Small grid fighters?

[RadioMars]

Do you think they have a place in combat? I don't see a lot of people using them. It's obvious that large grids are more cost effective but I still want to find a way to make small grids effective too. Some of my ideas are:
1. making them printable and disposable so the pcu they occupy is not permanent.
2. adding some rotating decoys so it can at least survive some autoturrets.
3. some kind of autorepairing shield that can eat some bullets
4. focus on movement and being hard to hit
I would really appreciate some tips for building small jets in general

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, the important to keep in mind is the one having more turrets should win, for example ; don't go in front of a enemy having 4 turrets while there are only 2 on your small ship Fighter.

+
Take advantage to the new Target system by setting your turrets on "Target weapons" only with Decoys on temp arms and you will destroy the enemy weapons while they are busy shooting at your Decoys.

6 Turrets on a small block ship can destroy the Moon SPRT Station alone with a minimum of damages done and doing so going very close to the enemy station / close range.

[RadioMars]

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

Hi, the important to keep in mind is the one having more turrets should win, for example ; don't go in front of a enemy having 4 turrets while there are only 2 on your small ship ship Fighter.

+
Take advantage to the new Target system by seting your turrets on "Target weapons" only with Decoys on temp arms and you will destroy the enemy weapons while they are busy shooting at your Decoys.

6 Turrets on a small block ship can destroy the Moon SPRT Station alone with a minimum of damages done and doins so going very close to the enemy station / close range.

Thanks for the tips. Taking out land bases actually sounds like a cool niche for sg figters

[herrschaftg35]

With the addition of rail guns small-grid fighters are best used for sniping targets.

As for construction, decoys should definitely be implemented and the cockpit should be closer to the rear of the fighter. Best way to survive is by dodging enemy fire so you want something that is quick and maneuverable. .

[Quill]

You kinda have 3 mindsets for Small Grid Fighters

Either a strategic fighter with things like Railguns to outrange the enemy

A Gunship to eliminate the target with sheer firepower

Or use a Drone Swarm of cheap fighters to overwhelm the target

[Ronin Planetary Industries]

Small grid ships are useful for sniping (mentioned above) as well as scouting. A small ship is going to be able to dodge fire more effectively than a large grid ship. There are techniques regarding dodging AI turrets that are too much for this thread. But they exist.

Small grid ships are generally less expensive and faster to produce. But their biggest issue is that they are generally done after one solid hit with anything bigger than a gatling turret. The ship might survive but is completely out of the fight. So adjust your tactics accordingly.

[RadioMars]

Originally posted by FilipinoFOX:

My favorite small-grid ship right now is my True Space Hawk, its quite agile; I've improved the accuracy of the railgun turrets by adding a counterweight to the base (decrease wobbleness).

Wow the railguns seem to do their job just fine. I didn't think autocannons would be so effective

[RadioMars]

Yeah sniping with small ships sounds fun. For gunships I can imagine a couple of them being carried by a larger ship and then being released to attack from different angles. Swarms on other hand sounds like too much for vanilla pcu limit. Maybe I'll try to compromise between a gunship and a swarm by making several cheap ships

[Quill]

Originally posted by RadioMars:

Originally posted by FilipinoFOX:

My favorite small-grid ship right now is my True Space Hawk, its quite agile; I've improved the accuracy of the railgun turrets by adding a counterweight to the base (decrease wobbleness).

Wow the railguns seem to do their job just fine. I didn't think autocannons would be so effective

Autocannons are actually very effective

If PCU isn't a factor having Custom Turret Controllers with ball turrets of Auto Cannons can quickly reduce any small grid ship to scrap and does decent damage to large grid

[muffins]

Originally posted by Quill:

Originally posted by RadioMars:

Wow the railguns seem to do their job just fine. I didn't think autocannons would be so effective

Autocannons are actually very effective

If PCU isn't a factor having Custom Turret Controllers with ball turrets of Auto Cannons can quickly reduce any small grid ship to scrap and does decent damage to large grid

I had a really nasty drone armed with four autocannons totally OMGWTFBBQ my starter base despite having one gat and four interior turrets as defence lol

Myself I mostly use drones. Expendable drones for sniping turrets. Guided kinetic missile drones for disabling whole stations. Ore drones I can just fire and forget at asteroids and they just auto-stop and auto-report what they find. I would only use a manned fighter on a low-threat target and it would have a stupid number of guns to overpower the turrets.

[Chuck]

When grid AI comes out itll be good to overwhelm enemies. A ton of small (mostly sacrificial) fighters to swarm enemies, and give them a ton of targets that are hard to hit. All the while your main ship, be it another small grid ship or a larger ship can be doing damage/running/doing whatever it is supposed to do.

[Ronin Planetary Industries]

Our servers are going to slow down like it was 2014 all over again. :)

[Hypnosis]

Small grids are more useful on servers that are on 1x rates because it's more of a pain to make ships, and small grids bring more to the table than they cost. If you are playing on like 25x inventory size and etc lol then nothing matters and game revolves around 1v1 meta, and that's PMTs. Duh

SE isn't a min-max kinda game with PVE dungeons as much you guys want to mod it to be. Every game is like that.

SE is about industry, and building player empires and organic wars with 1x rates. Imho. It's where the game shines.


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Some more uses for small grids in combat are:

-Concentrated fixed weapons (Same idea as PMT)
-Maneuverability
-Cost
-Production time

They are also good for using as patrol craft because you can set waypoints with remote block, and give them turrets, which use the same ammo as large grid. lol

Again, SE isn't an MMORPG min-max meta build game, because there's so many factors that go into designs especially when you're playing on a proper server with proper settings instead of these fast rate servers that create tons of imbalances, and that's why you're asking this question. Basically.

[RadioMars]

Originally posted by Hypnosis:

Again, SE isn't an MMORPG min-max meta build game, because there's so many factors that go into designs especially when you're playing on a proper server with proper settings instead of these fast rate servers that create tons of imbalances, and that's why you're asking this question. Basically.

I'm playing on a vanilla server. The "mmorpg min-max" argument.. I honestly have no idea how it's related or who are you even arguing with. The pros you listed are all valid, but the big con everyone keeps pointing at is pcu cost. For me this argument sounds like it could be wrong in come cases so I'm looking for those cases

[Dan2D3D]

You should try this world especially made to play with small Fighters in "Dogfight arena" :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1599035411

I prefer to go MP in premade scenario like the above world than going MP just to build, we have way more fun!

[DorsaShadow]

Its our perception of risk related reward when pvp and/or pve. While some see the rewards of out maneuvering another player the reward of gaining tactical advantage can be different to individual player preferences. As an example i can generate adrenaline as a fire fighter that feels exactly as pvp, pve. its no less than knowing i have survived to rinse and repeat. I hope y'all have a pleasant one!