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[BigBrainEnergy]

Sparks feel pretty underwhelming, even when compared to wasps. Enemy fighters with flares will eat up all the pd charges on the sparks, leaving them with only the nerfed recharge rate of the slow burst laser. Wasp's pd lasers also get distracted by flares, but this often doesn't matter thanks to the stinger-class mines they drop.

Given that sparks are a remnant LPC, it would make sense for them to have "integrated point defense AI" built in. This would make them more effective in the interceptor role without bringing back the dreaded spark spam of older patches.

[eert5rty7u8i9i7u6yrewqdef]

Sparks feel pretty underwhelming, even when compared to wasps. Enemy fighters with flares will eat up all the pd charges on the sparks, leaving them with only the nerfed recharge rate of the slow burst laser. Wasp's pd lasers also get distracted by flares, but this often doesn't matter thanks to the stinger-class mines they drop.

Given that sparks are a remnant LPC, it would make sense for them to have "integrated point defense AI" built in. This would make them more effective in the interceptor role without bringing back the dreaded spark spam of older patches.

This or just change it back to the way it was before. It was only OP due to Drover spam, when Drover's had reserve deployment and were cheaper, as well as better skills for carriers.

Something fairly big needs to happen for the Lux and Spark, as the Flash is the only Remnant fighter worth using. The Flash is also one of the few bombers in the game that I feel is actually where it should be, with the rest being too ineffective against anything that isn't undefended and overloaded.

[BigBrainEnergy]

This or just change it back to the way it was before. It was only OP due to Drover spam, when Drover's had reserve deployment and were cheaper, as well as better skills for carriers.

I was being cheeky, I don't actually think buffing sparks would bring back fighter spam. It's still a bad idea.

If you brought back the old drover and carrier skills without buffing the spark, fighter spam would instantly come back. The only difference is people would use fighters other than the spark. On the flipside, if you buff the spark it would not bring back fighter spam but it would become the default choice for fighters once again.

[Megas]

I prefer to roll them back the way they were, with one normal burst PD (not two they originally had).  If that is too powerful, knock down wing size from five to four or three.

Or keep them the way they are and knock down their OP cost to 2 or 3.  They practically Wasps without the mines and fast respawn.

[Thaago]

While they are underpowered a bit right now and IPDAI is a good idea, I think the comparisons to Wasps are unfair. Wasps die instantly if anything shoots at them: 10 armor and 100 hull. They are still useful because enemy fighters often can't hit them, but wasps get wrecked by anything that can.

Sparks have 20/300 plus 150 from shields. Certainly not tough, but several times more than a wasp and enough to survive vs smaller targets or when in large numbers.

[eert5rty7u8i9i7u6yrewqdef]

I was being cheeky, I don't actually think buffing sparks would bring back fighter spam. It's still a bad idea.

If you brought back the old drover and carrier skills without buffing the spark, fighter spam would instantly come back. The only difference is people would use fighters other than the spark. On the flipside, if you buff the spark it would not bring back fighter spam but it would become the default choice for fighters once again.

Which is an issue. Assuming the changes were reverted the overall state of fighters from my perspective is the following.

Spoiler

The reliably used roster would be:
Spark for generalist.
Wasp for PD: With the buff to its replacement rate next patch and the buff to PD lasers, it will comfortably outcompete the Spark in this area.
Flash for Bombers: It's overall damage, mass bombs to overwhelm PD grids, and ability to delete opposing missiles and fighters make it the best.
Sarissa for PD defense and kinetic damage: Flak cannisters are insane for protecting the mothership from fighters. It is a HT ships best friend.
Broadsword for long range kinetic: This will probably always be the most reliable fighter in the game simply due to its design concept.

Semi-reliable use would be the Talon: It's okay but dies too quickly anytime any PD is used. It's fine as it is as a throwaway fighter for distraction purposes.

The unreliable would be:
Gladius for niche fast long range kinetic: Wing or damage to low.
Warthog for HE damage: Range and speed are too low outside of niche close range builds.
Thunder for frigate harass: Wing or damage too low, speed is irrelevant against good PD.
Xyphos: Too expensive and Ion Beam is unreliable in and of itself.

The never used would be:
Lux: it's a worse Broadsword by a large margin.
Claw: Too fragile and deals a pathetic amount of EMP damage. Tends to be even less useful in the EMP department than either Xyphos or
         Thunders.
Mining pod: Good if you need PD on a carrier that has 0 OP. Applies to only very niche Odyssey builds since every carrier wants good fighters.

Every other bomber: They pale in comparison to the Flash, and they tend to only deal damage once the enemy is overloaded or nearly so. They're slow so their DPS is always terrible, their alpha strike per wing isn't great, and they eat replacement rate to a horrid degree. Even with the AI fixes, I still can't see a use for most of them.
The AI improvement may improve the Longbow enough to push it into unreliable use as it should be dealing damage before the enemy overloads, it just doesn't because it holds fire for way too long currently.

[close]

TLDR: Making the Spark a good generalist again would make everything that isn't in reliable use, be rarely seen fielded by players. To a large degree that isn't the Spark's fault, but the other fighters being weaker than they should be. Even now without a competent generalist fighter, most of the fighters mentioned below reliably struggle to find relevancy outside of very niche builds.

While they are underpowered a bit right now and IPDAI is a good idea, I think the comparisons to Wasps are unfair. Wasps die instantly if anything shoots at them: 10 armor and 100 hull. They are still useful because enemy fighters often can't hit them, but wasps get wrecked by anything that can.

Sparks have 20/300 plus 150 from shields. Certainly not tough, but several times more than a wasp and enough to survive vs smaller targets or when in large numbers.

I'm fine with adding a health decrease in return for fully functional Burst PD on Sparks. I've never had issues killing Sparks regardless of game version as I always have a portion of my fleet dedicated to useful PD, but I can see how player's that don't build around this idea may have issues. That being said, they do have a far larger replacement time, which will soon be even larger, so once they're gone they tend to stay gone.

[Thaago]

I don't even think they need a health decrease tbh - they are currently underpowered and I think a straight buff (like IPDAI) is in order. I was just objecting to the wasp comparison!

Lets see, digging in right now, the high delay burst PD has 4x218 damage shots in the bank, but only 32 DPS after that. 4*218 = 872 damage per fighter stored up, or 4360 burst damage per wing followed by 160 DPS. That DPS will keep accruing while the fighter wing is out of range/traveling, so doing a direct comparison to fighters with no burst is a little tough, but after a ship has weathered the initial spark storm they don't do much sustain.

Going back to full regen with a standard burst PD would probably be just fine. I don't think 2 burst pd per fighter would be good (changing away from that way back when was a great call!) because its just too much burst vs frigates.

Now that I'm thinking on it, I'd rather have this (a straight doubling of sustained DPS) than IPDAI. Reason: player counterplay against Ordos. I know that right now player fighters are underpowered because of a couple reasons (IMO too little skill support in terms of fighter health and damage output), but keeping flared-fighters extra effective against sparks is a neat bit of "rock-paper-scissors" in fighter/fleet design, and would give a reason to keep things like Gladius/Broadsword/Warthog when fighting Ordos (if fighters got some buffs and weren't underpowered in general).

[Megas]

While they are underpowered a bit right now and IPDAI is a good idea, I think the comparisons to Wasps are unfair. Wasps die instantly if anything shoots at them: 10 armor and 100 hull. They are still useful because enemy fighters often can't hit them, but wasps get wrecked by anything that can.

Sparks have 20/300 plus 150 from shields. Certainly not tough, but several times more than a wasp and enough to survive vs smaller targets or when in large numbers.

Yes, Wasps die too easily, although at least they replace faster, and they are useful for their niche (blasting other fighters and maybe frigates).

Whenever I try Sparks, their beam weapon does not seem any more effective than the Wasps' PD laser (it certainly does not appear to damage armor any better unlike before), and when they die, they replace too slowly.  Overall, post-nerf Sparks have not done any better than Wasps for me, and Wasps are much easier to come by, and cost less OP to use.

The selection of automated fighters that are interceptors is poor, just Wasps, Sparks, and Lux.

[Princess of Evil]

Sparks overload and take ages to come online. A Wasp that took that damage is half way to reviving itself by the time the Spark even *starts* overloading.