Allow Bigger Ships to Launch Multiple NPC Fighters

[Sunleader]

Currently we got 7 Ships Capable of Launching Fighters.
But all can only Launch 1 Fighter at a Time except for Multi Crew.

I think its time we allowed this to be increased.
We got 3 Crew member slots.


So why not make Bigger Ships able to Launch more Fighters ?
Cutter and T9 should be able to Launch 3 Fighters.
Its Expensive on your Space to do cause you need 1 Big and 1 Smaller Fighter Hangar. Meaning it would make sense for these Giant Ships to be able to do that. And both are less good Armed than the other Ships so it would also allow em to take a different Role.
Especially the T9 and later the Panther Clipper would really fit into that because it would give them some Protection and make em worth their Money.
Beluga due to its Size gets 2 Fighters for Escort Duty.
Conda and Corvette got more Space but are Heavily Armed by themselves so they get only 2 as well.
Keelback and Gunships due to their limited size only get 1 Fighter.

 

[Allchemyst]

What you're proposing is essentially something which is completely outside of FD's normal design methods. Don't count on it.

They never, ever offer mechanics on a ship-by-ship basis, but rather give all ships the same options through identical module behavior. Arbitrarily differentiating which ships can launch what in the way described has a zero chance of happening, imo.

Technical/design stuff set aside, however, the DPS potential of fighters makes it impossible to ever consider any ship having three fighters, especially the Cutter, which is already powerful enough, or trading ships, whose firepower is essentially multiplied by the amount of ships they can launch. Sparing a C6 and a C5 module slot to launch that many is not a very big tradeoff compared to the actual benefit provided. Plus, walling off the Corvette wouldn't be a good idea : both it and the Cutter were advertised with the ability to launch more fighters than other ships - and numbers-wise, the Corvette is less armored and less tanky than the Cutter.

Imagine launching a combo of plasma repeater/MC/fixed beam fighters on anything... That's upwards of 100 DPS completely "hands-free", guaranteed to take down pretty much anything, which isin't what the T-9 is intended for.

Trading ships, however, need something like trading slots for more cargo to justify ever using them, thought...


What I believe should happend, however, in the interest of fairness and respect for FD's past engagements, is the following :

1 ) In single-player (only), where Multi-crew is not possible, it should be possible for all ships with a C6 and C7 fighter bay to release 2 fighters, just as a Multi-crewed ship can. Also, NPC crew should appear in the cockpit.

2 ) Still in Single-player, another NPC crewman should be assignable to the gunner seat, making turrets' targeted fire (not free-for-all mode) much more precise.

That should make spare crew's exorbitant fees wirth it, and make good with the idea that all features of the game should be usable with all the game's modes, without making Multicrew with real people less engaging.

 

[Sunleader]

What you're proposing is essentially something which is completely outside of FD's normal design methods. Don't count on it.

They never, ever offer mechanics on a ship-by-ship basis, but rather give all ships the same options through identical module behavior. Arbitrarily differentiating which ships can launch what in the way described has a zero chance of happening, imo.

Technical/design stuff set aside, however, the DPS potential of fighters makes it impossible to ever consider any ship having three fighters, especially the Cutter, which is already powerful enough, or trading ships, whose firepower is essentially multiplied by the amount of ships they can launch. Sparing a C6 and a C5 module slot to launch that many is not a very big tradeoff compared to the actual benefit provided. Plus, walling off the Corvette wouldn't be a good idea : both it and the Cutter were advertised with the ability to launch more fighters than other ships - and numbers-wise, the Corvette is less armored and less tanky than the Cutter.

Imagine launching a combo of plasma repeater/MC/fixed beam fighters on anything... That's upwards of 100 DPS completely "hands-free", guaranteed to take down pretty much anything, which isin't what the T-9 is intended for.

Trading ships, however, need something like trading slots for more cargo to justify ever using them, thought...


What I believe should happend, however, in the interest of fairness and respect for FD's past engagements, is the following :

1 ) In single-player (only), where Multi-crew is not possible, it should be possible for all ships with a C6 and C7 fighter bay to release 2 fighters, just as a Multi-crewed ship can. Also, NPC crew should appear in the cockpit.

2 ) Still in Single-player, another NPC crewman should be assignable to the gunner seat, making turrets' targeted fire (not free-for-all mode) much more precise.

That should make spare crew's exorbitant fees wirth it, and make good with the idea that all features of the game should be usable with all the game's modes, without making Multicrew with real people less engaging.

The entire thing is already out of the usual Design
After all my Imperial Clipper can Fit an Fighter Hangar Module but is not allowed to use it for example

And well.
The thing is. That these Fighters if Controlled by NPCs are not really better than NPCs because well they are NPCs.

Are you Scared from an NPC Conda ?
NPCs DPS mean fairly little in Player Calculations because they barely got enough time on target to make it count