ah damn i was hoping that wasnt the case, Im a big fan of that sprite.
And uhh they would probably do better in the klopesh role if they fired groups of kirbs instead of pairs at a time. But yeah, I see what youre saying. Right now just having the swarmer on top of a reasonably good main gun, with some added survivability makes them an excellent anti-frigate platform, not unlike a beefier talon.
Im honestly torn between the encounters and the klopesh for my bomber of choice - my second carrier has a pair of klopesh that launch some absolutely devastating barrages, but when my pair of encounters land both of their torps, its pretty pretty too.. I would swap to daggers I think it is, but Im not a huge fan of their look. Encounters are nice and spaceplane looking, and Im a fan of that.
The flight deck thing I think is common to all bombers - Id hvae to play around more, but notice that your fighter bays will light up like they are doing something long before the first bomber makes its way back home. Itll start instantly after the bomber goes dark on the ui. It looks like, generally, my carrier (with skills, no flight deck hullmod yet), will launch one encounter right as the first one lands, and then launch a second one quickly after (total three on the field, one returning, two fresh). Its a bit wonky to actually see happen, since you need to have a bit of extra fighter recovery speed and also be a good range away from your target, but thats what it looks like is happening. Its probably a vanilla 'bug'/feature, but I dont think its as obvious since I think all vanilla bombers are faster due to zero flux boost.
As a silly experiment tomorrow.. I wonder if you gave bombers a single shot long range weapon, like a mirv or a pilum, if it would launch, instantly fire its load, then try to land again (and get instantly relaunched).... I was actually wondering how good longbows are at shooting their load in close range, maybe I should find a set of those
And related to that, I wonder if you set the replacement time to fairly low(0 or 1s), if it would replace bombers as they fire their load instead of when they return home, to confirm what I think is happening.
Anyway yes just slightly off topic