Good fighter design suggestions

[Tsubasa]

So I was fiddling with fighter crafts, and instead of designing multiple crafts for different purposes, I'v decided to design a singular multipurpose craft which can fit different modules and perform multiple roles, such as an anti-ship bomber, dogfighting manuover enhancement or just simply more dakka etc.. It was named as the Project "Strike" in the workshop and I hope somebody can do a test run for me.

Enough advertisement, I would like to know what was considered a "good" anti-fighter fighter craft?
I've heard different people doing things such as embedding the cockpit into a huge chunk of armor, placing a ridiculous amount of turrets in front of the plane, and just create an outright block fitted with containers enough for it to fire at least 10 dozens of gatling guns for 15 minutes straight (the death cube).

So a few things I would love to have an idea about:

1. How long does a dogfight in SE take? As in, does it end in a few minutes, or it can take quite a lengthy amount of time?

2. Do you need a really large energy bank that could run on more than half an hour or it doesn't need that much?

3. Does the cockpit need its own oxygen supply, or it simply doesn't matter?

So far my design is meant for space combat, hence if the battle can't end quickly then oxygen tanks are necessary, but they are a huge pain to install inside of a space fighter while compact enough to be just a few blocks wide.

And if there is a war/battle based SE please tell me thank you.

[The Big Brzezinski]

It's all really going to depend on the fighter's mission. Air superiority fighters need high maneuverablity decent range, but not firepower. Interceptors need speed and moderate firepower, but not range. Strike craft need firepower and decent speed, but not agility.

If you want a single spacecraft that can fill multiple roles, your best bet is probably modularity. You'll want a plane you can outfit with different weapons, extra fuel, life support, and specialized equipment like radar or PMWs. If you get really ambitious, you could have a planetary flight configuration as well. Maybe even STO capability.

Just remember that simplicity is a virtue. If you build a platform with every capability built in, you'll have a crappy frigate instead of an effective warplane. Simpler craft are also easier to repair and manufacture. There is quality in quantity.

[Bullet Force]

Lots of gatling and some turrets to counter enemy missiles is the go. Also unless the server has disabled third person view, having the cockpit encased in armor is a good idea.

I'd also ignore 99% of the crap on the workshop since the majority of it is "cosmetic" focused rubbish that is totally useless in a proper fight. Basically if your ship is looking too pretty then its highly likely its not an efficient design. The boxier the better.

Lastly stick with one design, if you try to do to many things all you will end up doing is making your ship heavy and expensive and average in each.

[Raelith]

Miner Gunner

[Raelith]

Attack AND Miner Ship (Small]

[Zombie Beta]

I have also study the space fighter and compare to realistc jet plane fighter and try to add more tactical equipment into it, however the more complex ship design is the expensive and painfull to build it.

The fighter small role dont have use in battle against large ship or base, only good for task are hit and run, but chooce a right spot where to hit it, for example miner ship.

However, if want to have pvp only small fighter the chance using it on server are preaty low, since the server could crash and start up, you basicly lost a ship somewhere a region.

1. The dogfight will take about (depend on design) about 1-15min.

2. It depend on how much thruster you use, in space you must have balance thruster direction, on atmos planet you can use planet gravity as acceleration but need skill pilot. Althought just throw a large reactore into it and you are done with solveing energy probleam.

3. i think not, since it all depend how far you gonna travel in space, which isnt good idea.

Sadly the small fighter role isnt much impact on space engineer pvp, just build large ship with heavy armor with no preaty design, just a metal box.

[DrEarlInsanity]

make your fighters out of mixed armour and remember to keep the guns close together. a camera is also rather nice to have in line with the guns.

[Tsubasa]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1295076369

So I finished refining the errors and optimised the old design (which is also uploaded), and I came up with this thing.

The idea is to drop and forget, after you dock the ship somewhere it will refill itself and get back to play. Hence the ship has a connnector just right under the ship.

To prevent inertia brought about by uranium, instead of a large reactor, it uses a battery and an auxiliary small reactor as backup. Not only it reduces the amount of drag, it also has the merit of a larger maximum output. Estimated crusing duration is 25 minutes if full throtting all the way. Although admittedly a reactor is easier to manage and much quicker to recharge.

The idea of using 8 small thrusters instead of 2 large thrusters is due to landing onto stations became a huge sore, let alone on a tiny connector. With weaker thrusters, not only durability and damage when hit is lessened, it is also easier to land onto stations and ships as one click on the forward button don't result in a massive forward boost.

The landing gears are positioned just above where the connector port is and is controlled by pistons, and is set to be two blocks away from the body such that it doesn't intefere with the port, while allowing landing with ease if required and in style.

Due to the objecive of creating a modular fighter, the fighter is expected to "combine" with its own series of support crafts, which will be noted as "backpacks". Backpacks are mainly made for combination into a stronger craft but is capable of solo combat. They are to be uploaded later once I got them running, but the basic ideas is to circumvent what the basic craft couldn't do, such as launching anti-capital ship torpedos, a mobile missile platform, heavy acceleration and manuvering, interplanetery travel etc. If I get to use mods then maybe I will be doing something like a huge cannon mounted on its back but who knows.

If I got the time I might get to a point where I design a mobile platform to support it, such as a docking bay, autonomous repair bay, etc.

Would love to know what you guys think about it.

[BurlsoL]

Originally posted by Arai-San:

Would love to know what you guys think about it.

That would not survive anything, just saying.

If you're wanting something that looks good and still functions, I would start with a fighter cockpit. Behind the cockpit put a large conveyor junction, having large ports on both sides and the back. To each side attach a reloadable rocket launcher. To the back of this a medium container, then a connector to the back of the medium container. To each side of the medium container match up a large reactor with the small ports of the medium cargo. Take the small ports from the junction and lead conveyors forward sp that you have 4 gatling guns in total, 2 below and 2 above the reloadable rocket launchers. That will be your manual weapon systems. Place 2 gyros, an antenna, and a remote control in the spaces behind those conveyors. Cover almost everything you have in heavy armor blocks while leaving the business end of the weapons exposed. Make sure that your rear port is clear so that you can hook up a connector. If you wanted it to be a bottom loader, you would have needed a large cargo container and had to snake your small conveyors around to hook into your reactors. Add a battery or small reactor if you feel you will be needing backup power. Attach your thrusters in whatever pattern you want, but make sure to leave space for 4 interior turrets These have to be loaded manually, so make sure they are accessible. Ideally you'll want 2 of these to have good coverage of the ship, set them only to shoot down missiles, range 400m. Set the other two to 800m. Cover everything in heavy armor, trying to make sure that all thrusters have atleast 1 layer completely around them, and all critical systems have atleast 2-3 layers around them.

[Bullet Force]

Originally posted by Arai-San:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1295076369

So I finished refining the errors and optimised the old design (which is also uploaded), and I came up with this thing.

The idea is to drop and forget, after you dock the ship somewhere it will refill itself and get back to play. Hence the ship has a connnector just right under the ship.

To prevent inertia brought about by uranium, instead of a large reactor, it uses a battery and an auxiliary small reactor as backup. Not only it reduces the amount of drag, it also has the merit of a larger maximum output. Estimated crusing duration is 25 minutes if full throtting all the way. Although admittedly a reactor is easier to manage and much quicker to recharge.

The idea of using 8 small thrusters instead of 2 large thrusters is due to landing onto stations became a huge sore, let alone on a tiny connector. With weaker thrusters, not only durability and damage when hit is lessened, it is also easier to land onto stations and ships as one click on the forward button don't result in a massive forward boost.

The landing gears are positioned just above where the connector port is and is controlled by pistons, and is set to be two blocks away from the body such that it doesn't intefere with the port, while allowing landing with ease if required and in style.

Due to the objecive of creating a modular fighter, the fighter is expected to "combine" with its own series of support crafts, which will be noted as "backpacks". Backpacks are mainly made for combination into a stronger craft but is capable of solo combat. They are to be uploaded later once I got them running, but the basic ideas is to circumvent what the basic craft couldn't do, such as launching anti-capital ship torpedos, a mobile missile platform, heavy acceleration and manuvering, interplanetery travel etc. If I get to use mods then maybe I will be doing something like a huge cannon mounted on its back but who knows.

If I got the time I might get to a point where I design a mobile platform to support it, such as a docking bay, autonomous repair bay, etc.

Would love to know what you guys think about it.

With regards to your thrust problem you could still use large thrusters and just have axuillary thrusters for landing and the like. You would simply have a setting on your toolbar which turns off the large thrusters leaving only the small. Also your cockpit is very vulnerable. I dare say one good hti and that thing is toast.

[Einsty]

Cockpit is squishy. Put a lot of armor blocks around it, leave just a small slit for vision.

[Tsubasa]

I will do some work about the cockpit today. Forehead cockpit is cool and heck, but yeah it's a bit too vulnerable at the moment.

The problem is I want to make it real tiny instead, so still gotta figure that out.

[MekaDovah]

You could set the cockpit further back so it isn't the first thing that enters the range of turrets.

Also never fly straight at your opponent. I see people do this in videos a lot and I can't help but wonder if this is why everyone says cockpits are too weak.

[Tsubasa]

Originally posted by MekaDovah:

You could set the cockpit further back so it isn't the first thing that enters the range of turrets.

Also never fly straight at your opponent. I see people do this in videos a lot and I can't help but wonder if this is why everyone says cockpits are too weak.

Because in the wiki it says it is made up of bullet proof glass, and apparently it doesn't take Gatling ammo really well lol.

After some reconsideration, i probably will build the craft such that it's more like a flying cockpit with the very essentials on board (3 gatlings, 2 gyros and so so), and leave the heavy artillery and seriously powerful boosters and protection armor on the modules. (Y'all missing the module thing tbh...)

I could easily build it such that it can easily fit reloadable rocket launchers with more ammo than one can think of how to consume it, but not only it will be extremely heavy and sluggish, it also kills the modularity and compact design of the Strike craft as you will be building around the huge medium container instead of the craft. So I gonna leave that to future updates.

It's true that the thruster problem can be dealt with by switching off, but on the mark 1 it only has two large ones instead, and I wanted to make it more idiot-proof instead of pressing a hell load of buttons.

[MekaDovah]

Bulletproof isn't bullet immune. It's never been.

After talking with a friend of mine with a fair amount of experience in the matter, I think speed and good flying is going to serve you better than raw toughness.

[Tsubasa]

Originally posted by MekaDovah:

Bulletproof isn't bullet immune. It's never been.

After talking with a friend of mine with a fair amount of experience in the matter, I think speed and good flying is going to serve you better than raw toughness.

I know it's not, just having fun parodizing a bit.
I will upload the new design along with compatible backpacks once I've completed them.