One fighter at a time: why?

[gobbles]

It's just so much easier to balance with one fighter, and also easier on the strain of the network part of the game -you remember the soft cap of 32 in one instance?

I totally agree that it could be cool to be able to have your own hornets nest of a ship, able to launch a formidable army against your enemies, but if that were possible, no one would be doing anything else, as it'd be too overwhelming, both in firepower and numbers for any one enemy or wing.

Also it kinda goes against the twitchy nature of the game, as it would allow you to just be a army leader, instead of being the actual pilot..

 

[obliterator]

Having two fighter bays allows you to carry fighters with two different load-outs. The benefit comes from having tactical options, not from a zerg-rush spam by the pilot with the greater bank balance.

Being able to launch multiple ships doesn't mean that your loadouts are less important. If anything, it will be even more important as you'll have to add synergy to the mix. And if the players are able to order their ships to attack, focus and retreat, then managing multiple fighters at the same time would also be a lot more micro-intensive.

Also, since when having the greater bank balance does not provide the player with a stronger ship? Am I missing something here??

It's just so much easier to balance with one fighter, and also easier on the strain of the network part of the game -you remember the soft cap of 32 in one instance?

Look I'm not saying this would be super easy to instantly implement and balance. All I'm saying is if they can do it, then they absolutely should.

There are tons of ways to balance it. Extra materials, increased costs for the module/ship/crew, increasing costs or power consumption in order to control multiple ships, reduced damage output, reduced resistance, etc. That being said, I think that it still makes perfect sense that the bigger, more expensive ship get the advantage over the smaller and cheaper one, as it's already the case for pretty much everything other module. You don't hear people complaining that a corvette has a better firepower than a python, so I don't think they would complain that it can also use more fighters.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

Lol, where did you find that gem? Also great point about the gunship and keelback.

Just created that from my head at the time I was writing this. Improvisation.

 

[Cynaqq]

Also, a fighter without its NPC pilot is pretty useless, unless you control it yourself, which renders your ship useless other than the occasional turret fire at the right time if the enemy flies into the firing arc.

We can have one NPC pilot active at a time.

For two fighters simultaneously to work, there has to be two active NPCs.

I'm not saying this is impossible, far form it. I'm just trying to make a point that it's not as simple as it looks. One fighter is complicated enough to design and balance. Two will be much more complicated both in terms of balance AND the control scheme.

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

Because it will be game breaking for the pilots that don't like big ships, and like being a pirate.

Fighting 2 of those fighters, AND the mothership, is impossible. It's gamebreaking impossible for that particular player.

With only one fighter you as a pirate have a good chance on succes regarding the decisions you make, and the T9 pilot you are about to pirate, also does have a change to win regarding the choices he makes.

Its balanced this way.

and decreasing the DPS of those fighters is not fair for the pilots that can only carry ONE fighter instead of 2,3,4,5 ect.

And, NPC's will be deploying fighters as well..


I dont want to fight 1 elite Gunship, and 2 elite fighters the same time..

I always thought that the big ships are limited to 2 fighters. If one dies, the next will be "printed". And the smaller ones (keelback for example) can carry only 1 fighter.

So what is wrong about the idea to launch 2 fighters at the same time? This is what i expected how it will work from the ingame description of the cutter/corvette

 

[Cynaqq]

I always thought that the big ships are limited to 2 fighters. If one dies, the next will be "printed". And the smaller ones (keelback for example) can carry only 1 fighter.

So what is wrong about the idea to launch 2 fighters at the same time? This is what i expected how it will work from the ingame description of the cutter/corvette

It's not like that exactly.

With a two fighter bay, if one dies, you can launch the second one immediately.

If you have only one bay, then you have to wait for a second one to finish printing.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Why wouldn't they want that? That would make some incredibly epic battles.

Don't worry Thargoids get 4 fighters per mothership

 

[rav archer]

Also, a fighter without its NPC pilot is pretty useless, unless you control it yourself, which renders your ship useless other than the occasional turret fire at the right time if the enemy flies into the firing arc.

We can have one NPC pilot active at a time.

For two fighters simultaneously to work, there has to be two active NPCs.

I'm not saying this is impossible, far form it. I'm just trying to make a point that it's not as simple as it looks. One fighter is complicated enough to design and balance. Two will be much more complicated both in terms of balance AND the control scheme.

In my corvetee theres 3 seats on bridge
I think its easy to add. You will need 2 npc pilots and they can by active only on some bigger ships. Wait for beta guys, i got a feeling that they will change it.
Another thing i want to see is my npc pilot sitting in my brige. It would by awsome if i can see him.
I later date hiring a crew for bigger ships as it was in old days elite, you couldent fly bigger ship if you dident hired a crew. They can got you bonuses for your ship speed ,energy , turrets acurate and other things, of course you will see them on the bridge, and when space legs land into the game you could see them somwhere in your ship, oh dreams. . . .

 

[GunnerBill]

Why wouldn't they want that? That would make some incredibly epic battles.

Yeah - on a supercomputer plugged directly into the sever

 

[Cmdr Delmonte[VR]]

I also watched all the streams, seems we saw very different things !

 

[Iori]

My dreams of being a Protoss carrier commander crushed

 

[disorganise]

Because coming up on battlestar galactica is going to be pretty one sided and boring unless you're in a death start.

There's already essentially one shot kills thanks to engineers, let's not make the game all CQC eh?

I could see some feasibility in combat zones though, but not in general space. Bad enough with wings if you're a lone gamer.

 

[Comrade Error]

Because coming up on battlestar galactica is going to be pretty one sided and boring unless you're in a death start.

There's already essentially one shot kills thanks to engineers, let's not make the game all CQC eh?

I could see some feasibility in combat zones though, but not in general space. Bad enough with wings if you're a lone gamer.

What do you mean make it all CQC? CQC is pretty balanced apart from maybe the stealth and damage pickup. I would wish they made it more like CQC.

 

[Cynaqq]

My dreams of being a Protoss carrier commander crushed

For now...

They also said some time ago, that they have plans for actual carriers which have little to no weapons and will rely on launched drones for their firepower.

We'll see how that turns out but I'm sure multiple fighters will be a thing in the future, as options are explored.

In this thread though, I'm opposed to the idea because I prefer a simpler option to explore just for the first iteration. What they proposed makes perfect sense for that purpose and I don't want them to change it without testing it extensively first.

 

[disorganise]

What do you mean make it all CQC? CQC is pretty balanced apart from maybe the stealth and damage pickup. I would wish they made it more like CQC.

Cqc is fun because it's optional. If the main game became defacto cqc because the big ships all deploy a dozen fighters, then non combat professions go up in smoke.

 

[obliterator]

For now...

They also said some time ago, that they have plans for actual carriers which have little to no weapons and will rely on launched drones for their firepower.

We'll see how that turns out but I'm sure multiple fighters will be a thing in the future, as options are explored.

In this thread though, I'm opposed to the idea because I prefer a simpler option to explore just for the first iteration. What they proposed makes perfect sense for that purpose and I don't want them to change it without testing it extensively first.

I'd be okay just to knowing that frontier has at least future plans for this. It doesn't need to be now.

Cqc is fun because it's optional. If the main game became defacto cqc because the big ships all deploy a dozen fighters, then non combat professions go up in smoke.

Trading wont be less effective because of this.
Mining wont be less effective because of this.
Exploring wont be less effective because of this.

 

[Cynaqq]

I'd be okay just to knowing that frontier has at least future plans for this. It doesn't need to be now.

They can't talk about anything that is subject to major changes. It could very well turn out that carrier ships is a no go because of a plethora of reasons, and if they prematurely suggest it's being looked at, there will be backlash. There always is. Loom at this thread even!

Trading wont be less effective because of this.
Mining wont be less effective because of this.
Exploring wont be less effective because of this.

Oh they will, they surely will.

Wings of NPC pirates are already a PITA for traders, miners and returning explorers. Imagine when those NPCs launch multiple fighters to boot. An elite conda is already a pretty tough opponent for many traders (and pretty easy to escape for many others but let's not go there). Imagine that elite conda pooping out two elite fighters as you are trying to high wake out in your t9. Will it be fun?

 

[rav archer]

They can't talk about anything that is subject to major changes. It could very well turn out that carrier ships is a no go because of a plethora of reasons, and if they prematurely suggest it's being looked at, there will be backlash. There always is. Loom at this thread even!




Oh they will, they surely will.

Wings of NPC pirates are already a PITA for traders, miners and returning explorers. Imagine when those NPCs launch multiple fighters to boot. An elite conda is already a pretty tough opponent for many traders (and pretty easy to escape for many others but let's not go there). Imagine that elite conda pooping out two elite fighters as you are trying to high wake out in your t9. Will it be fun?

Why not ? Dont forget that you can deploy yours!
And ofcorse as i was talking before 2 fighters can deploy only warships. And pirates dont have them. Federal corvetee and imperial cutter.

 

[Cynaqq]

Why not ? Dont forget that you can deploy yours!
And ofcorse as i was talking before 2 fighters can deploy only warships. And pirates dont have them. Federal corvetee and imperial cutter.

How will they differentiate between a corvette and a conda?

The fighter bay goes into one of the internal slots. A conda could potentially carry a two fighter bay in its single class 7 slot. Therefore, two fighter NPC pirate is quite possible unless they handwave it impossible by not letting it happen specifically.

 

[Comrade Error]

Cqc is fun because it's optional. If the main game became defacto cqc because the big ships all deploy a dozen fighters, then non combat professions go up in smoke.

I think we're thinking of two different things. Nevermind then.