Strike Craft Variety?

certainly sounds like a good idea, suggested it myself some time ago. concerning the varied bombers: as a matter of fact, even now bombers are not necessarily first choice vs everything, there are a few ships which fighers can kill more effectively. as such, a very light interceptor, or defensive fighter that is really just vs squads sounds like a good idea. also, I would like to see a planet bomber squad. very slow and vulnerable and needs to get very close to the planet for the damage, but they can hurt. with the flak upgraded hangers coming in I would also say that those are not as big a balance problem as they would be now.

I don't like the idea of making a dozen different flavors of small ships with guns. "small vs. small" and "small vs. large" covers most of what an armed fighter is built for. How about some actual utility behind the fighter bay?

Drone squad: Similar to a certain scout craft's ability, these squadrons stick around a sector after you leave. They rapidly decay and can be attacked by interceptors, but will provide sector detail until they are gone.

Planetary assault craft: Armed with heavy precision payloads and atmospheric capability, these fighters attempt to wipe out a planet's infrastructure and population control up close. Kind of a rip off of siege ships, however they would be a fitting addition to a siege cap.

Mine squad: Not so much a squad as filing a cargo bay full of high yield mines. These mines fill the surrounding space and seek out enemy frigates or caps to home in on. Perhaps a heavy carrier would find this useful.

Movement hindering land mine: A Phase Jump inhibitor... land mine? Well, whatever helps you run away, I guess.

Repair drones: Not as precise as the nano cloud of the hoshinko, these large drones initiate field repairs beyond a ship's normal repair rate. Their large size makes them prime targets fighter intervention, however.

Defensive sensory drones: These drones scan the energy patterns of enemy gunfire and relay info back to the ship. These enable the ship to more quickly and efficiently attune its protective force fields, thus increasing its overall mitigation.

More missiles!: Just as its name suggests, the ship's cargo hold is modified into a makeshift missile bay, specialized against fighters, heavy ships, or planets. Designed with front loaded use in mind.

Extra Generator: The cargo space is modified to enhance the output of the ship's shielding, engines, or antimatter reserves.

Defensive Countermeasures: Designed to spoof enemy aim, guidance, or missile locks against friendly targets.

Communications buoy: A smaller, weaker version of the radio towers used to propel culture across space, modded to be launched from a hangar.

Mining ships: A small detachment of ships designed to assist frontier patrols with establishing resourcing and salvage operations. May gather from local asteroids or "scraps" from a field of battle. Clearly a Vasari favorite, but all starbases need something to pass the time.

Healing potions: Wait, what? This isn't Warcraft 3!

Artifact hold: Designed to hold minor ancient artifacts, trinkets of value, or enemy spoils of war(such as tech, intel, etc.) Clearly ripping off WC3 in mind.

and my favorite for last:

Tactical Assault pods: A team of suicidal shock troops/saboteurs/assassins infiltrate and cause all sorts of hell on the inside of large ships/orbital structures/planets.

Some of these ideas sound more like capital ship abilities rather than actual hangar options. The idea is that yes, some of the ideas are meant only as equipment options for a few specialized ships, rather than as a total fleet option. The ship would have to sacrifice fighter space to gain the extra utility. However, the idea is that they put more small things on the field, more things worth shooting and to be wary off. Of course, that means more screen clutter too.

I like the idea of Planetary Assault Craft. Each plane can deal 10-15 damage to the planet per shot in squads of 5-3. Taking planets takes waaay too long as it is.

I would like to see a planetary bomber squad, maybe even one or two other types of strike craft

but I dont think its NEEDED. The gaem is complciated enough (love it, though) and adding TOO much detail could really take away from the gameplay. Simple if often the best way to go with things.

One cool thing would be a "gunboat strike" type of ability, particularly for hangars. What it does is basically creates a special squadron, thats larger then bombers/fighters, but smaller then frigates. This ability would basically send the squadron through a phase lane to a enemy planet where it would then be controlled till it's either destroyed or run's out of ammo (basically, timed). You can use it to target ships, structures, or the planet itself. The special can only be used on a system 1 jump away. So you can't use them for defense of the system their based in, but they could be used for defense of a neighboring system. Also so you can't just spam them into a enemy system (like sending hundreds to the enemy homeworld) unless you happen to have several systems neighboring the enemy planet.  They would have a fairly long cd. The ability would tie in with the amount of squadrons the hangar can hold, so if you choose the special, your gonna get less squadrons.

I like the idea of mine layers. Those were some of my favorite ships from Homeworld. Just make a huge grid of them and let them drift. Always fun. I think that there should be some variety. It would be pretty cool.

Entrenchment will change this a bit and we have other plans for after Entrenchment.

Woo that pretty much sums up everything I wanted to ask. Thx Blair.

enigmatic as always. you guys were probably the inspiration for b5's vorlons. but it still sounds like good plans.

Im wondering if he means not all factions will have both fighters and bombers

it could of course also hint that some factions get something to take the function of tecs new torpedo cruisers aka structure busters. it could fit with the fact that not all factions are supposed to have a ship analogue, as fighters may not count as ships in the very strict sense. don't think its very likely though and it seems pretty hard to balance to me, but who knows.