Fighters and their use and role in the game have always been a contentious issue that splits players right down the middle. There are those who beleive fighters are an integral part of the game and those who beleive their use/effect should be minimal.
In the original ACTA rules fighters were dominant. They had higher AD and a lot more weapon traits. Players, as players do, maximised on a weakness that Mongoose hadn't thought of when they designed the game. Mongoose didn't think that players would turn up with fleets of fighters. After all, ACTA was a game about BIG ships, fleet conflict, capital ships going toe to toe, fighters were thrown into the mix without much thought. But Mongoose didn't take into account the fact that the average gamer can spot and exploit a loop hole faster than a Thunderbolt on afterburners.
Players complained, see the earlier threads from the very beginings of the game, if they still exist. Some players complained and complained. The two biggest moans groans and whines were stealth and fighters. With cries of fix it fix it, it isn't broke don't touch it, again depending on which camp you fell into.
So in SFOS fighters had most of their traits removed, weapon AD was reduced and within weeks players cried and moaned and groaned, fix it fix it, you destroyed my lovely fighters. It's broken fix it fix it. Low and behold, before SFOS is even a year old the rules are changed again to assuage the constant gripes of players. So now the pendulumn has swung back in favour of fighters. Vree, the fleet with the best anti fighter ships in the game are retired from the game against fighter heavy fleets before a signle dice is cast. Shadows and vorlons are going to get beaten up, Shadows more than vorlons by all accounts, and as fighters move last, escaping from the range of anti fighter escorts, they are free to plague, pester and whittle down ships at will.
Ok there will be an increase in dog fights, big deal, this isn't a world war 1 fighetr game. dog fights are an irrelevance. Under Armageddon dogfights will decide who has the fighter advantage and whomever gets that takes a huge advantage into the game.
Interceptors? Ha ha ha no trouble, target the ship with fighters and the inteceptors are used up before they can do the job they were designed to do.
Players won't take mass swarms of fighters that move last and fire first? Why the hell not? Gamers have always sought the advantage, if gives a huge advantage and it is within the rules then even better, so what if it is sad, geeky, and shows that you can'tplay with real ships, actually what is shows is that you a a cheese ball and should be laughed at, derided, and then ignored as players refuse to play with you.
Playtesters didn't spot any of this? Tsk tsk tsk, who ever said that playtesting is about grinding things out and not having a game with your buds on a Friday night was dead right. The playtesters should have spotted this. There is hardly any way they couldn't unless they were playing in the spirit of the game instead of playing as the rules allow. The spirit of the game is the unwritten rule of how the game is meant to be played. As any rules lawyer will tell you, unwritten rules aren't worth the paper they are written on. But that's not playtesting, thats just playing. If this had been properly playtested, Mongoose would be aware that several fleets have been royally ****ed, and that interceptors can now be sidestepped, skirmish and some raid ships destroyed by fighters before doing a single thing. Maybe they were aware and just weren't bothered, after all, I bet the sale of fighters will go up now!
The only hope now, for those that fall into the camp who were happy with what was done to fighters in SFOS, is to moan and groan and whine, loudly, continuously and without ceasing. This has been shown to work twice beofre, there is noreson why it should not sway mongoose once again to put out another set of rules that fixes the problem again, swinging the pendulumn back the other way. SFOS lasted what...6-8 months before the rules were changed...complain loud enough, hard enough and often enough and see if you can get them changed again, eeven faster this time. It will give Mongoose something to put into next year's update to the rules.
As for putting all your ships into a big circle....... hmmmmm I would so love to comment on the tactical sagacity this shows but for once, I am just lost for words.... to busy laughing to type more......
