[Pax]

Originally posted by Slick:
That's where the inventive designs come in. If you want 5 launch bays on a Frigate, it can be done. One option would be:

1 MC
1 Engine
5 Fighter Launch Bays
1 Solar Sail

Slow but viable. If the engine was a QE and a Solar Sail III, the speed would be 7 which isn't too bad. I would envision trading engines for space in lots of designs. This goes back to the idea of having to pay much more attention to managing supplies.

Slick.

Unarmored, unshielded, and naked of PDC ... nonviable, IMO. You'd have to lose three launch bays, toss a shield, a PDC, some emissive armor, and maybe a cargo bay on.

But then, you're down to three fighter bays, each one with not a WHOLE lot of cargo capacity in and of themselves. You can launch, what, twice? Three times? In Groups of three?

No thanks. Give me ~100kT more, so I can pile on two more launch bays, another cargo bay, and a second PDC ... and we're beginning to talk "Carrier" rather than "auxiliary Fi-Con" ...