Problem with fighters

[Black (OP)]

OK I have a problem with my fighters. I want to engage Precursor FAC. But for some reason my fighters do not open fire on enemy ships.

I have fighter equipped with gauss cannon. They are following enemy FAC at 40k km. And all I get is a message: Fire Control targeting FAC at 40k km: Base chance to hit: 66% (Fire Control To Hit: 50% Modified by Crew Grade: 50% Modified by Fighter Combat Bonus: 66%)

Similar problem with my missile fighters. Message is: Fire Control targeting FAC at 540k km.

My fighters:

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Striker class Fighter-bomber    495 tons     3 Crew     122 BP      TCS 9.9  TH 120  EM 0
12121 km/s     Armour 2-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3
Maint Life 3.29 Years     MSP 15    AFR 19%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 2    5YR 31    Max Repair 30 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 7   
Magazine 20   

60 EP Fighter Ion Drive (2)    Power 60    Fuel Use 484.22%    Signature 60    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 30 000 Litres    Range 2.3 billion km   (51 hours at full power)

Loki-4 Bomber Launcher (5)    Missile Size 4    Hangar Reload 30 minutes    MF Reload 5 hours
ASM FC (1)     Range 91.1m km    Resolution 60
Pillum-4 ASM (5)  Speed: 22 500 km/s   End: 52.4m    Range: 70.7m km   WH: 4    Size: 4    TH: 240/144/72

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes


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Zero class Fighter    495 tons     4 Crew     127 BP      TCS 9.9  TH 120  EM 0
12121 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3
Maint Life 2.85 Years     MSP 16    AFR 19%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 3    5YR 43    Max Repair 30 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 6   

60 EP Fighter Ion Drive (2)    Power 60    Fuel Use 484.22%    Signature 60    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 30 000 Litres    Range 2.3 billion km   (51 hours at full power)

30mm Gauss Cannon (1x3)    Range 30 000km     TS: 12121 km/s     Accuracy Modifier 50%     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fighter Gauss FC (1)    Max Range: 80 000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0

Fighter Search Sensor (1)     GPS 14     Range 2.0m km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes

I engaged larger enemy ship in same system with my destroyers without any problems. Unfortunately my destroyers are too slow to engage enemy FAC. I have no idea what I am doing wrong.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Your Gauss cannon only has 30.000km range. Just move your fighters to within 10-30k range and they will fire their cannons.

[Ostia]

You only have 30k km max range.  Close in to get into range. 
Your range might be further reduced by ECM.  That means even closer in to get into range.  A ECCM counters this, but taking size restrains into account, this probably not an option.

[Black (OP)]

Unfortunately my fighters are for some reason unable to get closer than 40k km. I gave them order to follow target.

But still my missile fighters should be able to engage those FACs right? Their FC has Range vs 1000 ton object: 10 120 000 km.

[Jorgen_CAB]

ECM only effect the to hit rate with beam weapons while missile fire-control get lower range.

Anyway... you probably have a lower initiative than them and thus you move first they move second and that is why you are 40k km after them. Try raising the initiative on the fighter group or break it up in several parts with different commanders that has a better initiative.

You set the initiative on the task-group screen.

[Black (OP)]

It really was initiative problem, thanks for the advice. But I still do not understand why my missile fighters did not open fire.

[Jorgen_CAB]

The fire control of the fighters are at resolution 60 that is 3000 tons. So they need to get much much closer to fire their missiles on a 1000 ton FAC with their level of ECM that is.

[Black (OP)]

Well they were at 540k km, that is 540000 km right?

This FC should be able to get them at that range:

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Active Sensor Strength: 28   Sensitivity Modifier: 140%
Sensor Size: 1 HS    Sensor HTK: 1
Resolution: 60    Maximum Range vs 3000 ton object (or larger): 91 080 000 km
Range vs 1000 ton object: 10 120 000 km
Range vs 250 ton object: 632 500 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 28    Crew: 2
Materials Required: 0x Duranium  28x Uridium

Development Cost for Project: 280RP

I did not receive any message about ECM, so I don't think that those FACs had any.

[Jorgen_CAB]

That is true... at that range you should have no problem to fire your missiles. As long as you had an active scanner on them, but I suppose you did.

What exactly did the log say?

The only other thing I could think of was a fire delay due to inexperience or lack of fleet training. This can take a while sometimes.

[Black (OP)]

Yes they do have the inexperience delay: Striker is preparing to fire but her weapons are not yet ready. But then the message changes to: ASM FC is targeting FAC at 540k km. My bombers does not have search sensors, only fire control, but my gauss fighters are equipped with active search sensors. Maybe that is the problem? I thought that my bombers will be able to fire when target is in range of my other ships active sensors. Do they need their own active search sensor?

[Jorgen_CAB]

No, as long as something is putting an active on the target and your fighter has a FC that can see the target and a weapon within range you should be able to fire.

Are you sure that you actually assigned the launchers to the fire control (or any missiles to the launcher) in the combat screen or some such or that you gave the all clear to open fire or something. Just take a look there and make sure.

[se5a]

I've had problems getting missile fighters to autofire. beam fighters seemed fine but missile fighters on autofire just sat there and did nothing.

[Black (OP)]

Thank you se5a. It really was Automated Fire problem. When I turned it off, my missile fighters opened fire just fine. I wonder why it is not working with missile fighters.

[Garfunkel]

Auto fire is for NPR/spoilers. Never use it as a human, as even though sometimes it works, it's never as good as doing it by hand yourself - ie, wasting missiles, targeting less dangerous enemies and so on. To reduce micro, use the "copy assignment to TG" and "copy target to TG" buttons.

[se5a]

and then you have to re-assign each time a target dies.

try doing that when fighting the swarm.