what are the best carrier interceptor and bomber (no missiles)

[Shinra Vanity]

this setup will be for In sector combat

I tried the new boron heavy fighter (barracuda) as an interceptor and it does ok but I am sure i can do better

I was thinking of using kalis as a bomber with 2 meason streams mainly because of the 2 shield slots

as for a fighter I have no idea what to try

same with corvettes I will be using 6 on each shark carrier so i will need a bomber and interceptor loadout

I have access to split mk4 engine and yaki ships

[magitsu]

Chimera is the old go-to, and probably still the best. Previously max speed was very crucial to survival. So it didn't matter that it wasn't the best shielded. On the other hand it's easy to see that it has a huge amount of weapons.

Meson Stream works well only out of sector. In sector it misses and then during the cooldown time isn't able to do anything. Also it costs very much.

Paranid fighters can be good enough once you start to mass produce, and they are very cheap.

Moreya is the fastest, so obviously it also works well.

[LameFox]

I like Takoba interceptors. Only two guns but very fast and well shielded, and you don't need many guns for intercepting anyway.

Not really sure on bombers. Kalis might be okay, if a bit low on guns. Shih could be better. I don't really like meson streams, though. I've tried them and I just don't feel the alpha strike really justifies the awful cooldown and relatively low sustained damage.

Having said that... I feel like you can make anything work, really. The AI factions are not master strategists, they're not going to exploit your weaknesses (on purpose anyway).

[KextV8]

Moreya is one of my favorites. It's fast, well armed, and cheap.

[XIII8]

For a carrier fighter, Takoba is im the best versatile fighter you can have imo. High speed and agility, durable enough with 2 shields, and Protons are just amazing guns. Split Mamba is the CW-equivalent to it, though not having Protons is a big limitation.

As for a Bomber, Protons are so good in DPS that they can kill bigger stuff. For capitals and stations, Kalis with 1x Meson+1xProton might be worth a try. The heat of a single meson is more than enough to deal with, no need to get 2 imo.

[Raptor34]

I like Takoba interceptors. Only two guns but very fast and well shielded, and you don't need many guns for intercepting anyway.

2nd the Takoba. They are the fastest of the 2 gun 2 shield fighters. Even faster than the Split Mamba. I like the 2/2s for Interceptors because apparently most of these are fast, witness the Takoba and Mamba, while not needing the extra guns of other fighters. 2 shields are also a good amount it feels, or at least it's something I've felt the last time I went over stats.

For bombers... Or anti-capitals to be precise. Well, I used to use Chimeras, now Gladius because Terran fleet... I think those should be fine.
Chimeras are good because you can use the center mount as an Ion Cannon. I wouldn't take more than 1 Ion because it's so specialized, and I like symmetry. I used to run 1 Ion/2 Plasma/2 Tau iirc. Though with COH I'll switch those Tau to Terran Pulse because those are just CW Pulse, but better.
Gladius are good because you can run Proton Barrages.
Though keep in mind these used to be dual-purpose for before we had the bombardment command.
I really just go for looks honestly. Because frankly speaking I think the VIG heavy fighter is actually outright superior to almost everything else. It's also ugly as sin and asymmetrical so...

But yeah, ultimately how I look at things is I want at least 2 gun 2 shield for interceptors, then I look at speed. Interceptors should be fast because fighters generally are. You also want them with some tank so they can survive a few hits.
Bombers, now I want those with more tank because of proximity explosion damage. Ion/Plasma should still be good for both IS/OOS. Ion especially has monstrous anti-shield damage.

[Halpog]

this setup will be for In sector combat

I tried the new boron heavy fighter (barracuda) as an interceptor and it does ok but I am sure i can do better

I was thinking of using kalis as a bomber with 2 meason streams mainly because of the 2 shield slots

as for a fighter I have no idea what to try

same with corvettes I will be using 6 on each shark carrier so i will need a bomber and interceptor loadout

I have access to split mk4 engine and yaki ships

1 nemesis attacker ..4x bolt 1x ion 2x flak turrets ( argon )
5 subs either :
pegaus, chimera or sish ... all with split travel mk3. teladi shields on max make the 5 fighters to attack with nemesis, and set the nemesis on intercept and ull be good.
for clean protection use ares or gladius or the barrakuda
meson stream is not a weapon u wanna use on a AI ship for sure...they shoot once and die, because they cant shoot again because of the "heat".. so forget meson stream...
if u wanna get just pure dmg in your ships either use tau shotgun, or the teladi mortar weapon.... plasma has a to high cooldown to refire for an S ship
if u just want speed, go with chimera ,the moreya is not worth it. its faster yes but has only 4 guns.. as an interceptor it makes more sense to have 5 or more weapons so u can use 1 ion to get rid of shields on enemies. the bolt will do the rest in combo with the teladi mortar most ships are 1 or 2 hits
if u want u can change the ion for a torp launcher when u play the ship yourself or dumb fire rockets. but honestly rockets arent usefull nor worth the effort..espacaly not on AI ships

paranide ships are agood way n early games to cover ground. they are fast and have 2 weapons. they work well too. but in later game in fleets and against many targets they are dead meat.
as bomber .. hmm i dont see any bomber yet...
the ammount of rockets or torps a ship can carry is by far to less. and for AI ships a reason they die fast. because after 30 sec of comabt they are out of rockets .
and the fact aht auto restock for rockets is BS makes it even easier to leave out rockets and torps from any AI ship

[Shinra Vanity]

Oh I do have a question

When figuring how many fights to assign to a carrier is it the capacity or the capacity plus the amount of docks?

[Raptor34]

Oh I do have a question

When figuring how many fights to assign to a carrier is it the capacity or the capacity plus the amount of docks?

The latter. Just remember that you cannot put things into storage if there is no storage left. Could be an issue if all your interceptors are in storage and your docks are filled with other things.

[XIII8]

Besides what Raptor34 said, some carriers also can shoot fighters from their storage, eg the Argon Colossus can do that. Generally the best way to launch fighters.

Raptor can have a lot of ships starting at once, but it takes a long time to fly out through the ships beak.

[LameFox]

Personally I don't like to exceed the docked capacity, unless I was using the new protect position feature. If I need more ships in a mobile fleet I'll just add a second carrier assigned to the first. That way I don't have to worry about delays in things like repairs.

[Raptor34]

Personally I don't like to exceed the docked capacity, unless I was using the new protect position feature. If I need more ships in a mobile fleet I'll just add a second carrier assigned to the first. That way I don't have to worry about delays in things like repairs.

Same, but that's partly because I used to misinterpret storage as total storage including landing pads. Now I'm just too used to it.
Except the Zeus E though, I overload that a bit because it can't carry that much.

[jlehtone]

Personally I don't like to exceed the docked capacity, unless I was using the new protect position feature. If I need more ships in a mobile fleet I'll just add a second carrier assigned to the first. That way I don't have to worry about delays in things like repairs.

That is something somewhat confusing. The 6.0 marketing keeps reminding that you can "assign more ships to Carrier". That is not true, is it? The limit on how many subordinates a ship can have did not change, did it? (What is it anyway, 256 per group?)

What did change is that the "Position Defense" ships do not autodock to Carrier when idle, unlike the old roles. It is the logistics of autodocking traffic that sets practical limit on how many fighters you want on a Carrier.

Similarly, "the Position Defense ships automatically repair and rearm at the Carrier". What? Carrier's subordinates have always done that.


On OP, the search for "best" is part of the "Explore". Furthermore, the "for in sector combat" does not tell what you will face; I'm quite sure that HOP, TER, VIG, and XEN do all offer a bit different fun.

Majority of my interceptors are Balaurs. With Split Combat Mk3 engines and Split Mk2 shields. Why? Because that is what the FRF Wharf was selling. Are they "best"? I don't think so. Knowing that my enemies know that they are beaten by second rate gear gives a nice, warm feeling.

[Raptor34]

Personally I don't like to exceed the docked capacity, unless I was using the new protect position feature. If I need more ships in a mobile fleet I'll just add a second carrier assigned to the first. That way I don't have to worry about delays in things like repairs.

That is something somewhat confusing. The 6.0 marketing keeps reminding that you can "assign more ships to Carrier". That is not true, is it? The limit on how many subordinates a ship can have did not change, did it? (What is it anyway, 256 per group?)

What did change is that the "Position Defense" ships do not autodock to Carrier when idle, unlike the old roles. It is the logistics of autodocking traffic that sets practical limit on how many fighters you want on a Carrier.

Well, yes. That's the entire point. That they do not autodock when idle. It's basically using the Carrier as an autorepair system without needing to fiddle with things. And power projection I guess. Something I was theorizing is having destroyers doing Position Defense at hot spots. And then having fighter swarms set elsewhere to auto-respond.
And as you said, it's the autodocking that sets the limits on your fighter swarms.