dogfights?

[Wanderer]

With how it stands now, fighters are really strong, even with the upcoming flak and point defense. So i think the fighter shouldnt trigger the dodge of a fighter so dogfights become a reality and a more effective but less easy to change way to deal with fighters would become a reality. With how strong fighters can be though, maybe only make fighters wich have point defense or flak not trigger the dodge but do instant damage to, if dedicated to these fighters, take out fighters faster and giving a more mobile option for antifighter ships than normal ai ships due to their slow speed.

 

I know this post doesnt have a clear point, but i think others agree that fighter vs fighter would be a nice thing to add.

 

Any thoughts?

[J4H3AD]

Dedicated interceptors would be AMAZING! Instead of relying on an escort ship or myriads of point defenses or flak cannons,  it would be awesome to deploy a fighter screen to intercept. Actual dogfights would be really fun, and add a layer of complexity to combat.

 

I think this would require changing how fighters are targeted, that way you could scramble a squadron to intercept a squadron, targeting the whole group rather than having to pick them off one by one. Might be useful if you wanted to prioritize one group over another, especially if there was a group of bombers attacking a capital ship from range while screened by a swarm of cheaper fighters to overwhelm point defenses.

 

Furthermore, I think there should be a few different... classes of fighter, for lack of a better word. Maybe three to begin with.

 

Interceptors: fast, low durability, good for chasing down enemy ships and fighter squadrons. Armed with chainguns, bolters, pulse cannons, plasma, lasers, and point defense chainguns or lasers.

 

Heavy fighters: slower, but tougher, good all around fighters, perhaps how fighters are now: any weapon type, no real specialization. Maybe buff standard fighter durability by a %, and have other classes modify that %.

 

Bomber: bigger, slower, tougher, but with dedicated anti capital ship weaponry. Perhaps a % damage increase, but depending on the power increase, a required size. Say, +50% damage has a size multiplier of 4, that way you can't have a monstrous bomber group flying from a tiny ship.

 

A simple way of handling these different fighter types could be simply using the new sizes of weapon. Multi-slot weapons keeping their powerful stats, but requiring a bigger fighter to fit, or a much higher cost to keep such a weapon in a small package. Interceptors simply use the new PDC/L and AFC weapons to be built, coming with a % speed boost and % health decrease. All other fighters remain unchanged.

 

Anyway. I love the idea of dogfights, and expanding tactical options, and having more options for customization is always fun.

[Wanderer]

Maybe those fighters could be used by ai ships as same as the point defense: they target fighters and (maybe) torps first and can be ordered to attack fighters all across the board or enemy fighters from a specific target, so all of them and not 1 per time... maybe give the pdc and flak fighters a script that looks like how ai ships use pdc?