fighters

[PvK]

See fighters in Proportions mod.

Mainly, make it so most weapons can't hit fighters because they have such high defensive bonuses, and even PD should hit them only rarely. Then, give fighters enough of an attack bonus to be able to hit each other. Finally, reduce fighter weapon damage until they won't vaporize ships. Offer a range of fighter weapons with different accuracies and damage Ratings, for anti-ship or anti-fighter use.

In Proportions, fighter weapons good enough to hit other fighters do about 2-5 points of damage per shot per turn.

PvK

[Fyron]

PvK, fighters easily slaughter ships in Proportions. If the enemy has no fighters, woe is he. I don't think they are quite balanced enough.

[Q]

The easiest way IMO would be new larger fighter size. This gives you space for more shields and weapons and therefore increases their strength considerably. Make this new fighter a racial technology and you probably have what you wanted.

[PvK]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
PvK, fighters easily slaughter ships in Proportions. If the enemy has no fighters, woe is he. I don't think they are quite balanced enough.

I could/should probably develop them and their balance some more. However I don't think this is entirely true, depending on what techs are involved on each side. Fighters in large enough numbers can slaughter ships that aren't designed to fight fighters. PD escorts can often defeat fighters though, and of course, ships can do a lot of things that fighters can't, especially moving between systems.

For example, I just ran a test using a game advanced about ten years with moderate research into both fighters and PD. 40 fighters cost about as much as two of the escort ships I had designed. Result of combat between them was all fighters destroyed and one escort ship at about 80% damage - the other just scratched. Another advantage of ships is that they can be repaired...

PvK

[tokche]

only if your coudl refit fighters with different weapons so you can have special fighters to fight different enemies and you dont have to cook up a new batch of fighters in a hurry.

[PvK]

That's another balancing factor to consider - no upgrades.

PvK

[Cheeze]

Good point. But wasn't the refitting of weapons on fighters a primary factor in the US victory at Midway? Do you want to lose because all your fighters were on the carrier having their weapons changed?