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[sotanaht]

It would look weird, fighter would decimate a bunch of ships with basically no oppositions, then one PD ship shows up and all the sudden fighters disappear.

I think 1000% PD damage is probably too much.  A single PD Laser would do 750dps to fighters, basically killing all but the heaviest fighters in 1 second or less.  Even frigates can equip those fairly easily, so probably tone that back a bit.

The theory is that all ships should have PD, or those that can't fit PD for some reason should be at a SIGNIFICANT disadvantage.  Currently PD is itself a disadvantage and any ship that carries it is significantly weaker than it would be without.  Heavy weapons splashing on fighters for next to no damage would look weird, but it's just a quick and dirty test case.  The better way to handle it would be to simply give those weapons a "miss" chance where they pass through the fighter, with a higher miss chance depending on weapons size, basically simulating the fighter dodging that weapon shot on the Z-axis.

[Half-full]

Maybe a better alternative would be giving some very regularly used weapons in each shipset an alternative fire mode, and when a weapon group with this is toggled it also switches targeting priority to what PD has. This could also be applied in reverse for PD weapons so that fitting them isn't as nearly as inefficient a choice as now. I think the alternate firing modes should also be inferior to the weapon it emulates to try to avoid making anything a bad choice as a weapon.

Some examples:
Light Autocannon - Switches ammunition from a kinetic energy penetrator to a canister filled with ball bearings (shrapnel damage). The sabot carrying the submunitions opens in the path of its target.
Tactical Laser - Reconfigure deformable mirror to allow for an increase in power, but at the expense of having a beam cross-sectional area so large range range is effectively halved.
Arbalest Autocannon - Equip calibration ammunition, far higher fire rate due to decrease in propellant heat with nylon projectile that does shrapnel damage on impact.
Mjolnir Cannon - Lower micro-capacitor electrical potential to allow for proximity sensor to scan beyond the plasma sheath. Will attempt to detonate when near a target. The reduction in charge and potential in the capacitor lowers damage considerably.

[Plantissue]

What exactly is the aim you are trying to achieve here with these suggestions? You don't want fighters to die as easily on the approach, so you would rather that Fighters can only be harmed by PD weapons in Sotanaht's case, or that all weapons should have an anti-fighter mode in Half-full's case? Most PD weapons already have secondary uses other than shooting at missiles anyways.

[Half-full]

What exactly is the aim you are trying to achieve here with these suggestions? You don't want fighters to die as easily on the approach, so you would rather that Fighters can only be harmed by PD weapons in Sotanaht's case, or that all weapons should have an anti-fighter mode in Half-full's case? Most PD weapons already have secondary uses other than shooting at missiles anyways.

The post about secondary weapon functions was only tangentially related, but it struck me as such an interesting idea at the time that I just posted it. Personally, I still think that fighters only seem as powerful as they do now because of things that shouldn't be allowed to happen as easily as they do. Removing the potentially huge efficiency for massing a very large OP amount of fighters while buffing their AI would mean letting all of the other configurations for fleets involving fighters (at really any stage of a playthrough) be much more relevant to what the player does.

[Tackywheat1]

It would look weird, fighter would decimate a bunch of ships with basically no oppositions, then one PD ship shows up and all the sudden fighters disappear.

I think 1000% PD damage is probably too much.  A single PD Laser would do 750dps to fighters, basically killing all but the heaviest fighters in 1 second or less.  Even frigates can equip those fairly easily, so probably tone that back a bit.

The theory is that all ships should have PD, or those that can't fit PD for some reason should be at a SIGNIFICANT disadvantage.  Currently PD is itself a disadvantage and any ship that carries it is significantly weaker than it would be without.  Heavy weapons splashing on fighters for next to no damage would look weird, but it's just a quick and dirty test case.  The better way to handle it would be to simply give those weapons a "miss" chance where they pass through the fighter, with a higher miss chance depending on weapons size, basically simulating the fighter dodging that weapon shot on the Z-axis.

I agree.
Although PD lasers definitely don't do 750 dps