How to Build an Interstellar Warship, Part One: The Basics
Author: Derran Tyler

IV. Allocating Weapons Systems

Perhaps this is the most important section of this little guide. Through seeing people generate their own warship designs, all the designs have surprisingly enough been the same. They place a main gun, some secondary guns, maybe a few missile launchers, and they send their ship on its merry way thinking its fit to do combat.

Maybe against similarly equipped warships, but against a competently designed warship, one will find that such a ship has multiple types of weapons that are not only based upon their damage capacity, but how they deal damage, range, and even firing arcs.

So let's break down weapons into some basic types, shall we?

Primary Weapons are your big guns. They draw the most power, deal the most damage, and are usually the preferred weapon of any ship captain. Not gonna go into detail here, because most people seem to understand the concept of placing a large gun on their warship.

Secondary Weapons are the weapons that back up your main gun. Let's face it, if your primary weapon is truly that powerful, it has to recharge sometimes. Also, you may not want to overkill everything, so this is where you bring in your secondary weapons. They could be weaker versions of your primary weapon or something else entirely different. Again, it really doesn't matter here.

Point-Defense Weapons are weapons that are small, precise weapons designed to take on small, agile targets. They are short-range weapons that are designed to take on targets that get just a little too close for comfort. Think of small anti-aircraft batteries on Star Wars ships that shoot down X-Wings.

Ballistic Weapons could be rail guns, or more commonly, missiles or torpedoes. These weapons can often deal more damage on a localized area (Example: Missiles tipped with nuclear warheads), but they are limited by quantity and sheer speed.

These are the four main types of weapons, but let's see how we actually allocate these weapons on an actual warship.

As stated before, every warship should have its own primary weapon, which should deal the most damage of any single weapon the ship. Also, it should have secondary weapons backing up this weapon. Most people understand this fact, but what most people don't get is that you need more than just a standard firing array. When fighting enemy warships, they aren't just going to attack you at the front. They are going to attack you from the front, the sides, and from behind. Thus, you must have weapons that can fire on multiple firing arcs.

A firing arc is simply the angle at which a weapon can fire. A weapon can be fixed, that is, they can be mounted facing in one direction and cannot move. This means that the entire ship must move in order to fire this weapon. Most primary weapons are of the fixed variety. However, you also have limited-arc weapons that can move 30-degrees or so off centerline. They are still limited to firing in one basic direction, but they can vary the direction of their fire slightly. Turreted weapons, however, can rotate full 360-degrees off centerline, firing in any direction that they are needed. Point defense weapons are on turrets, as they need to be able to fire in any direction to accurately strike their intended targets.

In order to have an effective warship, one needs to have limited-arc and turreted weapons that can cover all possible firing arcs so the warship has 100% coverage against enemy attacks. Otherwise, you create a warship that is unable to defend itself against starfighters, flanking, or rear attacks.