V.M.E Caelius-class Reconnaissance Corvette

The Caelius-class Reconnaissance Corvette is a warship by Valkyrja - Maintenance & Engineering, and their first initiative to establish a new line of warships after their expansion into the Pioneer-System.

Focusing on covert ops and surveillance missions, the Caelius features a small profile, medium armaments and light armor, relaying on speed as its primary defense mechanism. Mission-equipments consist of detectors and a laser-antenna, production capabilities for fuel, ammunition and spare parts, and a variety of thrusters to operate in pretty much every environment.

[b]This item is survival-ready![/b] It is fully conveyor-linked, thruster-damage compatible and uses no mods and no subgrids!
All scripts are optional.
A large amount of DLC-blocks is installed, both decorative and functional. Spawning this blueprint without the required DLC will require the user to exchange some thrusters as well as installing interior blocks to archive airtightness.

Authors Note

You might have noticed that I've uploaded a similar ship mid-2021 before. The Caelius was designed for the Space Engineers: Outlands-series by GetBrocked and is currently utilized by the CDF faction.

This vanilla-variant was designed in parallel with that vessel. However, I wanted to wait with the upload until I had a better idea of what the next Warfare-update would bring. After all, Keen announced that 2021 would be the year of combat overhaul, right? Right.

Well, it's been a year since I last uploaded a vanilla ship, so here we go. It might receive a significant update, once Warfare Part 2 is deployed, but for now this ship is still ready to rumble. Enjoy!

Datasheet

Blocks: 1,585 Non-armor blocks: 677 PCU: 14,995 Grid mass: 1,505,436 kg

Controls

Toolbar 1 1 - Camera FWD - View 2 - Weapon: Rocket Launchers 3 - Group: Interior Turrets (PDC) - Toggle on/off 4 - Group: Gatling Turrets - Toggle on/off 5 - Group: Missile Turrets - Toggle on/off 6 - Group: Parachute Hatches - Open/closed 7 - Group: Ion Thrusters - Toggle on/off 8 - Group: Hydrogen Thrusters - Toggle on/off 9 - Group: Atmospheric Thrusters - Toggle on/off

Toolbar 2 1 - Group: Small Reactors - Toggle on/off 2 - Group: Small Reactors - "Use conveyor network" on/off 3 - Group: Batteries - Toggle on/off 4 - Group: Batteries - Recharge on/off 5 - Group: Hydrogen Engines - Toggle on/off 6 - Group: Hydrogen Tanks - Stockpile on/off 7 - Group: Oxygen Tanks - Stockpile on/off 8 - Group: O2/H2 Generators - Toggle on/off 9 - Group: Air Vents - Toggle on/off

Toolbar 3 1 - Group: Basic Refineries - Toggle on/off 2 - Group: Assemblers - Toggle on/off 3 - blank 4 - Group: Batteries - Recharge on/off 5 - Group: Hydrogen Tanks - Stockpile on/off 6 - blank 7 - Antenna - Toggle on/off 8 - Emergency Beacon - Toggle on/off 9 - Laser Antenna - Toggle on/off

Toolbar 4 - Orbital Traverse 1 - Jump Drive - Jump 2 - blank 3 - Jump Drive - Increase Distance 4 - Jump Drive - Decrease Distance 5 - blank 6 - blank 7 - Ore Detector - Toggle on/off 8 - blank 9 - Projector - Toggle on/off

Description

In response to the growing requirement for surveillance-vessels by the 1st fleet after the collapse of the Pioneer-systems governmental infrastructure, V.M.E introduced a new line of hull designs to provide a modernized selection of warships, to surpass the fleet's outdated 5th-gen vessels. The Caelius was introduced as a replacement for the aging Protos-series and was designed around an all-environment, light armored chassis featuring advanced weapons-placement and improved agility, packed in a stealth-focused design with smaller displacement.

Losing their grasp within the outskirts of the Pioneer-system, the 1st fleet was lacking access to safe harbors and supply-stations to maintain operations within the Outlands. The Caelius-class therefore is capable of remaining self-sufficient by utilizing local resources. This includes enhanced fuel-capacities, backup-hydrogen-engines and an increased number of o2/h2-generators for rapid fuel-processing. Additionally, the vessel comes with a selection of secondary ion-thrusters, to perform basic maneuvers in space without having to burden the hydrogen-supply. Also two large Atmospheric thrusters support uplift during planetside operations, as long as an atmosphere is present, further reducing the demand on hydrogen. However, both types of thrusters only provide a support-role. The Caelius requires access to a source of icce in order to maintain operation.

Being a corvette, focused on reconnaissance operations, the Caelius is not suited for large-scale fleet engagements. However, her small displacement, staggered turret layout and partial multi-layered armor-layout provide the ship with sufficient capabilities for anti-piracy operations or engaging similar sized targets in open combat. The armament consists of 2x 200mm spinal Rocket launchers, reinforced by 2x 200mm dumbfire-missile turrets. 4x 25mm Gatling-turrets and 3x 5.56mm PD turrets form up the defense-grid of the caelius. All weapons are staggered and capable of firing in a direct forward line simultaneously, while the autocannons maintain enough coverage to engage targets from every angle of the ship.

The vital interior-layout and fuel-lines are centered within the ship's rear area, while the nose is capable of receiving a decent amount of enemy counterfire during offensive maneuvering. This configuration is supposed to reduced damage to critical areas, allowing the crew to perform field repairs without constant access to a specialized supply-depot. A projector is installed to assist with these repairs.

Credits

Scripts