Thank you guys so much for the replies.
I will definitely look into the fire control designs, armour and deployment time to save mass.
@AL thanks! I havent messed around with fighters much. I thought my speed was decent since it was better than certain ships of factions I am not allowed to mention.
@Paul M thanks for pointing out the deployment time! I have large dedicated sensors (active and passive) on frigates for the fleet and on my PDCs, so I was hoping that would be sufficient. Most of the Fighters i own are currently planet based(yet to build a carrier since I havent met any NPRs yet. . . Except for SPOILERS camping Gliese. . . ) I also use a standardised fire control on all my fighters, but I'll definitely look into this. And thermal reduction will be introduced:) thanks for that tip
@Prince of Space it is very true what you are saying. Not being hit is the best armour of all. having fought against meson armed ships they just felt a bit cheap ignoring all defences. . .
@ Steve Walmsley firstly, thanks for this great game! It is absolutely amazing! A bit overwhelming at first though. . .
The role of these fighter-bombers is probably more roleplay than practicality. . . Lasers just feel like they should be on interceptors, or absolutely massive ones (spinal mounted) on capital ships. Plasma carronade is almost an analogue to the plasma bombs used by the Hiigarans in Homeworld. . . so it just felt right to me
I have a laser armed fighter very similar to CharonJr's design. My speed is just lacking since I havent fixed the armour or the deployment time errors of mine. Will correct it in the next production run.
@ GreatTuna thank the gods I'm not fighting you then:D
Thanks again for all the input! You have really helped me with understanding this game a bit better:)