Trying To Understand How Fighters Work

[Seizewell Warrior]

Bought a fighter bay for my Krait Mk2, fitted it with a Taipan and hired a NPC crew member. The idea being to provide some additional protection when enemies respawn if I stay out core mining.

However, after watching some YT videos, it's all a bit confusing. It was my understanding that the fighter would deploy under AI control to protect the main ship (as you did with drones in X-Rebirth) but from what I've seen the opposite is the case with the player deployed to the Taipan similar to the SRV. Am I reading this right or have I got it wrong? How does it work then if I have more than one fighter bay? Do I die to rebuy if I get shot down in the Taipan or do I just teleport back to the main ship? If the NPC is in control of the Krait, will they actively use defense and offense to protect it, or is it all up to me? Who gets the Elite XP for any kills, me or the NPC?

Sorry to sound like a noob, but it's not like there's an easily accessible manual for any of this.

 

[Clanky Munge]

It works as an srv, if you die in it your telepresence respawns you back on your ship.

The difference to an srv being; you can choose at launch whether you or the AI will pilot the fighter.

 

[777Driver]

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...vely-and-how-to-rank-up-your-copilots.374786/

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

Thanks for the link which explains a little of it - guess I'll just have to hit up a nav point or low res site and use trial and error.

 

[myothershipisacobraiv]

the chair UI thing is a bit confusing at first. once you have equipped your slf pilot at the station with its crew interface, you can then deploy the fighter with them when you are at sublight.

press 3, shift over to fighters. on the left, that's your menu. use down to select the fighter, then select your crew member.

 

[yianniv]

Bought a fighter bay for my Krait Mk2, fitted it with a Taipan and hired a NPC crew member. The idea being to provide some additional protection when enemies respawn if I stay out core mining.

However, after watching some YT videos, it's all a bit confusing. It was my understanding that the fighter would deploy under AI control to protect the main ship (as you did with drones in X-Rebirth) but from what I've seen the opposite is the case with the player deployed to the Taipan similar to the SRV. Am I reading this right or have I got it wrong? How does it work then if I have more than one fighter bay? Do I die to rebuy if I get shot down in the Taipan or do I just teleport back to the main ship? If the NPC is in control of the Krait, will they actively use defense and offense to protect it, or is it all up to me? Who gets the Elite XP for any kills, me or the NPC?

Sorry to sound like a noob, but it's not like there's an easily accessible manual for any of this.

When you select the fighter to launch, it asks you who will be piloting it, you or your NPC pilot, provided you have hired a pilot AND you have him/her activated. If no option is shown, you must dock at a station to activate them.
Even if you've activated them and by mistake you've ended up in the fighter, you can swap places by pressing 3 again (not at my pc at the moment, can't remember the exact menu).

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Currently training up a pilot from Harmless to Elite. He's currently sitting at Competent and the difference in ability is already noticeable.

What I do is take control of the SLF myself, but let the pilot run the mothership - I only do this in my shield/hull tank Corvette though i.e. in which it's almost impossible for him to lose it; wouldn't do it in a more fragile ship.

It's fitted with beams/pulses and a couple of rails. And boy is it fun in a CZ - he's doing surprisingly well already, his rail shots are more accurate than my own - I either tell him to engage at will, or attack specific targets (such as Spec Ops), while I circle around those targets and get some pot shots in now and then (too much though, and the enemy starts aiming at you which can be hairy at times).

Also great to see one's ship from the outside for a change, and the different flight model is more engaging. Once he's Expert I'll change SLFs to fixed, and let him fly those more often as in the beginning he would die too often and I'm a bit too lazy to keep spawning SLFs.

So much fun.

 

[d8veh]

You don't need a fighter for mining. Use the module slot for additional cargo space for more profit. No pirates will spawn while you're mining apart from the ones that come and go before you start.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

You don't need a fighter for mining. Use the module slot for additional cargo space for more profit. No pirates will spawn while you're mining apart from the ones that come and go before you start.

I tried SLF accompanied mining in my T10 for a while, and it can be entertaining (plus, mats) but above medium RES they die too quickly as your ship won't have sufficient defenses to help it combat the pirates, and as you say it's not really worth the loss in cargo space.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Sounds like you havent hired a crew to fly your SLF, therefore you only get the option to fly it yourself

 

[d8veh]

I tried SLF accompanied mining in my T10 for a while, and it can be entertaining (plus, mats) but above medium RES they die too quickly as your ship won't have sufficient defenses to help it combat the pirates, and as you say it's not really worth the loss in cargo space.

Why are you mining in a RES? I can't see any sense in that now that you can make 200 -300 mil cr per hour in a double hotspot, where there are no pirates to bother you.

 

[Red Anders]

Why are you mining in a RES? I can't see any sense in that now that you can make 200 -300 mil cr per hour in a double hotspot, where there are no pirates to bother you.

Fun?

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

I'm not mining in a res, I'm doing core mining in Pristines. Enemies do respawn if you don't have time to fill your cargo and RTB in one session. The fighter is therefore for additional protection, however I was thinking of trying out combat in a res or at a nav point just to get the hang of things.

Anyhow really appreciate the information, think I now understand how it works and I'll give it a go later!

 

[Sylow]

Reading the OP the first question would be: you did hire an NPC. Did you also put him on active duty on the ship? If you did not, that explains your current problems.

If the NPC is active, then you have the option to select who is piloting the fighter when you deploy it. The default is yourself in that menu, though. Be sure to switch to the NPC when sending out the fighter. This is especially important when your NPC still is of low combat rank. And if you deploy in the SLF yourself, a low ranked NPC will immediately reduce your ships defenses, put pips to engine and weapons and reduce SYS, etc. Not to mention that like any other low ranked NPC, he focuses on attack and doesn't care for defense and survival.

So really, make sure the NPC is in the SLF. Loosing the SLF is much cheaper and you have plenty along. (Lost SLFs are replaced by the "restock ammo" button. With prices being in range for ammo refills, so loosing a few SLFs is very affordable. ) A class 5 hangar comes with 8 fighters. 1 is ready to launch, the others are stored and have to be readied when the first one blows up. So there is a waiting time for the SLF, but once the next SLF is ready, you just send the NPC out again. A class 6 hangar contains two lines of fighters (you can also put different kinds of fighters there), each having one SLF ready for launch and 7 spare. So when one blows up, you can send your NPC out again right away on the other line. NPCs rarely die that quickly that both lines are on cooldown. Not an option on the Krait MK II is a class 7 hangar, which again has two lines, but they are 1+15, allowing you to carry a total of 32 SLFs. It's overkill, i think nobody uses that.

On the two lines: yes with a class 6 or 7 hangar you can deploy two SLFs at the same time. But you can only have one NPC on board. So if you deploy one SLF with NPC and pilot one yourself, the ship itself is not being piloted and thus an easy target. I would no advise to do that. The actual use of this ability is in multi-crew. You pilot your ship and up to two friends can join and fly your SLFs.

That's actually fun and the only way multi-crew is useful and enjoyable.

 

[zimms]

Sounds like you havent hired a crew to fly your SLF, therefore you only get the option to fly it yourself

I suspect he hired a crew member but didn't set him/her active.

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

Crew is hired and allocated. In point of fact I haven't been out with the fighter yet, I was posting for an appreciation of how the system works which I think I now have - thanks.

Maybe use of fighters is something FDev could add to the tutorial section?

 

[zimms]

Out of interest, is your crew member called Julie?

 

[govny]

they fly, they shoot.

 

[Gavin786]

Bought a fighter bay for my Krait Mk2, fitted it with a Taipan and hired a NPC crew member. The idea being to provide some additional protection when enemies respawn if I stay out core mining.

However, after watching some YT videos, it's all a bit confusing. It was my understanding that the fighter would deploy under AI control to protect the main ship (as you did with drones in X-Rebirth) but from what I've seen the opposite is the case with the player deployed to the Taipan similar to the SRV. Am I reading this right or have I got it wrong? How does it work then if I have more than one fighter bay? Do I die to rebuy if I get shot down in the Taipan or do I just teleport back to the main ship? If the NPC is in control of the Krait, will they actively use defense and offense to protect it, or is it all up to me? Who gets the Elite XP for any kills, me or the NPC?

Sorry to sound like a noob, but it's not like there's an easily accessible manual for any of this.

You need to hire an NPC pilot.

You can do that in most places you are docked at under the "Crew Lounge" option on the left hand side.

Then when you are deploying a fighter you will get the option for the NPC to crew the fighter or to fly it yourself.

Be VERY CAREFUL with your NPC pilot, especially if you train them up from Harmless to Elite as they are perma-dead when you lose your ship and you will not get them back in a rebuy. Lost a few NPC pilots and it always sucks.

Would be nice if NPC pilots were kept as part of the rebuy cost and the AI was downgraded to Expert if another CMDR was in the instance to keep current balance. Right now you want to field NPC pilot > expert you take the serious risk to permanently lose them. It takes a LONG time in hazres/CZ to train NPC pilot upto Elite. For those willing to shoulder that risk it gives them a significant advantage.

Gavin786

 

[Sylow]

Crew is hired and allocated. In point of fact I haven't been out with the fighter yet, I was posting for an appreciation of how the system works which I think I now have - thanks.

Maybe use of fighters is something FDev could add to the tutorial section?

Maybe. Though, it clearly has to be marked as some advanced part. For quite a while you fly a ship without SLF and not everybody ever switches to carry one. So it's not on high priority for everybody to learn.

Also connected to this, i advise to bind some commands to buttons to make control of the fighter easier. At the very least, i advise to bind attack (to point out which enemy to attack) and maintain formation (to prevent attack) to have them readily available. Going through the command menu in combat is no fun, so keybinds is the way to go.