Beef #2: Fighters

[wingte]

Hmnn,, That would also make it impossible for capital ships to do point blank range. Besides,, as the game is right now the only thing that can be used on fighters is the point defense cannons..

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Wingte

[Noble713]

No, I'm sure some of the organic weapons can target fighters. It was quite a nasty surprise when my carrier-based fleet (I'll never try this in the demo again) lost a quater of its fighters before they even got within range.

[wingte]

The PD cannons have a long range,, that is why I keep them in the carrier until I am at point blank range.

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Wingte

[Psitticine]

quote:

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Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
In my custom set, I have changed small fighters to be 15kt, medium fighters to be 20kt, and large fighters to be 30kt. Additionally, I have given fighters a 50 percent defensive bonus. Finally, I have given them a +2 movement bonus.

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I like those mods very much, with the exception of the movement bonus. I have the same trepidations about them you mentioned in your post - being able to carry 9 engines is enough of an advantage, once it becomes possible to actually install that many!

[jowe01]

Once you are able to edit the txt files, you could even go further down this line of thought. For example, I think I am going to folow the proposition to give fighters a +60 or so defence bonus. However, given that PD weapons are made especially to shoot down fast moving, small targets, they will get a +50 offensive bonus. As they can also target seekers and sats, this must be (partially) offset by giving defensive bonis to these units, too. I guess I would also give seekers +60 while the imobile sats would only get +30.
Sounds complicated but I guess you can do the changes within 30 minutes.
Under this system, it is harder to decide how much space shall be attributed to PD weapons and how much to the "big guns". Now, a fleet of 3 heavy firepower battleships may actually be in trouble when it meets a single medium carrier(at least if the fighters can move a bit faster than those in the demo). With an escort of "AA" destroyers (mobile ships with mainly PD weapons), the threat to the BBs could be significantly reduced, what again is realistic if we look at the composition of today's fleets (on our oceans)

[Taqwus]

[PD-laden] Aegis cruisers, eh? Another reason to have 'em is that a large/huge planet can have a LOT of missile-launchin' WPs...

Fighters with nine small quantum engines, afterburners and advanced propulsion should have, what, a combat movement of ((9 engines + 3 (quantum) + 1 (AP))/2 + 1 (aft)) = 8 squares, methinks, which combined with hefty defense bonuses should make 'em pretty nasty to a fleet using only non-PD weapons.


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-- The thing that goes bump in the night