Gourdman, I'll try and go over your post point by point.
Let me put it into perspective as to why 0 to 2 is not the same as 8 to 10.
8 to 10 is a compromising decision. It requires you to think about what you use, and whether or not you need those extra vents, that one good hullmod. Or even whether or not your ship will have the right weapons to perform it's task. Heavy Blaster vs Pulse Laser, which are massive *different* weapons, separated by 2 OP.
It's a decision you have to weigh checks and balances against and go "I'd better chose carefully, might try both builds before I go ahead with using this fighter wing, or this weapon".
0 to 2, is not a compromising decision.
Seems like you didn't get what I was saying, here it is, hopefully better worded:
During the design of the current fighter system, Alex designed and balanced fighter bays so that each bay reduced ship OP by some amount, in my post the 8 is an inaccurate guess as to what that amount could be.
He did this to make fighter bays act as a sunk cost, if it were not so, a carrier could theoretically bling out on all the things you can spend OP on, slots permitting. This is also why a converted hangar costs a decent chunk of OP.
Classic Monodrones vs Talons is a no-brainer. Monodrones outnumber, outdamage, and outrage talons AND cost nothing to mount. They are harder to hit with projectile based PD, harder to hit with PD in general due to their range, and cause various issues with enemy AI due to how much they outrange most ships.
If you ever wondered why many fighters have special 'fighter versions' of weapons, this is why. Long range fighters can cause the AI to mismanage it's engagements and turn tale on say...an Onslaught to try and swat a Monodrone with it's extra long fighter range. This is bad.
If ship AI is confused by out-of-range fighters, that's a fair concern. Though I have not seen ships focus on fighters while in direct combat with a threat.
I did suggest two ways to get them in a good spot, one was making them standoff fighters that are annoying, the other was keeping the short range, but returning the missile. There are probably other ways to make monodrones be a decent(as in, not OP) pick. But I think all of them ought to involve having a monogram attached. So my thinking was along the lines of "How do you make a monogram drone useful without being a talon clone?"
One correction, there are 4 Monodrones per wing, the same as talons, you also forgot to mention Monodrones not using up crew when they splat, but I'll admit that's not a great concern.
Especially if you exploit it or use Monodrones often, because these situations only amplify with more on the battlefield.
I locked up most battles in early, mid, and mid-late game with two Hawkes due to this phenomenon. These fighters cause a serious exponential problem with balance. The more you use, the worse it gets, and the more powerful they seem. The high accuracy long range guns they utilize melt frigates when used en masse, which isn't hard to do thanks to the high wing size, and causes problems with lots of destroyers as well.
If you don't think these are glaring issues, then I don't have much else to say. These fighters, as are, would sit more at 4-6 OP, since they outperform Talons and break the game the more you use. Flak helps, sure, but not when they hover out of PD range.
These fighters are an issue for many reasons. And range is the biggest problem. The missiles could be left well enough alone if the range was nerfed. They're highly accurate, high ranged, high burst fighters that cost 0 OP and can be deployed en masse very easily.
Talons? They crumble when they encounter flak, very quickly. Hell, even burst PD will melt these little guys. Whereas one wing of Monodrones can deplete two Burst PD mounts.
Classic Monodrones are OP, I have not stated otherwise. The ability to get around shields and deal armor breaking damage, followed by the death of a thousand cuts without going splat is too much.
Let me ask you a question though, have you tried using those Hawkes in the 1.1.1 patch? I think you'll get the point I'm trying to make. I would honestly prefer mining pods over Monodrones in the 1.1.1 patch.
My original point was not "Make Monodrones great again!"
The point I tried to make was that reducing range AND removing missiles made them target practice, 200 fragmentation DPS is very unimpressive until the target is nearly dead already.
I hope this clears up any misunderstandings, if you want to continue this discussion, perhaps we ought to take it to PM, this thread has been derailed enough.
