Fighter design

[Redshirt (OP)]

I've been wanting to make a big carrier the centerpiece of my fleet for a while (good ol' Tiger's Claw from the Wing Commander games was always a favorite.) The problem is, effective fighters are usually way up on the tech chain, so they need to be planned well in advance. I'd rather keep my missiles in my missile destroyers, I think, so what are the best weapon techs to focus on for fighters? My current game, I've been focusing on particle beams to mount on FAC, but they're not scaling well to fighters. What are good beam weapons for fighters? Or should I focus on gauss cannons since they don't need a power plant?

[HaliRyan]

Gauss cannons, lasers, and missiles are the big three for fighters. Mainly because all of them can be miniaturized in one way or another.

[Erik L]

Gauss cannons, lasers, and missiles are the big three for fighters. Mainly because all of them can be miniaturized in one way or another.

Don't discount meson-fighters. Those can wreak terrible havok on a fleet.

[Redshirt (OP)]

Oh, I like that idea. One point of damage, but it ignores defenses. Can you get them in a fighter under 250 tons?

[TheDeadlyShoe]

not really. there's only so much you can do with a 150ton weapon. +50 tons for engine, that leaves you only 50 tons for armor, command module, fuel, and fire control.  You either have to accept lower than hoped-for speed, or use meson FACs instead.

in general: gauss cannons make the best point defense fighters, but inaccuracy with small GCs is a problem.  Reduced size lasers pack the best punch, but turreting them is prohibitive. Missiles are the most flexible in terms of fighter size and role, but require a greater logistical effort.  (Missile fighters are far superior in many ways, but they do have some disadvantages.)

once 5.7 hits, there will be more flexibility in fighter design in the sense that larger fighter will be more viable. However, beam fighters will also lose their primary advantage compared to larger beam ships -fighter engines won't be as automagically superior. 

[Erik L]

not really. there's only so much you can do with a 150ton weapon. +50 tons for engine, that leaves you only 50 tons for armor, command module, fuel, and fire control.  You either have to accept lower than hoped-for speed, or use meson FACs instead.

in general: gauss cannons make the best point defense fighters, but inaccuracy with small GCs is a problem.  Reduced size lasers pack the best punch, but turreting them is prohibitive. Missiles are the most flexible in terms of fighter size and role, but require a greater logistical effort.  (Missile fighters are far superior in many ways, but they do have some disadvantages.)

once 5.7 hits, there will be more flexibility in fighter design in the sense that larger fighter will be more viable. However, beam fighters will also lose their primary advantage compared to larger beam ships -fighter engines won't be as automagically superior. 

Fighters can be up to 500 tons.

[Gyrfalcon]

Why would you turret the laser on a fighter? I thought that tracking speed of a laser went in order that if the ship's speed was higher then the base tracking speed, the ship's speed would be used.

[HaliRyan]

Fighters can be up to 500 tons.

True, but a 500 ton fighter is going to be horrendously slow. Anything over 300 tons and you're probably better off designing a FAC instead imho.

[sublight]

Why would you turret the laser on a fighter? I thought that tracking speed of a laser went in order that if the ship's speed was higher then the base tracking speed, the ship's speed would be used.

Because fighter beam fire control gets a 4x speed bonus free. Using all of that generally takes a turret.
I'm currently experimenting with with using slow 450 ton anti-missile fighters with twin miniaturized lasers that fire with 5x tracking and fire control speeds. 450 is too slow for an effective attack fighter, but these only needed to keep up with their escort carriers.

Since I needed fighter factories anyway I also designed a 330 ton meson fighter with engineering space for jump point picketing.

[Bremen]

Yep. As mentioned, in the current version beam fighters are difficult from a design standpoint, simply because larger fighters are handicapped speed wise, and a beam + a beam fire control is fairly heavy.

In the next version fighter engines wont have quite the power advantage they do now, but you'll be able put bigger engines on bigger fighters at least. I suspect 400-500 ton heavy beam fighters might be quite practical.

[blue emu]

I've found Beam fighters fairly useful for fighting in nebulae. I wonder of some other option... meson or gauss... would work better, though.

[Bremen]

I just use the word beam for anything other than a missile or torpedo, actually 

I suspect that mesons will be the most powerful weapon for an anti-ship fighter, for obvious reasons. I think mass drivers might be an interesting space superiority alternative, though; four shots with the tracking speed of a fighter can make for rather impressive PD fire, and other fighters or gunboats aren't likely to have heavy shields or armor that would make mesons dominant.