Yes this is something fairly easily doable. I will likely get that into the next patch
How did you manage to keep your fighters alive long enough to achieve that? Mine gradually get destroyed, then it’s just a matter of time until my cruisers get eaten by the swarm.
This mode is really driving home the point of just how difficult it is to defend against fighters, at least as compared to any other class of ship. You can easily build cruisers that will stand up to practically anything a single wave of cruisers and frigates can throw at them with no permanent damage - just 3 fast-recharge shields is about all it takes. If you get some unfortunate focus fire you might lose one, but that’s relatively uncommon. Fighters, though, since they can attack inside the shield bubble, always take their toll.
That being said, as much as they’re getting a lot of complaints, I don’t know that this means fighters need to be nerfed heavily. Tweaked, maybe, with some faster-tracking anti-fighter weapons added and fighter modules rebalanced to make rocket bombers slower, but otherwise I think they’re pretty OK. The conclusion that I draw from this situation instead is that cruisers and frigates need an offensive boost. Tanking is just too easy at present.
As has been discussed elsewhere, I think changing the way armor/shield penetration works (essentially reducing rather than completely blocking incoming damage) would add a lot to the game, and it would help address this particular issue. Obviously it’s a matter of personal preference to some extent, but I think the game would be more fun if it favored offensive tactics over defense to some degree. Certainly it would be more gratuitous!
The only way I can see it is possible to achieve over 100,000 points is to remove the engines and have a Cruiser-stitch Space Station. It’s a bug that still needs fixing. A ship must have an engine!
I got 149.000 points last time, and I definitely used engines on all my ships. And how my fighters survive? High speed, escort orders so that they stay out of range of the tractor beams, 3 squads, focus fire on the frigates (which have the tractors). That is it. They still die, but very, very slowly.
I have to concur with Netriak about the Fighters as I use the same tactic, without the Escort Order, for the same effect - but I’ll add an Escort Order and see what difference that makes…
I’ll have to agree to Netriak and Wraith as well.
That 57.000 point entry was actually my very first try on Survival, and I used pretty much the same tactic: five plasma cruisers in formation (imagine the 5 on a die, the outer ones fixed to the inner one) and… I think three squadrons of fighters with an escort order to the center one as well - with a generous leeway how far they may fly (some 500, I think) - of course, those things are single laser cannons strapped to two Engine IIs, and enough power to make it run. They die, but oh so very slowly.
One thing that has occured to me is that most topscorers, if not all, are using rebel fleets… and for a reason, I guess… but that (cross-race balance) is already be on the ToDo-List, isn’t it? … Oh, and hi! First post, apart from one error post on a different board.
Yup, after my first fleet without any formation/escort orders eventually split up and got picked apart, this has been my basic approach as well, with some variation on loadouts. I’m thinking that lowering the escort range on the fighters as much as can be done while allowing them to cover all the cruisers is probably the next step, to keep them away from anti-fighter frigates.
I noticed that too! Overall I like their ships the most, aesthetically as well as mechanically. Certainly the Atlantis fighter is a major factor. I also find that the Valhalla cruiser lends itself to really well-balanced designs. The Empire’s 15/5 slot cruiser is tempting, but I keep wanting to put more weapons on it. We really should do some experimenting, though. Since fighters have a fairly limited role in survival mode, maybe giving up the Atlantis wouldn’t be a big deal…
I just tried out the new mode. It’s a lot of fun! Great addition, Cliffski.
As I posted in the support forums, I would think cheating is only an issue for the top 10-20 scores. Does it really matter if someone cheats their way into say 87th place? Maybe a new top scorer’s fleet could be uploaded and be checked out if there were questions about legitimacy.
I’ve found a very good combo for anti-fighter. Take a cruiser frame, three pulse lasers, three tractors, and fill the rest with power, crew, engines and some shield/armor and a nanite repair to fix up after dealing with fighters. I carry two of them along and they do just fine dealing with the fighters. My issue has been trying to design a cruiser that is strong enough to take out enemy ships with any speed. Right now they tend to pound for a few minutes before taking them down and that’s more time than I’d like being under the enemies weapons.
Yeah, that’s what I’ve read as well, across the forums. Still, I use the Achilles Fighter hull - it’s an older, quickly pieced-together design. For cruisers, I tend to use the Minotaur. Then again, I have just learned actually taking care of the hulls base stats and bonuses, and optimizing crew and power required. The designs I use there are older and still somewhat amateur-ish.
Pity, in any case, that the Empire sports three different fighters with interestingly varied bonuses, but pretty much exactly the same slot number - too few. 
Here’s an interesting Stat and a testament to needing effective Antifighter cover - trying different weapons combos on my Minotaur Cruisers - when the last battle was over, 3 of the Cruisers were destroyed with 100% Shields!
The Atlantis got patched into inferiority, at least for speed-based fighters. The high-base-power 2/2 slot rebel fighter hull is now the uber-speed fighter of choice, armed either with a generator and laser (general purpose) or a pair of rocket launchers (dedicated frigate killer). It’s only marginally slower than the old Atlantis. What almost all the fighter hulls need is an across the board reduction in base power…
Hmm? The Atlantis is still coming out just slightly faster than the Achilles for me, at least for a laser (pulse or regular) fit. Am I doing something wrong?
Huh, you’re kinda right. I say “kinda” because the Atlantis build is indeed faster by 0.04 (total of 3.12 for me), but also costs 35 more. Achilles wins on the dual rocket build, though one based off of the Phoenix chassis still goes 3.11 and costs 9 less than the Achilles variation.
Thanks for pointing that out. Particularly hadn’t noticed the cost differences.
Yeah, with the cost difference the Atlantis is probably not worth it, depending on the situation perhaps.
Edit: Actually, one thing to consider is that you get a few more HP with the 5th module on there, so maybe it evens out?
Well, it does help sometimes. Such as when you are limited by pilots and not money, like the survival map… certainly helps there! The worst attrition there seems to occur to fighters, so making them last as long as possible is important.
Speaking of survival, having finally topped 150k, I now have some feedback on the new mode. Basically, the waves are too “flat.” They need to increase in difficulty to avoid tedium. At the moment, it’s not hard to build cruisers that can absorb all the damage that any one wave can put out without any scratch (save for one’s own fighters, if one uses fighters as point defense - which actually works, because Cliffski hasn’t added uber-speed fighters to the enemy fleet (if that’s even possible with Imperials)). That turns into a repetitive experience of setting time to 4x and watching the waves die - if they’re lucky, they might kill a fighter or two. There needs to be some sort of algorithm to modify the waves with increasing difficulty, because the current waves simply can’t handle 3+ cruiser shield generators at once. Except for fighters (the only ultimate threat), enemies simply won’t leave a scratch. If waves get steadily tougher, it won’t change the basic nature of the game - but it will mean that it doesn’t take forever and a half to play to conclusion! Alternately, having each wave on a timer might be even more fun - if you can’t kill a wave off in time, then you have to deal with the next one jumping in before you’re finished! Just slowly decrease the timer for each wave until the player fleet is overwhelmed.
Please, someone help me and tell their secret to winning. After about 20 matches Ive got to 15k score 2 times. Super fast fighters doesnt help a bit, specialized anti fighter cruisers and frigates cant kill those “big” fighter (3rd wave?) in time no matter what. tried 4 tractors, well actually whole fleet specialized on killing fighters (wave 3), but they just demolish me.
Either my version of game has a bug, or i miss something. Someone please help. I am sure if other noob encounter this same situation like me, they will just give up. So while it is beta, I actually want to see if strategy exists to score more than 15k 
(and i repeat - i created anti fighter specialized FLEET dedicated only to killing fighters and still get demolished by FIGHTERS).
Well, the best approach I’ve found involves highly durable cruisers escorted by fighters (it’s possible to make a Cruiser incredibly time-consuming for any fighter group to kill; try nano repairs + a few modules of power armor). The weapon mix needs to involve some beams to deal with the heavy armor vessels that accompany a couple of waves, and some sort of shield-breaking weapons for everything else. Having some tractor beams and a ship or two decked out to kill fighters might not hurt either. It’s not really complex, and you’ve already identified the biggest threat: those heavy fighters are way more lethal than anything else in the scenario.
Though maybe Netriak can offer better advice, since he’s already reclaimed the top rank.
Would it be possible for the Survival mode to automatically download a random selection of enemy ships from among those which have recently been posted in online challenges? I’d love to see that, and I think it would be another good “late-game” thing - you’d be facing off against ship designs which were evolving over time.
3 ultraheavy armors with 2 or 3 cruiser auto repairs did not help. It seems those heavy fighters deal too much damage.
And again I ask: why anti fighter fleet can’t take down 2-3 swarms of fighters? anti fighter fleet includes about 15-18 super charged tractors, 2.6 tracking lpulse lazorz with target booster 2 on each cruiser, 2 shields ii, 2-3 ultraheavy armor with 1-2 nano/cruiser rep. Oh and oders are: FIGHTERS PRIORITY 100%!