Fighters is an umbrella term for fighter crafts launched from a ship, a satellite or a planet. There are four types of them, interceptors (fighter bays), assault shuttles, bombers, heavy fighters. All behave in a similar way:
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Each is launched in flights of 4, for example if you have a single 'fighters bays' weapon unit on your ship it will launch 4 interceptors.
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Each type can be installed on a ship in a weapon slots, they are counted as a special weapon.
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If several flights are targeting the same target and are launched together they merge into one big flight.
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The flight tracks damage of the last fighter in the group. When enough damage is dealt it is destroyed and the damage carries over to then next fighter.
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Some fighters carry beams, some bombs and some marines. Fighters attack the target upon contact but no more than once per turn.
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Assault shuttles have no weapons and attempt to board a target ship upon contact. This happens under the usual Ground Combat rules. Each shuttle carries a single marine, crew level of the launching ships is used for crew level bonus calculation. Assault shuttles disappear after the boarding regardless of the result. If capture is successful marines remain on the captured ship. Apart from this Shuttles behave identically to other fighters.
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All fighters can target ships. This is the only way ships can be attacked with bombs.
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All fighters except Assault Shuttles can target a planet.
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Fighters with beams (Interceptors and Heavy Fighters) can also target other fighters and missiles.
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Heavy Fighters won’t use bombs against fliers, only against ships and planets. The shot is spent regardless of bomb being used.
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Fighters do not carry shields or specials.
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Fighters use the best everything of yours: computer, bomb, drive, armor.
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Beam fighters carry the best point defense beam weapon you have. E.g. if you have a Laser and a Neutron Blaster, it will have a Laser since Neutron Blaster has no PD modification.
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The classic game had a bug where beam fighter actually uses that beam in normal modification, this is controlled with fighter_uses_pd = 0.
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Another classic bug is that a fighter’s beam has damage increased by 1. This is controlled via fighter_beam_no_plus_one = 0 parameter.
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Each fighters has ammo value, which is how many turns in a row it attacks. When out of ammo it returns to the carrier ship (except Assault Shuttles), and can be launched again.
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When fighters return to the carrier the associated bay weapon slot is recharged. The amount of recharged units is the amount of surviving fighters divided by 4 rounded down. Example: you have 4 fighter bay weapons, you attack an enemy, it launches
4*4 = 16interceptors, during the battle 10 are shot down, only 6 return. Sincetrunc[6/4] = 1only 1 of 5 slots will recharge, 2 fighters are lost upon returning to the ship. -
The following table summarizes fighter traits:
| Interceptor | Assault Shuttle | Bomber | Heavy Fighter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
technology and weapon name |
Fighter Bays |
Assault Shuttles |
Bomber Bays |
Heavy Fighter Bays |
Ammo |
4 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
PD Beams |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Bombs |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Marines per Craft |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Base Hit Points |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Base Speed |
10 |
6 |
8 |
8 |
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Fighter speed formula is:
Speed = BaseSpeed + 2 * (FTLLevel - 1) + TDBounuswhere:-
BaseSpeedis taken from the tbale, -
FTLLevelis a level of the Drive (Nuclear Drive is 1, Fusion is 2, etc.), -
TDBounusis td_combat_speed_bonus = 4
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Total hit points are base_hit_points * Armor Multiplier.