I am of the opinion that the standard Annihilator Rocket Launcher would probably be a bit too much on a fighter. Maybe a single-volley fighter version of the weapon, but not the standard small mount Annihilator Rocket Launcher.
A part of the issue between the Warthog and the Gladius may simply be the flux stats of the ships and the flux costs of the armament; the two IR Pulse Lasers and LDMG of the Gladius generate about 328 flux per second (effectively 28 flux per second accounting for the dissipation of the Gladius), while the Warthog's pair of LMGs and its LAG generate about 198 flux per second (effectively 48 flux per second accounting for the Warthog's dissipation), which when combined with the flux capacities of the Gladius and Warthog means that the Warthog runs out of flux capacity almost 4 times faster (~16 seconds to fill up its 750 flux capacity as opposed to the ~54 seconds required for the Gladius to hit its flux capacity of 1500).
Another part of the issue might be the DPS that the ships have. On the surface, it would appear that the ships are relatively equal in DPS; the Gladius nominally has 720/408/512 DPS versus shields/armor/hull while the Warthog nominally has 704/476/472 DPS versus shields/armor/hull, if I've done the math right. Unfortunately, about 624 of the Warthog's anti-shield DPS is only 300 range whereas its flux-hungry LAG (which provides only 80 anti-shield DPS and generates a net of 10 flux per second) has 600 range, whereas about 304 of the anti-shield (and anti-armor, and anti-hull) DPS of the Gladius comes from its pair of 500-range IR Pulse Lasers, which generate a net of only 3 flux per second. The Warthog would probably benefit greatly if its kinetic weapons were at least as long-ranged as its LAG was, at least if it had the flux to support those weapons and is intended to be an anti-ship fighter as the designation "assault fighter" implies. It might be enough of an improvement if the Warthog dropped its LMGs for LACs or LDACs and gained enough flux to keep its current firing time or improve upon it a bit, though this would probably cost it somewhat in its performance as a dogfighter.
Soren, you're analyzing the ship on a false presumption that every ship must have "a clear attack role" or whatnot. Well that couldn't be less true. This is not some bloody chess game, this is a fantastic universe, and to be, and feel, alive and convincing it should have good ships, mediocre ships, bad ships, weird ships, rare ships, experimental ships, outdated ships, even ships that are evolutionary deadend.
I agree within limits, but if the game's background information suggests that a fighter or ship should be good at what it does, then the gameplay ought to support that. The Warthog is supposed to be the vehicle of choice for the assault fighter role, but as far as I can tell it's outperformed in this role by the Thunder (which is already a decent interceptor and fighter-bomber) and the Gladius (already a decent heavy fighter), and probably will be by the Xyphos as well if that gets a Pulse Laser in place of its Phase Lance as was suggested by one of Alex's posts; the only feature of the Broadsword that makes me question whether or not that'd be better, too, is its significantly worse flux capacity.
This argument seems more appropriate for use against changes to the Longbow (which is described as having an 'unusual' thruster configuration) and Trident (which looks like an attempt at making a self-escorting torpedo bomber) than against the Warthog (which as noted is described as the fighter of choice for the assault fighter role). It also looks like the Assault Fighter role was an evolutionary dead-end in the fighter development of Starsector (the same might be true of the Multi-Role Fighter, though that might have evolved into the torpedo bomber). The designation, after all, doesn't appear among the high-tech fighters, and I'd tend to agree; bombers seem better for anything larger than a destroyer and heavy fighters seem at minimum adequate for the rest.
I don't think it's a design that needs to be removed from the game, but it does really highlight that midtech lacks a dedicated dive/torpedo bomber (although Thunders, in quantity, are very good if fragile fighter/bombers).
(Not really relevant, but there's circumstantial evidence that the Piranha is, or at least was, intended to be a midline bomber, and if anything counts as a dive bomber, I'd count the Piranha as one. The Conquest, the midline capital ship, was developed just prior to the popularization of fighter craft, suggesting that an effective bomber was a relatively new thing. The Piranha's hull color, if you examine the sprite, appears more similar to that of the Gladius, Warthog, and Thunder than to that of the Broadsword, Talon, and Mining Pod, and additionally appears similar to the hull color of the early midline ships like the Gemini, Conquest, and Hammerhead. It also had decent flux stats for a ship whose armament didn't include anything that generated flux, at least until its swarmer missiles were replaced by an LMG, and even so 200 flux capacity and 40 flux dissiipation is more than sufficient for the LMG's 15 flux per burst and 18.75 flux per second, especially on a vessel lacking shields.)
