If carriers are not in the game, I hope they will bring it in a future expansion.

Gray_Carlyle wrote:
If carriers are not in the game, I hope they will bring it in a future expansion.

Sure do hope they wont stop the development after release. I would pay for future expansions

glurg wrote:
How would that fit into the current game mechanics though? Alternative to missiles?

As much as I want them I dont see them fitting in.

Fighters could be done as a flying weapon in one of the three flavors, bomber, blaster, or gunner. So you have the Wing Commander torpedo fighter, the Star Wars pew pew, and the Battlestar Galactica rat-a-tat-tat. And they might come in different sizes representing different hit point levels.



The principle advantage of a fighter is multiple targets. It takes at least one gun to target a fighter. Size only matters if there is a definite possibility that one shot won't be enough to kill the fighter. So the HP sizes would have to be approximately equal to the weapon upgrades.



Is it worth it? The firepower of a fighter is going to be less than a weapon that takes the same amount of space on board. But it causes the enemy to shoot at (and possibly miss) a small nimble target instead of you. So fighters are part-way between a defense system and an attack system.

I'm fairly sure carriers are already in the game, or being added. They're in most 4x games with grand space battles

Wafflashizzles wrote:
I'm fairly sure carriers are already in the game, or being added. They're in most 4x games with grand space battles

true, ill have a closer look tomorrow and if not then well see what happens!

That would be awesome. I love me some dog fighting .

No carriers in the build I was allowed to play so far.

Nimrod wrote:
I know it would be quite a lot of work but it would be amazing if the game had fighters/bombers carriers and whatnot in.



The fighters would work differently from normal ships however as their long range phase would be flying towards the enemy ships and the medium and melee range attacking, and obviously the carriers would hold X number of fighters and bombers.

Maybe have a fighter/bomber bay as a support module on the carrier and each module holds 5 fighters?



Just an idea anyway, what do you guys think?

I was a bit disappointed at no carriers in the current build. Im sure they will be added later on, a long with other ship classes.

yeah they are definately not in currently, but there are frigates! (kind of) the scout class is probably the smallest ship in the game at the moment and thus is essentially a frigate

That would be a shame to not have such classic in the final release.

How would that fit into the current game mechanics though? Alternative to missiles?

As much as I want them I dont see them fitting in.

Fighters would be a close range option for the carrier to use, that would be somewhat immune to large weapons fire which could cripple a larger ship. That is really what they are for anyways, a cheap option with which you can get into close range to use weapons that the opposing ship has no great defense for, other than point defense equipment.

Carriers are more of support vessels then head on head combat. They don't necessarily have guns, their main purpose is logistics and fighters.

Currently i feel in-game ship logistics kind of lack, i hope they add in support modules that can repair (other than the current repair one), or offensive modules that automatically sabotage enemy ships, or assist other ships in some way.

I know it would be quite a lot of work but it would be amazing if the game had fighters/bombers carriers and whatnot in.



The fighters would work differently from normal ships however as their long range phase would be flying towards the enemy ships and the medium and melee range attacking, and obviously the carriers would hold X number of fighters and bombers.

Maybe have a fighter/bomber bay as a support module on the carrier and each module holds 5 fighters?



Just an idea anyway, what do you guys think?

For fighters, you usually want three basic classes of fighter. Bomber, Interceptor, and Escort.



Bombers are the reason fighters exists. As mentioned, the ability to ignore a lot of defenses, and do surgical strikes on enemy vessels is a good enough reason to have them exist. And when Bombers exists, you want Interceptors. Short range fast fighters that have one purpose: Destroy Bombers. Interceptors are basically the defense against Bombers. So, you want your Bombers to deliver their torpedoes, you need Escorts. Long range fighters that can fly alongside the Bombers and protect them from Interceptors, both by getting in the way, and by taking out Interceptors.



It's a bit WW2-ish, yes. But it's also a nice little Rock-Paper-Scissors layer to add to the combat. Then you get to how to outfit the fighters, designs, and so on. It gets complicated, in a good way, fast.

McNum wrote:
For fighters, you usually want three basic classes of fighter. Bomber, Interceptor, and Escort.



Bombers are the reason fighters exists. As mentioned, the ability to ignore a lot of defenses, and do surgical strikes on enemy vessels is a good enough reason to have them exist. And when Bombers exists, you want Interceptors. Short range fast fighters that have one purpose: Destroy Bombers. Interceptors are basically the defense against Bombers. So, you want your Bombers to deliver their torpedoes, you need Escorts. Long range fighters that can fly alongside the Bombers and protect them from Interceptors, both by getting in the way, and by taking out Interceptors.



It's a bit WW2-ish, yes. But it's also a nice little Rock-Paper-Scissors layer to add to the combat. Then you get to how to outfit the fighters, designs, and so on. It gets complicated, in a good way, fast.

That's a good idea but adds a little more complexity to the standard fighter/bomber idea.

Remscar wrote:
That's a good idea but adds a little more complexity to the standard fighter/bomber idea.

Yeah, perhaps start with squadrons.

Inquisitioner wrote:
Yeah, perhaps start with squadrons.

Of course, in a 4X scale game, a single fighter shouldn't really be something to make the player worry about. They should be bought in bulk, either as units or weapons to be used on carriers.



To put the Bomber/Interceptor/Escort thing into the three ranges used in Endless Space I think it would be like this: Bombers are Melee Range weapons. If they get close to your bigger ships, they'll wreck it. Interceptors are Medium Range weapons. They fly out to get the Bombers before the Bombers get to Melee Range. And Escorts are Long Range weapons. They go for the Interceptors before they can reach Medium Range.



But the big problem with fighters, really, is that while they add a lot to the awesome factor, and can provide some fantastic camera shots if you latch on to one and follow it, it's hard to justify their existence. Why not just build inexpensive self-guided torpedoes instead? Answer that, and you have a reason for fighters. Of course, "It's awesome!" is a good enough reason for me.

I would really like to see giant smarms of fighters swearing around

Does anybody know whether there will be "Titanships" something like the Geth-Dreadnaught from Mass Effect 3?

McNum wrote:


But the big problem with fighters is ... it's hard to justify their existence. Why not just build inexpensive self-guided torpedoes instead? Answer that, and you have a reason for fighters. Of course, "It's awesome!" is a good enough reason for me.

The reason for fighters to exist is so that they tie up enemy weapons. Their advantage is multiple targets.