[Mod] Advanced Fighter Warfare [WIP]

I am starting a mod that aims adds some new fighter weapons, armor, shields, engines, and power generators that will make fighters much more powerful and a more powerful force (AKA huge fleets of fighters and one carrier to supply and repair them). To keep the balance, I plan on adding new cruiser and frigate anti fighter weapons that are much more powerful than current ones. My aim is for them to be close in weapons that are only really effective against fighters. I plan on adding these for all of the stock races minus Parasites, as well as Union and Unity.

For the first release, which I haven’t done yet, all of the images for the new equipment will be already present in the files so nothing new there. You will need the Union and Unity mods to make this work.

EDIT: Does anyone know how to give a weapon both tractor beam ability and damage?

Ahhh finally a mod focused on fighter tactics, lookig fordward to this =D

This is great news! And regarding your first modding effort, “welcome aboard”. :wink: The Friendly Community Mod Squad is happy to have you.

Regarding balance, keep a close watch on the penetration values of your new “AA” weapons. They should dig deep enough to cause havoc to fighters despite fighter armor, but not so deep that they’re menacing the game’s frigates. You’ll quickly see how narrow the design space is between the max possible values that vanilla fighter armor currently provides, and where frigate armor resistance and frigate shield resistance comes onto the scene.

Also, much care will be needed to keep your new fighter armor systems within that same design space.

Even though you’re not designing for the Parasites race, be aware that their Cruiser Flak Cannon is the ultimate AA weapon in GSB, due to its area-of-effect damage and can’t-miss targeting. The CFC has some serious disadvantages, too. You’ll need to at least keep the existence and performance specs of this very worrisome gun in your overall calculations.

As seen in this thread, the fighter shielding used by the Matmos Rift can be quite disruptive to existing gameplay mechanics. When designing your own shielding, proceed with caution.

It’s not possible; sorry. :frowning:

Feel free to ask for help if you get stuck or find yourself needing more information. The biggest temptation to avoid is to buff up the destructive value of fighter weapons such that they become a major menace to cruisers & frigates without also having your set of “soft counter” AA weapons keep pace with that trend.

This is going to be an interesting and long-overdue kind of mod. It’s nice to see some love for the fighters.

I think i remember reading about a mod that was looking at improving the shields and armor of frigates to make them less like ablative armor for cruisers. Perhaps when you expand the options for fighters and need to balance them a bit you could also look at tweaking the frigate load out as well? I’m looking forward to seeing this mod in action.

I have been thinking about doing a special frigate/fighter armor shield change in my Homeworld mod and hence why it is taking a little while to finish. I have been exploring with zero recharge fighter shielding as with zero Resistance shielding, I have a feeling that one of these are the way to go. It might be worth while to look into zero resistance / recharge shielding for your fighters too.