Ok, so I was considering making another mod that both ties in and can be separate from Rise of Archeus (just released btw!). I wanted to see if there is any interest within the community for this mod before I set out to do it since it would be a rather large project.
The basic idea would be to redesign carriers and the role of fighters in Starfarer. The things this mod would focus on:
Fighters:1) Fighters would be slightly smaller, much cheaper and cost less fleet points. This would allow for more fighter variety in fights and greatly increase the amount of fighters in any given battle.
2) To compensate for the increased number of fighters, all fighters would have their damage output reduced by 50% and hull/armor/flux/shield reduced by 25%. This way swarms of fighters would still be hard-pressed to overwhelm a large ship and wouldn't make fighter swarms the only way to victory.
3) Since reducing fighter damage would also decrease their respective weapons on larger ships, all fighters would get a built-in version of the same weapon only at half the damage. This way point defense weapons stay the same and would not have to be rebalanced and would be just as effective at missile defense as vanilla. The built-in weapons for the fighters would not be available to players and so would not cause confusion when suddenly one weapon does half damage and one doesn't.
4) Fighter sprite size and bounds would be reduced by either 25% or 50% to avoid too much clustering in combat.
5) Dogfights between fighters would also last longer since their effective defense would only be reduced by 25%. This would also make them harder to be taken out by standard point defense while not making them any more of a threat by their damage potential.
6) *in debate* This one I'm considering but not sold on how it will effect balance. Fighters will go an average of 25%-50% faster. Makes fighter battles intense and realistic, but again not sure if this will make them too hard to kill or not. May have to increase the turn rate of pd and anti-fighter weapons to compensate.
Large Ships:1) Because many more fighters would be on the field, standard flight decks would be too few to make effective refitting efficient enough to value flight deck ships. To fix this, most (with a few exceptions) cruiser-class and above vessels will now have 1 or more flight decks in addition to their hangar space. Since most large ships now have flight decks, fighters can still regularly dock at a larger ship to resupply and repair. Also gives the game a bit more "Star Wars" or "Halo" feel in that all big ships dock and use fighters.
2) All hangar space would looked at to determine how many fighter wings one ship should be allowed to carry. (may not need to be changed)
Carriers:1) Since the flight deck is no longer the valuable and distinctive trait that carriers have to stand out and account for their lack of armament, a new system would be designed to give carriers that distinctive feel from other ships. This would replace (or in some cases come alongside) the current ship systems for the carriers currently in the game. See second point for details.
2) Carriers now have the ability to field their own stock of fighters for free via the "drone" system. Carriers would have several wings of fighters and in some cases of capital ships bombers or other heavier craft that they could deploy or recall at will. Just like drones, fighters could be on escort duty for their home carrier, or left to roam the map and look for targets at will (I believe the A.I for drones is currently up to the task to make fighters at least mostly realistic and make bombers target large ships etc). Carriers could also repair(and maybe resupply) their own fighters. They would also have a reserve of fighters to replace in combat (though their would still be a limit).
3) Now the main benefits of carriers are the ability to
always have fighters in every battle that you will not have to re-buy or cost crew if they are destroyed. They will also still generally have more flight decks than other ships as well.
4) The downsides of carriers are that they will have an increased FP and crew cost to accommodate for the units they can now field. Carrier fielded fighters also cannot be directly controlled and cannot capture strategic points nor in the case of bombers(I'm pretty sure this won't happen) will they assist in strikes. They will engage targets at their own discretion. Since they do not technically "use" crew they also do not benefit from veteran or elite pilot status.
How I think this will change Starfarer1) Fighters will be more desirable to bring along without carriers because they are cheap, effective, great at capturing points and less of a money sink since most large ships have flight decks to repair and resupply them.
2) Large ships that are not carriers can better support fighters if the player wants to have a few wings without worrying that those wings will be too squishy without a carrier. In the case of bombers, they will no longer be a "one trick pony" as long as a larger ship is within the fleet.
3) Carriers still fill their iconic role since they make fighters even more effective in that they are free in all ways when fielding a carrier or two with the fleet with the needed downside that they are less versatile when coming from a carrier.
4) It will not in any way change the balance of frigate having fighter escorts since non carrier fighters are the same effectiveness with a slightly higher cost but more versatility.
5) Command points will become slightly more valuable since telling an interceptor wing to attack a frigate by itself will no longer be as advisable. Two or even three wings will now need to attack a pd loaded frigate to really be able to do the necessary damage. Fighters will still be great at harassing however.
6) Strikes by player controlled bomber wings remain unchanged since all bombers follow strike commands at once.
Summary1) More fighters while maintaining balance.
2) Many ships have flight decks.
3) Carriers now carry and field their own "free" fighters at a cost in FP and crew.
***note that this will most likely be a
total conversion mod since almost all of the data of the vanilla ships and will need to be changed to accommodate the new balance! Many mods will most like
not be compatible!***
However, if I get the go ahead, I plan to implement this mod into Rise of Archeus so it will at least be compatible with that. That way their will be a vanilla version, a ROA version, and a ROA non carrier rebalance version.
If this gets underway and any developer wants this implemented into their mod (completely or as a standalone version) feel free to ask and I will try to either do it myself or give you the necessary info for you to do it.
So what do you guys think? What do you like/dislike? Anyone have anything to request? Does my reasoning seem sound balance-wise?
Do I have the green light?