Will ship launched fighters able to land?

[Armia]

I'm not sure if this feature has been confirmed or even been discussed before, but I believe whether the SLFs will be able to land on stations/surface installments will be of great importance to commanders like me who fancy larger starships.

I personally very much look forward to see this happening. In fact, I'd be devastated if FDev only allows the parent vessel to dock to stations.


Because I've always been fascinated with the idea of 'mothership/lander'.

When I am approaching a planet with a high gravity, I want to be able to drop from SC, take an Imperial Fighter from the fighter bay and fly it to the surface outpost, while my Anaconda safely low wakes back, away from the planet's gravity well.

When I'm doing missions, I want to be able to get in a fighter to dock at outposts when it is necessary.

I think it would be a terrible waste to develop something as amazing as Ship Launched Fighters and utilize it for combat situations only. If SLFs can land/dock on stations, and even better, carry a little bit(maybe 2 tons?) of cargo as well, it will allow for a whole new level of flexibility in the game.

I know that with the new ship summon feature and module/commodity storage feature, I could just simply summon a Diamondback Explorer and switch to it at stations for more or less the same effect.

But the ship launched fighter is a much more elegant and seamless method, IMO.

Does anyone know if this would be available in 2.2, or some time in the future? Did the devs say anything regarding this matter?

 

[Deleted member 38366]

My hope whas that SLF could be deployed instead of the SRV while the Ship is landed on a Planet for added fun on Planets.
The Launch Video mechanics don't look like it, though.

I'd reckon the SLF cannot land nor dock anywhere - except at the main Ship.

Not too much time left before Beta and eventually V2.2 hits.
My impression is, that they didn't consider those "secondary purposes" when designing and implementing them.

 

[redVENGEANCE]

They can only land on the ship from which they were launched.

 

[Weps]

I think it was confirmed in the Laveradio interview that this wouldn't be possible. The reason Sandro mentioned was that the landing bay doors simply can't open when the mothership is in dock, so there's no way to load the fighter back in except while in flight.

I think they also confirmed somewhere else that fighters don't have supercruise, and that they can be controlled only while in the immediate vicinity of the mothership (because of the fact that you're radio controlling them, not actually being in the fighter itself). So stray to far away from the mothership, and you loose the fighter. Supercruise is way beyond that.

I personally very much look forward to see this happening. In fact, I'd be devastated if FDev only allows the parent vessel to dock to stations.

When I'm doing missions, I want to be able to get in a fighter to dock at outposts when it is necessary.

Don't worry, you'll be able to use a Sidewinder or an Eagle instead.

 

[Ozram]

So much for anaconda owners using them to dock on outposts and do a little business.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Maybe they will add shuttle bays at some stage.

 

[CoyoteNZ]

Maybe they will add shuttle bays at some stage.

Shuttles would be great. I love running missions, but I want to run with a big ship. If I could have a little sidewinder in a bay which I could launch to deliver data missions, or even shuttle down cargo for delivery missing that would be gold!

 

[LoneWolf2183]

My hope whas that SLF could be deployed instead of the SRV while the Ship is landed on a Planet for added fun on Planets.
The Launch Video mechanics don't look like it, though.

I'd reckon the SLF cannot land nor dock anywhere - except at the main Ship.

Not too much time left before Beta and eventually V2.2 hits.
My impression is, that they didn't consider those "secondary purposes" when designing and implementing them.

And here I was hopping to go flying through canyons in a F63 lol.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

And here I was hopping to go flying through canyons in a F63 lol.

I think letting the Ship hover at Altitude might still permit that.
However, there must be some form of Range limitation, unless the Instancing treats the base Ship like an actual, instanced Wingman even over very long distances.

I'll try that, though. 3D Printed, cheap fun racer

 

[Armia]

So much for anaconda owners using them to dock on outposts and do a little business.

Because cash isn't everything, especially so when there is Engineers stuff involved in. I've seen many missions that require docking to outposts which offered rare Engineer material.

 

[AdmiralFloof]

Well the fighters doesn't have landing gear. Just watch the video and you'll see. Also, no FSD so yeah, no to both

 

[Ozram]

Because cash isn't everything, especially so when there is Engineers stuff involved in. I've seen many missions that require docking to outposts which offered rare Engineer material.

Not sure I catch your meaning.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

So many missed gameplay opportunities. Using a fighter to battle surface skimmers should have been fun, were it possible.

 

[Armia]

Not sure I catch your meaning.

I thought you meant sarcasm by 'little business' but if not, sorry for my misunderstanding, cmdr.

 

[Ozram]

So many missed gameplay opportunities. Using a fighter to battle surface skimmers should have been fun, were it possible.

Yes. It looks as though this will be another great mechanic that FD manages to screw up via lack of thoughtful implementation.

 

[Armia]

So many missed gameplay opportunities. Using a fighter to battle surface skimmers should have been fun, were it possible.

This was one of my most anticipated usage scenario of SLFs.
Too bad it ain't happening, at least from current point of view.

But hey, they may allow us to hop in on of the SLFs instead of 'neuro-link' controlling them when Season 3 comes. Then hopefully we might be able to do things I wrote in the original most, and even more.
We could park our Anaconda in orbit, take a Sidey for an easier reentry, zip through the alien atmosphere eventually landing on purple grasslands, teeming with indigenous flora, take a walk if you feel like it... wait, did anyone say No Mans Sky?

 

[Cervantes01]

Yes. It looks as though this will be another great mechanic that FD manages to screw up via lack of thoughtful implementation.

couldn't agree more.

 

[lysan]

So many missed gameplay opportunities. Using a fighter to battle surface skimmers should have been fun, were it possible.

You can do this, deploy the fighter 100 M from the surface while hovering.

 

[Cervantes01]

You can do this, deploy the fighter 100 M from the surface while hovering.

It's an ROV fighter as I understand it, so range of engagement will be limited, (If I am wrong about this I apologies) it might change in the future (I hope) when we can hire npc/player crew to fly these things independently, ship launched fighters are a good start though.

 

[kofeyh]

Yes. It looks as though this will be another great mechanic that FD manages to screw up via lack of thoughtful implementation.

.. they are fighters, not designed to dock or land; they are tiny. I can only imagine the screaming (from all sides) if they could. Don't underestimate the ability of commanders to make a complete hash of feature suggestions, as frontier do to implementation.