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[TaLaR]

Can we all agree that we could use more fighter-related hullmods?

Not really, these kill viability of combat carriers. Most of them already can't fit expanded deck, fighters and a viable weapons package + ITU.

[Deshara]

Can we all agree that we could use more fighter-related hullmods?

we also need phase hullmods...

[Megas]

Can we all agree that we could use more fighter-related hullmods?

NO!  For reasons TaLaR mentioned.  If anything, Expanded Deck Crew needs to be removed from the game, and its bonuses made the baseline (because unskilled fighters are still easily wiped in non-trivial fights even with the hullmod), so carriers might have the OP to arm up.

Not really, these kill viability of combat carriers. Most of them already can't fit expanded deck, fighters and a viable weapons package + ITU.

Sums up my biggest complaint with carriers since 0.8a.

Carriers were the most fun to pilot during the 0.65a release because they could use fighters AND brawl like a warship (though carriers needed combat and +OP skills to brawl like a warship).  Every carrier except Condor could be used like a Legion, and carriers armed like a warship were not helpless if a few small ships blitzed the carrier.

Since 0.8a, carriers could either use (good) fighters OR brawl (while using pods or talons), and since using good fighters is superior to brawling while using Talons, it makes sense to treat carriers like dedicated logistics ships after getting the necessary fighter stuff, while ignoring "viable weapons package + ITU" because they do not have enough OP left to get guns.

Today in current release, carriers have the weaknesses of both 0.7a (underpowered fighters if unskilled) and post-0.8a (too much OP needed to do basic job of using fighters).

[Sutopia]

Expanded deck crew is useless when you don’t lose fighters (for example, longer range torpedo bomber or support fighters) so it doesn’t make sense to me to make it baseline.

[Undead]

But the problem is that in any non trivial fighter you do lose fighters, because even the toughest of them cant withstand the heat of the battle for long periods of time. And I also agree of the expanded deck issue of being mandatory - there are no other hullmods that are that much mandatory, even ITU is not mandatory if you intend to make a close-range ship, and hardened shields also sometimes are not needed even though its a top tier hullmod.

[Megas]

Not to mention bombers are considered dead for purposes of rate drain after they launch their payload then return to ship.  (One reason why Recall Device was so great last release, it removed the return trip.)

[Sutopia]

But the problem is that in any non trivial fighter you do lose fighters, because even the toughest of them cant withstand the heat of the battle for long periods of time. And I also agree of the expanded deck issue of being mandatory - there are no other hullmods that are that much mandatory, even ITU is not mandatory if you intend to make a close-range ship, and hardened shields also sometimes are not needed even though its a top tier hullmod.

As I said it’s useless on certain niche builds just as you described for ITU.
ITU is not needed for CQC brawling ships, and expanded deck crew is not needed for Astrals and support fighters.
You just used your own argument against yourself: if there is any case that it make sense to not have a certain hullmod it is not mandatory thus should not be baseline.

[Megas]

I would think Expanded Deck Crew is especially needed on Astral even during last release's Recall Device.  It is not like Recall Device completely eliminates bombers' downtime (if bombers are used), just reduces it greatly.  (Of course, now that Recall has cooldown...)  Plus, bombers or any other fighter will take casualties in a tough enough fight.

If a carrier relies on fighters to kill things, it needs Expanded Deck Crew.  It is the ITU for carriers.  Woe to the battlecarrier (i.e., Legion) that needs both Expanded Deck and ITU.

Something like Odyssey that flies around like a Shrike or Fury and relies mostly on heavy weapons to kill things, does not need Expanded Deck.  (And Odyssey does not have the OP to afford both Deck and ITU+guns even if it wants both.)  Plus, getting only two bays instead of much more for a capital if player wants mostly fighters is silly.

On Legion, I do get Expanded Deck because it partially relies on fighters, and the point of using Legion instead of Onslaught is to use some fighter power (along with some brawling power).

[FooF]

The only hull mod option that I think I could get behind (because it still doesn't increase player activity, just stats for fighters) is a Carrier-Only dedicated hullmod slot (akin to the limited "Dock" hullmods) that can accept Expanded Crew Decks or any other Carrier-only hullmod options. That way you have to choose your carrier buff and can't just stack them all. If there were, for example, a +20% fighter damage hullmod or a +20% fighter range/speed hullmod, you could put those in the Carrier slot but they would all be mutually exclusive of each other on a per-ship basis.

I guess that's better than dedicated carrier skills (where you feel it's all-or-none) but it still doesn't make me want to pilot a carrier. All it does is nudge the power of carriers up a notch at the expense of OP. It would kind of be an OP tax on Carriers but I suppose S-mods would mitigate some of the pain of that.

[Megas]

All it does is nudge the power of carriers up a notch at the expense of OP. It would kind of be an OP tax on Carriers but I suppose S-mods would mitigate some of the pain of that.

S-mods (at least one) mitigate the removal of old Loadout Design 3.

[SonnaBanana]

Big question: Are the colony skill changes done in mind with the upcoming colony overhaul?

[SCC]

What colony overhaul?

[SonnaBanana]

What colony overhaul?

One I suspect that he is planning 

[IonDragonX]

What colony overhaul?

One I suspect that he is planning 

I haven't seen anything from Alex or David about a colony overhaul...
That said, he did vaguely allude that he was moving colony skills off of the skill tree and was changing colony administrators. Those would be adjunct to colonies but not a colony overhaul itself.

[Megas]

I see the icon for Industrial Planning in the tier before the final tier with Hull Restoration, but I do not recognize the other two icons next to IP.