Notes:
Combat AI
This is a list of targeting priorities,sort all targets as described, then pick the one hat is first on that list, if more then one then apply the next priority, or if there is no more priorities then pick at random
If a priority would result in no valid targets skip that priority instead.

Nearest (5 range)
this means "Sort from smallest to largest By round(Range/5)" then pick the first - which will usually be several craft/targets in larger battles.


Not sure if that kind of Targeting Priority is possible, but it would really help the FIghters pick targets and finish of wounded ones rather than spread their DPS evenly ...

I would love if you could expand on this mod a bit more. I love strike craft but atm they suck

This is what I'd like to see:

Bomber
targets ships
torpedo style weapon (high dps, low rof)
high shield, high hull
Combat AI: Biggest, Nearest (5 range), Lowest HP (5%), highest DPS (10/s), Nearest to Fleet (10 range), Nearest

Fighter
targets ships and strike craft
autocannon style weapon (moderate dps, moderate rof)
Combat AI: Bomber, Fighter, Interceptor, then as Bomber Combat AI

Interceptor
targets ships, strike craft and missiles
medium shield, low hull
Combat AI: Bomber, Torpedo, Fighter, Missile, Interceptor, Nearest to Carrier (10 range), lowest HP (5%), Nearest


Bomber for DPS
Interceptor for Strike Craft PD
Fighter for hybrid but worse than either at their role


Any chance you could include something like that in your mod - or better make a separate one for that?
That would be absoluetly fantastic!

Thanks for your work!

Which mods need to subscribe to get good fighters?
They seem to contradict or duplicate each other.

Interesting mod. I just wish there was a way to create a ship with lots of Hangar slots. Not an OP one, but just "trading" other weapon slot types for as many Hangar slots as possible.

Well, if we both edit the same files then no, it will not work. The files this changes are listed, compare it to whatever mod, if there is a conflict them one of them will break. I don't test against mods I don't personally use. It would be nice if Paradox would sort their modding shit out so this doesn't come up constantly, there is no reason I should have to edit the base files like this, but its out of my hands.,

@ryancup
Both this mod and NSC overwrite common/component_templates/00_strike_craft.txt, and given how alphasort-order is used for overrides, NSC fighter stats (and new tiers of fighters from there) will be used over this mod.
Mod you've linked does the same, and is even highier in load order, overwriting fighters from NSC.
So afaict none of these should be compatible with this mod in any way, or any fighter mod for that matter, unless it only adds new techs without modifying existing fighter stats.

As I was also thinking about what to do with these things, and being somewhat of an idiot completionist, decided that maybe generalist "jack of all trades, master of none" role would be good, so created a mod to that effect and without any other changes, heavily inspired by this one:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1372641051

Hmmm, those are some good observations mk-fg, thanks for making them. I think pretty soon I'm going to just sit down and really just test the crap out of things until I can get results that make sense. Fighters/Bombers are just a complete mess in Stellaris and trying to find the magic balance on them is a chore. Pretty soon I'll push out the next update and that will include proper testing this time around.

To amend my previous msg:
PD gets much better the longer the battle goes on as fighters die-off, and I've only ran tiny battles with up to a dozen ships, so that conclusion probably doesn't apply to more realistic mid/large battles.

Watching space fights play out a bit with this mod, found that bombers got way too tough - while some 2x bunch of PD destroyers would still kill them easily, in fleets of equal size/cost, PD is useless against bombers - they always live longer than host ships, if opposing fleet has any non-pd weapons at all.
Which makes ignoring PD entirely a best tactic vs hangars by a huge margin (esp. because it'd work vs everything else too), and just focus on killing carriers as fast as possible.

Wrt common/ship_behaviors/00_strike_craft.txt - given that it changes scout behavior to follow fleet (instead of charging on) and their distance/range, it doesn't seem to be "for testing" thing, but rather an important/documented part of what mod does.

@Cúchulainn
Maybe it was a bug in one of 2.0.2 builds, as it doesn't exist as of 2.0.4 with or without the mod.

How to test: start new game, use console (ai, research_all_technologies, instant_build, pp, pp), design/build e.g. couple of hangar cruisers vs bunch of all-pd destroyers, put fleets at a distance in a next-door system, console "attackallfleets" and order them to attack each other, watch destroyers kill all the fighters and cruisers with pd.

@FurtherV , is that with/without this mod???

Is this compatible with NSC2?

Oh man, I don't think so. Really? Damn time for some OP strike craft lol. There isn't a "damage vs" sort of thing, just a damage value. So if they bugged that somehow they'll have to patch it ;(

There is currently a problem in 2.0.2 where PD deals 0 damage against strikecraft. Can you fix that too?

do you have any recommendations for mods that would transition stellaris combat to be more carrier based?

There you go, I added a list of changed files :)

NHunter would like to know what files you altered.

Well what files did you alter?

I have no idea, I'm not familiar with that mod. My instinct is probably no, but it really depends on how the mod author did things. Feel report to report back with your results

So this works with Extra Ship Components 2.0?

Yeah that's been my angle thus far. I'll have to look at good ways to do some testing. Strike craft should be the most powerful weapons (per slot) IMO, but should be properly countered by flak guns. But I keep hearing that PD is bugged but I haven't heard how exactly..

Well, I'd err on the side of caution before you make it OP. Perhaps more testing is in order?

Ascorius, shit really? I bumped them A LOT lol, damnit. Hmmm. Any suggestions? I can just up their damage ever more but I wonder if there isn't an seperate issue that's making them underperform so badly

The strike craft in vanilla are completely useless. They are basically emtpy slots on your ships. Even advanced strike craft do much less damage than small weapons. I did some testing with this mod and they do seem a lot stronger, but they are still a bit too weak in my opinion. I put together a fleet of Carrier focused battleships, but the single rear mounted large weapon on the ships outdamaged the strike craft (3 slots) by a large margin.

Nice mod. But the fighters seem to move very fast now, wich looks kind of odd in vanilla.
Btw: I made a small german translation for your mod. Feel free to integrate it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vlk0ob0ah5sp5g/sdds1_l_german.yml?dl=0

Argh a typo! Fixed :) Thanks!

Testing it out now, hopefully this fixes the massive gagglef#!$ that they made strike craft into. Especially considering that they're pretty much "required" now for any large ship that you want equipped with PD (since the only way to get PD on a cruiser/battleship is to pick a part that also has a hangar), unless you actually enjoy having empty weapon slots.

One thing I did notice already though; a slight typo on the mouseover tooltip for Warbred's. You misspelled "brethren" as "brethern".

is this mod compatible with the Extra Ship Components 2.0 mod?

Actually I have a "patch" for Realistic ships that adds a few more carrier options. Someone made a Titan carrier mod too.

Cheers, I'm gonna check it on next play through.
May add a carrier mod though :-)

Yup, that's the one.

Do you mean Tal Ara'nh's 'Realistic Ships' mod?

What Snipin said. 4 types is really too few, but NSC adds just too many different kinds of ship types. Realistic is about right. I could even do with one less Dreadnought type even.

i think it's the whole "there's 100000 different types of ships now" thing

Hey thanks for reply. Just curious, too busy in what way, too many defence stations, large ships?

I don't really use NSC, I'm a Realistic Ships guy. I think NSC makes things too busy personally.

Just wondering if a compatability with NSC 2 will be made.
NSC put fighters back in

"Lastly I removed the laser graphics and replaced them with bullet-y looking things. "

n i c e

Nice mod! Thank you!

To prevent strike craft from flying to the other end of the universe and back when being deployed try changing formation_distance = 20 for bombers.

nsc just had a massive update which separates fighters and bombers... which makes me wonder if that change conflicts with this mod... will it work with this mod or will it need a compatability patch?

@free Your welcome! I was pretty sure they can't but I did check real quick in the code and no, autocannons can't target things like missiles and fighters.

Hi and thanks for the mod. I really wanted to finally be able to use vanilla carriers in Stellaris, but no dice. Anyway, this isn't really related to your mod but it popped into my head when I read that you made Scouts into PD - do you know if the autocannons can shoot at strike craft and/or guided weapons?

I remember messing around with the values and I think the rotation was 0.1 but when I tested it with 1 I attacked a station they started spinning on top of it so I didn't like it but didn't test it against fleets , personally I bosted the Strike craft a little bit and also make them work like point defense and they butcher Torpedo corvettes but still lose against a non strike craft battleship head on, personally I like that

Scouts are PD, although they are in default. Rotation speed is 3 for scouts and 1 for bombers. The default is like 0.2 or something absurdly wrong. I do notice that their longevity (as of 2.0.2beta) is still pretty terrible though. I'm going to experiment a bit with some values still. I'll say they work great if the enemy has no PD lol

How much rotation speed did you left them with, I personaly find that 0.2 is pretty neat, also if you change the
weapon_type = instant
projectile_gfx = "scout_laser_1"
to the weapon_type = point_defence they start working like figthers(if you do know this why did you left them like bombers?)

Yeah I noticed they were performing badly, but I wasn't sure why until I set the speed to lowest and actually watched what was going on.

Thanks for the mod. I have over 2000 hours in game and I never knew they sucked that bad, just never used them.