S and M ships desperately need to be better at attacking stations

[LameFox]

Over the years there's been a lot of focus on the issues with destroyers vs stations, and in many ways that has steadily improved. But, I think the smaller ships are also direly bad at it, so much so that they probably contributed to everyone relying on destroyers in the first place by being so fatally inept. From what I have seen, the reasons for their failures are also largely behavioural:

1. They need to stop ramming it. Very often I see them end an attack run and then smack into part of the station, or find themselves so close they have to stop and fumble around, unable to keep moving until they bumble their way around a module. This is a death sentence. Agility is the only thing keeping these ships alive; when they are slowed like this even heavy turrets can hit them. What's more, it exposes them to friendly fire, particularly if missiles or other AOE weapons are employed. This is particularly annoying if the fighters in question belong to an AI ally, who will doubtless blame you for killing their ship despite it being an act of AI suicide.

2. They need to avoid exploding modules. This mechanic single handedly makes small and medium ships unappealing for use against a station. As if they didn't suffer enough attrition before, now even success penalises them further.

3. They should withdraw to repair at their carrier (if applicable). It seems like the current way this works is that ships will return for repairs only after their order is completed. This is usually not an issue if their order is to fight a ship, but a station represents a much longer duration spent without repairs. And of course, the AOE damage from exploding modules does not help. The fighters need some willingness to leave and repair during the same fight if they've sustained hull damage.


As far as how to fix these, I think the simplest solution to 1 and 2 is probably to raise the distance they break off their attack runs. If they would simply use their weapons from as far away as they can, I think they'd be less likely to ram and to be close to a detonation. This may not be flawless, as it's still possible they will approach through the station, but as a starting point I think it would help. A brief flee command issued to ships within a certain vicinity of explosions might also be worth testing, although it would depend how quickly they could respond: obviously if they faff around and change direction like traders sometimes do, it might not end up very useful.

For 3 I'd really like a setting on the carrier itself—maybe per subordinate group—telling its subordinates at what point they ought to interrupt their current order to repair. Maybe a default of 50% hull that the player can raise or lower depending on the durability of ships they're employing. If it was per-group this would also mean you had the option to split them up so one carrier could have its weaker interceptors withdraw sooner than heavier fighters, for instance.