Fighters?

[Wildcard92385]

Has there been any discussion of putting small fightercraft in STO? I know in the series there were very few true fightercraft, actually I can only think of one off hand which would be the peragrine, But if this was implemented maybe they could actually be based on larger capital ships or even the stations that are going to be ingame? Can I get some input on this please? :)

[IanD967]

1st: Welcome! :D
2nd: i think if the Maquis would be added as a playable faction then yes they could be in it but i doubt you would fly one if you was a member of starfleet

shuttlecraft is what starfleet would use in that type of situation where they needed to use a small craft

[Falin]

many planets had "fighter" craft for defenses, so it's not implausible for them to be included in some fashion.

[IanD967]

good point Falin, like the squadren of defense craft of the Jupitor Station (cannot remember its proper name) that attempted to take on that Borg cube in the Best of Both Worlds

[Brenelael]

Well I don't really see how they can be implemented for player control without moving into the realm of real-time combat. This presents it's own problems as server and network lag can make things appear in different places for different people playing. This is why no matter how real-time it may seem most MMOs use a turn based combat model. I could however see them implemented as some sort of special NPC attack that a captain can order from the bridge if he has that capability on his ship. This would send out a specified amount of fighters to harass the target in a number of ways with the player giving them orders from the bridge of his/her ship. This is the way EVE does it actually and it works quite well there.

Bren

[trek4life]

I wouldnt be surprised you can use fighters or mabye a pumped up shuttle in the beginning of the game. Perhaps as a reward for graduating the academy or doing some big important quest at the start of the game.

[Squirrel]

Yeah, the closes thing to that would be a Shuttlecraft. I mean the Delta Flyer was a nifty little ship, thats my idea of a Fightercraft, or even the Defiant, even though its a Starship

[Falin]

runabouts were basically meant to be "psueodo" fighters, so it's not inconceivable to have small 1-3 man ships that are purely combat/police designed.

[Wildcard92385]

Hi everyone thanks for the welcome. I guess if fighters were to be implemented I could visualize a squadron on a ship and when the captain of the ship orders fighters to be launched, the squadron would be activated and have to make their way to the ships to prepare for combat, launch, etc, and then dock again when all was well with the mission. This might be a little to ambitous but hey itd be an interesting concept. :D

[Brenelael]

Well there is actual one man fighter craft in Star Trek. Wesley flew one in that episode where he almost got kicked out of the Academy for performing an illegal maneuver with his flight team. They are there and should be in the game in some way but having them as an actual player controlled ship would present problems if not done right. In a fighter a player would expect it to be like a flight sim and that involves real-time combat. Lag issues make this very difficult to achieve in a MMO. So like in EVE I see them as being implemented as more of a special NPC attack than an actual ship a player can fly.

Bren

Edit: Well I guess they did some of this in SWG:JTL but in that game all ships flew like that. In this game they would have to program 2 different types of space combat if they were implemented like that. One for the larger capital ships and another for the fighters.They are already basically making 2 games, ground and space and this would add a third. I don't really see it happening.

[IanD967]

Well there is actual one man fighter craft in Star Trek. Wesley flew one in that episode where he almost got kicked out of the Academy for performing an illegal maneuver with his flight team.
.

that would be the Peregrine-class fighter :) and yeah the only place they could be used would be as apart of your training in the Academy and such

[Maziwrath]

that would be the Peregrine-class fighter :) and yeah the only place they could be used would be as apart of your training in the Academy and such

I don't see much use for these in the game. They wouldn't be capable of long periods of self-sufficiency.

[walltar]

I dont know how much is this cannon but i think akira uses fighters as one of it's weapons. I read it in http://techspecs.acalltoduty.com/akira.html . If fighters are possible they can be used like in EVE.

[Maziwrath]

I dont know how much is this cannon but i think akira uses fighters as one of it's weapons. I read it in http://techspecs.acalltoduty.com/akira.html . If fighters are possible they can be used like in EVE.

This has been talked about a lot and there is no evicence that the Akira has fighters. It may have been thought of during the design of the ship by the production staff but this was never implimented.

[Wildcard92385]

But fighters really wouldnt need a long self sufficency if properly implemented. If the eve system was implemented it would be a matter of launching the fighters while your capital ship did battle with the fighters support and then have the fighters dock by order. Also I believe there are actually dedicated federation fighter carriers, if anyone remembers the old playstation game star trek invasion the USS Typhon was one of these. I have no idea if this is anything cannon but its just an idea.

[Adonisaleus]

yeah but games aren't considered canon.

however, those fighters in DS9 had to get there somehow!

[Warspawn]

As posted before...

An integral part of Starfleet Battles and Stafleet Command was the use of Patrol Vessels (Pseudo Fighters) and Figher shuttles, and their respective tenders and carriers.

I hope they're included here, as a part of multi-crewmember ships (many PC's on one ship or its fighters...)

[Maziwrath]

yeah but games aren't considered canon.

however, those fighters in DS9 had to get there somehow!

The fighters had warp capability as shown by the Maquis using them. I'm just saying that a fighter isn't a proper ship to be flying around the galaxy and exploring with.

[Signal]

Has there been any discussion of putting small fightercraft in STO? I know in the series there were very few true fightercraft, actually I can only think of one off hand which would be the peragrine, But if this was implemented maybe they could actually be based on larger capital ships or even the stations that are going to be ingame? Can I get some input on this please? :)

I'd like to see fighters or similar short-ranged craft in the game. It would open up another dimension to combat rather than just using phasers and photon torpedoes alone.

[Stu1701]

Yeah, I don't think commanding fighters would be a good idea for exploring the galaxy, that is the point of this game. Shuttles and runabouts would be more practical.