I’ve been playing around with a few designs that include hangar bays, and I have to say that you are better off not using hangars than you are using them.
They are slow at repairs, they release fighters in drips and drabs to get slaughtered as they make their way back to the battle one at a time (if the fighter even survives the retreat to the hangar in the first place).
All fighters will go to the closest ship instead of the nearest unoccupied hangar which slows down repairs as a whole.
And what do you get with hangars…you give your opponent an edge in the fighter battle as your active force shrinks while it queues up for repairs and then you get steam rolled.
Could you get the fighters to go to different hangars (if available) so the fighters aren’t all waiting for repairs? And how about an order so that repaired fighters will wait for others to group up before heading back to the fight?
If not that, how about adding repair droid modules as an option for fighters? Like they have in certain space war movies
For awhile there, i was doing nothing but carrier fleets, but at some point gave up on them as they’re too difficult to fine-tune; beginning with the reasons you’ve mentioned. Instead i began looking at ways to increase either the firepower or hitpoints of my fighters.
Ideally hanger bays would be required per squadron carried as a possible challenge/scenario option.
Obviously in deep space, or attacking fleets would have to carry the fighters to the battle. Defensive fighters could be based on a world.
Some sort of line in the scenario/challenge txt file that says something like: “carried_fighters = 0 or 1” If it is 1, then the deployment is limited to 16 fighters per hanger bay supplied.
I realize it’s not optimal to win, but I follow this rule for the most part.
You are using them wrong.
Like most modules, they arent applicable in every situation.
Bays can make a huge difference, especially if your fighters are covering your fleet, and thus in easy range of the bays. The fleeing fighters can also lure enemy fighters into the mass of your fleet, where you should probably have some sort of anti fighter weapon.
Also they become better with faster ships, and if your fighters out number the enemy, the slow trickle of returning fighters doesnt effect you too much, but prevents alot of losses.
I agree that they should spread eveny over multiple carrier bays, but thats it.
of course, all of this would be pointless in EAW, but that’s a different story. but with GSB, i agree with Crakker. carrier modules aren’t things that fill your ships. your crew can’t live in hangar bays, you know! and what about the power modules? you don’t want a generator blowing up a hangar bay! and have you forgotten the weapons? They’ll destroy the blast doors sending everything to death in outer space!
my point? hangar bays have use in most situations, but others, not.
A trick I’ve used is to stack a ship with as many bays as I can realistically fit. In fact, in one fight (with my carrier as the only cruiser) I had 4 bays drained almost entirely of their repair supplies (2k or so). You can imagine how many fighters that saved! I do suggest room for a few AA weapons and some armor though, else you could get annihilated by rocket fighters.
