Once you’re going faster than 2.9 speeds (fastest laser fighter is 2.65 IIRC), only four things have a greater than 2% chance of hitting
Perhaps the game needs a Speed Limit, of say, 3.?
I’m starting to think fighters should always need the weight of a powerplant in some way, with powerhungry engines being one logical way. It also makes the cost a bit more consistent. I don’t mind rockets being used in conjunction with other weapons - because usually those designs are at least hittable.
as it stands now the fighters either die incredibly fast,dont die at all,or are crappy (add combinations at your will)
fighters should have much more fitting options with more modules to work with,all of them being lighter than they are but the fighter would also need more of them (powerplant,engine,2-4 weapons,ECM,ECCM,scanners,shields,armor,etc)
this would help balance the speed because you would need to work with more equipment types
ofcourse some people could still just keep most of the fighter empty… maybe add a minimum equipment weight requirement for a design? or something like a “must have powerplant” requirement?
the lasers are power hungry as it is! I find I use rocket fighters more often than any other type because balancing the power req against speed is tough, and I always prefer speed.
I think it is apparent that fighter Rockets need a substantial weight increase to bring fighter speed down to something reasonable.
What weight would be required to bring max rocket fighter speed down to 3?
(Rockets DO require magazines.)
I have never found rocket fighters to be useful, or had trouble getting rid of them with pulse lasers and tractor beams (or fighters if I have to), and I’m just a casual player of the game (as compared to the expert strategists on these forums). Do rockets really need to be balanced? If they are made harder to use, should they also be made effective?
More like rockets should have in their weight the consideration that they don’t need the generator.
Also, adding a better generator to be able to put a better engine, it slows down the fighter. And adding additional engines without better generator also slow down them.
Rocket fighters work more as denial weapon than a useful weapon.
They cannot harm in any way shielded cruisers (with half decent shield) but:
Without target painters. They are virtually immune to fighters.
They don’t have much trouble erasing from the map unarmoured frigates, also armoured frigates unless they are completely dedicated on killing fighters will eventually fall to them.
With painters they make laser fighters rather pointless. They will still have more overall hitpoints and remain slightly faster.
With painted target without carring painters.
With painted targets (rocket fighter/rocket painter)-effectively similar to the above but immune to fighters as in the first case.
Moving more requirement into the engine would mean changing the plants to be more capable as well.
Obviously, if an engine requires 10 power, the 4.0 req of a laser is still important but not as overbearing. Right now, the weapon type completely determines the physical capabilities of the fighter.
Speed is a weight/thrust ratio so it’s finicky with small numbers.
Assuming single engine 3, no plant, no hull bonuses (so it would need to be higher), no armor, rocket only: 1.6 or higher weight added. Powerplants start at 2.5.
As it should no? I don’t put a torpedo module on a use it as a dog-fighter! I’ll use a pulse laser.
Of course you don’t. They are useless on any role.
It seems to me that about half the possible fighter designs are: the only things I ever use are laser fighters and painter fighters–even rocket fighters are of limited use offensively.
Only to a degree - Isn’t that what the hull selection is for?
The rebels have an actual bomber design with 3 modules and 2 hardpoints. You can make a double-pulse fighter out of it, which is probably the closest thing to a useful “bomber” (slow, vulnerable, high firepower) in the game.
I think a key part to fostering more diversity is to have another hull stat important to fighters besides speed. Armor could have that potential, I think, it’s just so damn heavy and expensive at the moment. Of course, we don’t have enough module slots on most of the hulls to even think about using that.
Yeah, we could use a little more robustness there, it is a design game after all.
I treat my fighters like parts of the fleet rather than designs in themselves. Budget laser, pulse, double laser, painter, with a rare few hybrids.
It seems to me that, with rocket fighters; the rocket module itself could be made heavier. I’d also say, make it more powerful, and maybe even cheaper. In the end, rocket fighters would have more firepower/accuracy, but be much slower, so they could be shot down.
Another change would be to simply raise the tracking of the 2 fighter laser types; without changing rocket fighters at all. Raise the cheap laser to something like 4.0, and the pulse laser to 5.0.
One thing i’d like to see available for fighters in general; would be a kinetic weapon; some kind of auto-cannon or somesuch.
It would be great if fighter armor began to play a role in the game; so you could have fast, lightly armed/armored fighters (like an old mosquito bomber), and slow, heavily armored/armed fighters (like a sturmovik or p-47 thunderbolt).
Basically, fighters seem to be a bit out of balance, but it’s not clear how it all should, ‘be best fixed.’
I would like to see some kind of kinetic weapon; that’s for sure.
And I’ve tried it! But I almost never use a fighter w/o a speed above 2, else they become prey for even the slower cruiser systems! I have my specialty classes, but imho the weapons are unbalanced that there are a few combinations which actually survive an entire battle.
I say the max/min range is too close together. The window a fighter can use its rocket is very very small compared to using a rocket frigate
BSG! FTW!