So I've kitted out my Panther - what do i do with it?

[Gregorovitch]

In short I'm bemused as to what i am supposed to do with the fighters and what exactly the Panther does with them.

I've bought it 30 Nova Raiders which are sitting in the shipyard at OL. The Panther is outside.

I can assign the Panther as home base for them, but this seems very laborious. Does one put them all in a wing?

When I laboriously told them all to fly home individually only 23 of them did, the others just waited in space.

When a bunch of Xenon turned up i told the panther to attack all enemies, but it didn't launch any fighters, it just messed about.

It's very inobvious what you do to handle a carrier and I can't find any info about it.

[Threesixtyci]

I never progressed far enough into a game to buy a carrier, but...
Did you install the carrier upgrade onto the Panther?
I don't think every Equipment Docks sells it.

[Gregorovitch]

Carrier upgrade?????

[Samuel Creshal]

If you assign the Panther as homebase (should be easy with "give command to all docked ships"), they should automatically assist the Panther in fights (and dock again afterwards). For manual control, I'd suggest creating 2-3, maybe 4 wings.

For anything more sophisticated, you'd need scripts (this is probably the "carrier upgrade" Threesixtyci meant).

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

Carrier software, available from Split equipment docks. It gives you some more commands for fighters. Homebased fighters will attack enemy ships, but not until their homebase comes under attack.

[Alan Phipps]

Some things I would do in vanilla. First split your fighters into separate OOS and IS categories. The OOS ones should have the biggest-hitting guns you can fit, no missiles, no area effect weapons and no ammo-based weapons. The IS ones should have a mix of fast-firing and ammo-based weapons all with similar ranges to optimise laser energy usage, and allow them to use use fast homing medium-damage or swarm missiles at a moderate % chance. Give some other IS ones shorter range and area-effect weapons like PBG and maybe a few PBE if they take them but no missiles - but with these ships you must be careful about friendly fire and collateral damage situations.

I make fighter groups rather than use wings by assigning and naming group leader ships and then telling up to 4 others of similar or better speed compared to the leader to do a mix of attack target of, protect, and attack nearest enemy to - all set on the leader ship. Thereafter you only need to order the leader ships which I would homebase to the Panther only when appropriate so that they launch when enemies are nearby.

Depending on whether your Panther is to be used IS or OOS, homebase and set the appropriate fighter group leaders to protect your Panther if you only want them to attack once the Panther is attacked and damaged. Otherwise homebase and set them to attack nearest enemy of your Panther and they should attack when enemies are still nearing or just passing by. In either case, when the area is clear of enemies they will redock. You need to let them do so by not letting your Panther jump away while they are out.

In an emergency you can use Carrier Command software to order launch fighter attack and all docked fighters will lend a hand at once. You will get fighter losses now and again especially OOS, but that is realistic. You can even support the fighters in most IS engagements with missiles and drones from the Panther.

This is not the only way of doing things, but it has worked well for myself.

[Gregorovitch]

I think my problem is I haven't found the command menu options to do all this.

I cannot see how you can issue a command to set all docked ships home based to me.

I can find nothing about setting group leaders, assigning other ships to groups or giving groups orders etc.

[burger1]

I have used fighters on carriers but often just fight with the carrier instead. I assign all my fighters homebases as the carrier. I use autopilot/command console/combat/launch fighter attack to launch all the ships. It doesn't launch ships that have no weapons. Then to retrieve the fighters I do autopilot/command console/broadcast to my ships in the sector/m5m4m3 ships / return home. I usually launch some drones at the enemy first to take some of the fire off the more expensive fighters. After the battle I jump out of the sector and assign the drones to protect a ship with an open docking bay to retrieve the drones. I have tried missiles on fighters also but it seems more economical to fire the missiles from the ship you are flying. Even though a giant swarm of tempest missiles destroying everything does look neat. Also homebased ships will not autolaunch to protect the carrier if you are flying the carrier.

[Alan Phipps]

@ Gregorovitch: No you misunderstand - there are no special group commands being used.

Just name one ship as something like 'OOS Red Gp Ldr' then name other ships to such as 'OOS Red Gp Nr En', 'OOS Red Gp Prot' and 'OOS Red Gp Tgt Att' etc (so that they are always listed in a group straight after the leader and you can see their function).

Now use the appropriate normal ship combat commands to set the leader to support the Panther and the rest of the group to support the leader as per their function. After that, you only ever need to issue commands to the leader - and maybe homebase or clear homebase for it if you change OOS/IS roles for the Panther. I don't set a homebase for any of the supporting ships as I want them always to follow and support their leader ship (including by staying docked when not required) rather than always act independently to defend the Panther).

burger1 said "Also homebased ships will not autolaunch to protect the carrier if you are flying the carrier." They will if given Protect or Attack etc orders - which is why it works for the leaders and then the rest of their groups follow.

[Infekted]

Not sure about split, but Teladi EQDs sell Carrier Command Software.

However this is not very useful in all honestly. The launch all fighters command doesn't really work very well.

Best option as posted. Set your fighters into a wing or multiple wings. Give the wing(s) orders like: Protect the Panther, attack target of the panther, attack closest target to panther. And also literally manually order wings to attack targets.
Always use the attack specific target, they will fly out kill that target and all it's buddies. Attack all enemies I have found to not work very well.

[Alan Phipps]

Another sometimes useful finesse when used against mixed hostile ships that are getting too close to the carrier is to set the Panther to attack capitals and the fighter group leader(s) to attack either fighters OR capitals depending on the main threat to the carrier. You can sometimes usefully employ your OOS fighter groups to attack capitals IS that are getting too close and when avoidance of collateral damage is not the priority.

By the way, if you are wondering why you seem to be getting some conflicting advice, remember that I said there were other ways of doing things. Fighter wing commands, tactics and responses can be different to the fighter ad hoc group ones that I have been describing.

[Feloidea]

Screw Carrier Software, get CODEA and MEFOS (or Mars) and watch stuff blowing up.

Which is about the only thing that you should do with a Panther after you've equipped it, blow stuff up. Honor the Split way.

[Gregorovitch]

Which is about the only thing that you should do with a Panther after you've equipped it, blow stuff up. Honor the Split way.

I've bought a Boreas as well which I've nearly kitted out - that should help the Panther blow a few things up, no?

Anyway, my excuse is I've got to do some training excercises with this Panther to learn how to work the 30 Nova's etc so I thought I'd take the pair out together and see how they do, so sadly someone or something looks like its going to get it shortly.

I suppoese I could go find some poor pirates somewhere, but that seems a bit unsportmanlike with this kit. Don't really know what to blow up to be honest, I'm just a humble trader me.

[Cpt.Jericho]

I've bought a Boreas as well which I've nearly kitted out - that should help the Panther blow a few things up, no?

You can blow up more than a few things with the Boreas alone. You can do so with a Panther too, but in a different way.
If you really want to take both ships into battle: Use the Boreas as your personal ship and let the Panther follow you.

[cmdnenad]

Don't really know what to blow up to be honest, I'm just a humble trader me.

Yaki are my favorite when it comes to blowing things up.

[Infekted]

I usually go level a xenon sector or three when field testing new kit

[heratik]

Here is a detailed post showing the fighter 'groups' setup that Alan Phipps was talking about (a system which I also utilise)

[Gregorovitch]

@heratik, @Alan Phipps: Thanks for the heads up on this, I'll need to digest it a bit.

Q: I'm confused whether you home base these fighter groups to the panther, or not, or sometimes. And why.

@cmdnenad, @Cpt.Jerocho: Those esound like reasonable suggestions, although I have not come across any Yaki yet. Plenty of Xenon though.

Q: I read I should be finding some IBLs for my panther which I understand I can only obtain from non-commonwealth/terran factions. I also need a few disruptor missiles for a Terracorp task.

Would obliterating a Xenon sector yield these items, or do i need to get them from Yaki or pirates?

Are these items dropped in space or do you have to train marines etc to board ships to get them?

Edit: oh, one other thing.........

All these novas are a bit of a nuisance on my ship list taking up a lot of space. What do peple do about this? Do you hide them and acess them from the ship/owned ships for example? Are there some tricks for hiding large groups of ships from the ship list untill you need them?

[heratik]

@heratik, @Alan Phipps: Thanks for the heads up on this, I'll need to digest it a bit.

Q: I'm confused whether you home base these fighter groups to the panther, or not, or sometimes. And why.

The best way it test this yourself and find a way that works for you, I personally homebase them all, I can't give a particular reason why I do this over any other method other than it works for me

Q: I read I should be finding some IBLs for my panther which I understand I can only obtain from non-commonwealth/terran factions. I also need a few disruptor missiles for a Terracorp task.

Would obliterating a Xenon sector yield these items, or do i need to get them from Yaki or pirates?

Are these items dropped in space or do you have to train marines etc to board ships to get them?

They can be dropped by Xenon ships, but it is in the lap of the gods whether/when you will get some. In order of best ways to farm IBL:

1: Piracy, boarding capital ships, Pirate or CW will give you a chance to obtain many many IBL, if you reload at the core.

2: Buying, befriending pirates/Yaki enough that they will sell them to you works but they are slow to produce. Or possibly using the HUB as a buyer (will need confirmation if this works)

3: Blowing stuff up, drops are rare, you could obliterate every Xenon sector and not get a single one...

Edit: oh, one other thing.........

All these novas are a bit of a nuisance on my ship list taking up a lot of space. What do peple do about this? Do you hide them and acess them from the ship/owned ships for example? Are there some tricks for hiding large groups of ships from the ship list untill you need them?

There is an option to hide homebased ships in your property window's options list.

[Alan Phipps]

Well I split my fighters into specialised OOS and IS groups. When IS, I don't want the OOS fighters to deploy at all on their own - and vice versa. Hence when IS, I homebase the IS group leaders to the carrier and give them standing protect or attack nearest orders as I see the need. The OOS group leaders meanwhile have no homebase or standing orders and so do not deploy whatever happens - unless I give the leader a direct order in an emergency. Obviously the reverse situation for OOS use and I only ever need to make changes of homebase or orders for the group leaders once set up.

Perhaps this seems complex and overkill but I would be unhappy if reduced laser number light or area weapon IS fighters deployed OOS and quickly got picked out and killed in the dice rolls after doing little damage. Similarly I don't normally want OOS fighters deploying IS, missing with their many slower heavier weapons, soon running out of laser energy and becoming useless targets for enemy fighters or turrets.