TSN Dreadnought

The second TSN ship to carry the name "Artemis" was an experimental warship, built in the aftermath of the First Spiral Arm War. The original Artemis had become famous for ending that war. sacrificing itself to protect four unarmed bases and so impressing the Ximni that they switched sides. It was decided the successor of the Artemis would have to be a state-of-the-art battleship that could face the most serious challenges to the peace that the Space Cruiser Artemis had fought so hard to create. 

Twenty years later, it is obvious that the technology developed for the TSN Dreadnought made the TSN Carrier and Juggernaut possible. It is equipped with four powerful engines, extremely tough and resilient shielding, three beams, (2 in the front, 1 to the rear) 3 torpedo tubes, and a massive forward-firing beam cannon that does 24 damage, (72 at full power) at 150% of the range of a standard TSN beam.

The TSN Dreadnought is forced to sacrifice range and maneuverability for all that firepower. It is sluggish to turn and consumes a great deal of energy to move its bulk around. The Dreadnought's Warp Drives are actually more efficient than a TSN Battleship's, but it burns more energy on shields and other defensive systems. Note the "Primary Beam" setting actually effects all beams, including the beam cannon. 

The Dreadnought's Warp cost can be countered by the power allocation system. The chief engineer can set Warp power to 220% to get double the Warp speed out of the engines, saving the power needed to jump to Warp 2. Power distribution is even more important to the Dreadnought than it is to the Battleship or Battle Cruiser. A Dreadnought will not want to operate very far from a friendly starbase, which it can fall back to in order to refuel and resupply with torpedoes. Of course, the Dreadnought also carries the usual science and communications equipment.

After the development of the TSN Carrier, the Dreadnought was made even more powerful, with the addition of a Flight Hangar. Up to two additional players may serve as pilots for the fighters, supporting the Dreadnought by mounting an independent attack on the enemy. Even more recently (in Artemis Cosmos) the outer hull of the Dreadnought was redesigned, making use of the new materials and technology used to build the Carrier, and the beam cannon was mounted in a turret, greatly expanding its firing arc. For a look at the original Dreadnought as seen in Artemis 2.0, check out its page in the Artemis 2.X wiki. 

Quick Stats

The Dreadnought is one of the older ships and used the old white and gold textures in Artemis 2.0. For Artemis Cosmos, Thom has given the Dreadhought a new look, as he has with the TSN Scout. The firing arc of the main beam cannon has also been changed, as it is much shorter, but much wider. I added the part about about the cannon being mounted in a turret to explain this, but several of the developers like the old firing arc, and have talked about putting it back in Artemis Cosmos, using the old ship model for this alternate version. If this happens in a future release of Artemis Cosmos, I will add it to the wiki. 

The Dreadnought is also faster than it was in Artemis 2.0, as it had a top speed of about 83% of a Light Cruiser. Engineering had to set power to 120% to increase speed enough to keep pace with a Cruiser or Battleship. The Dreadnought now uses more fuel but can maintain the same speed as a Battleship. The beam does slightly more damage, but otherwise the Dreadnought does not seem to have changed as much as some other ships. It is pretty much the ultimate warship available to the players of Artemis Cosmos. 

I made up the story about the original Artemis being destroyed in a battle in the First Spiral Arm War, and the second Artemis being a TSN Dreadnought. However, the Dreadnought is the image used in the header of the Artemis Official Forums, which suggests to me that the Dreadnought is an Artemis. Of course, whatever ship you choose to play can be named "Artemis", which led me to the conclusion that the name had been passed down from the original Light Cruiser to a new generation, and you could choose any ship you wanted to be the Artemis.