Should Stations and Planetary Outposts sell stand alone Fighters?

[Martian Successor]

Hello, just want to gauge my fellow forumites' opinion on this potential feature. For those interested I have posted my suggestion to include this in 2.2 in the appropriate thread here

So, would you like it if stations and planetary outposts that already have shipyards could also sell/rent out fighters primarily for use as fun little ships for organising hassle-free races and duels with friends and even creating an entire fighter specific racing and combat league?

Please keep in mind this is not intended as a conversation about giving fighters FSDs - alright maybe a little just to spice things up

 

[Martian Successor]

Feel free to elaborate on how you'd use station launched fighters. Don't be shy now

 

[YinYin]

If we also get some missions to support that beyond messing around in normal space only (i.e. not just self organised events/activities but also missions that are specific to a rented fighter).

 

[VR Morgan Grimes]

Station launched fighters could be used as local security, would enable a CMDR to patrol a station and intercept wanted CMDR's in local space without the risk of losing their pricey toys, could also have be used to repel attacks, say a pirate raid or security raid if at a pirate outpost, plenty of ways they could be used I am sure

 

[trollson]

Would they be following the "normal" rules for Fighters, except that their mothership is the station?

How far from their parent will fighters be able to travel before cutting out? Is it more than reasonable scanner range - upto, say 8km? Such a limit seems to be explained by the telepresense rather than the fighter technology.

Will fighters self destruct if they stray out of range? Or will inert fighters become recoverable salvage?

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Sounds like griefing made cheap. Cue sitting outside engineer bases or othe popular areas like Maia and crashing into people etc in groups or whatever.

Could be done so I voted not bothered but personally I dont think the pros outweigh the cons when fighters are cheap, rebuildable on the go and can be launched from ships as cheap as keelbacks for arena... besides,Cqc does exist for fighter combat...

 

[Fost]

Fighters currently have no supercruise / FSD ability so they'd only be able to fly round the station.

I think you'd need to add at least supercruise ability to make this idea viable.

 

[Martian Successor]

Would they be following the "normal" rules for Fighters, except that their mothership is the station?

How far from their parent will fighters be able to travel before cutting out? Is it more than reasonable scanner range - upto, say 8km? Such a limit seems to be explained by the telepresense rather than the fighter technology.

Will fighters self destruct if they stray out of range? Or will inert fighters become recoverable salvage?

Good questions. Personally I wouldn't want to see the CQC style "out of bounds" limit placed on station/ship launched fighters because it puts a limit in an otherwise limitless galaxy (i.e. it works for CQC but it wouldn't belong in the main game).

Sounds like griefing made cheap. Cue sitting outside engineer bases or othe popular areas like Maia and crashing into people etc in groups or whatever.

Could be done so I voted not bothered but personally I dont think the pros outweigh the cons when fighters are cheap, rebuildable on the go and can be launched from ships as cheap as keelbacks for arena... besides,Cqc does exist for fighter combat...

Griefers can already do this with Sidewinders but that doesn't mean stations should stop selling Sideys. Plus the devs could drastically reduce the amount of damage done by collisons with fighters - they are barely bigger than skimmers after all, practically SRVs with wings.

CQC exists but we cannot access CQC in the main game. The main point is that all players in the main game could get some fun fighter-esque gameplay at the drop of a hat whenever they want.

Fighters currently have no supercruise / FSD ability so they'd only be able to fly round the station.

I think you'd need to add at least supercruise ability to make this idea viable.

I wouldn't mind either way, I'll leave that part entirely up to the devs. I could be wrong but I think the in game lore of fighters means they are too small to pack FSDs or are manufactored cheaply on purpose much like the way TIE fighters in the Star Wars Universe do not have hyperdrives.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Good questions. Personally I wouldn't want to see the CQC style "out of bounds" limit placed on station/ship launched fighters because it puts a limit in an otherwise limitless galaxy (i.e. it works for CQC but it wouldn't belong in the main game).


Griefers can already do this with Sidewinders but that doesn't mean stations should stop selling Sideys. Plus the devs could drastically reduce the amount of damage done by collisons with fighters - they are barely bigger than skimmers after all, practically SRVs with wings.

CQC exists but we cannot access CQC in the main game. The main point is that all players in the main game could get some fun fighter-esque gameplay at the drop of a hat whenever they want.


I wouldn't mind either way, I'll leave that part entirely up to the devs. I could be wrong but I think the in game lore of fighters means they are too small to pack FSDs or are manufactored cheaply on purpose much like the way TIE fighters in the Star Wars Universe do not have hyperdrives.

True but unless thigs change dramatically the combat damage from fighter will be more than enough to grief without ramming being needed. And I dont buy the instant fun in main game. Its generally faster to boot up Cqc than it is to do a planet landing. And getting friends to instance planetside is a not simple at all atm

In any case I still dont see the advantage of spending dev time to add this when people can just fit a barebones keelback with a fighter bay that can churn them out.
Maybe my opinion will change post release when we see how it works but currently from what Ive seen I dont see the payoff for what will probably be significant dev time for a feature i expect most people wont use...

 

[Martian Successor]

True but unless thigs change dramatically the combat damage from fighter will be more than enough to grief without ramming being needed. And I dont buy the instant fun in main game. Its generally faster to boot up Cqc than it is to do a planet landing. And getting friends to instance planetside is a not simple at all atm

In any case I still dont see the advantage of spending dev time to add this when people can just fit a barebones keelback with a fighter bay that can churn them out.
Maybe my opinion will change post release when we see how it works but currently from what Ive seen I dont see the payoff for what will probably be significant dev time for a feature i expect most people wont use...

Well to boot up CQC you have to stop what you're doing in the main game and go through menus - cumbersome. And waiting on CQC matchmaking is by no means fast, that mode is pretty much dead as lately it takes up to 30 mins to find players even on deathmatch unless you round up 6 other friends so you can start instantly. Whereas you can immediately take out a station launched fighter by yourself and fly it around and all you need is one other friend to have some multiplayer fun.

I don't think it would take significant dev time to implement in 2.2. The fighters would already be in the game, it would be a simple matter to make them available at stations directly - a case of cutting out the middle man of buy suitable ship > buy fighter hangar > purchase fighter assembly components ammo. Not all stations sell Keelbacks. Buying a Keelback is more expensive than just renting a fighter. Losing a Keelback is more expensive than losing a fighter. Selling a Keelback after you're done is more cumbersome than simply parking the fighter and getting back into your ship.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Well to boot up CQC you have to stop what you're doing in the main game and go through menus - cumbersome. And waiting on CQC matchmaking is by no means fast, that mode is pretty much dead as lately it takes up to 30 mins to find players even on deathmatch unless you round up 6 other friends so you can start instantly. Whereas you can immediately take out a station launched fighter by yourself and fly it around and all you need is one other friend to have some multiplayer fun.

I don't think it would take significant dev time to implement in 2.2. The fighters would already be in the game, it would be a simple matter to make them available at stations directly - a case of cutting out the middle man of buy suitable ship > buy fighter hangar > purchase fighter assembly components ammo. Not all stations sell Keelbacks. Buying a Keelback is more expensive than just renting a fighter. Losing a Keelback is more expensive than losing a fighter. Selling a Keelback after you're done is more cumbersome than simply parking the fighter and getting back into your ship.

Well putting in multiple layers of UI, logic gates to ensure fighters dont force your entire ship to respawn, deal with the outstanding questions as above, quality test the whole thing and then work out how to get a fighter without landing gear to dock when it cant land planetside and all is sorted.
Its by no means quick or simple although I get your point on the Keelback...

Hmm, yeah cqc is a menu but i find it interupts me less than moving my ship from what im doing...
I never seem to get the dreaded cqc matchmaking although I dont tend to play more than 2 games a week... ah well i guess we will have to agree to disagree, i dont want to be too negative on your suggestion since its a valid idea unlike many here I can see it could be fun to a limited number of people but i dont think its as easy as you seem to think and I dont believe the most needed thing right now.