Fighters too powerful?

[raynor]

My Last game was a large galaxy/high/high/no bonuses, and fighters won the day for me. I have read elsewhere that folks think the AI doesn't build enough shipyards to maintain a steady production of ships. This problem is likely much worse with fighters. Since they don't require a shipyard, you can easily produce tons of them at every planet in your empire.

I found that a single planet could produce six fighters per turn, and these six fighters could easily destroy anything smaller than a light cruiser. Building only fighters, I didn't pay maintenance costs but I had sufficient forces to defend every single colony and plentiful resources to spend on expansion.

Also, it seemed that my score was much more heavily impacted by the number of ships than it was by the number of fighters. At one point, my score was third place. But I had the same number of planets as the number one player. And... my research points and tech levels were higher. His ship count was higher. I think this explained why his score was higher.

I wonder what it is that sets off the computer players so that they all break their treaties and start declaring war on you? Is it because your score is so much higher than theirs or because you have so many more planets and systems? If it is because of the former, then the impact of fighters on the score should be increased by quite a bit.

Some closing thoughts on fighters:
1. Fighters don't require maintenance.
2. Fighters are extremely hard to target with direct fire weapons and impossible to target with seekers.
3. Fighters may be produced at every planet in your empire.
4. You can immediately begin producing fighters at newly established colonies without building a shipyard.
5. Fighters may be transported in cargo bays, transferred to the planet, and a thousand fighters per turn may be launched from a planet.
6. Fighters can move freely about a star system.
7. Fighters are great for attacking fighters, satellites, base stations *and* planets.
8. The AI doesn't produce enough fighters.
9. The AI *never* fills his carriers to capacity.