Fighter
Fighters (or 'strike craft') are small craft that are launched from carrier capable ships. This page details fighter mechanics and how to use them. The Category:Fighter page lists available fighters.
Please be aware there is a difference between Carriers & Battlecarriers. Carriers will attempt to use their fighters in a support role and generally keep themselves out of the fighting. Battlecarriers will attempt to use their fighters as well as ship-mounted weapons in tandem.
Carriers with modular decks;
Battlecarriers with modular decks;
Note ships using Converted Hangar act as Battlecarriers
Tips & Tricks
Bombers launch missiles and are highly effective at finishing off vulnerable ships. Fighters surround the target and fire their weapons, and are both distractions and damage dealers. Interceptors are generally defensive, used to destroy enemy fighters and missiles.
Engage / Regroup
- Pressing Z by default toggles fighters between Engage and Regroup.
- Fighters will usually attack the closest ship, unless you have chosen a target by pressing R. You can also target allied ships, which will cause fighters to protect the target.
- The Regroup mode recovers fighter replacement rate.
Mechanics
Refit time
The refit time is the base time it takes to replace a single fighter.
Fighter Replacement rate
Fighter Replacement is the rate at which the carrier can continue to fabricate and rearm fighters. It slowly lowers while the carrier's wings are at or below two-thirds of their normal compliment until hitting a floor of 30% and slowly regenerates back to 100% otherwise. If Combat readiness reaches zero then the replacement rate will immediately drop to 0. Replacement rate loss is lower if fighters are set to Regroup.
Replacement rates are computed for each bay, then averaged to give the final rate used for actual fighter replacement times from all bays. Unused bays count as always having 100% rate.[1]
The per-bay computation is:[1]
- If the wing is at max members: increase the rate by 1% per second, modified by
REPLACEMENT_RATE_INCREASE_MULT(e.g. from Expanded Deck Crew) - If the wing is not at max members: decrease the rate by 1% per second, modified by
REPLACEMENT_RATE_DECREASE_MULT, and x0.5 if the * ship has the fighters pulled back - Rate is then floored at
minFighterReplacementRate(0.3 or 30% by default)
Officer Personalities
Officer personalities influence whether they will use their fighters to attack enemy ships or escort their allies. Timid and Cautious officers will tend to escort, Aggressive and Reckless officers will prefer attacking, and Steady officers or ships without an officer in command will use both options equally.
Formation
Different fighter wings fly in different formations. The default formations are "V", "BOX" and "CLAW".
Fighter Roles
Fighter
Fighters are generalist small craft, for example the Broadsword Heavy Fighter Wing. They will attack both enemy ships and fighters. Fighters, particularly heavy fighters, tend to be quite resilient and/or carry flares. This makes them good at tying up enemy point defense, which can improve the success rates of missile attacks and bombing runs.
Interceptor
Interceptors are specifically designed to take out other fighters or missiles, for example the Talon Interceptor Wing. Interceptors prioritize enemy fighter craft. It may be tempting to use interceptors to escort bomber groups, but it is notable that interceptors "stay behind" most other fighter wings in fighter attack formations, including bombers, leaving them vulnerable. Interceptors also tend to have weapons that are not as effective against larger, more armored and protected ships.
Bomber
Bombers typically carry the heaviest payloads, to excel at taking out heavy targets, for example the Dagger Torpedo Bomber Wing. They ignore enemy fighters to attack their target and AI ships will never use them to escort allies. Adding at least one Bomber role fighter to a carrier will cause all fighter roles in that carrier to avoid escorting allies.
Support
Support provides assistance to ships, for example Xyphos Support Wing. Unlike other types of fighters, they cannot be ordered to engage on their own, and must either escort an ally or stay by their carrier. In exchange, they boast a combination of resilience, point defense, and powerful anti-ship weaponry not found in other wings.
AxleMC131's Notes
The following section contains user-submitted suggestions, these may be inaccurate or outdated.
REFIT SUMMARY
- Since version 0.8, fighters are no longer carried as "ships" in your fleet. Instead they are picked up as items, much like weapons, in the form of "Fighter LPCs", or "Limited Production Chip". - In the game's lore, Limited Production Chips are computer chips accepted by a carrier's fighter nanoforges, and carry instructions on the assembly of a particular fighter type. - Certain ships - including all carriers - can carry Fighter LPCs in "Fighter Bay" slots. These are attached much like weapons are fitted in weapon slots, and any fighter bay can carry any fighter, assuming the ship has the ordnance points available. - Fighter ordnance point costs vary a great deal more than weapons, ranging from the cheapest fighters (Talon and Mining Pod) to the most expensive (Trident).
BASIC COMBAT USE
- When in control of a carrier, there are two new parts of the UI to pay attention to. These are the fighter mode, and the replacement rate (shown here below weapon groupings). - Fighters have two combat modes: "Regroup" and "Engage". Pressing the Z key toggles fighters between the two modes. When in Regroup mode, fighters will stay near your carrier. When set to Engage mode, fighters will move out and attack enemies in different ways depending on their type. - Note that while set to Engage mode, a carrier will not receive its zero-flux engine boost. - As fighters are killed, your carrier will build replacement units. This taxes the ship's "Replacement Rate", which is an indication of how stressed the ship's nanoforges are. While fighter wings are below two thirds of their maximum complement, the Replacement Rate will start to drop and fighter replacement will slow down. Once your fighters are back above two thirds complement, the Replacement Rate will rise again. Ordering fighters into Regroup mode slows the rate at which Replacement Rate drops, and increases the rate at which it picks up again. - It is therefore important to keep an eye on Replacement Rate, and recall your fighters when it starts getting too low. - Fighters that have been killed are displayed in the UI as greyed out. - Carriers will automatically stop launching replacement craft when they reach 0% Combat Readiness.
- Targeting an enemy ship will make your fighters prioritize attacking it over others. - Targeting a friendly or allied ship will instead make your fighters escort that ship.
FIGHTER AI TYPES IN COMBAT
- There are several different roles fighters can take, which invoke different behaviours in them in combat. The main roles are Fighter, Interceptor, Bomber, Assault and Support. Due to the similarities and differences between these roles, we shall look closely at just three of these: Fighter, Bomber and Support. - Fighters designated with the "Fighter" or "Heavy Fighter" role are the most basic. When set to engage a target, they will fly out to the target and kite it, circling around it and firing their weapons until they are either destroyed or recalled. - Bombers and Torpedo Bombers do not attempt to kite, and instead will approach their target, fire their ordnance when in range, and then turn and retreat back to their carrier, automatically landing, re-arming, and re-launching. - Support fighters cannot directly engage enemy ships, and will always hold position near their carrier even when set to Engage. However, most Support fighters can still be ordered to escort friendly ships by targeting them.
A NOTE ON BOMBERS AND RE-ARMING
- Bombers have some interesting additional effects on replacement rate and refit time. - When a bomber has fire its entire payload, it will become greyed out in the UI and treated as "dead". This will cause the Replacement Rate to drop, even while the fighter is technically still alive. - If an empty bomber manages to reach its carrier and land, it will not have to wait the full rebuild time before it launches again. Instead it will be rapidly re-armed and launch again in just a few seconds.
FIGHTER TYPE COMBINATIONS
- Fighters work best when you combine their roles. A carrier loaded with nothing but bombers might sound like it packs a punch, but in fact you are better off combining some bombers with other types of fighter that can help them and their payloads survive point defence fire and interception. - Certain fighters are specialized in this role. The Broadsword Heavy Fighter for instance features Decoy Flare Launchers, a form of flare which circles a target ship and distracts its point defence. The Broadsword also has light machine guns which deal a lot of kinetic damage at short range, letting them build up their target's flux. Combining a Piranha Bomber wing with a Broadsword wing is almost always far more effective than simply using two Piranha wings. - Fighters should be treated as a carrier's weapons, and as such they should also synergize well with the carrier's mounted weaponry. If you are fielding fighters that deal a lot of High Explosive damage, you may want to consider equipping more Kinetic weaponry to your carrier to help them break through shields.
Change History
0.9
- Fighters from the same carrier will now coordinate their attacks if launched together and given the proper distance to do so
- Ordering fighters to engage builds flux up to slightly above 5%
- Fighter replacement rate now goes down as long as the majority of wings have a missing fighter
- Note that this is coupled with fixing a bug that caused a lowered rate to apply twice
- Thus: not a nerf overall
- When ordered to regroup, fighters will always be able to keep up with the carrier, regardless of their top speed otherwise
Bombers returning to re-arm also receive this bonus