Increase SLF 'prints' by 50% for CZs

[stumblingdrunk]

I love SLFs, they are fun to watch and fun to fly and great in a Hazres. The problem is that I have the largest hanger and I run out of SLFs whilst still having half of my multi-cannon ammo left. SLFs die alot in CZs and they should as they are disposable (and I have no issue with that), but even keeping them on my target only they get killed by other ships continuously which I cant do anything about.

Can we get an increase in the number we can carry to make them more viable for CZs? A 50% increase from 8 to 12 would be ideal.

 

[Robert Maynard]

.... or add Engineer blueprints to modify Fighter Bays to increase capacity or decrease construction time, etc.....

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

I would suggest to get some more practise with the pilots, their combat ranks and with the orders that you can give them.
Letting an expert just in defense mode is insta kill because he randomly takes aggro from the next target that attacks you. Before you can flip, he is dead. I would suggest to use always after deploying the order "hold position" so that they don't fire at all, then when you attack a specific target, give them the order "attack my target". After destruction of your opponent, they fall back automatically to "hold position" and don't run out of line to start attack from their own.
This protects them from getting aggro and therefor from getting destroyed in a CZ. In HazRes they can stay in defending mode but not in CZ.

After your hired pilots get combat rank dangerous or higher, they are more useful and you can send them alone against some targets. After they get Elite, they are pretty much better but i still wouldn't suggest to let them in defense mode in a CZ.
Another thing is the sort of fighter you are using. For players the iFighter is pretty good but he dies from one rail shot. For NPC's i made the experience that the best choice is the Taipan.

I hope this will help you

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

.... or add Engineer blueprints to modify Fighter Bays to increase capacity or decrease construction time, etc.....

This. ^^

Or, seems as it's the godlike accuracy of NPC railguns that cause most of these insta-deaths, I'd suggest adding some sort of NPC rank based artificial "jitter" to only their railguns.
Harmless is +1.0 jitter
Elite is 0.0

Missiles are the other problem for SLFs, but you have an option to take one equipped with PD for this.