General Fighter hangar fix

[Schmack]

I ranked an NPC pilot to Elite and he still sucked. They need an overhaul. Unless you PvP or use them to distract the bugs, they feel like just a novelty item that you get past pretty quick. However the SLF felt too much like a Viper or full size ship to me. It should be much faster and more nimble. I'd like to see the top speed close to 700m/s and sweet spot turn speed much faster without needing FA Off.

 

[Schmack]

In fact he becomes an easy target.

However, the idea of fighter jets being able to land could, for example, have applications in the exploration of exobiology, it would be cool to collect samples with the speed of fighter jets.

This happens already and the Artemis suit was created for this. I don't think any military manufacturing company would create an SLF for scanning plants.

It would be applicable for doing missions on foot, where a friend would hunt for the settlement while you provide air support.

You can do that without an SLF. Why does anyone need to "hunt for the settlement"? They aren't hard to find. Unless you mean hunt for the target at the settlement, but if you're providing air support, just carpet bomb the settlement and you're in the same position. Plus I don't know if two players can take the same on foot mission, never seen a video where that's happened. I've read that issues happen if they do.

Or imagine that while a friend in the fighter takes care of part of a mission on one planet, you take care of another planet with the main ship in the same system.

Or in a different ship. You're forcing the main ship idea when there's no need. People get a ship when they start the game.

 

[Morbad]

We have the capacity for 3 crew members, but can we only use 2 fighters in the 7D Fighter Hangar?

That's a balance concession (fighters do hit extremely hard) that can be handwaved away by stating the module is only capable of controlling two fighters at a time.

Personally, I'd prefer it if there was no printing/respawning of SLFs at all and no special SLF equipment. The main problem I see with fighters is that they have arbitrarily overpowered weaponry and the modules overtly violate basic physical principles like conservation of mass. If they followed the same rules as other ships and generally made sense, I'd be all for removing any arbitrary restrictions associated with them...but the largest hangars would probably only hold two fighters in this case.

How would adding landing gear to our remotely piloted drones known as SLFs help?

The models already have landing gear and turning them into real ships that could be physically piloted (they used to have life support modules too), removing arbitrary SLF restrictions in the process, would be a trivial thing to do. It would even have significant associated gameplay since Odyssey.

However, it's apparently not what FDev wanted, nor a change they'd be inclined to make.

In cqc Sidewinder is a fighter, why not be included as a new type of fighter?

The CQC Sidewinder is still a Sidewinder, not an SLF. As it is, I don't think the Sidewinder would physically fit in the SLF hangar.

Frontier was originally going allow the Anaconda to carry Sidewinder sized ships (and before 2.2 the model looked like it would accommodate a larger front-facing door), but they decided they didn't want fully featured ships within ships...which is why we have the limited utility SLFs we have.

The idea of the topic is not to conclude why Frontier, or why, didn't do or didn't do something. The idea is to show improvements based on our experiences and ideas from the game.
As I explained above, we all know that there are N reasons why things are done the way they are done, that there are technological limitation factors, implementation, engine, cost...

But the idea here is not to think about it, who will know how to evaluate the implementability of the suggestions is the frontier, it's up to us to bring the ideas. It won't be me or you who will say that something is possible or not to be implemented other than the frontier itself. When I said "problem" you need to understand the context. I referred to the problem regarding the issue of hangars 6 and 7 being practically the same, the fact that an entire crew cannot use the fighter because it only has 2 bays.

There is no problem with the fighter or what has been done so far, I even love using friend fighters. But the issue here are ideas for improvements.

Few of these ideas are new to Frontier...most of them are things Frontier clearly already considered or were borrowed from other Frontier implementations. Knowing why they didn't go that route seems pretty relevant.

I ranked an NPC pilot to Elite and he still sucked. They need an overhaul. Unless you PvP or use them to distract the bugs, they feel like just a novelty item that you get past pretty quick. However the SLF felt too much like a Viper or full size ship to me. It should be much faster and more nimble. I'd like to see the top speed close to 700m/s and sweet spot turn speed much faster without needing FA Off.

High-rank NPCs are pretty good relative to lower rank ones, but they are so good that they'll last long while piloting the SLF. Against other NPCs, they're better off piloting the mothership while you pilot the SLF.

As for the speed, they were originally much slower than what made it to 2.2's release and I think they are a bit too divergent from their pre-2.2 roots already. Wouldn't mind more customization though.

 

[Killerskullmk]

In relation, I think I wasn't very clear, when I refer to a fighter that lands, that helps with exploration, I refer to the fighter that can land, you leave the ship on foot and do the scanning.

 

[Schmack]

In relation, I think I wasn't very clear, when I refer to a fighter that lands, that helps with exploration, I refer to the fighter that can land, you leave the ship on foot and do the scanning.

What you're suggesting is currently being done only the mothership is a carrier and the SLF is whatever small ship you want to fly since you don't need range.

 

[Fizzatron]

In relation, I think I wasn't very clear, when I refer to a fighter that lands, that helps with exploration, I refer to the fighter that can land, you leave the ship on foot and do the scanning.

I like the idea of an SLV that can be used for scanning bios. Schmack isn't wrong but I think the flexibility of not having to land an Anaconda to disembark but still use one for greater range or not require carrier support more than makes it worthwhile.

 

[Darrack]

I ranked an NPC pilot to Elite and he still sucked. They need an overhaul. Unless you PvP or use them to distract the bugs, they feel like just a novelty item that you get past pretty quick. However the SLF felt too much like a Viper or full size ship to me. It should be much faster and more nimble. I'd like to see the top speed close to 700m/s and sweet spot turn speed much faster without needing FA Off.

My crew member in a Trident is an absolute beast in HazRes, not sure SLFs were ever intended to fight bugs though, still she can take out scouts.
They definitely have a use.

O7

 

[COBA]

I support the author of the topic. As amended. Launch the second or third fighter only if the Players are pelating. All friends turn up their noses when you offer to fly with a fighter, especially the guards. The fighter needs an engineer to fix the flaws and equate after the engineer at least to a light ship. To increase the survivability of a fighter against a railgun, for example, by reducing its visibility and detection. By the way, an engineer is also needed for the TRP.

 

[Killerskullmk]

If you are encountering problems related to the performance of the fighters also reported in the insert, where the problem of the low precision of the fighters is indicated, it might be a good idea to collaborate in the vote.

Issue Tracker

issues.frontierstore.net

 

[Morbad]

On a barely related tangent, I was digging through some old screenshots and found a good image of the hangar door on the old Anaconda model:

 

[Killerskullmk]

On a barely related tangent, I was digging through some old screenshots and found a good image of the hangar door on the old Anaconda model:

I can only think that a sidewinder could fit in there lol

 

[alexzk]

But why land the fighter, once it was down on the ground it is just a target that can’t do anything.

Gather flowers ? That would be best update for Anaconda explorers

 

[CMDR Tod Quiller]

The whole SLF's need a complete rework as well as the NPC AI. They are losing the ability to aim, and to even pilot SLF's. plus being limited to only one NPC crew member is annoying considering you can have 2 Slf's deplyed at the same time.
Though I do not support the addition of new Engineers specilized in SLF's. (Too grindy already). Just leave the already existing ones engineer them like a normal ship, in the case of guardian SLF's, Ram Tah or Aegis engineers should be able to modify them.
Customize them would be pure delight, at least for human SLF's, I could finally add hull reinforcements, let them survive for 3 seconds instead of 2.

 

[[VR] Goooost]

Nah. Needs a total overhaul. SLFs were made that way because dying in them meant actual dying; this was a big risk for such a vulnerable ship. So the concept of them being remote piloted and printable came in, which is kind of silly. But now we have the concept of NPC recovery and commanders being rescued by the rangers we change the paradigm.

1 SLFs are actually piloted
2 No more printing SLFs. One ship only per hangar, make them tougher, return to hangar to repair and rearm (uses up some kind of resource that has to be restocked).
3 NPC death leaves a escape pod you have to rescue. If you fail then you can pay for their recovery later; take too long and you lose them
4 PC dying in one returns to the ship, but docked at last port (as per ranger rescue)
5 Lost SLFs are permanently lost until you rebuy them

With only one ship per hangar engineering and different loadouts are now more sensible.

My idea was that when an SLF is destroyed, the pilot ejects into a limpet style escape pod that returns to the ship.

 

[AEBRAM]

I honestly would love the option to engineer Fighter Bays with blueprints that auto-launch pre-engineered variants of the selected fighter based on the blueprint installed on the FB for different purposes and advantages/disadvantages.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Making the fighters manned gets rid of the 20km? range limit of telepresence but they can’t supercruise

... making exobiology difficult not being able to get a bio map of the planet. Or zip back up to orbit to switch map filters. The mapping concept would need to change.

The idea of an anaconda carrying a sidewinder has already been discussed among friends a few times lol... it's physically possible.

It has been discussed on the forums too. Perhaps related to SLF, but its kinda moving into a different topic from SLF. Having a sidewinder (or better yet... a viper) that can be carried by a larger mother ship would be really cool. I think without ship interiors a Fleet Carrier might serve this multicrew player function better.

 

[COBA]

I honestly would love the option to engineer Fighter Bays with blueprints that auto-launch pre-engineered variants of the selected fighter based on the blueprint installed on the FB for different purposes and advantages/disadvantages.

An interesting thought, but I think it requires more processing of the gameplay then. To introduce opponents with different types of vulnerabilities or more maneuverable than the main ship. So that only a fighter could keep up. Come up with a special algorithm of actions for them. For example, keep a long distance and attack with long-range missiles. But it's more like programmable drones. Then you can combine the compartments. Equating them to military drones. Gaining access from your faction rank and your elite status. I think that first of all you need to pay attention to the fact that the radius of detection of ships is almost the same. But by doing so in order to worsen their detection and make worse the capture of an unrefined antenna . Increase survival and efficiency. What will it mean to invite a friend with a pumped-up ship to explore and air defense.

 

[AEBRAM]

An interesting thought, but I think it requires more processing of the gameplay then. To introduce opponents with different types of vulnerabilities or more maneuverable than the main ship. So that only a fighter could keep up. Come up with a special algorithm of actions for them. For example, keep a long distance and attack with long-range missiles. But it's more like programmable drones. Then you can combine the compartments. Equating them to military drones. Gaining access from your faction rank and your elite status. I think that first of all you need to pay attention to the fact that the radius of detection of ships is almost the same. But by doing so in order to worsen their detection and make worse the capture of an unrefined antenna . Increase survival and efficiency. What will it mean to invite a friend with a pumped-up ship to explore and air defense.

I do not imagine there would be more processing since launching a SF is an instantiation of the object based on XYZ attributes and properties.

There is a lot of things that you could add to the game via Fighter Bay blueprints. For instance, "Planetary Landing" which basically hovers your fighter just above ground and you can have a blue circle "Climb into Cockpit" options to board or disembark the SF.