be putting out a distressing amount of BRRRRT, effectively producing the equivilant of 6 Heavy Macrocannon Batteries worth of fire wth two weapon mounts. Harsh Crew Training + Yeeni Auxillaries means its damcon power is going to be through the roof, especially when combined with the sheer girthiness of Heavy Cruisers in general. With 2.5gs of acceleration and Superior Gravimetric, it is also either equal in speed or faster than Imperial Heavy Cruisers, which allows it to serve as a spearhead, getting in their face and hitting them with a tide of dakka and assault boats to prevent them from being able to easily use any Ordnance strikes against us, while being able to slap down lighter hullforms with ease.
The Production Model is mostly just going to be addressing the prototype's limitations, hopefully with a larger budget between sorting out the bugs of Heavy Cruiser Design.
CHANGELOG: With the suggestion that yes, in fact, we do need to do buffs even for Assault Boats, I've moved one tick of Armor into Strict Pilot Training. I'll ask if that overlaps with Harsh Crew Training later and can be replaced.
