[xpnet]

   I'm trying to answer this as if a race of people had to justify putting these ships together to fly them around in space.  Besides blowing the crap out of each other what are fighters for in the freespace universe? Are they just Scouts or they a part of some larger scheme of things?

[NGTM-1R]

Small, highly maneuverable, and able to project large amounts of firepower for their size. What they lack is battlefield endurance in terms of both survivability and time-on-station.

[General Battuta]

Originally? They're for carrying weapons to use to kill your enemies.

Eventually warships come along, including cruisers (which suck) and destroyers (which are used to haul fighters between systems). In the Terran-Vasudan war fighters (bombers, specifically) are used to drop bombs on your enemies, including their civilians, who you nuke en masse. Fighters are used to kill these bombers, or to kill other fighters.

They are also for guarding convoys full of profitable things against other fighters which could be used to steal them.

By the time of FS2 the balance of power is swinging a bit back towards the warship, but fighters are still the prime means of power projection, especially through FreeSpace's equivalent of an over-the-horizon attack, i.e. ops at least one jump away from your base.

[xpnet]

Nice,

Beyond FS2 where heavier ships can tank the fighter assaults. By Warships what would you class them as?

NGTM-1R what do you mean by time-on-station?

[The E]

Time on station is simply the amount of time a fighter can stay deployed on flight ops. Eventually, a fighter has to return to base, because of pilot fatigue, if nothing else.

Cruisers, Corvettes or Destroyers on the other hand have much more mission endurance.

Beyond FS2 where heavier ships can tank the fighter assaults. By Warships what would you class them as?

What do you mean? I'm sorry, but I have trouble understanding the question here, can you rephrase it?

[xpnet]

I am asking what would non-fighter ships be.. Frigates, Cruisers, Destroyers, Transports? With the progression of FS2 (because in FS I could kill larger ships much easier if I remember correctly) these larger ship types can now take more of a beating from fighters making them not as effective what roles does that leave for the fighters?

I like the bombing of planets etc.. what else I see them as being a recon.

[General Battuta]

I...don't quite understand what you're asking because the games themselves seem to answer your questions.

There are already cruisers, corvettes, frigates, destroyers, juggernauts and the Colossus in FreeSpace. Not to mention gas miners, AWACS, transports, freighters, medical ships...what else do you need?

Fighters can still dominate warships in FreeSpace 2. A wing of assault fighters can take out a cruiser with thousands of people aboard. A few wings of bombers can take out a destroyer with ten thousand people aboard.

[xpnet]

Your answering my question, I guess is there a Wiki with a breakdown of the ships in the FS Universe. Like how much damange each take and match ups, roles, etc.  I use to play the retail versions and liked using Fred a lot to make my own missions and hopefully I can get FSopen to install on my computer this week to get back into the game.

[Kolgena]

There is. Scroll to the very top of this page, and click the "FreeSpace Wiki" tab. Its right beside the Forums tab.

[General Battuta]

Your answering my question, I guess is there a Wiki with a breakdown of the ships in the FS Universe. Like how much damange each take and match ups, roles, etc.  I use to play the retail versions and liked using Fred a lot to make my own missions and hopefully I can get FSopen to install on my computer this week to get back into the game.

You can just click 'FreeSpace Open Installer' up top to install it.

[Charismatic]

For kicking the ass of anything except superdestroyers such as Sahti or Collies. Alpha 1 Pwns. 1 billion to one KD ratio.

[Droid803]

The majick of RESTART MISSION.

[Mobius]

Don't underestimate scout capabilities, which are extremely useful in star systems (where the average sensors wouldn't be enough).

[Androgeos Exeunt]

* Androgeos Exeunt fires his BABeam.

I am asking what would non-fighter ships be.. Frigates, Cruisers, Destroyers, Transports? With the progression of FS2 (because in FS I could kill larger ships much easier if I remember correctly) these larger ship types can now take more of a beating from fighters making them not as effective what roles does that leave for the fighters?

I like the bombing of planets etc.. what else I see them as being a recon.

Fighters are quick and nimble. The best fighter pilots can dodge everything a warship can throw at them and slowly whittle it down. In a larger, slower vessel, this is not possible.

Non-fighter ships are basically anything not classified as a fighter or bomber.

With the advent of beam technology, planetary bombardment may be possible from space, much like how the Lucifer glassed Vasuda Prime. More traditional tactics would probably require ships capable of atmospheric flight.

[xpnet]

  I finially got the Launcher figured out. I think I got everything installed I'm going to give it a test run tonight.  Any suggestions on which mod to run.

It's wierd the classes of ships, Destroyers in a Navy arn't they normally smaller ships? The Wiki helped out a lot but still left unanswered questions.

[The E]

Yes, in real life terms, Destroyers are primarily escort ships. In FS, the term got used to describe Battleship/Carrier hybrids. Just gotta get used to it.

[sigtau]

If you don't already have the Media VPs for 3.6.12, I would recommend picking up those.  Other than that, some of the best mods to start with would be Blue Planet, Derelict, Transcend, and once you're comfortable with FreeSpace (and you're daring enough to stress yourself the **** out), Second Great War.

[General Battuta]

I would recommend starting out with Derelict, Silent Threat Reborn, or Blue Planet - Transcend is a kickass story but a bit more of a slow burn. From there, take your pick, there's a lot out there.

[Hades]

For kicking the ass of anything except superdestroyers such as Sahti or Collies. Alpha 1 Pwns. 1 billion to one KD ratio.

Except the two you mentioned aren't actually superdestroyers but juggernauts.

[Droid803]

ALPHA ONE pwns superdestroyers too (the Lucifer was killed by fighters!)