Rock, Paper, Frigate

This will be an in-depth look into the unloved class of ships, the so-called fighters, jack-of-all-trades and masters of nothing.

 

In classic MMO’s - yes, I know this is no MMO - there are three roles: the tank, the healer and the damage-dealer. Star Conflict adds a fourth parameter, which is speed, since in many gamemodes, speed is mandatory to win.

 

Lets see how this roles are distributed in SC:

  • Healer: Frigate
  • Tank: Frigate
  • Speed: Interceptor
  • Damage-Dealer: Frigate

Of course there are some niche roles like for example the sniper & rogue. Well at least the Federation Fighter can cloak, so they are rogues, without any form of 400% backstabbing damage though, but who is the sniper? A frigate.

 

I spent over 200 hours with this game now and I wondered over and over why almost every game consists of 50% frigates, 3 interceptors and barely any fighters. And i really tried to make this class work for me. And it does, but merely because of my stuborness to accept they are sub-par and dispensable.

 

But lets look at what we got, our 3 magnificent roles:

  • Offence Fighter
  • Tackler Fighter
  • Command Fighter

Offence

As an offence fighter you can choose between 2 magnificent skills, “Target Painter”, reducing the enemies resists. It can reduce an enemies resists by 20 to 30 points. Assuming an enemy has 100 points resist, this equals around 10-15% damage increase. However if his resists are at 150, the debuff helps a meager 5-7%. The second skill is “Electronic Interference”, which disables their targeting, and can be quite useful, unless charging in their face, because it prevents them from shooting missiles for 12 to 19 seconds.

 

Tackler

As a Tackler, you can, well… you can slow the enemy down. Its called engine suppressor and it slows the enemy down from 16% to 21% over 9-14 seconds. I can’t even fathom who came up with that. Its a) highly situational (only viable against ceptors) and b) even in that situation utter useless. Even an EMP carrying interceptor (speed ~400) affected by this is still faster than my fighter on afterburner. Addmittedly, i have to slowest so-called fighter on earth (Empire), but still. In short: Tackler = cloth wearing paladin with a rubberdildo as main weapon.

 

Command

Last but not least we come to the command role, the, in my opinion, only viable role for a fighter anyway. We come with 3 buffs, one for shield-resistance, one for hull-resistance and one for damage-output. The resistances add 15 to 29 points to anyone within reach, which reduces incoming damage by 5 to 12% depending on your base value. Whether or not thats feasible is another story.

But (!) they also have the valkyrie system, which adds 10 to 20% of damage to anyone. Always. In 2 to 5km reach. ALWAYS. I emphasize this, because comparing it to the offence module “Target Painter”, which for a limited duration adds 10-15%… well… you get the message.

 

So, lets get this straight. By combining ALL offensive modules on one fighter and triggering them, we can get 20 to 30% increased damage against one target, right? Guess what, without any of those fancy skills, a frigate has 50% higher base damage than you, and didn’t invest any energy or valuable skill-slots, because a Frig has 6 guns and not just 4. Hell, even an empire fighter with his damage increased by 10% or several others by 15% (Federation Wolf MK-II), its still lower.

 

Of course, you say, of course its lower. Then why do I end up with 50% of the combined health, too?

 

If you ask me, overdrive shouldn’t be a racial special, it should be default for every fighter. If I need a buff, a debuff, rockets, a racial skill and a rare weapon to bring down a frigate (offguard and unguarded as well) and barely survive it, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the balance. By the way if that burst is not enough, i float with overheated guns half dead through pulsar&minefield territory, while the frig heals back up. Glorious days.

 

Or how about a damage bonus against the broadside (25%) and the backside (100%) of frigates?

 

Captains get killed by interceptors, EMP bombs get planted by interceptors, beacons get taken by Interceptors and all beacons should be defended by Frigates, where do fighters come in?

 

Every time I try it with a Fed/Jericho Fighter its utterly depressing. At least with an Empire fighter I can bring down one frigate before being torn to shreds myself. (That is in Tier3. In T4 its a whole different story.) You need a fast firing gun to even be able to hit an Interceptor, but then you lack the range to fight frigates without having the health to close the gap reliably.

 

So in conclusion, I ask you the following, that IS the role of a fighter in Star Conflict?

Or maybe i got it all wrong, and you know a better way… what’s your take on fighters? How did you make him work for you?

 

 

Footnote: I read somewhere that 100 resist equals 50% damage reduction, 200 resist equals 67,5% and 300 resist equals 75%. In conclusion 50 resist is worth 25% damage resistance. Correct me if I am wrong.

Good post!

" jack-of-all-trades and masters of nothing"

 

interceptor: fragile, fast, crowd controller, bonus to capture, relatively low dps

frigate: durable, slow, aoe regens, heals, highest dps

fighter: average, average, a few buff a few cc, average

 

Fighter doesn’t have a clear role, you can spec for any.

With a well chosen module/weapon set you can kill any other ship type.

 

We have 2 really good buff (valk. and shield res.), and other not so useful modules.

I love to play as a fighter (and i do most of the time) but our active skills are the least useful between the three ship types.

I need to correct a few things here, 1 in particular:

 

Damage Dealer: Intercepter/fighter NOT frigate.

 

Fighters and Interceptors have 30% crit buffs in general and it is possible to get this as high as 75%. Depending on your faction this includes a Damage 10% bonus as well, and if you use autocannons… well suffice it to say you will crit for double damage more times then you don’t.

 

Fighters and inties by far do more damage then any frigate on their best day “IF” and I stress “IF” the pilot knows what they are doing, and has the right fittings.

 


 

Frigates get the rep for being good at everything because well, they start out powerful. And well inties and fighters don’t. But hey their Frigates… Big slow ships… what do you expect? Realistically I love the game on this stand point, A well geared frigate is almost impossible for an inty / fighter to kill Solo. And you know? This is As it should be.

 

Whats the point of flying a huge slow ship if you can’t dish out some major damage, and defend against fast moving fighters and inties? Their wouldn’t be one, any other course of action would make that class of ship useless. and all you would see were fighters and inties on the field. Which would be really, really, boring.

 


 

IN addition Fighters and Inties have self heals and reigns as well, if you gave an inty or a fighter frigate bonuses couple with an inties or fighters speed, Youd never ever kill one. Frigates stay in the back in battles for a reason, its because we know up close next to the action… We dont stand a chnce, except being a huge slow moving target easily killed.

I need to correct a few things here, 1 in particular:

 

Damage Dealer: Intercepter/fighter NOT frigate.

 

Fighters and Interceptors have 30% crit buffs in general and it is possible to get this as high as 75%. Depending on your faction this includes a Damage 10% bonus as well, and if you use autocannons… well suffice it to say you will crit for double damage more times then you don’t.

Wrong. Interceptors get 30% crit buffs. Fighters get nada. Which means you can do double damage. An interceptor has 2 cannons. Hooray with a crit you do as much damage as a fighter. And crits only apply against hull.

 

Talking about self-heals. Frigates have those, too. In T3 a frigate can heal 13000 shield and/or 13000 hull over 20 seconds. Yes, 12k hull where our heal does 1500 hull. They laugh about our heals. 

 

 

 

Depending on your faction this includes a Damage 10% bonus as well,

…which Frigs get too…

 

A well geared frigate is almost impossible for an inty / fighter to kill Solo. And you know? This is As it should be.

So, you saying, 12 frigates is the best choice. Yep. Thats true, sadly. Thanks for supporting my argument.

I’ve had the most luck with the command fighters and playing midfield to help team. The role only going to get better as they add more mods also on perk of fighters are the amount of missiles they can carry it’s higher then the other two classes.

Wrong. Interceptors get 30% crit buffs. Fighters get nada. Which means you can do double damage. An interceptor has 2 cannons. Hooray with a crit you do as much damage as a fighter. And crits only apply against hull.

 

Talking about self-heals. Frigates have those, too. In T3 a frigate can heal 13000 shield and/or 13000 hull over 20 seconds. Yes, 12k hull where our heal does 1500 hull. They laugh about our heals. 

 

 

 

So, you saying, 12 frigates is the best choice. Yep. Thats true, sadly. Thanks for supporting my argument.

 

Actually no, you bring 12 frigates into a battle your going to die horribly and lose, you should really study tactics before making a post like this. Game mechanics also. Your not accounting for speed maneuverability special mods that increase your damage (IE command modules and other buff modules which increase the crit rate of fighters and inties). And every mod fighters and inties have which cloak them or make them immune to damage or paralyze a frigate completely, I mean a couple fighters and inties can lock down frigs no issue at all.

 

And you have no idea how hard it is to hit something up your xxxx while in a frigate, inties can fly circles around us and we will never hit them with our main weapons. They can cloak break target become fully immune to damage while still firing at you and have weapons that deal 12k+ damage per hit. (I’ve been 3 shotted by an inty in my frig with over 35k health,) so yea…

 

*Edited*

 


 

Also on balance, This isn’t world of warcraft, where every class is basically the same class with the same abilities named soemthign else… That is NOT balance.

 

True balance is versatility and verity  If you as a fighter decide you want to take on a battleship or frigate, you need to prepare yourself to do such instead of expecting the devs to nerf frigs so you can kill them easier. Team up with someone, don’t solo one. Because yea if your stupid enough to try and solo my frig and you are not prepared your going to die. But hey the same thing would happen if you were fighting another small craft rather then a big one. Balance provides a challenge. Obviously everyone but you knows this, as the max frigates I’ve ever seen in a battle is like 4 maybe 5. the other 7-16 people in the match are in fighters and inties. People always go with whats better, and since the vast majority of players fly fighters and inties, it should be blatantly obvious to you that frigates are “Under powered” if anything. Else more people would fly them.

 

We are long range support, we stay in the back and snipe or torp. Generally our main weapons are for dealing with close range fighters if they decide to come after us (And believe me they don’t really help against someone who is prepared to kill us and knows what the hell they are doing and we usually die).

 

Tactics for engaging a frigate are far different then for engaging another fighter craft.

 

Big fleet support ships are not supposed to be able to be soloed. However fit right an inty can easily 3 shot a frig as I said above.

a) you always sit in your frigate ingame and snipe

b) after i counter your first so-called argument, you ignore what you yourself said and start insulting me?

b) an interceptor can’t do 12k damage per hit. Thats more than a nuclear bomb for crying out loud.

c) “You need to Learn to play the damn game before you go criticizing it.” you disqualified yourself. If you think i am “QQing” read the indepth analysis in the first post again. 

 

As you would say: kkthxbye.

Yea its the “Deathray” weapon goes in an inty missile slot. does like 12-15k damage depending on your mods and buffs and whatnot.

 

Wasn’t insulting you was just making general statements about the lack of research you’ve done and the lack of knowledge on game mechanics. And some figthers do have acrit bonus, your right not all of them do but some do and there are also mods which add to it as well as ammo types.

 

Bottom line is inties and fighters are far more powerful then a frig “IF” set up right. Fighters are not supposed to be used tactically to engage frigs anyway, they are supposed to cap beacons and run bombs.

 

If you use a ship for something it is not intended for, don’t expect it to work out well unless you are set up specifically for it and gimp yourself against other fighters., frigates are supposed to kill other frigates. And generally thats what we do except for the occasional lucky snipe or torp we might get in that kills a fighter / inty or if we manage to kill one harassing us. You all are NOT easy to hit at all… Even with an AOE torp,

 

It takes REAL skill to kill fighters and inties with torps and sniper rounds, it’s not easy at all unless they are stupid and sitting still (Which they never should be if they are good pilots).

Wasn’t insulting you was just making general statements about the lack of research you’ve done and the lack of knowledge on game mechanics. 

 

(I’ve been 3 shotted by an inty in my frig with over 35k health,)

 

No Interceptor can carry 3 Death Rays. Not. a. single. one.

Can you please stop making things up? You are the one who apparently has not the slightest clue about the game mechanics.

 

Stop derailing this thread, its not about interceptors and not about frigates.

No Interceptor can carry 3 Death Rays. Not. a. single. one.

Can you please stop making things up? You are the one who apparently has not the slightest clue about the game mechanics.

 

Stop derailing this thread, its not about interceptors and not about frigates.

my bad its the fighters that can carry a ton of them not the inties (even though “some” of the inties can carry 2-3 of them), I was looking at my Jericho fighter and thinking it was the inty one.

 

But yea ok so it was a fighter not an inty, And the fighters can carry 9 Death rays, so yea…

 

In any case my point was if your fit right, and know what your doing you can easily kill frigs.

 


 

Also checking the other races ships, some of the inties at Tech IV can in fact carry 2-3 Death Rays, not many, but a few. So my original point still stands and it may have in fact been an inty that 3 shotted me. (He might have even 2 shotted me if he managed to get lucky and crit both times which with the inties crit boost would not surprise me a bit…

my bad its the fighters that can carry a ton of them not the inties (even though “some” of the inties can carry 2-3 of them), I was looking at my Jericho fighter and thinking it was the inty one.

In T3 (which you play), no interceptor can carry 2-3 of them. None. Nada. Niente. There are SOME who can carry one.

I mean is it really too much asked, to open the ship panel and look for yourself before posting WRONG INFORMATION here.

 

But yea ok so it was a fighter not an inty, And the fighters can carry 9 Death rays, so yea…

In tier 3, the fighter with the most slots for heavy bombs can carry 2. Most can’t even carry one, i don’t know what game you talk about, but surely not Star Conflict.

 

 

On the other hand, my tier 3 frigate, can carry 7. Which is as it should be, frigates carry heavy stuff.

 

 

Please go and troll somewhere else.

In T3 (which you play), no interceptor can carry 2-3 of them. None. Nada. Niente. There are SOME who can carry one.

I mean is it really too much asked, to open the ship panel and look for yourself before posting WRONG INFORMATION here.

 

In tier 3, the fighter with the most slots for heavy bombs can carry 2. Most can’t even carry one, i don’t know what game you talk about, but surely not Star Conflict.

 

 

On the other hand, my tier 3 frigate, can carry 7. Which is as it should be, frigates carry heavy stuff.

 

 

Please go and troll somewhere else.

Actually I play T3 and T4… And Yea I’ve been in my t3 frig in  a battlle with T4 ships, happens a lot in fact. So stop being a troll dude.

 

And I was looking at the ship pannel when I posted, Mayube you should do the same Here let me give you a list:

 

T3-

Desert eagal = 2 Heavy bombs

Bear = 2 Heavy Bombs

Strong = 9 Heavy Bombs

 

 

No need to even list T4 with that.

 

Like I said before Dude, it’s not the game that needs to be fixed on the subject of frigates, in fact at higher tiers the torp and the sniper frig are significantly “Underpowered” Especially at T4. they only hit for about 3k max damage, and on ships even inties with 15k - 20k EFHP, and Frigas with 35-50k EFHP, Yea Not even a dent in the Health of another ship.

 

If anything Like I said before also Frigs need a significant special weapons Damage boost.

Inties wiht 15k-20k hp? 

 

Dream on. 

 

 

 

Strong = 9 Heavy Bombs

Strong is a paid for ship. Its no withing any Steam package, so it costs around 10€ to get it. Just stfu. Go back to wherever you came.

Inties wiht 15k-20k hp? 

 

Dream on. 

 

 

 

Strong is a paid for ship. Its no withing any Steam package, so it costs around 10€ to get it. Just stfu. Go back to wherever you came.

Its a ship that lots of people fly. Therfore it is a valid example and you my friend are wrong, again…

my bad its the fighters that can carry a ton of them not the inties (even though “some” of the inties can carry 2-3 of them), I was looking at my Jericho fighter and thinking it was the inty one.

 

But yea ok so it was a fighter not an inty, And the fighters can carry 9 Death rays, so yea…

Yeah i’m totally impressed how you first say interceptors carry 9 heavy bombs, when i prove you wrong you say fighter carry 9 heavy bombs and out of 15 fighters you find 3 who can carry them at all and ONE paid fighter who can carry 9. Thats a whooping 4% of all fighters.

 

The fact that you are afraid of death rays only shows what an idiotic camper you are.

 

 

Great argumentation. But at least you didnt produce any more misinformation with your last posting. 

Proud of you.

Engine suppressor should prevent afterburners like the Frigate module. 

Then i use my flares…??? 20 seconds imune to engine supressor hahahaha

 

edit: some times thsi no works, as i donst see my ship is afected by the supressor

/Topic cleaned.

Keep on discussing, but leave out the personal insults.

ALL T4 inties and Fighters (which have the heavy bomb slot) can carry MULTIPLE Deathrays.

Thats like saying all ships who have a Laser equipped can shoot lasers.

 

 

If you had flown a frig and actually knew anything about them and their mechanics, you’d know your post here is Bullshit trolling.

I have flown a frig, its actually on my 2nd slot. But I didn’t forget it can move, unlike you, who spawns and doesn’t even move at all. Or did you learn that now?

 

 

and then come here on the forums and act like you know what your talking about when you say Frigs need a nerf,

This thread isn’t about nerfing frigates, its about fighters. You repeatedly derail this thread, making it about frigates, which it is NOT.

 

I will quote the very first line of this thread to you, i know its hard to understand meaning when you’re all worked up:

 

 

This will be an in-depth look into the unloved class of ships, the so-called fighters, jack-of-all-trades and masters of nothing.

 

 

PS: This is the second time i report you for insults, i hope the admins do something serious this time.