User:Sillyland/Sandbox

CARRIER PAGE (Not finished)

Carrier is a subclass of medium and capital ships. Carriers generally have lower combat capabilities compared to their non-carrier counterparts, but are capable of launching swarm of fighters upon their enemies.

Fighters inherit mods from their carrier

Fighter Carriers
For ships with side hangar, the placement of hangars will be evenly divided to the left and right of the carrier (i.e. Legion with four hangars have two hangars on the right and two hangars on the left).

Total ship per launch is ship launched per hangar x number of hangar

Delays between launches increases by 0.5 seconds with each Carrier Rack or Launches extra ship mod. This is due to a fact that each launches have more fighters, therefore requires more time to complete the launch sequence.

Related Ships
These ships, while not technically a fighter carrier, display several similarities to one. The units launched from these ships will inherit their parent's mod(s). The amount of units launched can also be improved with Carrier Rack, thus they can gain benefit from carrier builds. These ships cannot get an upgraded fighter hangar.

Carrier Upgrades
Carriers' performance varies a lot depending on their upgrades and equipped tech. Since carrier mods are very diverse and only a few is considered good, upgrading a good carrier may require a lot of investment.

Below is a list of mods that are usually considered when upgrading a carrier:
 * [Fighter] hangar. This mod changes the carrier's default Piranha fighter to another type of fighter. It is among the most important mod on a carrier since some better fighters outclass Piranhas several times over. Sapphire and Rapier are among the most widely used.

All possible fighters that may appear on a hangar.


 * Self-destruct (SD) - Another great mod that dramatically increases the damage output of carriers. Recall that fighters inherhit all mods of the carrier. With this, all fighters release 40 damage plasma when destroy. The combined power of the SD plasmas usually deals more damage than the carrier itself.
 * Cloak - A tactical mod that gives surprise factor. Swarms of fighters appearing out of nowhere can disorient your opponent.
 * 25% Hangar rates - A carrier exclusive mod. 
 * Launches extra ships - Another carrier-exclusive mod - effect is equivalent to one Carrier Rack (see below).
 * Munition rounds - Since carrier builds usually allocate all tech slot for carrier-based upgrade, some players prefer not to equip general tech like munitions. Freeze rounds is a popular combo, often seen in PVP.

Front and side hangar - a thing to consider
Front hangar carriers, as the name implies, launches fighter forward. Fighters launched in such manner are usually destroyed within seconds after launch. They only live long enough to absorb enemy's fire, protecting the carrier. With such short life of the fighters, having good upgraded fighter isn't a must. SD or Fury hangar are extremely recommended.

Side hangar carriers', launches fighter to the side. The initial speed of the launch makes the fighters spread out in a wide formation. Fighters launched in this manner tend to survive much longer than the frontal-launched, long enough to deal significant damage with their weapon. Getting a good fighter hangar should be the primary focus when upgrading side carriers. Self-destruct is also useful.

Carrier Build
Typical carrier builds require most tech slot be dedicated to maximize carrier's power. Below is a list of stuffs players should consider for their build.

Carrier Rack

This is the primary tech that constitutes to a carrier build. Carrier Rack makes the carrier launches one more ship per hangar. One can simply view carrier build as equipping multiple (typically 2-3) Carrier Rack in the tech slot. They have greater effect on mediums, especially those with side hangars. Corvette and Tremor get double amount of fighters/mines for the first carrier rack. Stacking can make them launches several times more fighters. Try to discard any unnecessary tech and put as many Carrier Racks as possible.

Plasma Mastery is a recommended for those with SD carrier. SD plasma from side hangar fighters will barely hit without this tech.

Munitions tech, while not necessary, may be worth more than another Carrier Rack.

For players focusing on medium carriers, don't forget to bring Naval Yard as well.

Strategies

 * Self-destruct mod is always good
 * Build as far away from the enemy as possible. Carriers are not optimized for combat duty and will perform better if they have more time to stick behind and launch fighters. This is especially important for medium carriers, since they are generally faster and are pretty fragile compared to capital carriers. Medium carriers spawned too close to enemy may get destroyed before they can launch fighters.
 * Slow carrier is better. Like the above rule, carriers are better the longer they stick behind. This is a thing to consider for Piranha bay mod. Exhumer sticks behind and mines asteroids first before engaging, making them very dangerous with pbay, especially pbay + SD. Engine mod on carrier is counterproductive.
 * Piranha helps overwhelm Phalanx, especially when you launch several of them together. Heavy artillery or Plasma ships suffers from enemy's Phalanx. Upgrading those ships with pbay mod can greatly increase their power against Phalanx users.

Trivia

 * In the past versions, medium ships with pbay + Carrier Racks do not have any delays between each successive fighters. This results in dense line of Piranhas launched. Exhumer with Piranha bay and SD was among the most powerful units in PVP.