Fighters are tractor beams

[jim]

Yep, realllly!

Frustrated that your baseships (or dreadnoughts) can't catch those BBs or BCs or others using a max range strategy?

No problemo! Just tuck a fighter bay into the design and load up the 2 or 3 fighters that will fit.

Now, when the enemy ships try to open the range, their PDCs won't let them!

Yep! Even Wave gunned ships who would like to stay out of range while they reload ("max range/don't get hurt" strategy) will instead lunge into the jaws of your slow, lumbering baseships just for the privilege of potting a fighter or two.

They get a sacrificial fighter, then join it on the pyre themselves.

[tesco samoa]

That is like an exploit. But I like the cut of your idea... Never tried that...

[Baron Munchausen]

Hmm... If you modded a 'small tractor beam' and made a lot of fighters using it, would a group of fighters of sufficient mass be able to move a ship? Or do you suppose it only checks the size of the individual units and not the total mass of the group?

10 small fighters = 150kt -> enough to move an escort!

20 large fighters = 500kt -> enough to move a cruiser!

[ July 31, 2002, 03:43: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[jim]

T. S. -

It's more than an exploit.

It is a basic problem for simul battle planning.

What it means is that any ship with PDCs simply cannot ever be trusted to follow it's individual strategy. It almost means - and I mean "almost - that one needs to mandate remaining in formations! That is, to have confidence that your fleet will follow a "max range" strategy, one must require remaining in formation AND must designate as a flagship one that has ZERO PDCs!

I only deduced this problem when I noticed my Talisman Max range BCs with Wave Motion guns kept getting run down by slower ships. The reason was that my BCs had PDCs and there were fighters launched against them. Instead of running, they died as I described. I had to watch several battles before dumb 'ol jim worked out what was going on!

Soooo, I tried the "exploit" in my original post as a test mechanism.

One major tenet has been always to direct fleets "to break formation." Now, if the intent is anything but a close range action, the possibility that your opponent has fighters can make one change to the otherwise less optimal strategy of staying in formations.

Of course, the corollary, especially if one is fighting a Religious race with the Talisman is ALWAYS to have some fighter platforms in every battle to prevent Talisman LR sniping.

In summary, I think it is a bug. PDCs should not be that way against fighters, or maybe even sats.

[ July 31, 2002, 04:11: Message edited by: jim ]

[oleg]

Does changing strategy setting
"Do not fire on fighters = true" helps ?

[Jmenschenfresser]

Then what, if someone actually uses fighters against your fleet, instead of using them to lure in ships, will your ships just sit there? Or possibly chase down the carriers ignoring the fighters tearing them apart.

[Suicide Junkie]

PDCs will always fire ontargets of opportunity as they fly by.
Your ship just won't use its main guns on the fighters.

[Alpha Kodiak]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
PDCs will always fire ontargets of opportunity as they fly by.
Your ship just won't use its main guns on the fighters.

Unfortunately, that can be a problem in the case of a mass fighter assault. PDC alone may not be adequate to deal with a lot of fighters. It is always good to set the fire on seekers to false, otherwise the ships may charge a mass of seekers that would otherwise run out of range, but fighters are a different story.

[geoschmo]

I wonder if telling the main guns to not fire on the fighters would even be enough though to help this. Would the ship with PDC not close to PDC range and get pasted as Jim says even if you have the main guns set to not fire on fighters?

Geoschmo

[Suicide Junkie]

If the fighters have longer-range weapons than your ships, you must be so far behind in tech that you've already lost the game!
When the fighters move in to attack, the PDC fires automatically.