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[Aklyon]

Fuel doesn't actually do much, though. Theres only one system currently in-game and the fuel says in the description that it is not used for in-system flight. The only thing that really uses it are burn drives.

[Tarran]

...Burn Drives use it? Really? I thought Burn Drives were free.

[Aklyon]

They might be free, I'm not sure. I can't open it up to check right now, I have too much other stuff open.

[Sonlirain]

*Snip*

Yeah but the game as of now has only one multideck ship and it's a hitech capital class.

As for Burn drive... it's free and fuel is still completely useless aside of being vendor trash.
At least in the current version.

[Flying Dice]

If you're looking for carrier decks (especially if you've already got an Odyssey), buying a couple of Condors and ordering them to hide in a corner can be a decent way to do it.

[Aklyon]

Or, you can use mods. My minimash + fleet control game has 4 flight decks between two ships, and an autopulse ship, along with fighters.

[Flare]

Personally i think fighters/bombers are... kinda useless.

A sungle onslaught with double flaks will turn them into mince meat in an instant (tested in simulation mode against a swarm of all fighter/bomber/gunship wings availble.

The double flak had no problems with 3 pihrana wings droping bombs and the remaining fighters didn't even pierce the armor all the way to the hull and got flakked to death about 30 seconds later.

And that was a lone Onslaught without shields on against 58 FP worth of strike craft.

Bombers are a specialty weapon. Unlike most other ships, you just can't throw them into combat at any point you want and think they'll be successful. I think what your conception of them is is that they're the pinnacle anti-capital weapon and their specialty is to take out capitals as is put forward in many other games.

This is only partly true, bombers, as with every other type of squadron or ship, needs back up to take out capitals unless the ships themselves are capitals too, and bombers with their huge explosive damage output can quickly sap the armor right off of a capital if given the chance. Timing when to launch them on strike missions and from what angle is part of using bombers well. Ideally I would launch them at capitals when their flux is at the tipping point where their guns are on low rate of fire, and they have to either vent of overload. In other cases, if I can get the bombers to come in from another angle than where the onslaught is currently facing my other forces, it would also work, with the exception that I might lose a few bombers than on the overloaded scenario.

[Sonlirain]

*snip*

Yeah but then i have FPs liotering around doing nothing that i could use for fielding another frigate or destroyer that could harras the said Onslaught along with the rest of the fleet.
Then there is the problem of limited command points so i can't really make bombers circle that onslaught and drop bombs at its rear.
And even if they make their way around it and start the attack run then they fly straight through the capship they target usually exposing themselves to every single gun it has at close range.
Extra points for dagger bombers that usually fire 2 torps and the last bomber with one torp makes the entire squadron turn around and make another full pass above the enemy ship that usually ends with the entire squadron dead.

A simple fix like giving the choice when to drop bombs/torps (Long, medium, close range) and changing their dumb flightpath (drop bombs fly through the enemy hull where all the guns are and do it again because Alzheimer 3 forgot to release his reaper torpedo again) to breaking off after droping the munitions would make them good ships you could set to harras some capship/cruiser and know that while they might not kill it at least they can keep it busy for a little while AND return alive.

[Flying Dice]

The key to bombers, as I've found, is using them as part of a (much) larger swarm of fighters; if the enemy cruisers and caps are busy shooting at a dozen other fighters, they won't be shooting (as much) at your bombers. Also note that with fighters (far more than anything else) quality will tell.

On a whim, I bought an Astral (and put my Odyssey into storage), outfitted it with 3 heavy burst lasers (the name is a lie; they're the medium-sized version of burst PD lasers), 8 burst PD lasers, and the Unstable Injector, Dedicated Targeting Core, Stabilized Shields, and Hardened Shields. The rest of my combat fleet is as follows, all fighter wings: 1x Trident (High-tech bombers; 2x torps and 3x LR PD lasers, good shields), 2x Xyphos (HT, 1x Phase Beam, 2x burst PD lasers, also good shields), 2x Wasp (duh), and 2x Thunder (the low-tech fighters with the ion cannons, swarmers, and single harpoon).

I've wiped out maybe 12 pirate armadas and carrier groups without having to replace a single wing, without using any nonfighters other than my Astral, and without taking any armor or hull damage on that. After the second battle I got sick of hanging back, so I started rushing and using my PD lasers to pick off frigates and destroyers.

The only real downside I've found is that it's a very supply-intensive way to fight; I can burn through 200+ per battle. I ended up buying an Atlas just to cart around more supplies. On the plus side, fighters are cheap, so when I start gunning for the Hegemony I'll probably just fill my fleet window with extra wings and drop them in if and when they're needed.

[Aklyon]

Yeah, high-tech (or just better armed) fighters cost a ton more to keep going compared to a similar group of bombers hidden inside a wasp wing swarm. I've had an easier time fielding a wasp/longsword/broadsword group just for the lesser supply cost. If you've got the supply capacity though, go for them high-tier fighters. As I found out earlier on the Starfarer forum, the cost is based on their FP cost and the damage taken.

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, it's sort of amusing to watch a pair of heavy fighters out-tank and out-DPS a frigate. Honestly, most of the heavies would be more accurately classed as gunships or corvettes.

[Aklyon]

Meanwhile, I've taken out a Parrot capital ship via attrition and flux overload (and also a lot of rebuilt wasps and longswords, with the couple pilums I had left). Its very well armed but lacks a shield over its engine region and was mostly trying to take down my well-shielded carrier instead of the wasps for some reason.

Two of those ships would not be feasible unless I boosted the fleet point limit or got heavier strike craft, I think. Or you know, bombers. I really should get some of those but I kinda want to make use of that paragon at somepoint, since this is the save with that happening having happeninged.

[Karlito]

Flying around in an Apogee, smashing up the weaker pirate ships when I get into a fight with an independent Eagle. Since we're both armed with weak beam weapons, neither of us has the firepower to penetrate cruiser shields. Cue a weird twenty minute laser staring contest until he finally retreats.

[Flying Dice]

I hope you aren't using a high-intensity laser. 

Seriously though, even the large pulse laser works well for the Apogee (it's the asymmetrical one with the forward fixed heavy energy mount, eh?).

[Karlito]

Nah, my ship is seriously under-armed. I've got two tactical lasers and a graviton beam mounted in the front and then LR PD in all the turrets.