..relevant again! Let me start with a screenshot from today to demonstrate the current state:

This was a basically ideal situation for the (projectile) bombers: Enemy had almost no small ships, only energy defense and zero flak or fighters; yet still the 4 small attackers with 8 energy weapon slots (that should be countered here) caused considerably more damage than the 8 (4x2) weapon slots worth of bombers. Also notice that somehow two squadrons are listed as destroyed, even though the enemy had no flak.There currently is no rational reason to build bombers, and consequently, there is less than no reason to build fighters.

I would personally love it if squadrons would open up a new level of warfare in the mid to late game, becoming almost mandatory when the (aptly named) carrier class ships appear. But to elevate them from their current status as newbie trap/RP cosmetics, a few changes are desperately needed:


  1. Relative squadron damage needs to be higher: Taking white beams as the comparable standard weapon (same range profile), uncountered bombers need to outclass them vs medium and large ships to have any incentive at all to build them. Researching either bomber tech or strategic ressource weapons should be a strategic choice, not laughably one-sided. IMO their effective damage should be maybe 20-40% higher than equivalent standard weapons vs medium ships, and 50-100% vs large/carriers.
  2. Squadrons need to be faster: On paper, bomber DPS vs medium ships is almost 2x that of beams, 50 vs 26. The example above shows that this is not even close to true in practice. A large reason for this is the time bombers spend flying without doing any damage. Just speed squadrons up considerably.
  3. Battles should last longer: Especially between attackers, battles rarely last more than one phase, even more so in the late game. Even the battle above between mostly defensive ships was almost over after phase 1 (notice damage values per phase). Slashing normal weapon damage by 25-50% across the board would solve many issues, including the two above.
  4. Fighters need to have a function outside of countering bombers: Otherwise they are way too situational. I suggest their effective damage should be about 10%/20%/40% less than that of normal weapons vs small/medium/large ships, respectively. They should roughly deal the damage bombers deal now, meaning about 4 times of what they currently deal.
  5. Slugs should not counter bombers: The IMO most debatable point, but flak currently seems too good, and if fighters are already situational as a counter to bombers, they should at least be uniquely suited for that function to have any incentive to build them.