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[Phenir]

Carriers are expensive DP-wise compared to ships of their class,

For pure carriers, Heron is 20 dp firmly putting it on the low end of DP costs for cruisers with the only ships cheaper than it being the colossus, falcon, and venture. Astral is 50 which is a little above average. The only one this could be argued for is the Drover which is the second most expensive destroyer.

but this role is essentially "mopping up the edges of your formation" and that can be done pretty well with an extra three or four frigates (or hell, a cruiser with some actual turn speed).
I am in agreement with FooF and Void though, the power in fighters comes from their off-paper utility. I am just not convinced that utility can't be realized easier/better by other ships of equal or lesser value (both dp-wise and also skill point wise).

Problem with frigates is once all the enemy frigates are dead, your frigates' value falls off massively and can even be detrimental if they start getting in the way of bigger ships firing lines. Carriers don't have this problem.

Does a carrier with 'escort' command set its fighters to escort the target?  How do bombers behave with this command?  I don't know and what I've seen doesn't seem consistent.

Depends on their personality. Aggressive and reckless basically never assign their fighters to escort.

Carriers wings are also limited.  What kind of carrier wing doesn't have multiple load-outs to deal with the strategic situation?  You are pretty much stuck with what you left the dock with.

Not sure what you mean here, but you can swap lpcs out of dock just like weapons. Just costs some CR.

[F4RST4R]

Maybe this video by Big Brain Energy will help. I’m still trying to digest it. (Limited personal time for thought and testing.)

Wow.  2 minutes in and I've learned about officer temperment (aggressive) being very important for fighter ops.  I've read over and over that carrier officers are a waste or don't matter.  I was using a 'cautious' officer to try and keep them out of the front line.  Probably fine with bombers - but I'll have to watch the rest of that monster video.   

Thank ya sir.

[F4RST4R]

Carriers wings are also limited.  What kind of carrier wing doesn't have multiple load-outs to deal with the strategic situation?  You are pretty much stuck with what you left the dock with.

Not sure what you mean here, but you can swap lpcs out of dock just like weapons. Just costs some CR.

Yea I've been reading the Starfire series again.  Space fighters changing out their loadouts as the tactical situation changes.  Swapping wings for CR is a bit clunky, but it would work between engagements.

[TheLaughingDead]

@Phenrir Ah, you're right that I was mostly considering Astral and Drover. Heron is in fact pretty on average cost-wise. Worth noting in that case however that the Eradicator (P) and Grendel are also cheaper than it. I think the Eradicator and Falcon in particular are important cases here because they can boast long range and good speed, both are generally excellent at punching down (which is the role the Heron is playing in this case). Their long range and decent defenses also mean they can stay out of the way of a firing ship and are not a complete liability if caught out. They can actually benefit from most, if not all officer skills. And with the Falcon, you can even slap Converted Hangar on there and still get a fighter bay anyway!

Also worth noting that it is directly competing DP-wise with the likes of Eagle, Apogee, Fury, and Gryphon. The second-to-lattermost being another excellent punch-down style ship and the lattermost of course being the quintessential "fire over allies, from long range, at any target, and still do good damage" ship. Though obviously that is an outlier

I would also say that carriers do actually have that problem with losing a lot of value, because once the enemies on the flanks have been peeled off, (generally) all that is left is the enemy blob, and the enemy blob has overlapping PD grids that absolutely delete fighters on the approach. This alone lowers their effectiveness massively (fighters are just minor distractions) but the replacement rate goes down as well, which can be an issue.

However, take all of this with a pinch of salt. I have seen fighters used effectively. BigBrainEnergy put out a "midline cruiser doctrine" type fleet showcase and it had effective fighters, so I am not saying they are totally useless (I'd rather them than Hounds or Kites!). I have also not done a lot of personal playtesting with fighters, and I intend to do so on an upcoming playthrough. So really most of this is based off of general gameplay observations ("vibes"), which as Vanshilar will note can be biased or misleading! (just ask him about SO fleets :p)