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[Shooer]

This is my MK2 drone I'm using for the game right now.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Only thing I changed from the MK1 to the MK2 was upping the forward and reverse pair thrusters to medium.  Only increased the price by 200 to get a lot faster.

I'm using them like defense satellites for my carrier right now, even set up my carrier so when they are docked they up it's firepower.

[Girlinhat]

You have no forward or backwards thrust.  But I don't think that matters very much.

[Rainbows]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Slightly slower forwardly, even slower on other axis, more turn and hopefully that armour I piled on the front would keep it alive.

Isn't keeping CnC at the front risky?


also how long do games last? Is 69 turns of power frivolous or can battles stretch that long?

[Shooer]

Mine shows it has no direct forward or reverse thrust, it's a display bug as far as I can tell.  It only does that if you have no propulsion facing that direction.  It moves the same speed in all directions, more or less.

On CnC location:  The thing is so cheap and light I put what ever I could where ever I could.  Armor would slow it down, and putting the CnC on the reverse would have ment putting the docking on the front.  Would just make the thing bigger, and therefore slower and more uneven with thrust.

So I said what ever, the thing is cheap and small if I lose it it will only take 4 turns to replace.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

*shrug* It's a start, I guess. Personally I'm of the opinion that fighters should be fast and maneuverable, but go with what you want to do.

also how long do games last? Is 69 turns of power frivolous or can battles stretch that long?

Depends on the ships/players, but 69 turns of full combat is way, way too long for a fighter. You could probably squeak by with a third of that.

Isn't keeping CnC at the front risky?

It depends on how you maneuver and get shot at. Of course, you need some CnC on your fighter first (your design lacks any CnC at all).

[SuicideJunkie]

Shooer:
You in fact do not have forward acceleration at all.

However, 1 NE + 1 NW == 1 N
It is not as efficient, since the two strafe thrusters are mostly canceling each other out, but you do get a net forward movement.

During the game, if you watch the power budget closely, you'll be able to see that it will cost (rough guess) 3 energy to accelerate NE by one unit, but will cost 6 energy to accelerate N by one.


Rainbows:
Don't forget to add a cockpit to your drone or you won't be able to fire or move
CnC should be at least 4 so you can (1) move, (+2) shoot both guns and (+1) do some token repairs all at the same time.

I highly recommend changing the front-most armor segment into an R1 contour shield.
They're quite cheap to place and run, and will protect the gun barrels from incoming fire.

Regarding the power;
That's 60 odd turns while firing the guns full tilt and thrusting full power in every direction like a hyper puppy.
You're not going to last 60 turns in combat and survive to dish out 360 damage from a pair of light lasers
Coasting between battles, it will last 2500 turns.

You could upgrade those light lasers to mediums, and you'd still have plenty of time to shoot before you die or preferably return home to get a medal of honor

[Rainbows]

Forgot to put the cockpit back in when I flipped it the right way around and added the gyro.

Mk 2
I made this before checking this thread but added a shield anyway. Tried to make wings on the basis that being further from the mass centre would give more leverage.

Can docking clamps work on shield blocks?

Also when making missiles can the new "ship" clip over its carrier ship or do the missiles have to be in front, to the side or have their own bay where they won't hit the ship they were just launched from?

[SuicideJunkie]

You will probably want to keep some protection against shots coming in from the NE and NW angles; your lasers are exposed from that direction now that you don't have armor on the side of the nose.
You could move the shield down by one hex and change it to an R2; that will cover the lasers from all angles of attack.

An R3 shield tucked into the remaining hardpoint under each wing would keep your thruster pods safe from small arms fire too, but that starts to get expensive.


Docking clamps work like a hull segment that can be turned off; they can indeed grab the shield generator.
However!  The shield generator in turn cannot hold on to the fighter's hull segments.
What will happen is that the clamp will grip the shield, and then the rest of the fighter will tear loose.
This design will need a drydock or spacedock in order to land safely on the carrier.


When launching missiles, you disable the bolts or clamps holding them on during turn N.  On turn N+1 they will have separated from the mothership, and become independent ships of their own.  You can then order them to accelerate to attack speeds and there is no danger of collision.  Be sure to include at least one computer so you can fly the missiles, and have at least 1 CnC point per warhead so you can detonate them all simultaneously.

Storing missiles in an internal bomb bay is perfectly legitimate and just as functional as external racks.  The downside is that you could have used that protected internal volume for a reactor or bridge or some other less disposable thing.

[Draxis]

One thing to note is that missiles separate after movement is made, so if a bomber tries to run away on the same turn it launches, the missiles will be on the bombers new vector, not the original one.

[Apollyon]

I sort of self-destructed myself there. Everything went wrong for me from turn #1. I forgot I renamed my functioning design, and loaded the wrong one. To make it worse, I've wrongly interpreted how welding and stuff works, and lost 90% of my turns due to that. So yeah, you guys have fun, but I am done with the Foxtrot match. Besides, I already had my practice.

[Draxis]

I would be up for starting the second game now, if people want.

[SuicideJunkie]

Note:
Once you are eliminated from the game, you can leave the PBW game slot. 
The host can then mark the empty slot as "dead" so that PBW will not wait for a PLR file from that player, and the game will move on without you.

Tips on docking and welding:
 - The components which are there first have dibs on staying there.  Anything you dock will not knock off existing parts of your mothership (including previously docked ships)
 - If you want to knock a part off your ship in order to replace it with something better, dock the replacement first, and then dock the ship on top of it on the next turn.
 - You can only issue a dock order against a target that you own, or that nobody owns.  Hostile and allied ships cannot be forcibly docked.
Note: In order to gift a ship to an ally, you will need to disable all the CnC so it becomes debris that the ally can grab.
 - If there is no good grab point, you can still grab the ship, but the action of your clamp will likely pinch or knock parts loose in the process.  If parts of your hull are in contact with parts of the target after clamping, then some or all of the target parts may weld to your hull.  If the target is larger than you, it may rip parts off of your ship instead.
This can be used creatively, such as having an enabled computer (and possibly a capacitor too) on a long stick of explosive bolts.  By disabling the explosive bolts as you order the clamp to grab a small piece on the target, you can inject a live CnC component into an otherwise dead ship, and capture it even if is too big to permanently hold with your clamp.
 - If there are multiple dock commands in one turn, they will happen in a random order.   
Note: this applies when you and an enemy are both grabbing at the same hunk of debris.
Note2: Using two clamps to try and dock the debris instead of one will give you an extra chance to beat the other guys to the grab.

[Azrayel]

To all those in Foxtrot;

Sorry I've been lagging behind of late.  This bitch bought Jade Empire and then 24 hours later it's 3 AM.

[Rainbows]

Does a missile require rotation?


Missile Carrier


A pretty fast ship

[Draxis]

The shield on the missile will only effect beams which pass through its edge hexes, and only if those hexes are empty (which, on such a small one, is all of the surrounding ones), so surrounding it in hull will reduce the protection, not increase it.

You don't need turning, but you do need sidethrusters.

Spoiler: Other than that, that looks like an excellent design (click to show/hide)

(this excellent design)

I think that missile ship is pretty overbuilt, hull hexes are actually very durable and still heavy.  I would knock off most of the structure, all the gyros (replace them with manuvering thrusters at the wingtips), and remove two of those spinal engines.  That's just my opinion though - in fact it would look practically identical to my torpedo-bombers - so no need to follow it.