Skill floors are much more important to establish, in a complex game, than skill ceilings are to remove.
Another related consideration is AI use. If something is designed so that it's hard to mess up too badly, then it's much easier to write competent AI for it. Bit of a broader point, really.
Not actually sure what you mean here! There's no real benefit to only having 2 out of 6 wings in terms of how quickly they're launched or re-launched. "Burst-launch"?
I mean, if I'm using certain types of Fighters, and they're essentially weapons, I'm going to use them in a big alpha-strike or not at all.
Basically, the regeneration rate will matter sometimes but there are situations where the goal's going to be saturation. The regen bar, as described, sounds like it's tied to the number of Fighters we're regenerating to get back up to "full"; if that's the case, then I'm going to want to hoard those fighters for bursts, rather than stream them in. Because then my regen-bar will be near max and I can follow up as the Wing dies. Think about torpedo bombers in that situation.
Right, yeah, but leaving some bays empty doesn't tie into this much. It'll only really help *if* you're trickling out fighters rather than waiting for full sets.
Anyhow, I like the rest of what you've said here and I'm really looking forward to this next major update
Silly idea: Hound Mk. II with built-in hullmods Converted Hangar and Ill-Advised Modifications. Lose the small turret so that only the medium hardpoint remains.
Think I might've mentioned it earlier, but: given the relative scales of things, and what we've seen of the Hound in particular in illustrations, it carrying any fighters at all doesn't seem very likely.
I could *maybe* see a super-dedicated frigate-sized carrier with 1 bay that'd be on the large side for frigates. Maybe.
What's also missing from the ship roster is a purpose build destroyer-sized carrier. Maybe something high-tech. I expect many people will want to play as carrier captains now, and at the moment the Condor seems the only real way to get started.
Yeah, there are a couple of carrier niches open. There also isn't a dedicated cruiser-sized carrier, either - both the Heron and the Mora are combat-capable, though the Heron a bit less so.
Whew, this is now officially the most discussed blog post in Starsector's history! Obviously a lot of people feel pretty damn passionate about those lil' fighters!
Huh, that's pretty cool! Didn't expect it to cause this much of a stir
A bit late to this particular party but re: converted hangar hullmod.
There was some concern about it not being thematically fitting on certain ships, e.g. Medusa or Sunder. What if the hullmod also removes cargo space and cannot be installed in ships with less than it uses? Say 90 (because the Condor sacrifices 90 cargo space per hangar compared to the Tarsus). This excludes the Medusa and Sunder from qualifying, as well as a few others. It would also solidify it being primarily meant for civilian ships, as it gives them a tangible tradeoff for their primary function (for freighters anyway).
With this restriction it can also be made available to Frigates, given that only large traders would be able to use them and only by sacrificing almost all their cargo space (essentially making them carrier-conversions, which I think is fine for something like the Cerberus or Wayfarer).
The problem here is that a high-enough value to be really felt by freighters also makes this near-crippling on what destroyers can afford it. Finally, thematically, I don't really see the issue with either the Medusa or the Sunder launching some fighters. As I think I might've mentioned earlier, the idea is that all destroyer-and-above ships have hangars already - it's a logistical requirement, given that they don't/can't routinely land on planets. If there's no nod to it on the sprite (which there usually isn't), we can probably assume the hangar access is on the underside
Also stops the Harbinger from getting hangars, which may actually be a balance issue (doesn't address the Doom though, but being a cruiser it can afford to be a bit special I guess). And carrier-conversion Cerberus and Wayfarer? Nice bonus.
Oh, glad you brought this up! Changed it so that it can't be installed on phase ships; was an oversight that it didn't already work that way.
I am excited about SO MUCH of this.
!!!