My first fighter design in 6.1

[Nathan_]

Raptor I class Fighter    115 tons     4 Crew     40.4 BP      TCS 2.3  TH 30  EM 0
17391 km/s     Armour 1-2     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0.5
Maint Life 27 Years     MSP 22    AFR 1%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 1    Max Repair 25 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Spare Berths 1    

FTR 40 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 684.83%    Signature 30    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 2.3 billion km   (36 hours at full power)

FTR Gauss Cannon R3-8 (1x3)    Range 16,000km     TS: 17391 km/s     Accuracy Modifier 8%     RM 3    ROF 5        1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
FTR Raptor I FC R8k TS16k km/s (1)    Max Range: 16,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     37 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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

I'm going to try a swarm attack, but I don't think I'll do that often, dealing with wreckage and lifepods is a pain.

Good cloaking still won't let fighters get past the missile defense envelop, which will of course harm beam fighters in most cases.

[Charlie Beeler]

Not really.  With fighters space is at a premium, they max out at 10 hull spaces(500ton).  

Cloak systems are as massive at jumpdrives and don't scaledown to fighters without a very hefty research investment.  

Smallcraft EW systems(both ECM and ECCM) are also handicapped.  They are always no better than half the effective level of the full size ship systems.

Reduced thermal drives are useful if the OPFOR is relying on that for long range detection.  But don't depend on that, active sensors consistently outrange passives for standoff detection.  

Even if you have invested enough to field a beam fighter that has the TCS and thermal signature of a missile, systems at the investment level designed to engage missiles will easily kill it from beyond it's range to reply in an open space battle.  The only hope is to be able to field them in quantities that exceed to OPFOR's ability to kill them before they can open fire.  

I haven't fielded any fighters yet, but what about if they have good cloaking, ecm, and low-thermal drives? Is it possible to make a stealth beam fighter that can engage without getting toasted by AMM and PD?

[Charlie Beeler]

Just so that everyone understands, this fighter has less than a 3% hit chance per shot at point blank range before another modifier. 

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Raptor I class Fighter    115 tons     4 Crew     40.4 BP      TCS 2.3  TH 30  EM 0
17391 km/s     Armour 1-2     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0.5
Maint Life 27 Years     MSP 22    AFR 1%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 1    Max Repair 25 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Spare Berths 1   

FTR 40 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 684.83%    Signature 30    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 2.3 billion km   (36 hours at full power)

FTR Gauss Cannon R3-8 (1x3)    Range 16,000km     TS: 17391 km/s     Accuracy Modifier 8%     RM 3    ROF 5        1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
FTR Raptor I FC R8k TS16k km/s (1)    Max Range: 16,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     37 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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


I'm going to try a swarm attack, but I don't think I'll do that often, dealing with wreckage and lifepods is a pain.

Good cloaking still won't let fighters get past the missile defense envelop, which will of course harm beam fighters in most cases.

[Nathan_]

Are you sure? thats the 8% mod. the 3 is the velocity/ROF. In any event carriers can hold ridiculous gobs of them, hence swarming.

[Charlie Beeler]

Are you sure? thats the 8% mod. the 3 is the velocity/ROF. In any event carriers can hold ridiculous gobs of them, hence swarming.

Very.  That is 8% of the 37% hit chance that the BFC has at 10k/km not a bonus.  The RM of 3 (ie 30,000km in this case) is doing you nothing because you've restricted to BFC to a max range of 16,000km.

[Nathan_]

hmm, well I hope the fighter combat bonus works out then. should it be going as high as 1000%?

[Falcon]

Making a cloak that will fit into a fighter requires a LOT of research. And even then they'll probably be detected before they get into firing range unless your opponents have truly crap sensors. (I think you'll still be treated as a size 6 missile for the purpose of detection, so any PD sensors are going to catch you whatever your cloaking strength is.) So you'll have so suffer all of the AMM hits your missiles would and then you'll have to stay in range while your fighters slowly (or not quite so slowly if you use mesons) destroy the enemy fleet, still taking both AMM and PD fire.  

[Nathan_]

hmm, well I hope the fighter combat bonus works out then. should it be going as high as 1000%?

Update on this: nearly every fighter is hitting, so fighter combat bonuses are definitely going to be tweaked.