Fighters Destroyed, Damaged, Available

[Deathifier]

I've been flying about as part of my Favourite Squadron (the warbirds) and their flashy ship (I love it!) and have been getting worried watching the number of available ships slowly dwindle.

It's now day 4 and I'm down to 6 ships, the Falcon and Stormhawk groups are also down several ships.

I was just leading a strike against foothill starbase (well, my wingmen shot the starbase and did dodge-the-AA acrobatics, and I blew up the AA guns/SAM's, 5 available missions and 4 were kill starbase, 1 was sweep... obviously command doesn't care about killing AA first ) and when I returned with 4 very healthy ships the number available had dropped one, without any notification elsewhere that they had been in battle without me.

I haven't read the manual in detail (it was either read that, or play for 2hrs before I collapse into bed, and I decided to play) but I couldn't find anything about how the number of available ships is determined.

Am I going to get replacements for the ships that are lost?

I really don't want to see my favourite squad get chewed up, esp. since I'm still a fighter-jockey and the AI has already lost a Frigate to those silly minefields (which also ate several fighters and smashed up my own ship repeatedly!).

When I was flying Falcons (briefly, when there was nothing for the strike team to do), their numbers dropped sharply on just a few flights, and most of them I made it back intact with my wingman (depending on how you define intact, but we could still fly!). I haven't flown the stormhawks, and their losses are limited to other events happening without me.

Oh and just before I left I blew up Foothill starbase, taking me (in a vertical dive 7k up, nice view!), the starbase, everything nearby and the game with it (CTD to desktop). If it happens again tomorrow I'll report it into support

- Deathifier

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Nope, no way to replenish fighters mid campaign

[Mehrunes]

Foothill base goes up with quite a bang because it has a such a high integrity. Must be some kind of nuclear failsafe to keep the base from being captured. [:D]

edit: I also seem to lose at least 1 fighter from the unit I'm unit per mission from the OOB regardless of the condition my ships are in when I land.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I'm not sure. I find that I have unknown losses when commanding a carrier too.

[Mehrunes]

The last mission I played I waited until everyone else in my 3 ship element docked before I docked myself. The squadron lost 3 fighters. Since I only had 1 fighter go missing at a time before and I was usually the only one to dock, I'd guess that fighters that dock are counted as dead.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I'll check it next chance I get. I'm not sure, but I don't think it's as simple as that.

[Deathifier]

ORIGINAL: Mehrunes

Foothill base goes up with quite a bang because it has a such a high integrity. Must be some kind of nuclear failsafe to keep the base from being captured. [:D]

Oh yes it goes boom in a BIG way, always has

ORIGINAL: Mehrunes
edit: I also seem to lose at least 1 fighter from the unit I'm unit per mission from the OOB regardless of the condition my ships are in when I land.

Well it's not a sure-fire thing, same with your wingmen landing (mine have landed fine and not been considered lost). Just every mission there seems to be a chance that a ship goes missing.

I ruled out it taking heavily damaged ships out of the number, since I returned with a ship that had almost 0 hull left, and not much anything else, after a nasty encounter with minefields

ORIGINAL: TheDeadlyShoe
Nope, no way to replenish fighters mid campaign

Well I better make sure no more get lost to accidents
Thanks for the info!

- Deathifier

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I think it could be that the campaign system isnt reporting all encounters in Intel. I'm not sure if there's any way to tell.

[Mehrunes]

Only seemed to happen to units I fly. I only noticed it because Thunderbolt squadrons only have 12 craft.

[BMG]

It seems in higland at least that any fighter that actually lands on the carrier gets dropped off available forces that includes the one your flying. Ive been getting round the problem by using esc + 1 to quit the mission without landing you dont get and points for landing but you dont run out of fighters so fast either.

Bloody lovely game BTW.

[John DiCamillo]

Yeah, I think this is a genuine bug. I can't believe that no one (least of all me!) has noticed it before now. I haven't tested it, but I can see a problem in the code that seems likely to be causing this behavior.

Shoot.

[Deathifier]

Oh oh, I just came back from directing the fighter defence of one important starship in Firestorm from a carrier.

Good news, I successfully killed everything in sight and saved the day! (Not that the game cares, it just pretended the ship blew up!).

Bad news:
Every fighter I launched, plus every fighter that was destroyed (i.e. it appears to have counted some fighters twice), was considered lost on the mission.

I just cut all my fighter groups down to 1/2, 1/4 or 1/5th strength!

That's very, very, nasty.

- Deathifier

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Bad news:
Every fighter I launched, plus every fighter that was destroyed (i.e. it appears to have counted some fighters twice), was considered lost on the mission.

It's possible that is causing my defeats; in extended carrier missions I typically launch *EVERY* fighter; if every last one counts as lost it could be causing a "loss" in Firestorm for me.