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Author Topic: Add more escort-only fighters  (Read 847 times)

Megas

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Add more escort-only fighters
« on: June 11, 2022, 07:12:51 AM »

That is, fighters who always escort the carrier and cannot roam at all.

All we have is the cheap option, Mining Pods (0 OP), and the premium option, Xyphos (18 OP).  There is no midgrade option (8-10 OP).  Also, of the two options we have, the only option usable by automated ships is Mining Pods.

Escort fighters are nice for warships or battlecarriers who want auxiliary weapons that orbit or hover around the mothership.

The Regroup/Engage toggle is no good for AI ships because if the fighters can roam, AI will always use Engage to seek and destroy enemies, which blocks zero-flux speed boost, which is bad for warships that happen to have bay or two as a bonus like Odyssey, or anyone with Converted Hangar.  Carrier with escort-only fighters will briefly turn on Engage but then quickly toggle it back to Regroup, which will let the ship have zero-flux bonus at least some of the time.
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Amoebka

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Re: Add more escort-only fighters
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2022, 07:51:27 AM »

Yes, please. Or perhaps even some hullmod that converts all wings to support behaviour. (0 roam range isn't what makes fighters support ones, they have a different AI as well)
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Thaago

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Re: Add more escort-only fighters
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2022, 12:09:23 PM »

+1 from me! Wasps and Sparks would be great candidates for locked support fighters for PD, though they are pretty fragile.
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Megas

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Re: Add more escort-only fighters
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2022, 12:43:42 PM »

+1 from me! Wasps and Sparks would be great candidates for locked support fighters for PD, though they are pretty fragile.
Xyphos is okay, except they are too expensive for just burst PD (but they are fine for the whole package), and automated ships cannot use them.  I would have love to lock Sparks into PD-only for some ships.  Wasps are kind of a lost cause because they are so fragile.  (Wasps appear to explode spontaneously at times even when I cannot see anything close that can hit them.)

I also like to see escorts that favor attacks, like options do from the classic shump Gradius/Nemesis or similar games; that is, fighters that shoot more bullets at enemies while staying in formation with its mothership.  Something with (high-delay) IR PL/autocannon/railgun, maybe with IPDAI to make them dual-purpose.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2022, 12:48:23 PM by Megas »
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Amoebka

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Re: Add more escort-only fighters
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2022, 12:51:47 PM »

IPDAI on fighters with hard-flux weapons like railguns would probably be busted because they would get +200 range from the officer skill. Flux-free 900 range railguns on converted hangars would make the life of high-tech ships way too easy.

And I think the new 8-10 OP support fighter would have to be midline, right? Mining pods are low-tech and Xyphos is high-tech.
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Megas

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Re: Add more escort-only fighters
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2022, 12:59:29 PM »

IPDAI on fighters with hard-flux weapons like railguns would probably be busted because they would get +200 range from the officer skill. Flux-free 900 range railguns on converted hangars would make the life of high-tech ships way too easy.

And I think the new 8-10 OP support fighter would have to be midline, right? Mining pods are low-tech and Xyphos is high-tech.
Ah, yes, fighters inherit Point Defense skill from the mothership; full speed assault weapons would be too strong for anything less than a premium option.  I guess it would need to be a high-delay energy weapon, or a low-range PD-weapon like a machine-gun.

The new fighter can be any tech.  I just want something with more oomph than Mining Pod, but not all of the bells-and-whistles Xyphos have.  If we get another assault escort, I would like something that does not rely only on beams.

An idea for a midline escort fighter (that is also automated) is the resurrection of the machine-gun drone used by Gemini's and Heron's original ship systems.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2022, 01:01:00 PM by Megas »
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CrashToDesktop

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Re: Add more escort-only fighters
« Reply #6 on: June 12, 2022, 02:51:26 PM »

I'll always say yes to more Support fighters. Also wish we had more granular control over how they behave - for example, when set to Engage they'll move ahead of the carrier to bodyblock for it, etc.
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Serenitis

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Re: Add more escort-only fighters
« Reply #7 on: June 13, 2022, 11:51:34 PM »

There's 3 so far unused 'escort' fighter sprites in the graphics folder, that look like variations of the same craft. (Original, Indie modified and Pirate modified?)
Maybe those could be given a quick beauty pass and used as the base for some new support LPCs?
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