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[Cromodus]

It seems logical at first but we're in 2014 and it's already the age of drones. A computer will always do a better job at flying a fighter ship than a human ever will: Situational awareness, stamina, G-forces have no effect, no training is required except for patching the new AI version on your fighters. To me, the idea that space fighters will have individual pilots is misinformed and it will never happen.

It could also open up some interesting branches aside from no longer losing pilots. Alex said that blueprints will eventualy come around. It would be cool if we could purchase AI upgrades for fighters, providing flat +% bonuses or even changing the behavior of fighters, or allowing us to assign more complicated orders.

And on the other hand there would be electronic counter-mesures available to fight against fighters. An enemy ship could broadcast a virus that disrupts or disables fighters. To counter this you could "shut down" the communications suite of your fighters, hardening them against viruses but also making them unable to receive your orders and sending them off on Search and Destroy.

[SafariJohn]

When you get the half crew perk it affects fighters, too. So it only takes two guys to pilot four Talons.

Doesn't that one squadron already not use any crew? The laser swarm fighters? Or did Alex change that?

Your last paragraph sounds micro-y, OP. I mean, why wouldn't every fleet use the ECM, and at that point, what's the point of even being able to give orders to fighters?

But the second paragraph sounds interesting.

[LazyWizard]

Fighters have autonomy because they are crewed. They can operate outside of sensor range of the rest of your fleet in combat, and don't actually need a carrier to function. On the other hand, drones require a host ship to control them and have a limited range of operation around that host (max roam distance).

Doesn't that one squadron already not use any crew? The laser swarm fighters? Or did Alex change that?

Wasps were given crew requirements way back when proper drones were introduced in the shipsystem update. And many, many crew have fallen since that day.

[WKOB]

It seems logical at first but we're in 2014 and it's already the age of drones. A computer will always do a better job at flying a fighter ship than a human ever will: Situational awareness, stamina, G-forces have no effect, no training is required except for patching the new AI version on your fighters. To me, the idea that space fighters will have individual pilots is misinformed and it will never happen.

Right, that's why unmanned drones are replacing fighters everyday, even the F35 that was just developed is unmanned... oh wait... it's not.

This is a lot of assertion and speculation that is, frankly, uninformed as you would say. Not sure about G-forces in deep space and even hyperspace, but situational awareness and stamina might be fair... however problem solving, creativity and unpredictability, as well the ability to quickly change tactics upon receiving new orders or information will put a human ahead of an AI far into the future.

[JohnDoe]

Situational awareness, stamina, G-forces have no effect

Situation awareness of pilots could be boosted via advanced human-computer interfaces; pilot stamina might be a non-issue ("Average Talon pilot battlespace life expectancy is two minutes and twenty seconds.") or could be enhanced with futuristic super drugs; G-forces could potentially be countered by the very same technology used to generate gravity on board larger ships.

Just because a military concept is falling behind the trend of the times doesn't mean it will remain that way forever. Battleships are out of fashion because now even much smaller surface vessels and airplanes can often pack punches way above its class, no point defense system has ever been extensively tested in an actual combat situation, there's no "shield" to completely nullify or withstand incoming damage in a predictable way, and we don't have the required damage control technologies to justify the diminished cost effectiveness over longer engagements. Yet battleships are very viable combat vessels in many science fiction creations in a futuristic setting, including Starsector, as most of the aforementioned flaws are remedied in said works.

[Gothars]

It's an artistic choice to have ships and fighter crewed. It makes sense, since the game is played (mostly) by humans. Later on, you will probably even be able to assign officers as wing leaders.

That AIs will surpass human skills in the (not-so-)long term is very likely, but the game is not meant to be an accurate depiction of the future.

[Histidine]

Based on current physics and such, we have good reason to believe that space fighters won't work, period. At some point you're just having what TV Tropes calls arbitrary skepticism.

At the end of the day, you can get away with a fairly high degree of unrealism through judicious use of handwavium in your setting. In this particular case, it may be that competent AIs are extremely expensive to build, so aren't favoured for low-survivability things like fighters (with a few exceptions, e.g. Terminator drone).

Oh, and a relevant quote from a comment in that linked post:

And, of course, a completely non-scientific law-SF readers want FIGHTERS, not DRONES!

AKA Burnside's Zeroth Law: Readers want to read about people, not robots. But the issue with space fighters is really a bit subtler than that. The space fighter trope isn't just about people, it is about fighter jocks. The staff planners and techs at a base or aboard a mother ship are just as much at risk if the drones they control lose, but less derring-do is involved.

Putting it another way, I think space fighters were invented so that the human decision makers could be studly (or babelicious) 20-somethings, rather than middle aged senior commanders.

[SCC]

I suppose that fighter internal AI and human pilot linked via mind-to-machine link already have hard time controlling thrusters, flux, weapons and optional shields. It may also be that AI that could functionally be a fighter pilot was banned by Domain of Man because it's too advanced or something. A lot of things may have caused present lack of AI-crewed fighters, counting most important: how their CR would be counted?

[Cromodus]

It seems logical at first but we're in 2014 and it's already the age of drones. A computer will always do a better job at flying a fighter ship than a human ever will: Situational awareness, stamina, G-forces have no effect, no training is required except for patching the new AI version on your fighters. To me, the idea that space fighters will have individual pilots is misinformed and it will never happen.

Right, that's why unmanned drones are replacing fighters everyday, even the F35 that was just developed is unmanned... oh wait... it's not.

No need to get defensive, we're just talking.

Drones have been around for less than a decade and they are starting to replace more and piloted jobs. Automation is a thing and it's starting to revolutionize how most industries will function. There are some very informative youtube videos on the subject, a great one by CPG Grey (He gives examples of certain software able to write software, programs that can compose music and robot algorythms that can teach themselves how to walk). The Google Car is a far stretch from an automated fighter but at the same time, we're just STARTING to use drones. Meanwhile we can assume that Star Sector is Hundreds of years into the future, judging by the starship technology of the game.

Sure, humans can always take drugs and augmented reality huds to increase their capacity to fly a fighter plane but those additions would only bring that pilot up to par with an AI drone. A drone is never tired, never hungry, never distracted or disoriented and always 100% focused on everything that is going on around it. A drone won't sneeze or hesitate and it will never panic when a best friend is shot down. Combine this with hundreds of years of progress into AI programming and I cannot see how a human could ever compete with something that always does its job perfectly. It doesn't need to be controlled from a host ship and can easily encompass thousands of different maneuvers and attack plans, and the ability to learn and adapt.

We're getting off topic here but the discussion is interesting.

In this particular case, it may be that competent AIs are extremely expensive to build

Every fighter is built with a computer, it's just a matter of uploading a copy of the software. It's never lost and still cheaper than building a fighter with a seat, cockpit and a life support system.

[Andy H.K.]

The faction description of Tri-Tachyon does mention some form of "AI ban", so I suppose lore-wise it make sense for some strike craft operations to require a pilot...

But then we also have Tempest's terminator drone. I guess that would be the "autonomous alpha+ level AI" the faction description is talking about?

[arcibalde]

Starsector is couple of billions years into the future    (eon is 1.000.000.000 years)  I found that piece of information in http://fractalsoftworks.com/2011/08/12/ship-lore-variants/       and now im wondering is that eon used there (descriptioon of Onslought) just to describe long, long, long, long, long time but not few billion years.

And about g-forces... I guess it would be okay until you need to turn and go opposite direction.  

[Nori]

I respectfully disagree.
While I think there is a place for drone fighters I also doubt we would really do away with humans all together from fighters.
Something needs to control drones and there is signal delay. Even if they were semi-autonomous, they still wouldn't be as flexible as humans.

G forces would be partially/mostly negated by artificial gravity technology. Combat implants would give pilots plenty of info and could shorten reaction times.
I actually think what is more likely is to have a AI complement a human pilot. Sort of like in star wars where Luke has R2D2.

[Megas]

But then we also have Tempest's terminator drone. I guess that would be the "autonomous alpha+ level AI" the faction description is talking about?

The Codex says Terminator Drone has beta level AI.

[arcibalde]

Well if you looking that way ("G forces would be partially/mostly negated by artificial gravity technology.") we could say that there would be extremely advanced AI that can replace human pilot. Zig-zag  at a speed of 50km/s would produce some big G values. So having fighter with pilot and all his G force limitation and pilotless craft where G force limitations depends on material of the craft i think AI piloted fighters would have more maneuverability than human fighters.

[ahrenjb]

Fighters are not autonomous because the Domain, and Hegemony, absolutely forbid the development of general AI. Therefore, drones either have very simple automation or are remotely controlled. Remote control means FTL communication, which appears to require large, complex equipment, or there is significant delay depending on range which is absolutely not ideal for fighters