I'm looking to find a method by which a fighter cannot be launched from it's bay for a set period of time after it returns to it's parent ship. This is to simulate re-armament and repair during battle. One thing that I've run into is that I can release missile-equipped fighters, set them to attack, and then recall them to the hangar before they're on the attack run, essentially giving me unlimited missiles. With the particular missiles in question, this is a real problem because it makes the player's job far too easy during most battles. Anyone tried anything like this before, or have another idea as to how to make this advantage less of one?

I thought after recalling a fighter, if you didn't have any already still in your bay, you had to wait the reload time before you could launch it again.

Perhaps. Unfortunately, for the purpose of the storyline, this fighter type has to be launched somewhat quickly. I was thinking that causing the ships to exit the ship at a relatively high speed might do the trick, clearing the recall-zone (I'm not sure what it's actually called, but the area where the ships disappear and reappear in the player's bay) so that even if the tactic could be used, it would be slower and more difficult. Making the fighters have a delay after re-entry that is longer than the reload time would be perfect, but if it's not possible then I don't need it.

If you cannot delay the launch of fighters I do have an idea what can also be done. Just make the player think twice of buying them in the first place. Make a rank that has a negative pay (Something low) and then when the player buys a bay activate the rank. They will need to pay the sum everyday. This will simulate the pay it takes to reload, restock and repair the fighters.

Then again, you could just remove the missiles from the fighter and give him a weak javelin-like rocket.

Nah, this particular fighter is an anti-capital strike fighter, and is armed with six heavy torpedoes. I've found that the technique becomes quite difficult when the fighters exit the parent ship at a good speed. However, since I'm implementing a number of other ranks that activate fees, I think the idea of a fee associated with a fighter bay is quite good. I think I'll do it fighter-by-fighter, though, and call it ship maintenance.