Fighter Wings

Wing Overview

The wing overview allows you to access most of the commands that you need to
to give your fighter wing and allows you to view data on your wing. This screen is
very similar to the ship overview screen.

From this screen you can turn on and off most combat setting, set the friendly
and command codes, set the speed, and set navigation targets. The mini
nav screen in the middle of the screen can be used to quickly set a new waypoint.

Wing Navigation Screen

Also See: Nav Modes and Targets

This screen shows all the current nav targets and lets you change them.

In the above display there is currently no intercept target, and no escort target.
The wing is in waypoint nav mode.

The box in the lower right corner displays the current anvil object if one exists.

Clicking on any of the small arrows pointing to the left will set the target slot to
the current anvil object.  

If you have a target selected you will see a small right pointing arrow. Clicking
on one of those arrows will cause the target object to become the secondary (anvil ) object.
The target will appear in the box in the lower right corner as well as on the space command
pad as the right hand object.

The way point is a point in space and not an object. You can have the wing move
to the current location of another object in space, but if the object moves your
wing will not follow it. The wing will just end up at the old location of the object.
If you wish to follow another object you will need to use the intercept or escort options.

The wing is not going to make any effort to move to the location of the kill or
dock targets. If the wing happens to pass by the location of one of these targets
it will attempt to interact with the object.

The speed slider on the left side of the screen can be used to change the wing
speed from here.

Wing Name And Log Screen

You can change the name of the wing and you can leave a message to yourself in the lower log line. Everyone can see the wing‘s name, but nobody can see the log message.

Missions, Codes and Scanner

The fighters have a short range scanner with about a 25ly range. Using it makes the
fighters more visible to enemy scanners. Turning on the ID transmitter makes the fighters
very easy for enemy ships to see.

If your wing’s friendly code matches an enemies‘ universal friendly code the fighter
can pass through enemy space without being intercepted by ships with their auto intercept
mission turned on.

Auto intercept enemy ships will have the wing attack any enemy ship that enters the
wing‘s patrol range.

Command codes are used to send commands to nearby objects that can understand
them or to activate special fighter devices.

Attack Modes

The wing must be set to attack enemies if you want it to fight, otherwise the wing will run if confronted by an enemy.

A quick strike will have the fighters make one pass on the enemy target and run at full speed away from the battle area.

Anti fighter will have the wing attack enemy fighters first if possible, the wing will attack other targets if no fighters are in the area.

Ground strike allows the wing to target ground bases, even ground bases that are not firing at the wing.

Close to Point Blank orders the wing to get as close as possible to the enemy before firing the weapons.

Deadly first will have the wing attack the enemies that have the most weapons first.

Soft first will have the wing attack enemy pods and freighters first.

Do not launch orders the wing to stay in its fighter bay on the ship. If the wing is on a ship that is destroyed the wing will be destroyed as well.

Fighter Statistics

This display shows you the detailed statistics for each of the fighter types in the wing.

Max Speed	LY Per turn the fighter can fly
Max Range	Max distance the fighter can fly before it needs to refuel
Armor	The blast level that the fighter can take and not be destroyed
Beam	The beam weapon power.
Beam Acc.	The beam accuracy
Beam Range	The range that the beam can reach in a combat
Missiles	The missile power
Missile Range	Max range that the missiles will reach.
Attack Rating	The ability of the fighter to bring its weapons to bare on the enemy target.
Evasive Rating	The ability to evade incoming enemy weapons fire.
Ord Payload	The number of missile reloads the fighter can carry.
Generator	The rate that the fighter makes new power to charge its battery.
Battery	The amount of power that the fighter can store up for an attack run.
Cost	Price in megacredits. (Fighters do not require minerals to produce)
Exposed Sys	The fighters soft spot, the odds that a small hit ( including a sand caster ) could case the fighter to explode.
G.A. (Ground Attack)	Air (fighters) / Machines / Troops / Cities
G.E. (Ground Evade)	Air (fighters) / Machines / Troops

Special wings powers

Fighter wings has the special ability of being able to attack enemy bases that have shields. They have a good chance of taking out the base shield so that any ship in orbit around the planet have the chance to bombard the base with large ship weapons doing maximum damage to the base and hopefully killing most of the enemy colonists on the base.

When a wing docks with a base the wing is dissolved and the fighters are placed in storage at the base. If the base is attacked the base will use the stored fighters to form temporary home guard fighter wings that are using for the battle and then placed back into storage after fight ends.

Any time a ship and fighter wing end movement at the some point in space the fighter wing is automatically refueled.

Fighter wings can dock with ships that have fighter bays. Fighter bays have limited sizes. When a fighter wing is docked with a ship it is protected from the effects of enemy minefields. If you order the wing not to launch the wing is also protected from enemy anti-fighter fire and enemy fighters during a fight.

Fighters can be destroyed by enemy point defense systems that have the powers to target enemy fighters. Sand casters can destroy fighters. The Nemesis anti-fighter super missile can destroy a whole sky full of fighters in a single shot. Enemy fighters can destroy your fighters during a fight. Bases have ground AAA systems that can be used to shot down attacking enemy fighters.

March 30th, 2006