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[Wyvern]

As discussed here, fighters with engines offline can be exceptionally dangerous - a single talon, if its engines go out while it's over your ship, will deal more damage than a torpedo hit (but is guaranteed to die in the process).  I'd suggest, instead of taking hits every time-interval until it explodes, that such an impact deal just one hit, impart a good amount of momentum to the disabled fighter, and give the fighter a second* of non-colliding status.

*Or whatever the normal time delay is.  Right now, when a fighter's engines go offline, there's a short time where it won't run into things; my suggestion is that it should get that same time again after intersecting the interior of a larger ship.

[Alfalfa]

This is especially bad on more frail ships.  Considering that destroying fighters' wrecks can no longer destroy the wing permanently, mightn't it be simpler to just remove collision detection for them?

[Wyvern]

I'm not even talking about wrecks - these are active fighters that have had their engines knocked temporarily offline, often (but not always) by EMP damage.  They quickly become wrecks after that, of course...

[xenoargh]

Personally, I think that if Fighters don't collide when they're alive, it makes little sense for them to collide when dead.  It'd be a more intuitive mechanic than messing with the details of when they are suddenly using the same collision mask as all other Hulks.

I forget whether we're now able to get the Class a Hulk used to be; I asked for that but I would have to check the API.  If so, writing a no-collide rule for Fighter Hulks to test that out would be a really easy project for somebody

[Debido]

Well although it's a 'bad' unintended mechanic of the game, it encourages players to invest more into anti-fighter weaponry or ships.

You could say that the fighters are purposefully going on a kamikaze run in a last ditch effort, much like he olde WWI and WWII fighters. The Japanese Kamikaze pilots were a weapon that the US navy feared due to the amount of damage they could inflict.

Honestly I can't really remember having the issue you're describing, I usually have a fairly strong AA defense to keep them at a distance or kill them at a distance.

[Cosmitz]

The issue is that even a fully kitted ship for AA facing oncoming wings of fighters is better off NOT shooting until they fire their load and move on or contend with more damage of the dead wreck pounding your shields/armor.

[Debido]

sure i can certainly see where you're coming from, i may not get this problem or really observe it i my playthroughs but it could definitely cause unexpected damage.

That said i sometimes wish there was additional space debris in combat: ship crew and twisted metal blown from the hulls of damaged vessels.

[Coolrah]

Are we really trying to nerf engineless fighters? I feel like its something that prob doesn't happen that often and really will prob change on its own as the game develops

[Gothars]

For me it's great fun watching fighters crash into bigger ships

[Debido]

New fighter type, kamikaze. It flys directly over your ship then self destructs as it launches a torpedo. Super effective vs capital ships.

[Linnis]

New fighter type, kamikaze. It flys directly over your ship then self destructs as it launches a torpedo. Super effective vs capital ships.

Torpedoes you mean....

[Debido]

Sure, I'll just blame the iPad auto-correct.

[Linnis]

Its either a XXX move or something similar to the suicide fighters in the Nomad mod?

[Debido]

Can't say I really remember the suicide fighters in the Nomad mod, but anyway I would want to tie this Kamikaze manoeuvre back to squad behaviours or roles that you can assign.

It would be interesting to be able to use GSB style roles and AI behaviours for large fleet engagements, the current mechanics just aren't satisfactory in giving players control.

[Wyvern]

Just as a for-reference for the people who are saying "I don't have this problem": it's trivially easy to replicate if you have an Apogee.  The Apogee's drones carry ion cannons, and the ship itself doesn't have a huge number of turret slots, so dealing with flamed-out fighters is pretty much inevitable if you're flying one.  Which isn't all that hard to deal with, once you realize what's going on.  But it just feels wrong that a wing of talons is more dangerous than a wing of dagger bombers.  (And a wing of broadswords is more dangerous than either, but that's quite understandable and due primarily to the number of light machine guns they carry, rather than to wonky accidental-kamikaze effects.)