Posted by: baconholic
« on: May 20, 2017, 03:44:06 PM »One thing to keep in mind about beam weapon fighter is that they need to be 100% trained on every single fighter in the group in order to be effective. Between research, building fighters, and training, you could be looking at a decade before they are combat ready. By that time, you'll have new techs and will want to upgrade, but since fighters cannot be upgraded, you'll have to train new ones again. In practice, your combat ready fighters are most likely going to be at least one generation behind missile fighters or beam FACs.
The second problem is cost. At 610 to 1156 BP, neither design is cheap. The big laser design will likely run into missile problems since they can't defend against missile attacks very well. The Gauss cannon design can defend against missiles, but at 610 BP, they aren't exactly expendable. I suggest replacing the Gauss with 10cm railguns. If you want to use them for PD purposes, then add more engines so your speed matches your max tracking speed. Otherwise just use the cheapest engines available that can still give you a speed advantage over the enemy ships.
The second problem is cost. At 610 to 1156 BP, neither design is cheap. The big laser design will likely run into missile problems since they can't defend against missile attacks very well. The Gauss cannon design can defend against missiles, but at 610 BP, they aren't exactly expendable. I suggest replacing the Gauss with 10cm railguns. If you want to use them for PD purposes, then add more engines so your speed matches your max tracking speed. Otherwise just use the cheapest engines available that can still give you a speed advantage over the enemy ships.