I know what I want... Just not how.

I've discussed this with a few people on AIM, and they gave me different answers... None of them were exactly what I was hoping for.

The TC has distinct ship classes. They'll be renamed later, but for now I'll stick to the definitions of the "ship classes" thread.

There will be interceptors, fighters, and bombers as carried fighters.
Interceptors fight off bombers and fighters.
Bombers fight capital ships.
Fighters do both, just not quite as well.

There are carriers, cruisers, battleships, and destroyers too.
This is in order of size..

Destroyers fight larger capital ships (Battleships and cruisers). They are especially weak against bombers.

Cruisers obliterate fighters and interceptors especially. They can handle destroyers, but are poor at fighting larger vessels.

Carriers have very little defense on their own, but carry swarms of fighters, bombers, and/or interceptors.

Battleships fight smaller capital ships, but like the destroyer, are prone to swarms of bombers.

Now, the actual question.
What's the easiest way to make this all work out? I want interceptors to be nothing but cannon fodder to anything destroyer sized or larger.

The larger ships I can work out, with carefully placed PDS systems and adjusting maneuverability (along with arming destroyers with mostly forward-firing weapons).

But the fighters, bombers and interceptors.... That's a problem.

I'm going to try giving interceptors a high recharge rate and poor shield amount... in the idea that only a capital ship's firepower will be able to get them to 0, but Im afraid they will also own destroyers... And I dont the high-shield recharge interceptors to be abused like the azdaras in EVO...

This post has been edited by -REDCHIGH- : 02 March 2006 - 07:48 PM

This could probably be done more easily by messing around with the weapons. Try slowing down some of the powerful weapons so the fighters can dodge them. The "Doesn't Fire at Fast Ships" flag is your friend. Another thing I'd try is making the fighters planet-type ships and teh capital ships regular, or vice versa. Then assign regular and planet-type (anti-fighter) weapons of various degrees of speed and/or damage. Just experiment with any or all of these methods and find a combination that gives you the effect you want.

Good luck, I hope this was of some help.

PBoat

I like this idea, but I'm wondering how you can get the AI to handle it properly. Presumably, you'd want to have opposing carriers engage in standoff attacks with their interceptors acting as a defense screen against enemy bombers, while they send bombers after opposing capital ships. Obviously the player can send different orders to his various escorts, but is there any way to convince the AI to hold its interceptors in reserve?

Homeworld 2 TC!

You can use the different Shield and Armor attributes to your advantages.

For instance, you could make it so that all capital ships have high shields (for fighter defence) and high armor (for everything else). Then make it so that capital ships' weapons ignore shields, while all fighters' weapons are primarily shield damage, giving the fighters low armors.

The exception would be the bomber, whose bombs would obviously ignore shields.

Then, balance to perfection, coming up with reasons for fighters to do shield damage while capital ships ignore shields. This last part shouldn't actually be that hard, as you're already coming up with an entire TC, though I have no idea if the ideas you already have for everything contradict it or not.

The point, however, is that by using the shield ignoring weapons (though perhaps not overusing them), you can make capital ships very powerful while fighters have their own roles, without having to abuse recharge rates.

This would, of course, have the side effect of making the capital ships extremely powerful compared to small fighters, to be balanced, perhaps, by making the shield ignoring weapons have low recharge rates, fixed exit points, or some such.

Anyways, my two cents.