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[DM818]

I just read the fighter discussion thread and there was some discussion about the efficacy of torpedo bombers since that thread is now closed I would like to discuss them here.  I personally find daggers while very powerful to die horribly to any capital ship I send them against while they have shields they are very weak and their armor and hull are even weaker.  Pirannas are effective and seem to be able to make it back to the carrier unless pursued by interceptors or fast frigates.  The other torpedo bomber (can't remember the name it has Atropos torpedos) in my opinion is the most effective as it has good shielding a reasonable hull and armor levels however it does sacrifice some of the strike potential of the daggers in my opinion this is made up for by the survivability.  Those are my thoughts what does everyone else think.

[BillyRueben]

I always like to have a bomber wing of some type in my fleet. I sometimes like to keep my fleet below the cruiser size class, and strike craft are perfect when you are fighting a ship one or two classes out of your range.

As for my thoughts on the Dagger wing in particular:

I love the Daggers, but don't they seem a little underpowered for the amount of micro-management they take to use properly?

I think there a a couple of things that could be done to improve them:

   1) A speed and/or maneuverability increase would go a long way in helping these guys get to their target quicker. It wouldn't have to be a large increase, just enough so that they can drop their payload and get back to rearm a little faster.
   2) The Dagger wing formation gives them a greater chance at missing the outside torpedoes, so that only 1 or 2 hit. When the Daggers fly in to make a bombing run, have them tighten their formation a bit so that the torpedoes have a higher chance of hitting.
   3) If only a single Dagger has a torpedo left, make them go back and rearm. It's usually one of the outside ships in the formation, and that one torpedo probably isn't going to do much by itself.

[DM818]

I like daggers a lot too as especially since I usually go with an exclusively high tech fleet so they fit the aesthetic but they rarely seem to survive large fleet engagements even when all enemy fighters have been neutralized.  It is possible that I am still just inexperienced with them I used to use hyperions as my primary strike craft but with the Fp boost I can't really justify it anymore.

[PCCL]

I find those guys need fighter (wasp) screen on their approach run, more so than the piranha since the piranha has a built-in screen in the form of their bomb cloud...

they seem to be more effective in dealing damage though

[DM818]

I think what I really want now is a phasing bomber wing I feel like that would allow for a very easy retreat since phasing should (at least in my opinion become more efficient with size as opposed to shields.

[Rowanas]

Phase shield or phase skim? I reckon a phase skimming bomber wing would render pretty much everything else useless. Phase cloaked bombers would be almost as overpowered, since they could cloak past most PD, drop bombs and cloak out again.

[TaLaR]

Phase shield or phase skim? I reckon a phase skimming bomber wing would render pretty much everything else useless. Phase cloaked bombers would be almost as overpowered, since they could cloak past most PD, drop bombs and cloak out again.

At least that would be some decent use for cloak:). And considering that max time cloaked would be quite short and how cloaking ships are extremely vulnerable to pressure from faster ships i don't think they would be too overpowered...

Same for skimmer - 3 charges on 10 sec cooldown per charge are not enough to complete full attack sequence and retreat to safety without giving retaliation opportunity...

Though both certainly would perform much better than any bomber without skimmer/cloak...

[PCCL]

considering apparently systems don't work well with fighters, I think cloak is all we're getting (if that)

stealth bombers are a pretty good idea though...

[Rowanas]

I would give my left nut and all of my elite crew for a squad of phase skim piranhas.

[Gaizokubanou]

Theoretically players are suppose to use command points to create some sort of flight path to help bombers flank high profile targets like cruisers and battleships.

I think we are too limited on CP to practice that hence bombers feeling wee bit awkward to use all around.