Twin Ion Engine Fighter

[Prospernia]

So, when we got Aerotech, the first thing we did was make Star-Wars fighters to it.  We didn't know the ins and outs(Tech-stuff) of the Star-Wars stuff, so, we just made sub-par fighters etc.  TIE-Fighters had medium-lasers, X-Wings, four large-lasers.

So I redesigned the TIE-Fighter to be more in spirit with its design; that is, a light, maneuverable-fighter that's cheap to mass-produce. First, I designed it in Renegade-Legion: Interceptor. 

At least I was able to design it with no-shields, and twin-engines (that's a start), the size of the cockpit, where the lasers are, isn't that big so, they get short-ranged lasers; however, I was able to get its speed way up to make it, "Maneuverable", and keep the cost, down.  I wanted it under a million.



Then, I tried to design it under Aerotech-rules, and I ran into problems; the solar-power regenerates fuel-points, but at what rate?  The craft has zero fuel, like, none, so I have to figure out how to generate fuel, and it can take damage, so it needs spaces on its wings.   I have to reread Aerotech and figure out a happy-medium. 

[idea weenie]

Treat the Wings as a giant pair of Heat Sinks and use onboard fuel.  Ideally you'd want each ton of fuel to provide 'fuel points', where the craft uses fuel points proportional to its mass every turn (i.e; a 45-ton craft accelerating at speed 5 would use 225 Fuel points, while an 11-ton craft accelerating at speed 10 would use 110 Fuel points).

Give it a short endurance.

Lighter armor.

Maneuverability will be the key.

[Luciora]

Very much a Zero vs a *cat / Corsair fighter.

[Prospernia]

Treat the Wings as a giant pair of Heat Sinks and use onboard fuel.  Ideally you'd want each ton of fuel to provide 'fuel points', where the craft uses fuel points proportional to its mass every turn (i.e; a 45-ton craft accelerating at speed 5 would use 225 Fuel points, while an 11-ton craft accelerating at speed 10 would use 110 Fuel points).

Give it a short endurance.

Lighter armor.

Maneuverability will be the key.

Do they need additional heat-sinks with only two medium-lasers?

And maneuverability is the key!  A lot of Battltech-players going into Aerotech thought heavier is better.  But you can't fire your weapons to your rear unless you have a turret.

And I have to calculate the cost, because it has to be economically-feasible. ie, cheap, very cheap.

[Retry]

You could fluff them as heat sinks without actually adding more of them.

Makes more sense in the BT setting than making those wings solar panels.  BTU doesn't have magic sublight engines that don't consume fuel (disregarding interstellar K-F drives that is needed to make the setting work at all), so you need reaction mass to move.  Solar panels don't produce reaction mass.  (And even if they somehow did they'd be essentially useless at anywhere not near to the star, which includes every standard zenith/nadir jump point).

A TIE Fighter analogue is probably going to look something like the Seydlitz Z3, to be honest.

[Charistoph]

Another question is, which Tie Fighters do you go with?  X-Wing (PC) where they are cheap and fragile and otherwise standard firepower?  X-Wing (Tabletop) where it's pretty much the same?  Or Squadrons where the Tie is tougher than the Interceptor and its guns are individually more powerful than the Interceptors?

[glitterboy2098]

A TIE Fighter analogue is probably going to look something like the Seydlitz Z3, to be honest.

pretty sure it would look liek a Nebula California Star Empire T-fighter, actually.

[Prospernia]

Another question is, which Tie Fighters do you go with?  X-Wing (PC) where they are cheap and fragile and otherwise standard firepower?  X-Wing (Tabletop) where it's pretty much the same?  Or Squadrons where the Tie is tougher than the Interceptor and its guns are individually more powerful than the Interceptors?

What am I going to do?  They're going to blow each other up.  Since my current players like Star-Wars more than giant-robots, I'll probably fiddle around with the designs, in Aerotech and Interceptor, constantly.  A cost-effective Empire is an effective-Empire.