Capital ships are coming, so what if i were to buy a capital ship and be able to stick a fighter bay on it? say, a centurion bay or something? wouldn't that be awesome? i could have like 5 AI cents that i could deploy anytime i felt threatened by an enemy; the bay would occupy like 4 large weapon slots (because i assume capital ships will have far more than 2 large weapon slots) and it would be heavy as hell, but still.... wouldn't that be awesome?

while that would be neat, i dont think that the devs are going to allow players to buy their own cap ships, just go and attack them

To my knowledge, player-owned capital ships are planned. With fighter bays. And while you are docked you can man a turret.

Actually, epadafunk, player controlled capital ships are on the list of things-to-come. The NPC capital ship is just the first step in that direction.

I think docking with capital ships is also a planned feature, but I'm not so keen on the idea of AI controlled fighters launched from a capital ship. I'd just prefer to have player controlled fighters.

There are three ways fighter bays can work, only one of which is really viable.

a) AI Ship, Player Fighter
In this scenario, the player (pilot of the capital ship) passes command over to an autopilot and hops into a fighter. Although this is a neat way to move your Centurion Mk. III around, it leaves your expen$ive capital ship in the hands of articfical stupidity, and if you die in the fighter you effectively lose the cap ship too. Plus, you can launch only one fighter from the bay (unless you have 6 arms)

b) Player Ship, Player Fighters
This is the most ideal but least workable scenario. In this case, the capital ship launches the fighters, which are all controlled independantly by different pilots. This gives the fighters superior intelligence while letting the capital ship enter combat at full potential. However, it requires that up to 4-5 people do nothing, for perhaps hours on end, until their captain tells them to launch.

c) Player Ship, AI Fighters
This is the most workable scenario, which is self explanatory: the capital ship can launch AI fighters to attack targets or escort it through hostile areas. Anyone who has played the Border Guard combat mission knows that AI fighters, while nowhere near as lethal as player-controlled fighters, are still a threat and in groups are deadly. The downside here is that AI can also be stupid to a point where fighters do not return (get stuck in asteroids, etc.) or are incapable of docking due to gross incompetence.

Personally, I think fighter bays should not be "Gee, i'll take a fighter bay, and throw in some neutron blasters." Bays should be reserved for the biggest ships, specialized carrier craft perhaps rivaling a small station in size. Anything smaller will be a frigate or a destroyer, not a holding pen for other ships. But it is for the devs to decide...

I want a Pirate Cruiser, a mini-capital ship with a fighter bay capable of carrying two smaller fighters and a decent cargo bay, like the Kestrel from EV. It was fun to watch my fighters die against a Confederate Cruiser while I brought my (considerable) battery of proton blasters to bear. Fighter bays bigger than 2 should be reserved for carrier-type ships, and they should have about 10.
-:sigma.SB

I want a battle cruiser EXACTLY like the one I'm imagining right now.

Isn't the planned Cap ship "The Frig" going to be about 3000m long?

no, its 750 meters, (give or take) still larger than most stations

Every single post about cap ships make me think of HomeWorld 2.

The aforementioned shouldn't be a basis, but there should be some cap ships with fighters and some without.

BTW the 2nd scenario is somewhat workable. If the fighters are nearby (in CTF) they could dock(to repair) and release to continue fighting, but don't need to stay around he cap ship at all times. Not the exact scenario, but more workable.

Just noting that yes, the first step in the introduction of cap ships will simply be as NPCs who fly to and fro and interact (and fight) in various ways. We will eventually roll out a variety of different scales of player-purchasable capital ships, the larger of which will have their own docking bays and have player-controllable turrets. There'll probably be a periodic evolution.. first an NPC controlled cap, then make it dockable, then make player-controlled turrets, then player flight control, etc.

there is a problem with the idea of player controled capitle ships that arn't dockable. That problem is that if they are too large to dock at a normal station and don't have any way to interface with fighters or shuttels than they can only operate from the larger shipyard type stations that are able to receve capitle ships (such stations must exist if capitle ships are ever to be owned by players). This may not sound so bad now, but i garantee that when the galaxy is full of player controled cap. ships that limitation will get extreemly anoying.

There are a number of ways to get around this problem though.

1. simply make all cap ships able to hold at least one fighter. One fighter wouln't do much for unbalancing the cap ship as it will likely be a cargo ship, or a repare ship used soly as a support vessil for the cap ship. But even if it were a warship (a valc, prom, or similar) than we must concider the fact that it is still just one fighter and not that much of a threat compared with the cap. ship that launched it.

2. alter most (if not all) stations to be able to accept capitale ships (or at least the ones that are too small to have fighters). If at least one station in every system can support cap. ships than there is no pressing need for them to all have fighters.

3. Just let players deal with the problem and sugest that cap. ship ouners hire their oun fighter escort (other players) if they can't carry Ai fighters. This isn't actualy a solution so much as it is an admitance that it is posable i have mised the point and the devs want small capitale ships to be limited in their selection for a port of call. After all it could make the frelance repair ship buisness fairly profitable, as there will be many a frigate captain stranded away from a shipyard with suvear damage not daring to go past the pirate battleship the knows is waithing for him at the wormehole (especialy with the damage he has sustained). What does he do he hires a firendly Wraith pilote to use a repair gun/beem (i forget what it is called i've never used it myselfe) to fix the damage, for a price of coarse. Alternatively he could hire a few Rag pilotes to help get him past the battleship.

Of these options i like the fist one the best in my opinion any true cap. ship should be able to carry at least one smaller support craft. Of coarse there could be a number of ships bigger than what we have now that i wouldn't call a cap. ship. some may be large enoug to have touble docking at the stations we have now. the docking ports are kinde of small. heck, i've bumped into them more times than i care to admit in fighters!

Also in responce to the ideas regarding player controled fighters on player controled cap. ships: I think that if player controled fighters are to be allowed to dock with cap. ships than the option to launch any fighter should rest with that fighter's owner. And probably the owner of the cap ship should have a way of giving them the boot if he so desires.

And in responce to Fuzzy901's coments i think that a combination of all of the scenarios you mentioned are neede to make cap. ships fully appriciated, although to solve the problem posed in your "AI Ship, Player Fighter" scenario the owner of the cap. ship should probably be able to home to it. Letting other players home to a cap. ship they don't
own is probably a bad idea but it may be workable.

And finaly if anyone is interested, my idea of the perfect cap. ship is something like the Battlestar Galactica: able to carry a couple squadrens of wharthogs (any fighter would do but the hog looks like a viper to me) and fire massive barages of artilery to defend itself from fighters or attack other capitale ships. It would have limited manuverability and speed but be a deadly force. And of coarse the fighter patroles would do most of the actual fighting, except when engaging other capitle ships.

Of coars even with a ship like that i'd want to puts around in a fighter from time to time.

you know what else would be really awesome? since capital ships are going to be as big as small (and possible large too) stations, then why don't we make the capital ship BE a station? the ways that i am invisioning this is:

capital ships will have dock bays like stations and exit bays like stations and other player ships will be able to enter these only if the capital ship pilot invites them; then they get repaired and mission info just like a station (though without the purchasing or selling)

another really awesome thing would be having escape pods and shuttles in the capital ships, the way i invision that is:

any capital ship captain can exit his ship in a shuttle, leaving the ship to AI control. The shuttle would be all cargo capacity and moderate maneuverability and speed. a light slot for weapons perhaps. In this shuttle he can for example visit stations, gather cargo for a mission and then to load it onto his cap. ship he may board his ship again (just like one boards a station) and go where he needs. in this way capital ships can board stations without any needed adjustment to anything. Now you may think that it is dangerous to stick your capital ship out in control of (eloquently put) artifical stupidity, but then its an incentive not to stay in stations so long.

another thing would be escape pods. Once a capital ship is destroyed, i invision capital ships made of individually damageable sections or even componenets (freespace style), the captain is ejected in a pod which would be the fastest, lightest, smallest ship in the game with no weapons and a 300m/s infiniboost.

An addition to lord Q's idea, the player in the cap ship could set something like a shoping list that an AI cargo ship from ether the station or the Cap ship would go and get for the station. i think it woud make things a little easier.

In addition to Q's.

What if stations were "retrofitted" with a single "docking arm" that could support from 1-3 Capital-class ships in terms of reloading and re-provisioning.

I'd also make the suggestion of Capital only docking facilities, such as giant star docks where large Capital's are constructed and could be docked. They could be placed like Q said at one or more stations in each sector, and would act as a go-between for Fighters and Capitals. Capital's would be able to dock and then the crew could transfer to smaller vessels for in-system work.