How useful is Fighter Hanger?

[Myrmidon]

So from what I understand having a fighter hangar lets you deploy one bot fighter to defend your ship. You can deploy a 2nd fighter if you're in it or if a multi-crew person is. But essentially for someone who wants to retain control of their ship I'm looking at a single fighter. Just how useful is this?

Some context I'm at the moment a type-9 freighter. I've never had much issue with pirates or bounty hunters, I always interspace supercruise and hyspace jumps with 5min cool running trips across deep space in the dark so that my wakes are harder to follow and infer course etc.

Recently though I've been having a lot of problems with bounty hunters, literally I got interdicted 3 times in the space of half an hour, even just going outside, losing 30 million...On the 2nd attempt I had decided to fit a shield and some weapons, thinking they're probably next to useless on this thing as it can't turn but we'll see how it goes. I did get to shoot at the enemy ship but my missiles refused to fire and I died to bugs (yes I know how to assign a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fire group and no he wasn't using chaf or countermeasures). So I'm wondering about a fighter hanger.. Would it at the very least be enough of a distraction for me to escape?

[Elitch]

THe fighter is a must have, in my book.

Make sure you hire an NPC.

[kegomatix]

For type-9 I think you'd be better off with just enough shields to escape, along with some thruster engineering. I got to a point in that ship while running trade that I couldn't be interdicted by NPC's, so while it was very annoying, it was just an inconvenience.

But if you wanted to try the fighter hangar, absolutely it would serve as a distraction at best. The AI won't always pursue the fighter but there's a good chance they might because it's the thing causing them damage. If you get a fighter bay that holds two, you can immediately deploy your second fighter when the first is destroyed and not have to wait until the other is ready.

[Mr Robert House]

Don't try to fight in a type 9. Try to win the interdiction, and if that fails try to run. Putting 4 pips in systems and maybe using chaff and point defence. A fighter MIGHT distract the enemy, or deploying it might cost you valuable time and get you killed not to mention cargo space and paying the crew member.

In combat fighters are very good with a high ranked pilot, and can kill ships on their own at times, but again, the type 9 shouldn't be trying to fight. Emphasis on the high ranked pilot part.

You would be better off fitting larger shields, the jump cool down really isn't that long.

[Smok3y]

Yes you could deploy a fighter and then leave it behind as you escape. Better to fit shields, shield boosters. Weapons are useless on a trader because you can't charge your escape drive and fight at the same time.

[kegomatix]

Originally posted by Mr Robert House:

not to mention cargo space and paying the crew member.

Yeah that's an important part to remember. Pilots take a portion of your profits so weigh their use to gain depending on what you see as worth it.

[xPEDx]

Dont know why you only now got shields, greed is the biggest killer . Anyway yes a fighter bay would help alot , it can take one of them off your back , or even kill one b4 you jump, and leaving it behind is not expensive , nor dose it kill your pilot.

[Mr Robert House]

Honestly if your going to fit a class 6 fighter hanger you might aswell fit a cell bank instead. Far more reliable.

[Myrmidon]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I would like to know the merits of another little idea I have... It would be used in conjunction with carrying the fighter. It involves fitting missile launchers to all 5 of the hardpoints. Before we get started I'm aware:-

- They're finite. Once they're gone. They're gone.
- Countermeasures/chaff can screw with them.
- They're good on hulls. Bad on shields. Enemies have shields.

Basically I only ever seem to meet 1 enemy at once. What would happen if I literally just spam 30 missiles into him? He may have shields, he may have countermeasures/point defenses but the fact you can launch out loads of them at once... Plus the fighter would hopefully be mitigating the shields a little anyway. It literally doesn't matter if I run out. It's just to spam a single enemy to either kill or incapacitate them through volume.

I've never done combat and reading the wikia doesn't provide a perfect theoretical understanding of these things so I'm a bit clueless.

[kegomatix]

Originally posted by Myrmidon:

Thanks for the feedback guys. I would like to know the merits of another little idea I have... It would be used in conjunction with carrying the fighter. It involves fitting missile launchers to all 5 of the hardpoints. Before we get started I'm aware:-

- They're finite. Once they're gone. They're gone.
- Countermeasures/chaff can screw with them.
- They're good on hulls. Bad on shields. Enemies have shields.

Basically I only ever seem to meet 1 enemy at once. What would happen if I literally just spam 30 missiles into him? He may have shields, he may have countermeasures/point defenses but the fact you can launch out loads of them at once... Plus the fighter would hopefully be mitigating the shields a little anyway. It literally doesn't matter if I run out. It's just to spam a single enemy to either kill or incapacitate them through volume.

I've never done combat and reading the wikia doesn't provide a perfect theoretical understanding of these things so I'm a bit clueless.

That's the great fun of this game. If that's an idea you want to try, I say go for it and see how it works out. I personally can't chime in on that strategy as I've never tried it, but I do have an opinion on it.

If you're flying the type-9 you're probably running trade or hauling something. Getting in a fight with that big ol beast just isn't worth it. They're very fragile unless you're willing to sacrifice cargo space which defeats the purpose of it. I don't believe that a full missile volley will stop some of the pirates that interdict you.

In the end it's just all time that could have been better spent running another load and making money.

[Myrmidon]

Originally posted by kegomatix:

Originally posted by Myrmidon:

Thanks for the feedback guys. I would like to know the merits of another little idea I have... It would be used in conjunction with carrying the fighter. It involves fitting missile launchers to all 5 of the hardpoints. Before we get started I'm aware:-

- They're finite. Once they're gone. They're gone.
- Countermeasures/chaff can screw with them.
- They're good on hulls. Bad on shields. Enemies have shields.

Basically I only ever seem to meet 1 enemy at once. What would happen if I literally just spam 30 missiles into him? He may have shields, he may have countermeasures/point defenses but the fact you can launch out loads of them at once... Plus the fighter would hopefully be mitigating the shields a little anyway. It literally doesn't matter if I run out. It's just to spam a single enemy to either kill or incapacitate them through volume.

I've never done combat and reading the wikia doesn't provide a perfect theoretical understanding of these things so I'm a bit clueless.

That's the great fun of this game. If that's an idea you want to try, I say go for it and see how it works out. I personally can't chime in on that strategy as I've never tried it, but I do have an opinion on it.

If you're flying the type-9 you're probably running trade or hauling something. Getting in a fight with that big ol beast just isn't worth it. They're very fragile unless you're willing to sacrifice cargo space which defeats the purpose of it. I don't believe that a full missile volley will stop some of the pirates that interdict you.

In the end it's just all time that could have been better spent running another load and making money.

I would rather not fight but some of the interdictions as of late of late have been physically impossible, like the escape vector will twirl sideways underneath me and literally the type-9 cannot make turns and re-orientations like that in the time frame demanded, no matter how good you are with thruster control.

[kegomatix]

What grade are your thrusters, and are they engineered at all?

If you're still on a budget and haven't engineered at all, then yeah it can be real difficult to evade interdiction in a type-9.

If that's the case then I'd get as decent a shield as you can then when you're interdicted, just kill throttle and drop. The big gain you get from doing this is your FSD doesn't have to go through an emergency cool down like when you fight the interdiction.

So voluntarily submit, immediately boost away, and start charging your FSD ASAP. With decent enough shields you should get away unscathed.

EDIT* I should add, go ahead and submit only after you know you're going to lose. Definitely try to fight it first.

[Pctechnik]

Seeker missiles also require a number of seconds to successfully lock on to the target... Very precious TOT could be used to focus on your escape.

[xPEDx]

just trade it in for a conda, less cargo , but much safer , just kill em all with that baby :)

[Myrmidon]

Regarding fighter hanger... Just got to groombridge. I can get a class 5, 6 or 7 should I just go with the highest/best money can buy? I don't care about losing a 128t cargo rack. I'm not super fussed about the freighter being able to haul high into the 700's but I would like to stay as high in the 500s as I can.

[xPEDx]

personally i would just take the size 5, its not taking too much and the fighter will still give you time to run. bigger if you intend to fight , or no point