Fighters, how are they designed?

[Starkiller (OP)]

I was trying to design one via the ship design screen, but while designing and keeping the weight as low as I could, but a crew of 18? In a fighter?
I'm obviously doing something wrong, or going about it the wrong way. I can accept a 2 man fighter, but not more than that, they just aren't big
enough. Any pointers on designing fighters would be appreciated. Though since the base hanger has 5000 tons of space, five gunboats would
likely do as well, and I have those, at least. Heh.

Eric

[Erik L]

Fighters are starships that mass under 500 tons. So truly, fighter is probably a misnomer.

[Cassaralla]

Think of them as more like the LACs of Weber's Honor Harrington world.  Small vessels with a handful of crew, limited range and with a limited ammo supply.  On the plus side, they are difficult to detect and usually incredibly fast.

[Starkiller (OP)]

That's true. The speed goes down enormously when you add things, but initially, when I added the fighter engine, the speed was over
20000 km/s! Course, that was reduced dramatically as I added things. I'm going to play around a bit, to see how fast I can make them.
Since space is a major isuue with fighters, or more appropriately, LACs, what would you suggest as the best weapons loadout for these?

Eric

[waresky]

in my campaign,an dastardly precursor race hidden in a nebula..so ive build a Strike Carrier and Fighter with MESON cannon.i think Fighters must be follow the need on battle,design follow accordly the Doctrine uve use on battle.
So are a missile's Fighters,Railgun or Gauss,lasers and so on.
Only the Battlefield tell u what r best or better.

[Cassaralla]

That's true. The speed goes down enormously when you add things, but initially, when I added the fighter engine, the speed was over
20000 km/s! Course, that was reduced dramatically as I added things. I'm going to play around a bit, to see how fast I can make them.
Since space is a major isuue with fighters, or more appropriately, LACs, what would you suggest as the best weapons loadout for these?

Eric

Box missile launchers.  Best way of fitting an offensive punch into fighters in my opinion, don't need any magazine space either.  You could go for a reduced size laser instead, but I prefer the missile option.  I've had up to size 6 missiles firing from fighters in the past but you can cram in a few extra launchers if you go for smaller ones.



As for size of components, always remember to swap out for the small version of everything.  Engineering Stores, Life Support, Fuel Storage, the lot - make them all as small as you can.  They don't need a bridge as they're under 1000 tons.  Don't sacrifice too much speed for endurance though.  If you're going the missile route then they only need enough to get in range, fire off a volley, and then return to their carrier or homeworld for refueling and rearming.  I usually set up my carriers to carry two squadrons.  I keep one nearby or onboard at all times so I always have a small strike squadron ready.

[Erik L]

It's a matter of personal preference. If you go the missile route, you can have stand-off fighters. Beam type weapons force the fighter to close with the ships they are trying to kill. Beams also do not need to reload.

I'd use beam-armed fighters for CSP and missile-armed for strikes.

[SteveAlt]

I was trying to design one via the ship design screen, but while designing and keeping the weight as low as I could, but a crew of 18? In a fighter?
I'm obviously doing something wrong, or going about it the wrong way. I can accept a 2 man fighter, but not more than that, they just aren't big
enough. Any pointers on designing fighters would be appreciated.

The terms of Fighter and FAC/Gunboat are really because of the typical roles of the vessels involved plus a lot of Aurora players are ex-Starfire and naturally gravitate to familiar descriptions. In my own mind, the Aurora FAC, sometimes referred to as a corvette or a gunboat, is comparable to a larger version of a modern day fast attack craft, such as the Russian Molniya (crew 50, Displacement 550 tons, armament: 76mm gun, 2x CIWS, 4x Moskit SS-N-22 Sunburn Cruise Missiles or 8x SS-N-25 Switchblade) with a range of about 1700 miles.

Some countries are deploying corvettes as well, up to about 2000 tons. The German Braunschweig class corvette might be the closest to an Aurora FAC. It  is 1840 tons, has an endurance of 7 days and is equipped with two 21-cell box launchers for SAMs and two 2-cell launchers for anti-ship missiles, plus a 76mm gun.

The 'Fighter' is more like the smaller Osa. 210 tons, 4x Styx anti-ship missiles, crew 26, range about 500 miles. Or perhaps it could be thought of as a large bomber. However, given the number likely to be deployed and the role in which it is used, I think that fighter is likely the remain the common designation.

Steve