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[Alex]

This is really exciting stuff. Fighters are going to be much more fun to use and fight against!

Hey hey!

I'm liking this system. Makes much more sense intuitively, and solves a bunch of gameplay problems all at once. I do have one question though: how will crew casualties work with this system? If fighter wings cannot really be destroyed while carriers are active, does that mean that you won't take any casualties for any crew assigned to fighter wings when your fleet contains carriers?

I'm thinking there'll be a chance to lose crew for every fighter lost. The chance probably won't be too high, ejection systems and all that.

-Will there ever be an in-battle ammo resupply and repairs and will carriers support that role or would it be a separate "weapon" or ship?

Pretty much no. Thought about ammo resupply, just don't like it. Too fiddly, and ammo is not a mechanic I generally want to highlight in the first place. Repair drones could concievably come up as a ship system, but I don't have any specific plans in that direction.

-Any plans for phased carriers/fighters?

Carriers, probably not. Fighters, maybe. As far as actual plans, no on both counts.

-Any plans for suicide "fighters"? Probably drones that are build from carrier and suicide into other ships for lots of damage?

Those are called missiles

... but I suppose they could be deployed off-combat and fly into the fray.

Right, that's how I'm envisioning things. I'd imagine that all the fighter wings get scrambled ahead of the engagement to avoid the danger inherent in masses of fighters taking off mid-battle.

[Silver Silence]

-Any plans for suicide "fighters"? Probably drones that are build from carrier and suicide into other ships for lots of damage?

Those are called missiles

But- But- But-........Drones~..... 

[MidnightSun]

I'm thinking there'll be a chance to lose crew for every fighter lost. The chance probably won't be too high, ejection systems and all that.

Hmm, guess that works. A constant for all fighters, or would it vary between, say, Talon fighters and top-of-the-line Xyphos fighters?

For simplicity's sake it could remain a constant value, as the inevitable loss of more Talons would result in increased crew losses anyway (motivating you to stock them with green pilots).

[Sir Scarfalot]

WOOOOOOOOOOO

Yeah! I actually never use anything short of full-scale Xyphos wings in the current version, since anything less are crew sinks. Even if one of my guys dies (rare, I play conservatively), I usually lose just one crewman. Talons especially are insanely expensive to field in terms of bodies, so other than Xyphos the lightest things I field are Tempests. But now, it looks like the unshielded fighters are making a comeback... 

Reminds me; could there perhaps be fighter refits? Like, fighters use "fighter-size" weapons, and buying them in bulk could be part of their repair cost, and occasionally some of the fighter weapons can be recovered? Modified fighters, anyone?

[PCCL]

since we're already getting a mechanic to change where a unit is deployed from, maybe we can use that to allow carrier deployments?

[Jonlissla]

Reminds me; could there perhaps be fighter refits? Like, fighters use "fighter-size" weapons, and buying them in bulk could be part of their repair cost, and occasionally some of the fighter weapons can be recovered? Modified fighters, anyone?

That question has been asked before a long time ago, and the answer was no, we will not be able to refit or modify fightercraft.

With this recent update however it would be interesting if we could atleast add hullmods to them.

[InfinitySquared]

-What about the idea of different types of carriers for more ship variation?
Things like:
a catapult - fighters launch instantly at full speed
landing strip - fighters land instantly without slowing down
factory - much faster rebuild speed
external dock ports - faster rearm but can't rebuild

+1 this.

[RawCode]

carrier types can be implemented as exclusive hull mods, ever if this is not going to be implemented in vanilla, this part of ship stats shoud be exposed to API.

[Raitor]

Simply cannot wait!

Now this is just an idea but as far as shopping in the campaign I see it in 2 separate entities.

Buy a wing. Cheap set of fighters if you don't have the facilities to fabricate more of them.

Buy a factory/hangar. A much more costly hangar that's installed like a weapon system on a carrier ship.

This allows for someone without carrier support to invest in some fighter wings for cheap. A bit like what we have right now.

But it also gives each carrier a set fighter type(s)/wing(s) assigned to it.

For example you could decide to bring in your carrier with bombers go flank the capital ships while you keep the one with the interceptors closer to your fleet.

I dunno just a random idea that seemed ok in my head.

[ArkAngel]

Simply cannot wait!

Now this is just an idea but as far as shopping in the campaign I see it in 2 separate entities.

Buy a wing. Cheap set of fighters if you don't have the facilities to fabricate more of them.

Buy a factory/hangar. A much more costly hangar that's installed like a weapon system on a carrier ship.

This allows for someone without carrier support to invest in some fighter wings for cheap. A bit like what we have right now.

But it also gives each carrier a set fighter type(s)/wing(s) assigned to it.

For example you could decide to bring in your carrier with bombers go flank the capital ships while you keep the one with the interceptors closer to your fleet.

I dunno just a random idea that seemed ok in my head.

But if you could just add hangars then what's the point of traditional carrier ships? I just don't think it could work.

[flashydragon]

Mmmm, i don't think that's what he's saying ArkAngel. If there were a hull-mod that would allow 1-2 fighters harbor, that would still be less powerful than a full carrier, but yet still allow for options. carriers could take the hull-mod too (perhaps earning extra bonuses. )

Loving the fighter update in general BTW! Gives it a bit more RTS-y feel, which always scores more points in my book.

[DeathRay]

I'm not sure if it was said earlier, but what about the incombat replacement of fighters with a carrier which arrives later?

Lets say I have a large engagement and I can't deploy my full fleet, so I only deploy a few wings and and a destroyer. Then the wings get destroyed by an frigate and afterwards I call in my carrier. Will it than start to reproduce the wings or are they lost for the duration of that engagement?

PS: I just want to thank Alex for this awsome game

[Vinya]

-Will there ever be an in-battle ammo resupply and repairs and will carriers support that role or would it be a separate "weapon" or ship?

Pretty much no. Thought about ammo resupply, just don't like it. Too fiddly, and ammo is not a mechanic I generally want to highlight in the first place. Repair drones could concievably come up as a ship system, but I don't have any specific plans in that direction.

Then why are there sprites for munitions ships, and munitions bays on some ships like the Odyssey? I always thought the orange bays were for munitions drones, so some ships could resupply other ships but munitions ships were generally un/lightly armed.

[Gothars]

I'm not sure if it was said earlier, but what about the incombat replacement of fighters with a carrier which arrives later?
Lets say I have a large engagement and I can't deploy my full fleet, so I only deploy a few wings and and a destroyer. Then the wings get destroyed by an frigate and afterwards I call in my carrier. Will it than start to reproduce the wings or are they lost for the duration of that engagement?

From what I deduce, they will be gone for that engagement, but will be available again in the next engagement of the same encounter (so if you lost them during a fight and the enemy flees, they will be available in the following escape scenario).

Then why are there sprites for munitions ships, and munitions bays on some ships like the Odyssey? I always thought the orange bays were for munitions drones, so some ships could resupply other ships but munitions ships were generally un/lightly armed.

They were planned at the beginning, or at least under consideration. I think David might have been a bit too enthusiastic with drawing them ahead of time   Same goes for the old phase ship sprites.

[Alex]

Simply cannot wait!

Now this is just an idea but as far as shopping in the campaign I see it in 2 separate entities.

Buy a wing. Cheap set of fighters if you don't have the facilities to fabricate more of them.

Buy a factory/hangar. A much more costly hangar that's installed like a weapon system on a carrier ship.

This allows for someone without carrier support to invest in some fighter wings for cheap. A bit like what we have right now.

But it also gives each carrier a set fighter type(s)/wing(s) assigned to it.

For example you could decide to bring in your carrier with bombers go flank the capital ships while you keep the one with the interceptors closer to your fleet.

I dunno just a random idea that seemed ok in my head.

Hmm. I'm not sure we need finer granularity than having a flight deck (which essentially entails a mini-autofac to produce fighter chassis.)

Assigning wings to specific carriers is something I'd thought about. Too much mircomanagement for my taste, though.

Lets say I have a large engagement and I can't deploy my full fleet, so I only deploy a few wings and and a destroyer. Then the wings get destroyed by an frigate and afterwards I call in my carrier. Will it than start to reproduce the wings or are they lost for the duration of that engagement?

From what I deduce, they will be gone for that engagement, but will be available again in the next engagement of the same encounter (so if you lost them during a fight and the enemy flees, they will be available in the following escape scenario).

Right, lost for the duration of that engagement.

PS: I just want to thank Alex for this awsome game

Thank you, glad you like it

Then why are there sprites for munitions ships, and munitions bays on some ships like the Odyssey? I always thought the orange bays were for munitions drones, so some ships could resupply other ships but munitions ships were generally un/lightly armed.

...
I think David might have been a bit too enthusiastic with drawing them ahead of time

Yeah, that. I wouldn't draw too many conclusions based on what you see in the ol' graphics folder