[Colonol Dekker]

What sort of depraved lunatic would volunteer for that sort of job??


Either a flunked pilot applicant, or it's more of a repremand / punishment assignment...............


**Discuss.

[ShadowGorrath]

Or someone who doesn't want to die/fight. Normal pilots would have to defend support ships, as it's the "only hope to resupply".

[Colonol Dekker]

I tend to jump them out between resupplys as i don't want them to 'splode.......


But other times i think what the hell and slay them, but why would any sane person "volunteer" for that role when you could be a canteen worker on an Aeolus and remain relatively safe by comparison 

[ShadowGorrath]

But the safest job IS a support ship pilot. Anything other than a support ship can get nuked easily in-game. And for support ships, just 'keep safe distance' them, or order to depart. Anything else is meant to attract hostile bombs

[Colonol Dekker]

In the "Old days of Squadwar TM" I used to nearly always target them while the other team were mid-supply. I'm thinking from an agressors point of view here. (Especially Sobek / Aeolus duel)

I always got space-raped on Rebel Intercept too. Rather than Resupply I'd Just SHIFT+END and respawn with a full rack of Torps......

[Roanoke]

Fail to project the Aquataine in "Argonautica" (IIRC) and you get busted down to support pilot in a backwater system.

[CP5670]

Yes, it seems that the fighter pilots who screwed up and were demoted fly support ships. There is also an earlier failure debriefing where Samsa says "frankly, I think we'll be lucky if they let us fly support ships."

[Titan]

In homesick, they explain how support ships are piloted mostly by mercs, as 'nobody actually signs on to fly tubs instead of fighters'. (incorrect quote- i know that's not what they say in the mission, but its close enough)

[Mobius]

Oh, Titan...that is soo canon!

I think you're confusing the game with the Universe here.

In the Universe a support ship's pilot should be intelligent enough to keep a safe distance from the enemy and jump out when there are poor chances of survival. If a support ship is far from allied units and there are fighters closing in on it, well...I don't think it would remain there.

[ShadowGorrath]

I still think pilots would/should protect support ships. After all, it's the only in-game-universe way to rearm. And a support ship SHOULD leave a pretty big shockwave if it exploded ( considering the ammount of weapons in it ), so little fighters would get destroyed.

[Mobius]

You sustain considerable damage at high dfficulty levels. Same thing for exploding torpedoes.

I know pilots are supposed to protect support ships but they have their own objectives. Support ships should simply escape when needed, it would be pointless to risk losing fighters in desperate conditions.

[Gamma_Draconis]

Here's a new question, actually two.

Are support ships more valuable than fighters? Bombers?

About how many support ships are there on a Destroyer?

[Droid803]

Maybe they should let the support ship fire some of its on-board munitions. Then maybe it won't be so defenseless...
Hell, why not make support ships into bombers? Seems like they have an infinitely large cargo bay for every type of missile. They'd be a whole lot more effective than those useless Boanerges (screw lack of afterburner, the Seraphims and Nephilims does just fine without them!

[Gamma_Draconis]

Maybe they should let the support ship fire some of its on-board munitions. Then maybe it won't be so defenseless...
Hell, why not make support ships into bombers? Seems like they have an infinitely large cargo bay for every type of missile. They'd be a whole lot more effective than those useless Boanerges (screw lack of afterburner, the Seraphims and Nephilims does just fine without them!

I think support ships can actually run out of ordinance. Also, I don't think they have the mechanisms for firing the warheads. Hell, I don't even think they have afterburner reserves.

[Droid803]

The tutorial says that, but I've seen it rearm my entire wing with bombs, meaning it must have several times the capacity of even a heavy bomber at the very least. Just slap a launch mechanism, and you have a missile boat.

[Mad Bomber]

Hell with a launch mechanism. Remote control a fully loaded old Scarab from a distance and you have a very effective suicide bomb.

[ShadowGorrath]

The reason support ships have such a large cargo capacity is because they don't have weapons and afterburners, thus more space.

[blowfish]

Still, you can only fit so many huge torpedos in a ship that size.

[Grizzly]

Well, I think this is the same argument as the "problem" with all the wingmen dying in the first sixty seconds. It is not because they are so bad, its that their commander, who is supposed to be smarter, lets them comit near suicide.

[blowfish]

Its difficult to issue orders when there are 5 Shivans on your a$$ though.  Actually that would be a cool (but potentially very difficult to implement) feature for SCP - voice activated COMMs.