Sombreroman couldn't sleep. Z-Vectors, A Stale Meta, Not a lot of new parts... Then it hit him. With the help of @Atarlost 's Post about the meta becoming stale, It all fused together into a block of gold. A Beautiful piece of art. It almost felt like unlimited power. And although many others may have suggested this before, This could just be the definitive version: FIGHTER-CLASS SHIPS, AND COUNTERPLAY AGAINST THEM! 😱
Fighter School 101
In space fantasy, a Fighter is a small ship armed with weapons. Cheap as paper at usual, These ships usually had one pilot control the action. These are MUCH SMALLER Than larger ships. The common fighter has two subdivisions: The Interceptor and The Bomber.
Interceptors are ships made to fight other ships around their size. They come smaller than their Bomber counterparts, and are usually a lot faster as well. Interceptors are usually found fighting ships their size and defending Bombers. They are horrible at dealing damage to bigger ships, however, and usually it takes a long time for them to break through armour.
Bombers are ships made to deal with ships much larger than they are. These ships do not fare well with ships around their size usually, due to their light armament. However, they make up for light weapons with powerful bombs that can nail down capital ships. The thing about Bombers is they can't protect themselves- You need both Interceptors and Bombers to operate properly.
The Sombrenergy Thorium
Fun Fact: I used to play a ton of Spore! (tm, RIP Maxis) So if you played it, then this concept will be familiar.
"So uh, Sombreroman?" I hear you say. "What's stopping me from making a small death machine armed with 17 Planet busters and 50 Heavy Machine Guns with .45 Calibur bullets?" Well, This Thorium I call the Sombrenergy Thorium, explains this. Put simply, unlike a large cosmoteer ship, a fighter is a balance of the stats. The more energy you have, the less health you have. the more health you have, the slower you go. The Faster you go and the more weapons you have, the more energy you need.
It's a perfect balance to be maintained.
Are You An Interceptor Or A Bomber?
After you're done creating your murderous gunboat, it needs a final touch. Basically, It's pretty much making your ship a Boy or a Girl. This will determine it's usage. Interceptors are much more common but have lowered stats, while bombers have pretty much regular ones but are rarer than their Interceptor counterparts.
Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fire
So, it's time for combat.... Where are your ships coming from?! The answer? Hangars. Wow. But here's the thing: There are two types of hangars, and they are visible on the top of your ship! The Interceptor hangar holds interceptors, and The Bomber hangar... Well, you get the picture. But we're not quite done flight prep yet. We need to fabricate the parts. There are also fabricators for each ship type, and the ships come in assorted pieces, get carried to the hangar, get charged, and then fly away! Later, the survivors will fly back to be recharged. Remaining fighters will not be destroyed after an FTL jump. Keep in mind, hangars will be quite large...
It's A Bird, It's A Plane...
The battle begins, and your ships swarm the battlefield.... So... What now? When a ship is destroyed, another one will be made to occupy that one's hangar spot. And... What's this? A Fighter is flying ABOVE a capital ship! "WITCHCRAFT!" I hear you say in horror. But what this acutally means is that the Fighters have their own play space while the capital ships duke it out. This is not purely ascetic, however; Bombers will fly above an enemy capital ship and do a bombing run on it, Dropping their bomb capacity in the line they're flying, and then immediately return to the hangar to be reloaded.
I'm Tired Of These Beepin Fighters In My Beepin Space!
So, you're being attacked by Bombers. What the heck are you going to do?
Point Defences will attack whatever ships come close assuming a missile isn't also nearby, (And even then the PD will penetrate through a ship if it destroys it) and deal massive damage. Interceptors are out of luck if they come by a PD Turret; Not even Maximum HP will save them. However, Hardy Bombers will be able to tank a shot and keep on flying.
General weapons do have potential to hit Fighters, if they aren't flying above ships.
- Electro-Bolts Will Disable a ship and basically destroy it.
- Ion Beam - Fighter = No More Ship
- Cannon fire will completely penetrate through the hull of a fighter, and destroy weaker ones. (AKA Just like point defence.)
Anti-Fighter Batteries will appear on top of a ship, and they'll quickly go to work against enemy ships. Only problem is they take lots of effort to keep online.
Missiles are buffed in the sense that they'll also be able to send out a micro-missile or two. These have the same effect as a regular missile, and ships can rarely dodge them. They will destroy a ship on contact, but have a very limited supply of fuel. Only one micro-missile can be tailing a Fighter at a time, and said fighter will get a short moment to breath before being shot at again.
Shield Generators will destroy Bombers that try to fly through, So Interceptors will be the only option against them. Generators spend quite a chunk of power, but generally they'll be worth the cost if you don't want to get carpet bombed every five seconds.
General Fighter attacks won't really do a number on a full block of armour.
- As a new part idea, armour panel (Vertical) and armour panel (On The Side)! They'll block a slight bit of damage, and block extra damage vs. Bombs! Also, you can put them on the top of your ships too!... Which is actually kind of the point.
Fighters are allergic to regular shields. They explode when touching them.
Michael Bay For Dummies
When creating a Bomber, You obviously need it's namesake. Look no further than your ordinance silos. These cost you your speed. However, you can't bomb enemies with air; That'd be remarkably stupid. Instead, you need your bombs and their families. Bomb load outs for each ship are determined by a slider of sorts. (Crew, by the way, are bomb-phobic- they will run for it if they realize a bombing run is coming to them.)
The Electro-Magnetic Pulse Bomb Is created by Reactor Batteries. Three Each, to be specific. These may cost a lot of energy for proportion, but it does something useful. When dropped on a target, It destroys 1 Battery on each part in the weapon's radius from the initial target: 3 Corridor blocks from Ground Zero. (Effect does stack on initial target!) These bombs are hefty to create and take quite long to fully fabricate- Make them count.
The Carpet Bomb lets you drop a line of bombs after the Bomber flies above the enemy. Each bomb deals a light amount of damage. After a bombing run, The ship returns for a reload. This actually uses a "Bomb Tax" System; Each 5 Bombs dropped cost one cannon ammo. When "Reloading", (Or more like paying!) You pay your debt in that amount of cannon ammo. The Bomb deals damage to just the one tile it hits, and will kill whatever crew are getting hit by it. An alternative version would use Missile Pieces.
The Dumb Bomb has a radius of 3 Blocks from Ground Zero. The bomb's damage is higher to things closer to Ground Zero. Crew in an area of 4 Blocks from Ground Zero Die Instantly, as well. However, Crew are especially scared of dumb bombs, and are especially good at realizing they are about to be hit. Dumb bombs cost 3 Cannon Ammo to create, but take a quick in ratio amount of time to complete.
The Frag Explosive is your Run-Of-The-Mill Bomb. It only affects a radius of 1 Block from Ground Zero. (AKA 2X2 Corridors) And deals a small amount of damage. Any crew hit by this die, but they are slow to realize they are about to be hit by a Frag Explosive. Crew do, however, act quickly depending on how many of them are in the area.
The Small Landing Pod would deploy 1 Soldier to attack an enemy ship. They won't deal a lot of damage, as all crew are issued 1 Laser Pistol, But they will shoot down all the crew they can in the meantime. To make a SLP, You need one Cannon Ammo and 1 Willing Crew Member. It takes a chunk of time before a SLP is ready.
GENERAL PARTS
A General Mix and match of parts.
The Laser Caster is a small weapon, available to both Bombers and Interceptors. It Costs 0.5 Units of energy.
The Wide Maneuver Engine (WME) Costs 1 Unit of energy per engine, and allows a ship to move.
The Thruster costs 0.25 Units of energy and increases a ship's speed. For Bombers, Energy Cost Doubles.
A Power Generator Stores 1 Unit Of Energy, Increasing Capacity. Lowers HP by 10%.
Armour Types have a varying percent adding, ranging from 5% to 50%.
Bombers can also adjust the amount of armour layers they have, up to 3 Different ones. Type can be adjusted for each layer. Armour Effect Doubles, But Speed also slows down by Triple.
Every ship needs a cockpit. There are Very Small, Small, And Regular Variants, (Costing 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75 Energy Respectively.) Which increase the maximum stats you can have for each stat. (And also increases production time! Also, you can upgrade the tech of the cockpit for an extra 0.25 Energy Cost Per slight upgrade.)
On-Ship Parts
Another Grab Bag, Except this is on your main ship, instead of on your Fighters.
Pilot Generator creates a Pilot. There is also a crew generator that spends tons of energy, but Pilots Cost less energy to create and are faster to create too. Pilots are necessary for flying ships.
On regular factory parts, they now have a drop bin that leads to hangars. This helps with upkeep. Bin transport is slow, however, with more expensive loads.
Flight control rooms let you issue attack orders for your Fighters. They only carry out the order if close to your ship. Adding more control rooms increase the order radius, but Flight control spends as much energy as scanners.
Bomb Prep Stations are vital for creating stronger bombs.
Lock Your Foils Into Attack Position!
It doesn't seem like we gave Interceptors a lot of love. Let's fix that!
The Micro Railgun Penetrates through Fighters and deals increased damage to the Shield Generators. Spends 2 Points of Energy.
- The Plasma Crossbow Can only damage generators and also costs 2 Energy, But It packs one heckuva punch. It can only fire once before a long recharge period.
The Hypervolley Is a death sentence to whatever the Interceptor is targeting, but it can only hit Fighters. Costs 2 Energy and also has quite a bit of a recharge time.
The Quad Foil is your go-to weapon for space combat. Costs 1 Energy, and is generally a great all around weapon.
The Torpedo Tube will either send a Torpedo to track down an enemy ship, Or deal a good bit of damage. (Same properties as Flak Bomb) 1 Cannon Ammo becomes 6 Torpedoes. Torpedo Tubes also Cost 1 Energy and must be reloaded at the Hangar.
How do you like the concept? I quite literally spent the whole night making this, so please give your thoughts and opinions, and thank you for reading! 😃