Alex, please buff the attack radius on the Mining Drones.
They're a little less than wonderful right now, because with a 500-pixel tether, they can barely get away from a Venture's hull, let alone do anything useful, like harass nearby Frigates. They turn too slowly to be extra, free PD systems, and they can't take hits well enough to serve as meatshields. Compared to Talons, they're simply underwhelming. Yes, Talons are a bit OP, but when we're talking about two versions of, "for 0 OPs, you get this thing" they're polar opposites; one's pretty useful, if not as ubiquitous as some have alleged... the other I avoid like the plague.
But they kind of highlight another issue:
Fighter Wings aren't anything at all like balanced vs. each other right now, and could use another balance pass between now and 0.9.
Suggested Edits:
In general, most fighters that aren't [redacted] aren't fast enough to keep up with Frigates. This feels thematically wrong and it screws up their balance; one Frigate can lead huge numbers of fighters on a long and merry chase. But not an infinite chase; eventually, they'll hit their tether point and then they've wasted all that time going after a target they couldn't catch or kill. Depending on the fighter, that might be a very long walk home. Frigates should fear Fighters, because they can't run away from them; the Frigate's fleet either kills the source carrier or the Frigate
will die, eventually. It's not working like that right now.
Spoiler
Mining Drones: increase their radius to 1500, long enough to do something useful as support, give them a second Mining Laser, so that they're semi-effective combatants, give them a bit more armor so that they're more effective as meatshields, and decrease the rebuild time, so they don't feel like a one-shot.
Gladius: better armor / hitpoints, so that they survive a little longer, plus increase their Dissipation and Capacity so that they can sustain fire long enough to be useful. They Flux-choke badly right now.
Warthog: Give them a boost to Dissipation / Capacity. They're Flux-choking occasionally. They also simply don't feel burly enough, which, given their description, makes them a bit disappointing. Perhaps give them Accelerated Ammo Feeder?
Broadswords: Give them a light shield and better speed / acceleration stats, so that they can actually be Interceptors, in the classic sense.
Dagger: if they're stuck with a weak torpedo, then give them a defensive weapon that's actually worth caring about, like a LRPD, so they're not totally useless on the way in / out.
Wasp: lower their OP costs somewhat; they're not competitive with Talons, except for not costing Crew. That isn't enough. I'm aware Talons will probably get nerfed a little (hopefully not too much!) but the Wasp should actually be worth keeping, not ditch-worthy the minute we have [redacted] LPCs.
Xyphos: They used to be somewhat cool support craft, but now that the number of fighters in the initial launch matters more, they feel a bit underwhelming for their huge OP costs. Maybe give them a Phase Lance and two PD Lasers, with Flux to support same, so that they can kill opposing fighters and be quite dangerous in numbers again? They feel like they don't have a real job right now.
The Piranha, Hoplon, and Trident are all OK, although the Trident's pretty lame for what it costs. It should have a weapon that deals Hard Flux other than the torpedoes, if it's going to remain priced where it is. Consider having a rapid-fire version of the IR Pulse, maybe, that's twice the rate of fire but half as effective per-shot, just to make fighters attacking each other during passes better at generating hits?
The Thunder lacks enough speed and it doesn't behave well with the Harpoon; it should either reload that sucker constantly and use it constantly, or it should be given a regenerating missile type, imo. I like what Thunders do to unshielded opponents or the rear of Dominators / Onslaughts, but that doesn't actually make them all that special. I feel like they're a jack-of-all-trades fighter that doesn't do anything well right now, and they suffer from tiny Wing size.
The Longbow is quite powerful, exactly once, on a well-timed alpha strike. An Astral using them that way can be devastating. However, it's not that great when it goes in piecemeal. I feel that this is an AI issue more than anything; fighters built around missile / bomb strikes should wait until their entire Wing is rebuilt before attacking again, so that they do something useful. The only fighters where I don't see this as a big problem are Piranhas, where clouds of bomblets from each one kind of cancels out the piecemeal problem.