On Fighters

[Commander G]

quote:

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Originally posted by Sinapus:
Phased-energy PD?
Hmm... throwing all those small fighters in to distract enemy fire sounds like building chaff ships in Stars!

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The chaffers will not be so effective in the new Stars!. I believe they are adding maintenance costs to ships. Fighters in SEIV should have a maintainace cost as many have argued before. Otherwise, they may well become the dominant decoy in SEIV that cheap Frigates are in Stars!

[fdlu]

How about this ??
Add a new mount type(say shotgun mount, same stats as large mount, up from 400 kt etc.)
you can either build a large caliber
gun (large etc.) doing more damage on cap
ships but only one hit on fighters, missiles
etc.
the shotgun mount is kind of D(ouble) P(ourpose) Gun, making normal damage to
cap ships but has the ability to say split
its beam etc. into tiny beams to increase hit
prop. on small targets. (between dedicated PD-guns and large guns)
In my opinion this type of gun can defend against smaller numbers of fighters without
sacrificing to much specialization.
PD guns/ships. are stll needed for large battles.
(current equivalent should be the 76 to 130mm
navy gun range)

[Firemane]

Isn't all this posting about "super-anti fighter weapons" and "how much do we despise fighters" sort of a show of envy?

IMHO, fighters are quite well portrayed in SE IV. They are fast and hit hard. No, I don't think that thet should have a "one hit capital ship obliterating" weapon, but neither should capital ships have a "one shot fighter group obliterating" weapon. I see it as kinda shooting at fighters with a thousand pound shell.

On the side of balance, a capital ship with 4 main guns and 4 PD's can take "technically" 8 fighters per turn. It would also force _us_, the mighty space admirals, to broaden our horizons instead of solving the thing with the conventional "mega-weapon" approach... satisfying as it might be.

Force concentration, and dedicating platforms for anti-missile, anti-fighter defense strikes me as a reasonable solution that would take care of the one-shot-one-kill, or any other fighter related business.

For those of you who still live in the 'battleship' age, remember WWII on the pacific.

As far as my experiments went, I have the Cue Kappa on the run with my new 2-shield heavy fighters, my Rommel class light carriers, and my PD Escorts.

[Puke]

quote:

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Originally posted by Firemane:
IMHO, fighters are quite well portrayed in SE IV. They are fast and hit hard. No, I don't think that thet should have a "one hit capital ship obliterating" weapon, but neither should capital ships have a "one shot fighter group obliterating" weapon

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I agree with Firemane entirely. Late game, I usually load dreads with 6PD, BCs with 4PD, and have at least two deadicated PD cruisers in each fleet. fighters and missiles dont touch me, even from the mighty EA. of course, I give up alot of weapon space that way. want to balance fighters? design better capital ships.

[Nitram Draw]

Do repulser beams work against fighters? I'd love to see a group of fighters pushed to the opposite end of the battle map

[Instar]

I believe that fighters and ships are well balanced.
Hey, I heard that Wild Weasel comment. Don't get me started about napalm and bombs and stuff.

[Atrocities]

I think that fighters are a balanced asset to a good game of SE IV. I only wish that I could get the AI players to use them more effectively.

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"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Patric Stewart as Captain Picard
UCP/TCO Ship Yards