Do I Really Need a Fighter?

[Thalstan]

it's all going to depend on what you want to do....fighters are great for arena commander, escort missions, etc. Honestly, I think having ONE fighter will be very useful. I think a mix of them would be extremely useful in a large group setting (5 gladius, 5 super hornets, 5 sabres ,5 wardens) would provide a potent mix of combat capability if you were defending a fixed target (such as an Endeavour, Javelin or Idris being salvaged) Put that firepower up against even one Polaris and you would probably win. So, having a fighter in the mix is nice.

That said, having 5-6 fighters in your hangar? Maybe not such a smart move when you could probably put the money you have in them into either one nice fighter, or a moneymaker (hauler, miner, salvager, etc)

 

[Stevetank]

The more fighters you have in your hangar, the more NPCs you'll have ships for as wingmen. Also, the more fighters you have, the more ships you can jump in while you wait for insurance claims.

 

[Thalstan]

The more fighters you have in your hangar, the more NPCs you'll have ships for as wingmen. Also, the more fighters you have, the more ships you can jump in while you wait for insurance claims.

Please cite your source (I would love to see the primary source, not just a reddit link).

I've heard this, I've heard "you can hire 2 NPCs pilot two of your ships" I've heard "if you don't have a real person in your ship, the NPC crew will fly the ship to the nearest port", and a bunch of other stuff. I would LOVE to know the definitive answer to this as it would help me with my own plans.

To my knowledge, the only thing you will be able to hire NPCs will be to fill our your multi crew ships. I've also heard (but can not confirm), is that you can hire NPCs as escorts...however it does not say if they come with their own ships or if you can use your ships to lower the cost of hiring them.

These are decisions that (to my knowledge) have not been made yet. If you buy a bunch of fighters, don't COUNT on being able to hire 19 NPCs to pilot your very own squadron of 10 Vanguards. Maybe you will be able to, maybe not.

Lots of things have been said about what you can do, but until it actually goes into the game, I would not count on it.

 

[Stevetank]

Please cite your source (I would love to see the primary source, not just a reddit link).

I've heard this, I've heard "you can hire 2 NPCs pilot two of your ships" I've heard "if you don't have a real person in your ship, the NPC crew will fly the ship to the nearest port", and a bunch of other stuff. I would LOVE to know the definitive answer to this as it would help me with my own plans.

To my knowledge, the only thing you will be able to hire NPCs will be to fill our your multi crew ships. I've also heard (but can not confirm), is that you can hire NPCs as escorts...however it does not say if they come with their own ships or if you can use your ships to lower the cost of hiring them.

These are decisions that (to my knowledge) have not been made yet. If you buy a bunch of fighters, don't COUNT on being able to hire 19 NPCs to pilot your very own squadron of 10 Vanguards. Maybe you will be able to, maybe not.

Lots of things have been said about what you can do, but until it actually goes into the game, I would not count on it.

Sorry. Meant to say that the more fighters you have, the more ships you'll have for your wingmen. No source on how many wingmen you can have at 1 time, just Tony Z saying that you'll be able to hire wingmen in one of those videos that I'd have to spend hours looking through to find it. Since it's plural, I'm thinking at least 2. We KNOW that we can hire escorts and wingmen, we just don't know how many.

 

[Bruttle]

Sorry. Meant to say that the more fighters you have, the more ships you'll have for your wingmen. No source on how many wingmen you can have at 1 time, just Tony Z saying that you'll be able to hire wingmen in one of those videos that I'd have to spend hours looking through to find it. Since it's plural, I'm thinking at least 2. We KNOW that we can hire escorts and wingmen, we just don't know how many.

That sounds right to me. I don't remember where they said it either. Thalstan is right though, they talk an awful lot about "they could" and "you could", or even the occasional "we could". There is very little for hard facts until we actually see them in the game. They also said extra game packages could be turned into npc crew. So you could essentially have your own private army. They also said you could improve your NPC's. So an npc that starts out with low "stats" can be improved over time to be a badass, top notch AI.

Of course, this comes with a big disclaimer of "I'll believe it when I see it". Mainly because Tony Z and Chris Roberts love to talk in the theoretical.

 

[Cryandian]

I truly love you guys that have been able to drop so much cash for ships. I had to buy a new pc just to play this glorious game so it is me and my Aurora until I earn some in game credits but thank you all for helping to fuel the crowd sourced beast that is Star Citizen! I can't wait for Squadron 42!!!!

Same here! Very happy with my 1080. The sad part is that It means less money to buy ships. I guess I will have to buy less beer in the coming months to save up for the Origin 600 which I probably won't be able to resist (I buy a lot of beer).