Happy and sad about the fighters.
The fact that the someone had to rely on the scenario rules to say we will not see all fighter fleets makes me sad. I can already see how some of my local players will use this. At least one stand on each ship hoping for the no fire crits that take at least two firing oppurtunities to fix.
Races this actually really hurts are the Vree (low hull/low damage/no free fighters), Drazi (previous defense was you always shot first at least, common fighter is -1 dogfighter), Abbai (no secondary guns to use on fghters- the quad is your primary gun, free fighters but they suck)
EA (most ships carry a now effective free fighter, lots of anti-fighter), Minbari (lots of anti fighter, good free fighter), centauri (good free fighters), Narn (great fighter under these rules, emine protection for their own fighters), Brakiri (free fighters on a common hull, lots of anti fighter)
I am glad they did something but wish they had used one of the other solutions. They did this already and it was a disaster, sure the fighters are weakerm but they still crit just like anybody else. Folks are going to be thrilled when some sentri 4-6's the Warlock. I think I will propose we go to a D3 for crits with fighters locally.
I think that CZuschlag's analysis with a 'typical' fighter is flawed. His fighter is not typical with only one ad, look at the big four races. All have two to four ad. That is two to four chances for a ship ending crit before your ship can fire. Fighters not being precise will not evade the issue that caused this to be a disaster the first time they tried it.
Ripple