Posted by: Conscript Gary
« on: April 25, 2020, 04:13:14 AM »I will also point out that AA fire accuracy does take target speed into account, so bear that in mind with no engine. You can design some truly tiny engines now for exactly this reason.
A FFD is only needed for direct ground support, where fighters act like some kind of support for a ground formation.
Can you please explain why a mech suit is a frakking fighter and has fighter bays?
Thinking of doing a Fighter based campaign soon. If I wanted ground support fighters is this all I need?
do I need FFD on the ground?
Size 0.1 active is no big deal to add on. Do you absolutely need FFD? Would be cool if Steve made it so they could still work without it but with a penalty or something.
They can, but from my reading of the rules the penalty is so huge that the extra fighters are basically wasted. Your hit chance is multiplied by (Number of FFD supported fighters / Number of fighters), so basically 600 fighters on one FFD will get a -99% chance to hit, and you'll still only land as many hits as you would with six fighters. It could be that I misunderstand the mechanics here, but it did seem very harsh.
The pods require a missile fire control to operate, although this can be minimal size (0.1 HS) as there are no range or resolution restrictions.
Non-Support Fighter Missions
In addition to the option to directly support ground forces, fighters can be assigned additional missions over the battlefield. To be eligible, a fleet composed only of fighters is given one of the following orders with a system body as the destination. A friendly population is not required. These orders function in a similar way to a 'Follow' order, with the order remaining in place until removed by the player. Fleets with these orders that are at their target system body cannot be targeted in normal naval combat or by STO weapons.
Search & Destroy
Search and Destroy involves sending fighters to a planet with enemy ground forces (with or without friendly forces present) to attack targets of opportunity. This is similar to a ground support mission with the following differences:
The fighters do not need to be assigned to a friendly ground formation and do not require fire direction
The fighters will select any hostile formation, regardless of field position
The chance to hit is 33% of normal
Hostile AA will fire as if this is a ground support mission directed against the selected formation
Flak Suppression
Flak Suppression involves sending fighters to a planet with enemy ground forces (with or without friendly forces present) to specifically attack hostile AA units. Because the fighters are seeking out nearby AA units that are engaging them, the chance to hit is higher than for Search & Destroy, but the target selection is more difficult (finding the AA). This is similar to a ground support mission with the following differences:
The fighters do not need to be assigned to a friendly ground formation and do not require fire direction
The fighters will select any hostile formation, regardless of field position
The chance to hit is 50% of normal
Only hostile AA elements will be attacked. If none are present in the selected formation, no air-to-ground attack will take place
Hostile AA will fire as if this is a ground support mission directed against the selected formation, even if the fighters did not open fire
This post is also a placeholder for additional missions - one of which will be Combat Air Patrol (when I code it).
Size 0.1 active is no big deal to add on. Do you absolutely need FFD? Would be cool if Steve made it so they could still work without it but with a penalty or something.
You do need FFD for ground support fighters. I believe one FFD unit can control 6 fighters.
Correct. And because of this, and the fact that FFDs are relatively expensive as GUs go, building larger fighters for ground-support work is likely a good idea.
Also, someone said in another thread that ground support fighters need to have some kind of fire control, but that its quality really doesn't matter. I haven't tested this, but you may want to.
You do need FFD for ground support fighters. I believe one FFD unit can control 6 fighters.
I suggest you try at least 1 armor pen on the autocannon - even infantry with light armor has 1 armor at the start of the game. This might not be able to kill anything.
I'm not sure if you need an engine... but you probably don't as a fighter don't need to move away from the planet they are on in any way.
So in principle you don't need engines, fuel or fire-controls.
In my opinion ground fighters should have been a ground unit type rather than integrated with space ship modules. You could still have fighter pods for fighters to act as make shift fighters that you could add to box launchers.