Carriers and fighters...
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:12 am
I think that they way fleets manage fighters need to be looked at... the issue is that they launch fighters too early so the fighters arrive without any support of their ships and just get overwhelmed by the enemy PD and other weapons.
As a player I can force my fleet to hold the fighters until the the opponent get into weapons range of my picket defences, that is when fighters should be released at the enemy.
As is they often get decimated, especially the bombers... especially if both sides have short ranged weapons in general on their ships.
Unless the fighters is like the main assault element of the fleet and the vast majority of the fleets combat power there is no reason to send them out before the main weapons of the enemy start targeting your ships so they are busy.
In my opinion the fleet AI need to understand this fact and not just waste their fighters needlessly in every fight. Most often I see a fighter swarm get decimated in half or more even before the two fleets meet. Doing very little real damage in the process.
Another thing is fighter AI itself. Bombers need to respect the settings better, even on cautious the bomber end up way to close to the ship they are attacking. Any bombers attacking with say missiles on cautious should really try to stay at the edge of their weapon range... when using torpedoes you might want to get closer but should still respect cautious stance if they feel weaker if you set that stance and closer if you set that.
As a player I can force my fleet to hold the fighters until the the opponent get into weapons range of my picket defences, that is when fighters should be released at the enemy.
As is they often get decimated, especially the bombers... especially if both sides have short ranged weapons in general on their ships.
Unless the fighters is like the main assault element of the fleet and the vast majority of the fleets combat power there is no reason to send them out before the main weapons of the enemy start targeting your ships so they are busy.
In my opinion the fleet AI need to understand this fact and not just waste their fighters needlessly in every fight. Most often I see a fighter swarm get decimated in half or more even before the two fleets meet. Doing very little real damage in the process.
Another thing is fighter AI itself. Bombers need to respect the settings better, even on cautious the bomber end up way to close to the ship they are attacking. Any bombers attacking with say missiles on cautious should really try to stay at the edge of their weapon range... when using torpedoes you might want to get closer but should still respect cautious stance if they feel weaker if you set that stance and closer if you set that.
... but maybe some additional tactical settings are indicated? One for bombers, one for fighters, both settings available for fleets as well as for single ships (as long as they have fighter bays)?