Daidalos Rises - nBSG AI/SI Story - Interwar Period!

[OmegaS]

As for the Manticores... in Deadlock, I exclusively use them for reconnaissance, but in that role they're indispensable. They're not as fast as strikecraft, but they have much better sensors and can still escape from heavier cylon ships without much trouble. Maybe double down on that, make them even faster with even better sensors, and also use them as e-war and jamming platforms?

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Same story here. My multi-large Battlestar comps often had enough points left over to add in a Manti, and the greater sensor range was extremely helpful in managing battle set up. It was still a bit faster than the heavies when full defensive, and easily made up for the reduced spotting when the battle-line is full offensive.

The fact that it looks so much like the Zentraedi Tou Redir can't be a coincidence, and that thing is basicly a sensor suite attached to an engineering section with crew areas welded on.

Abstractions aside, simply FINDING the enemy is the critical first step in any action, and if you don't have ready access to cheap jump-capable Raptors than you'll have to use a full sized ship. A fully modernized and militarized Manticore would easily fit the bill perfectly.

 

[aceraptor]

I think the big question of fighting the Cylons would be how far along the Cylons are in swapping over to their pure carrier tactics instead of the battlefleet doctrine of the first Cylon War.

Because the Second War baseships are quite fragile compared to a battlestar though they do have a shitload of missiles and Raiders.

If the Cylons still have a mix of ships then Daidalos can't skimp on heavier anti-ship weapons for its designs. But if the Cylons have already swapped over to their carrier doctrine then Daidalos needs to double up on PD and anti-fighter defenses since the second war Basestars are glass cannons.

 

[Cave_Canem]

Same story here. My multi-large Battlestar comps often had enough points left over to add in a Manti, and the greater sensor range was extremely helpful in managing battle set up. It was still a bit faster than the heavies when full defensive, and easily made up for the reduced spotting when the battle-line is full offensive.

The fact that it looks so much like the Zentraedi Tou Redir can't be a coincidence, and that thing is basicly a sensor suite attached to an engineering section with crew areas welded on.

Abstractions aside, simply FINDING the enemy is the critical first step in any action, and if you don't have ready access to cheap jump-capable Raptors than you'll have to use a full sized ship. A fully modernized and militarized Manticore would easily fit the bill perfectly.

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TBF Daidalos does now have access to Jump capable Raptors, albeit likely a bit of a monkey model build using old tooling.

But, the Manticore does save other ships in the fleet needing to reserve hangar space for said scout Raptors, and has space for an even more powerful scanning suite and datalink that could allow other ships in the fleet to properly use their computerized fire control systems at ranges where they wouldn't normally be able to get a lock - as well as being able to go on longer range independent scouting missions since they are a proper Cap Ship with all that entails.

I think the big question of fighting the Cylons would be how far along the Cylons are in swapping over to their pure carrier tactics instead of the battlefleet doctrine of the first Cylon War.

Because the Second War baseships are quite fragile compared to a battlestar though they do have a shitload of missiles and Raiders.

If the Cylons still have a mix of ships then Daidalos can't skimp on heavier anti-ship weapons for its designs. But if the Cylons have already swapped over to their carrier doctrine then Daidalos needs to double up on PD and anti-fighter defenses since the second war Basestars are glass cannons.

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At the moment they're mostly using First War ships, but Basestars are starting to be rolled out.

 

[BF110C4]

But, the Manticore does save other ships in the fleet needing to reserve hangar space for said scout Raptors, and has space for an even more powerful scanning suite and datalink that could allow other ships in the fleet to properly use their computerized fire control systems at ranges where they wouldn't normally be able to get a lock - as well as being able to go on longer range independent scouting missions since they are a proper Cap Ship with all that entails.

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Also removing the frontal gun and the missiles and getting them a stealth redesign gets you a smaller Orion perfect for 100% passive recon, something that will be needed to locate targets, and then keep an eye on them for weeks without showing your hand too early.

 

[Spart117MC]

Also forget about the Adamant stacks, unlike the game ships can roll in order to redirect all firepower to any specific point so for light ships like Adamant, Berzerk or even the heavier but still nimble Minotaur a formation that allows the ship to roll in order to focus fire or to present undamaged armor in one particular direction would be better.

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The one issue with rolling to present fresh armor is that with the layouts of Battlestar ships that would usually mean presenting a side of the vessel that lacks weapons. You probably want a design that more evenly distributes guns, perhaps even armor along the hull, if you want to have a ship that regularly spins in combat to spread out damage.

A design akin to BattleTech's iconic egg shaped DropShips I think would work better than any of the traditional Battlestar ones. Factor in the fact that the guns in Battlestar can have rather high angles of elevation and in theory that means an ovoid ship will always be able to present a broadside of half of its armament. Depending on just how they're arranged, that could even translate out to some pretty nasty forward firepower.

 

[Night]

The one issue with rolling to present fresh armor is that with the layouts of Battlestar ships that would usually mean presenting a side of the vessel that lacks weapons. You probably want a design that more evenly distributes guns, perhaps even armor along the hull, if you want to have a ship that regularly spins in combat to spread out damage.

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Most Battlestars are strongest somewhere along their broadsides. Now, Galactica and other Jupiter-class ships seem to be strongest at 45 degrees above and along the broadside, and that isn't an ideal position to roll ship from...but she's not that much weaker in terms of heavy weaponry just presenting a ten or fifteen degree above position and she could roll from that and maintain most of her fire. (Or for that matter, rotate end for end bow towards enemy, which is usually how you have to do it ingame in Deadlock) Pegasus was clearly strongest along her flat broadsides and her forward arc, so she could have done a 180 degree roll to present fresh armor.

Something like an Adamant or a Berzerk would actually be strongest presenting its vertical surface and hence both its sets of broadside mounts to an enemy. That's not how Deadlock works, of course, but the Adamant Stack does have the explicit advantage of being able to roll ship. And even if it was doing the vertical thing, rolling to present their underside would at least buy time for an FTL escape.

 

[Midnighter13]

Do we have an estimate of the current size of the Colonial Fleet? In canon by the time of the Fall they had 120 Battlestars with an unknown number of escorts, but that was after decades of budget cuts that caused the fleet to focus on fewer bigger ships that could launch cheaper fighters instead of relying on escorts. This story may be before that reduction, which may mean the fleet has upwards of 500 hulls of various types, but with a smaller viper core. That could have implications for the way Daidalos builds their fleet.

Also, while the AI fleet Daidalos is building will be able to coordinate faster and more efficiently than a human crew, he is not building a networked fleet. The way his AI forking works, each ship will have its own 'mother' AI that occupies the ship itself, and sub-minds that operate individual systems/bodies. While all those minds can think and communicate at lightspeed, and have far faster reaction times and decision loops as a result, they still need to communicate to coordinate. ECM from either the cylons or colonials could seriously mess with that, making the Daidalos fleet merely superior to its opponents, rather than a perfectly coordinated super-organism hive mind in the form of a fleet. Of course, until the cylons (or the colonials) figure that out...

 

[Spart117MC]

Most Battlestars are strongest somewhere along their broadsides. Now, Galactica and other Jupiter-class ships seem to be strongest at 45 degrees above and along the broadside, and that isn't an ideal position to roll ship from...but she's not that much weaker in terms of heavy weaponry just presenting a ten or fifteen degree above position and she could roll from that and maintain most of her fire. (Or for that matter, rotate end for end bow towards enemy, which is usually how you have to do it ingame in Deadlock) Pegasus was clearly strongest along her flat broadsides and her forward arc, so she could have done a 180 degree roll to present fresh armor.

Something like an Adamant or a Berzerk would actually be strongest presenting its vertical surface and hence both its sets of broadside mounts to an enemy. That's not how Deadlock works, of course, but the Adamant Stack does have the explicit advantage of being able to roll ship. And even if it was doing the vertical thing, rolling to present their underside would at least buy time for an FTL escape.

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Right, but as you yourself have pointed out there are limits. Those designs have blind spots where armor and weapons are lesser and limit how regularly and to what degree that you can roll the ship. In fact it's counter-intuitive to rely on rolling as a defensive tactic with a ship that has a 'strongest side' because you don't ever want to be presenting to the enemy a side that isn't the strongest.

Concentrating fire and protection on 'strongest sides' means that the ship can operate with those sides being in contact with the enemy the longest, but it also means the moment those areas have been stripped of armor all those guns have effectively been mission killed, because those sides have to be turned away from the enemy or it will risk the entire vessel being destroyed. This despite the fact that the ship still has a decent amount of armor, it just so happens to be in areas with minimal or no weapons.

A design with an even distribution of guns and armor doesn't have a strongest side. All of them are equally powerful and when the armor gets thin on one side you can roll it without sacrificing volume of fire. It is an approach that allows you to maximize the effective armor of a ship by making it so that there isn't any one side of the craft that is kept out of combat.

Remember, every side of a ship has to be armored up to a degree even if it's not meant to be the one facing the enemy so as not to be a critical weak point. But because those sides tend to be undergunned they generally won't ever be pointed at the enemy and because of that, that armor goes unused in engagements. In other words, that armor is a waste of mass and tonnage.

By spreading things out and making it so that each side is viable you're able to expose every side of the ship to the enemy and for the same amount of armor you can make a ship that can last longer in a fight than one with 'strongest sides'. And with an ovoid hull and guns with high angles of elevation that means that, at least in theory, you'll always be able to fire upon the enemy with 50% of your guns when presenting a broadside. It's like an egg. No matter how much you spin it around on its end it's always showing you half of its surface area.

 

[Bedpotato]

Something designed along the lines of the Starfury was my idea, yes you can't quite get something fully starfury-like but when you don't have to worry about G-forces or human reaction times, something that can flip end over end and accelerate even faster than a Viper is plenty useful.

And in terms of heavy guns on fighters, there is the Taipan which is basically a pair of 'light' (by warship standards) guns on a fighter, which can meaningfully threaten proper warships, so there is some opportunity there. Building them into the same frame as a Viper makes sense for letting them share the same launch infrastructure though.

And yeah, one reason I'm not entirely sure the Drone Viper actually will be fully replaced is that they are one of the best Vipers for in-atmo combat thanks to having bigger wings and actual control surfaces. So they might stick around as a cheap generalist fighter, with some modifications of course.

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Are you sure you want to go for the starfury? It has a far larger profile than a viper or raider and any damage to a thruster/wing is a death sentence for the pilot as the craft starts spinning. Would something flatter or more dart like not be better?

Also, while the AI fleet Daidalos is building will be able to coordinate faster and more efficiently than a human crew, he is not building a networked fleet. The way his AI forking works, each ship will have its own 'mother' AI that occupies the ship itself, and sub-minds that operate individual systems/bodies. While all those minds can think and communicate at lightspeed, and have far faster reaction times and decision loops as a result, they still need to communicate to coordinate. ECM from either the cylons or colonials could seriously mess with that, making the Daidalos fleet merely superior to its opponents, rather than a perfectly coordinated super-organism hive mind in the form of a fleet. Of course, until the cylons (or the colonials) figure that out...

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That is until he manages to get his hands on a Cylon Com relay, resurection ship, or new basestar. All these ships carry some form of FTL com system he could copy and use to netork his fleets.

Edit: Even the raider, Centurion and organic model carry a FTL sender for their resurection tech so he will get intact systems before long.

 

[blankslate]

Because the Second War baseships are quite fragile compared to a battlestar though they do have a shitload of missiles and Raiders.

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I calc'd the raider / heavy raider slots from a few screenshots of various RDM basestars.

There are six "bays" on an RDM basestar, one for each arm near the central spindle. Each "bay" has six rows of launch slots, with 28 slots per row.

Assuming one and only one fighter per slot, the math works out to 1008 ships per basestar.

And The Plan makes the numbers worse - there are dozens of basestars per colony in the attack.


Per supplemental materials, a single Jupiter II battlestar like Galactica has a fighter complement of 80. And the Colonial Fleet didn't number more than a couple hundred ships if I'm remembering comments in the pilot right.

So, if the Colonial Fleet was 200 battlestars all of which carried 80 fighters (which they didn't, the Valkyrie class which was being built in increasing numbers because the Mercurys were a finding nightmare, horrifically overbudget per unit) they only had 16,000 fighters.

At 24 basestars per colony that's 288 basestars in the attack confirmed, 290,304 fighters. And they had to have had some reserve, you don't throw everything you have at the enemy, so the actual numbers would be a lot higher.

Yeah, the Colonies were kinda screwed, even if the Cylons hadn't come in with the CNP to disable them. You don't win a fight when you're outnumbered that badly.

 

[Shepard]

Even if you throw in the individual PDF's and PMC's on the colonials side. Plus planet based fighter wings, the colonials were screwed from the start.

 

[Night]

On the other hand with only capacity for forty-odd fighters Galactica was usually able to hold off two Basestars for most of the series, so...

 

[SuperHeavy]

Even if you throw in the individual PDF's and PMC's on the colonials side. Plus planet based fighter wings, the colonials were screwed from the start.

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No they wouldn't be, not even close. I don't know where people are getting 24 basestars per colony, I looked back over the scene and got 19 max for Caprica, the capital that would be the highest priority target. In the sweeping shot we get of the Cylon fleet before they jump in they didn't even have 100. Per unit an outdated model with half of its fighter facilities, at best mid-tier personnel, and hit by a nuke could stand off two basestars. The Pegasus showed off that the Mercury line could crack a basestar with a single volley and shrug off multiple nuclear strikes. As for the Raiders the emergency replacement pilots from a crash training program were scoring kills regularly. A fully spun up and mobilized Colonial military-industrial complex would crumple the attacking fleet like beer can under a truck tire.

 

[TIYB]

Does Daidalos have documentation concerning the hidden structural issues that cropped in Galactica due to either poor quality material used or negligent post battle repair work? It would be hilarious if he takes the post-war fleet to task over these issues and that not even considering the outright theft of military grade material from the mothball yards.

 

[Midnighter13]

No they wouldn't be, not even close. I don't know where people are getting 24 basestars per colony, I looked back over the scene and got 19 max for Caprica, the capital that would be the highest priority target. In the sweeping shot we get of the Cylon fleet before they jump in they didn't even have 100. Per unit an outdated model with half of its fighter facilities, at best mid-tier personnel, and hit by a nuke could stand off two basestars. The Pegasus showed off that the Mercury line could crack a basestar with a single volley and shrug off multiple nuclear strikes. As for the Raiders the emergency replacement pilots from a crash training program were scoring kills regularly. A fully spun up and mobilized Colonial military-industrial complex would crumple the attacking fleet like beer can under a truck tire.

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Even with your lower numbers on the Cylon fleet, that is still over 100,000 raiders, each of which can be equipped with up to 8 anti-fighter missiles (or 2 nuclear anti-ship missiles). Even at the wildly inflated 16,000 vipers used in the post above (realistically it would be 7-8 thousand max based on ships, with maybe another few thousands based off of stations/anchorages/ground bases), the colonial fighters were horribly outnumbered. Without the CNP, the Cylons could have kept the basestars out of combat entirely and just jumped squadrons of raiders into colonial space until the Colonial defenses were fully saturated (vipers destroyed, ships out of PD ammo) and then sent in nuclear bombers to finish off the fleet. After that, the bombardment we saw in canon would have occurred. The Cylons would have taken far more losses, but the colonial vipers would need a 10:1 kill ratio to stop that, and that would still leave the entire Cylon fleet sans raiders intact.

In the show human pilots are shown to be superior to raiders (most of the time), but not 10:1 better without the ability to jump away (because the remnant fleet was mobile, the colonies are not). The Cylons were never interested in a conventional fight, they wanted to wipe out humanity. If the CNP wasn't available, an alpha strike from a massive raider swarm would have crippled if not destroyed the colonial fleet caught by surprise. Heck, that's exactly how the Cylons won in the original series.

Now, if the Colonials knew the Cylons were coming, and prepared all their ships for combat ahead of the attack? They might have held with only severe losses. But going from dispersed peacetime patrols to suddenly being under attack by hundreds or thousands of raiders per ship with little to no warning? The Colonial Fleet would have been destroyed in short order. Maybe there would have been more surviving ships, and fewer raiders to pursue the survivors, but the overall result would be practically the same.

 

[Havalt300]

I refuse to believe that the colonies did not have orbital defending space stations. They have to be a huge part of the defense. Otherwise I can't explain how 120 Battlestars and hundreds of other ships are supposed to defend 12 colonies. Planets are huge.

 

[SuperHeavy]

It would not be 10 raider fighting one viper as your numbers would suggest. It would be 10 raiders against a fleet's space defense network with everything from walls of flack, Raptors with missile racks, and vectored in viper wings. Furthermore I don't see the Colonies skipping out on orbital defenses or ground based interceptor wings. Also the 16,000 viper numbers seems to come from Galactica having 80 launch tubes which tells us nothing about how many vipers her class carries let alone the number available to something like the Mercury-class.

 

[Bedpotato]

galactica in peace time had facilities for 160 vipers in war time that was doubled or more with extra racks and unconventional storage methods, Pegasus had in peace time 200 active and 100 in reserve so make of that what you will. then come the massive amounts of vipers that are on the various PDF ships, space station and on the planets themself there is a reason that the toasters used the CNP backdoor to win the war.

 

[Midnighter13]

It would not be 10 raider fighting one viper as your numbers would suggest. It would be 10 raiders against a fleet's space defense network with everything from walls of flack, Raptors with missile racks, and vectored in viper wings. Furthermore I don't see the Colonies skipping out on orbital defenses or ground based interceptor wings. Also the 16,000 viper numbers seems to come from Galactica having 80 launch tubes which tells us nothing about how many vipers her class carries let alone the number available to something like the Mercury-class.

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look, even if every one of the 120 Colonial Battlestars held 80 fighters (some would have more, most would have less) that's still a total of 9600 vipers based on battlestars. Now yes, there are probably more based on orbital stations and ground bases, and yes, they probably have fixed defenses in orbit over each colony as well. However, raiders are FTL capable. That means they have the strategic mobility to concentrate their forces to a far greater degree than the colonials. As such, the Cylons could hit each patrolling Battlestar and its 2-3 escorts and 100+ vipers with 1000-3000+ raiders, with at least a few dozen nukes. such an overwhelming attack would quickly overwhelm small taskforces or isolated stations. Then the surviving raiders could jump back to the baseships, rearm, reorganize, and mass jump out for another sortie against another target. By the time the Colonials realized they were getting picked off the Cylons would already have done devastating damage. That's even more true if the initial fighter strikes hit the main anchorages/shipyards/fleet headquarters.

 

[Cave_Canem]

Sure is convinient how those endless swarms of Raiders were unable to get through a half-strength at best airwing from the Galactica.

As a note: the Viper Tubes are the rapid launch forces, ie the 'Alert Vipers', and the eighty vipers number is with half of Galactica's launch facilities turned into a museum. She would have 160 vipers when fully active, and that's standard complement, not including any wartime cramming more vipers in which they could definitely do.

Even with her being about to be decommed and one of her flight pods effectively removed, Galactica's remaining pod had a full peacetime loadout of Mark Sevens. Thats not the kind of thing you do if there's a shortage of Vipers.

A single one of Galactica's flight pods is larger than the largest aircraft carriers we have, and those can carry 80-90 larger aircraft. Even with some space set aside for raptors and others, the idea that a Battlestar carries less fighters than a Nimitz class is asinine.

Look, people are just starting to argue in circles about this, so I'm just going to say: If the cylons had attacked without the CNP, things would have been a much more even fight than they'd have wanted.

That's *why* they spent so much effort compromising it after all, and the sheer clouds of raiders that would result from that being the perfect target for a few nukes are only part of that.

Now please move on to something else, that doesn't require that budget cuts have forced every battlestar to turn one of their hangar bays into a gift shop and also all the vipers went missing for some reason so that the cylons can win.

 

[Gusbus954]

One thing for later warships would be to fix the lack of armor on some colonial ships like the Valkyries belly or the Berzerks spine, along with up gunning them when you remove all the human necessities, and things like that cause from what I remember those things were both cost and time saving measures.
(Or gameplay balance)

Let's turn those glass cannons into proper tanks.
Are there any other ships that could be improved, like what could be done to the Minerva or Janus class?

 

[concor10]

Sure is convinient how those endless swarms of Raiders were unable to get through a half-strength at best airwing from the Galactica.

As a note: the Viper Tubes are the rapid launch forces, ie the 'Alert Vipers', and the eighty vipers number is with half of Galactica's launch facilities turned into a museum. She would have 160 vipers when fully active, and that's standard complement, not including any wartime cramming more vipers in which they could definitely do.

Even with her being about to be decommed and one of her flight pods effectively removed, Galactica's remaining pod had a full peacetime loadout of Mark Sevens. Thats not the kind of thing you do if there's a shortage of Vipers.

A single one of Galactica's flight pods is larger than the largest aircraft carriers we have, and those can carry 80-90 larger aircraft. Even with some space set aside for raptors and others, the idea that a Battlestar carries less fighters than a Nimitz class is asinine.

Look, people are just starting to argue in circles about this, so I'm just going to say: If the cylons had attacked without the CNP, things would have been a much more even fight than they'd have wanted.

That's *why* they spent so much effort compromising it after all, and the sheer clouds of raiders that would result from that being the perfect target for a few nukes are only part of that.

Now please move on to something else, that doesn't require that budget cuts have forced every battlestar to turn one of their hangar bays into a gift shop and also all the vipers went missing for some reason so that the cylons can win.

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Bare in mind galatica and her sisters also could use racks for her flight pods. Only usable with mk6 and below vipers. They effectively doubled her capacity.
Supposedly the pilots really didint like them having vipers hanging above their heads while on alert.

 

[SCDMR Aramatha]

The Adamant actually only has Light guns, the Berzerk is the one with Medium guns. But yeah, keeping them close and operating as a Wolfpack makes a group of Adamants a real danger to most of the things they encounter.

The Manticore is likely to have some of its armour, missiles and that one big Corvette Gun sacrificed to make it more of a colonial equivalent to the Cerastes - something fast, relatively lightly armoured but with a lot of Light and PD guns that can shred strikecraft and other smaller ships, as well as forward scouts.

Relatively fragile as cap ships go, but not really a problem as it is still more than able to handle its intended prey of Raider Swarms. Its the only thing I can think of for a purpose for them, I never really liked the Manticores as they came in the game.

The Adamant redesign would be possibly fitting some of the Medium guns like the Berzerk has, plus some PD guns to make them more capable as close escorts for larger ships. They would indeed likely give up their missile armament to get space for this, though being ground up redesigns they also don't need crew spaces, so they might be able to find space even with them - not decided yet, but then again being flat better than their forebears is kind of the point of doing a full redesign with newer tech like this. At the very least would want to give them some ventral armament, either a mirrored version of their normal broadsides or moving them to be able to fire both up and down. The former would be if going with just more Light guns to shred opposing escorts, the latter if they were upgunned to Mediums.

Turning the Adamants into even more of a dakka-mobile with just more Light Guns is pretty enticing, I must admit. Though in that case their roles start overlapping with the redesigned Manticores again.... Hmm, maybe go the other way, turn Manticores into Fast Attack boats with a whole lot of short range missile weaponry?

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Why not specialize the Adamant into several variations? Like a flak focused Adamant meant for fleet defense only or an attack variant Adamant that mounts a heavy gun at the front and mediums at the sides with some PD to strafe at targets. Or even light carrier variants with PD and a larger hangar capacity to carry more fighters for recon (which is what I do launch my fighters early and send to the nearest contact).

Also redesign the Berzerk to be in a more escort carrier role by removing the medium guns to make room for more fighters and missiles and you have a solid rear line ship.

 

[SCDMR Aramatha]

Also, if you are going to redesign the Artemis, I think its best if you use a superfiring setup for the Battlestar artillery to allow it to fire fore and aft without much difficulty. Its easy just raise some of those turrets up. Maybe have the middle guns the highest while tapering down near the engines and bow. Would allow some of those artillery to shoot at enemies at the rear more effectively.

 

[Cave_Canem]

Why not specialize the Adamant into several variations? Like a flak focused Adamant meant for fleet defense only or an attack variant Adamant that mounts a heavy gun at the front and mediums at the sides with some PD to strafe at targets. Or even light carrier variants with PD and a larger hangar capacity to carry more fighters for recon (which is what I do launch my fighters early and send to the nearest contact).

Also redesign the Berzerk to be in a more escort carrier role by removing the medium guns to make room for more fighters and missiles and you have a solid rear line ship.

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The main reason is that the purpose of the Adamant is to be a generalist ship that can fill in for the weaknesses of whatever more specialised ships it is assigned with.

The other is that those kinds of modifications would be major enough that it would be less Adamant variants and more a bunch of new ship classes that were developed from the Adamant, and there are already ships specialised into each of those areas.

So, for example, a Minotaur is still a better gunship than a hypothetical gunship Adamant, a Berzerk is still a better carrier than a hypothetical carrier Adamant, etc.

And the resources that would go into designing these ships could instead just go into the dedicated designs they would be aping.

Setting the Berzerk up as a more backline ship does make sense though, given its notorious poor armour and the fluff about it having some of the best designed flightdecks in the fleet (this is why its evasion bonuses are the best out of all the Colonial ships, I suppose to represent squadrons operating from it just being more efficient in general.)

Also, if you are going to redesign the Artemis, I think its best if you use a superfiring setup for the Battlestar artillery to allow it to fire fore and aft without much difficulty. Its easy just raise some of those turrets up. Maybe have the middle guns the highest while tapering down near the engines and bow. Would allow some of those artillery to shoot at enemies at the rear more effectively.

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We'll see, superfiring turrets are generally a good idea though yeah, just a case of if I can think of a way for it to work while retaining the battlestar shape.