Carriers and fighter command.

[Blackdog]

I donno, your solution to the q park issue just seems like its still too easy to give order and stay same.  My guess you would only need a second if that to give an order and your back in q park safe and sound.  Hardly enough time for an opponent to react and kill you.

What I like about my solution is its all or nothing and its simple (no chance of abuse).  Its not like players don't go back to dock a bunch of times anyways ( I don't, but most do).  Going back to get more fighters would be no different to someone going back to get more grenades after firing them all.  Another benefit to my suggestion is more strategy as to how many fighters to deploy at once.  If you want to be able to use your q-drive and stick around to fight, don't deploy all your fighters at once.

I don't know if everyone likes my idea or if we all decide to try another method.  But I would hardly consider it stupid.  In fact I would argue it is as well thought out as yours, just from a different perspective.  The pro's are stated here, you pointed out the cons of it.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

Well, Q park is going to be a feature.

So it'll be actually seperate from Q hopping as it's own command.

See, you missed the rest of the conversation.  Where I suggested that you cannot go INTO Q park mode so long as you have fighters deployed.

"We cannot do that sir!"

You can Q-JUMP, but can't use the 'park' command.

You'd have to recall your fighters first.

We have the code, so we can do this.  Not like before.
So it's better to achieve a balance of freedom of tactics while stomping out exploits.

The only possible way to exploit it then would be gopherjumping.  Or popping all around the map in Q space to stay in Q... but you actually have to WORK to do that and can't walk away.  And if with the addittion of a jump inhibbitor, that's not guaranteed.

[Blackdog]

LOL, I know you guys have the code.  That's not what I was trying to say. 

Anyways, I know Nite and Mob are capable of doing what you suggested.  I'm just not sure it is gonna go the way you have envisioned.  I know right now I could essentially stay in "q-warp" in a manner that it would almost be q-parked.  As you said it would take some control but its really not that difficult a maneuver to achieve. 

So let me ask this, how do you plan on working the deployed AI if the carrier q hops away, say back to base?  If they can not q with you, would they just fly back to you or would they stay do whatever the last command you sent?  Are you able to send orders from across the system?  If not, how close do you have to be to the AI?  How do you know for sure how far you are away to send the transmission?  See, these are all issues that would have to be dealt with in your suggestion.  I'm not saying it can not be done, but it makes things complicated.

But, if it can be done so everything is taken into consideration and it truly works seamlessly, I am all for your solution to the q-hop/park problem.  But really this idea should be down the road of things to be worked on.  More important issue's such and lag and sync should be addressed first.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

Okay, here's a breakdown.

You jump in and deploy fighters.

1: I think Q jump transitions are going to be slowed down soon.  Which means popping in and out will be less of a 'pop' manuever.  On top of slowing down the launch times, this will help keep a carrier in place during deployment ops.

2: Carrier fighters will not have their own Q drive.  So they fly wherever they go unless hauled by the carrier.

3: The weapons supplies on fighters remains limited, and the only way for them to rearm is to come in and dock with a carrier.  This means the carrier has to show up nearby and tractor them all in... which leaves it vunlerable to attack.

4:  A jump inhibitor is going to change the tactics of Q-jumping.  gopherhopping will be interrupted or prevented if the carrier deploys or goes to the wrong place and gets jumped.

5: Someone suggests 'dropping shields' for deployment and recovery.  I like.

Fighter management isn't as simple as 'send drones'.  Now, in this scenario, with the fighters Q-less and their effective anti-ship weapons of limited supply, an extended operation far from the carrier degrades performance.  In order to resupply fighter/bomber squadrons, the carrier has to come in and put itself at risk.  If we're talking a supercarrier's four squadrons having exhausted themselves.  You're looking at a minimum of eight, two-second tractor pulls.  Which would probably end up being about four to five seconds per cycle.  Totalling a recovery time of 32 to 40 seconds.  That's a good half minute where the carrier is essentially cycling it's shields down, and a half minute where the fighters are sitting ducks as they mull about for recovery.

If someone who's been watching decides to blitz around this time, and also uses a jump inhibitor to keep the carrier in one place, a frigate alone may well plink  with a single spinal mounted Heavy Ion Cannon sweep.   Essentially, catch it with its pants down.

Now, if a player deploys and runs away to safety... they may gopherjump right into an inhibitor field.  Their shields are up, but now they're caught without any assets around them.  Which means they're trying to fight back with token point defense fire and a few defense use guns.

So really, you can fly off away from your fighters all you want across the system, but if you get caught with your pants down, ... your fighters are across the system.  I hope you can hold out for them to scramble to return.

[Mars]

i dont like the fuel thing either very evil very bad.

[NiteHawk]

Fighters need some sort of fuel system to come back, it won't be quick, can be like 2-4 minutes before coming back to bay. If fighters just stay around without no fuel system, then it's going to be rather easy to spam the shit out of it.

[ChillFactor]

True, especially that fighters are always short-range attack units, so they can strike a planet from far away, but that doesn't mean you can spawn and attack, since they'll just run out of fuel.

Also, that means you just can't send out fighters and keep them out forever, they will always need to return.

[NiteHawk]

True, especially that fighters are always short-range attack units, so they can strike a planet from far away, but that doesn't mean you can spawn and attack, since they'll just run out of fuel.

Also, that means you just can't send out fighters and keep them out forever, they will always need to return.

Exactly, means you have to 'carry' them before traveling, hense the reason for a carrier, not a spamfighter.

[Arsanthania]

i think their should be a decent fuel on the fighters, but they should be upgradeable on a separate screen.
like you have the main refit screen, and then fighter refit screen, and bomber refit screen.

more buttons, but it'll be a bit more realistic.