[Fully]

I'm making a fighter!
Fluff text is that it's an improvised design by the NTF. After repeated complaints by squadron leaders, the brass has finally realized that rebellion's ubiquitous loki is severely outmatched by the GTVA's modern space superiority fighters, and while there is no shortage of eager pilots willing to give their lives for the cause, it would be best if they managed to get some kills (or even better, fly more than one sortie) before going out in a blaze of glory. And so, an ad hoc R&D team was hastily put together and instructed to come up with a design that would keep neo-terra in the space superiority game.
The requirements for the NTF's new fighter design (designated NTF Sparrow) are: First and foremost, the fighter must improve upon the loki's marks, enough so that it can tangle with a wing of myrmidons, persei or serapis without the need of overwhelming number or capital ship support. Second, improved pilot survivability. As mentioned before, the amount of casualties sustained per engagement is affecting morale. The fighter must be well armored without sacrificing speed or agility. Finally, the design must be simple and cheap enough to begin production as soon as the evaluation period is done.

After a rushed, compromise-ridden, design stage, the engineers managed to fit a compact yet powerful reactor with enough output to sustain six weapon banks in a small, agile space frame. Drawing inspiration from pilots' reported experiences with the GTF Valkirye, the Sparrow's gun emplacements are placed close to the ship's axis in order to concentrate the fire in a small area. Regarding the issue of combat survivability, the design team made the choice not to include secondary armament banks on the fighter (which in turn allowed for a lighter, simpler avionics package, further decreasing weight and cost), and instead use the freed up weight on heavier armoring.

So, the Sparrow is a ship that can fly, take some punishment, and use six guns at the cost of no missiles. Is it useful? Is it balanced? Is it worth it? Will our overworked engineers get a commendation or the firing squad?

Here's a rough draft of the design (kinda looks like an uhlan, but I'm actually drawing inspiration from stargate's F302

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[Colonol Dekker]

Beauty of making your own ship is that you can make it entirely how you want without justification 👍👍

[0rph3u5]

Gameplay-wise the value of secondaries in the FS-verse is their high damage per shot - offset by the limit on the ammunition. A primary only craft would need good guns.

[starlord]

It would make sense for the NTF to use due to limited logistics. However, it would force the fighter to have very good speed so as to immediately close distance and use that stopping power on fighters. Possibly it should be necessary to mount a big number of countermeasures for defence.

[Colonol Dekker]

I think it would be interesting to have it focus on power management to offset the lack of secondaries.  Like I war or x wing.

[Kie99]

I really like the idea. Having fighters with certain special features like this, or strafing, is something I think FreeSpace could do with more of.

 As far as balance is concerned, I think that's entirely within your hands.  If it's too weak add some more armour or shields, or improve the handling.

[Grizzly]

The Loki itself already has very few secondaries to speak of, so a design that takes that aspect to its logical conclusion makes sense.

[Lorric]

What if it drained the power extremely quickly, like you hold the fire button down and the power is drained in less than one second for a complete drain. But it does massive damage if it hits and can take fighters out in one burst if it's all on target.

As the player, you have to get in close and line up the perfect shot. Your flying and gunnery skills will be put to the test, but if you master the fighter, you'll be moving quickly from target to target, taking them out. Fighters, turrets, etc.

Facing the ship, you'd have to take seriously the threat of something that can blow you out of the sky in the blink of an eye if you let it get in close and line you up. I'd make the weapon short range. That way, facing it you're not going to get sniped, it's your fault if you let it in for that killer blow, and as the player it will be more exhilarating flying like that, we already have tons of weapons for sniping targets from afar. How do you manage your power? Do you risk powering up your guns for faster destruction? Can you get in close enough without having already drained your power on speed and shields getting there?

[Fully]

What if it drained the power extremely quickly, like you hold the fire button down and the power is drained in less than one second for a complete drain. But it does massive damage if it hits and can take fighters out in one burst if it's all on target.

As the player, you have to get in close and line up the perfect shot. Your flying and gunnery skills will be put to the test, but if you master the fighter, you'll be moving quickly from target to target, taking them out. Fighters, turrets, etc.

Facing the ship, you'd have to take seriously the threat of something that can blow you out of the sky in the blink of an eye if you let it get in close and line you up. I'd make the weapon short range. That way, facing it you're not going to get sniped, it's your fault if you let it in for that killer blow, and as the player it will be more exhilarating flying like that, we already have tons of weapons for sniping targets from afar. How do you manage your power? Do you risk powering up your guns for faster destruction? Can you get in close enough without having already drained your power on speed and shields getting there?

This is interesting. My line of reasoning was going in an entirely different direction: The fighter's lack of secondaries would leave it at a disadvantage against a frontal charge from enemy fighters. To compensate for this it would need a specialized jousting gun meant to force enemy fighters to break off before getting an aspect lock. I'm thinking a plasma gun with a ridiculously long coilgun to propel the shot at ludicrous speed. Having to power both the plasma shot and the coilgun, this weapon would be an absolute energy hog, not fit for an extended dogfight. The pilot would have to be smart, using the gun to create an opening and get in knife fight range before the enemy can launch a volley, and then blasting them away with a close range weapon.

I like your idea better. What I had in mind goes against the philosophy behind this design, which is to get up in their **** and maul them to death. It should be nimble enough to dodge most shots, and tough enough to withstand the couple that hit. With six barrels arranged in a very tight cone, the right armament for this ship is a weapon with high burst damage, able to dispatch targets in a couple seconds of sustained fire at point blank. If they wanted it to fight long range like a girl they wouldn't have taken out the missiles.

[Lorric]

Happy to have helped.

I wonder, what was the reason for the name "Sparrow"? I was thinking about what my own name would be, and if it was to be a bird, what about Woodpecker?

A few extra thoughts I had, it can't be something the GTVA would field, and the no secondaries allows this, you'd rather fly the GTVA's fighters if you were a pilot, this one has limitations, can't fight at long range and overall DPS would be nothing special at all for the limited window you can actually fire, but if the pilot's good enough to get in close and take advantage of the destructive potential of these weapons, they can be very destructive, and they won't need to stop for a support ship reload either. But it's still limited up close in that you're not going to be taking out capships with this thing, but you can capably defang them for something else to do it for you.

I also hate the "gameplay" of just sitting there, firing off trebs with impunity. This is the antithesis of that, and I also like the idea of an inattentive or complacent player sat there getting blown away in a split second by one of these ships.

[Fully]

Thanks for the input
Couple of reasons for the name:
1- I think animal motifs are cool (birds and reptiles specifically). The NTF, if given time to care about these things, would probably make an effort to distance their image from the GTVA whenever possible. Changing their ship naming convention (while keeping it based around something very characteristic of earth, like its fauna), is a very easy way to do that.
2- I feel that raptor names, while being an obvious choice, are overused and kinda tacky. Besides, I don't think they would sit to well with this kind of fighter (the kestrel sounds nice, though)
3- It's spring over here and the sparrows are in in force. It's been a non-stop airshow in front of my window. Little buggers even like to bully my cat. They are very cool birds.

Another name that would fit would be the Hummingbird. They will charge at anything that intrudes upon their territory, not caring for a single second that whatever they're flying at is a couple orders of magnitude above their weight class. Little ****ers are ALL FURY.

This design is born out of necessity. The NTF is playing catch up to the GTVA, but with most of their R&D effort being funneled towards ETAK, they shouldn't be able to come up with an equivalent to the modern allied fighters, so sacrifices must be made in order to fulfill the main design goals. Like everything else in the NTF, it's a risky bet.
I'm also planning for a heavy assault/light bomber design to phase out the zeus and herk-MKI. [half-joke]I'm gonna name it "The Goose"[/half-joke]

[Lorric]

I like the thinking behind naming things after things on Earth, and it's a nice subversion as that trope is normally used for the good guy Earth faction.

Wouldn't have thought sparrows would do something like that. They seem like timid, harmless things.

There's a game called Xenocracy, iirc, the Mars faction has a Goose bomber. And yes, they run the the animal trope for all their stuff from Rat light fighters to Tiger destroyers.