Proper use of fighters

[Rossinator]

Hi,

I saved up and bought the largest carrier I could find, and I bought 5 fighters. Immediately set out to continue the 2nd campaign. The problem is my fighters seem to get killed very frequently. Is this normal? How do you all use fighters? Or do you use them at all?

Seems very cost ineffective to use them the way I am. I launch them all and tell them to attack my target. Boom, boom, boom, and three are dead...

Thanks for any help.

PS: Love the game otherwise.

[PaladinX]

Seems like ideally you'd pick a carrier chassis with the most forward firing heavy weapon hardpoints, and put them all on different firing group numbers so that you could keep the enemy point defense distracted by firing torps one at a time...

[Hok]

I try to buy different types of fighters.

Terran Fighters are good to attack from a longer range, but Abbidon fighters are better for their Shield Piercing ability (they have one Phased Polaron Beam).

Phoeinx-D is saying right, you have to keep enemy PD busy otherwise your fighters get destroyed quickly.

Onother thing I often do is to recall all fighters after a few attacks, so they are back to full streght (for fighters the Launch Bay is like the Spacedock for a ship).

Last thing is that I launch fighters after beating up the enemy for some time so as to lower the shields.

[Hok]

Originally posted by Hok:
Phoeinx-D is saying right, ..<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Sorry, I meant Paladin-X. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[dHay]

Originally posted by Rossinator:

I saved up and bought the largest carrier I could find
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Carriers are good. But not because they carry fighters..... Because they have the largest KT load. Put a couple of afterburners and maneuvering thrusters, and they turn as fast/faster than the fighters. And Last a LOT longer.

Originally posted by Rossinator:

Boom, boom, boom, and three are dead...
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Gee, thats what I thought fighters were for... Going boom, that is. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Fighters against capital ships are always an acceptable loss rate game.

When I figured out that running them over with my Carrier was a cost effective way of getting rid of enemy fighters, they kinda permanently removed themselves from my personal arsenal. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[Phoenix-D]

The problem with fighters in the unmodded game is they're too rare and a bit stupid. They run into things a lot, and any losses hurt becauase they're hard to replace.

I recommend carrying two fighters for every bay, and stocking up every time you can no matter what type of fighter it is.

[bearclaw]

My tactic with fighters, is to expect that they will be disposable. The Patch makes it a lot easier to find and replace them. I usually have enough launch bays to have 10 fighters out at a time. Launch before engaging (if possible), form up on me, then send them in to attack a specific target. I sit back and use long range weapons. I try to recover and relaunch them periodicly and attempt to have enough in storage that WHEN I lose some, I can replace them and always have 10 out. Works great, but can be costly so I wouldn't recommend it unless you are in a situation where cash isn't a issue.

Oh, and diversity with fighters is key. Seems to have much better results with a mix bag of fighters.

[cpt. taylor of the eclipse]

in all the games i play PD weapons have always been way to accurate

[Phoenix-D]

Pd weapons in the stock game never miss unless the fighter dodges. Most of the time they don't.

[cpt. taylor of the eclipse]

so how do we fix that

[Phoenix-D]

you make the point defense weapons beams instead of bolts. Bolts don't miss.