Damage is cumulative… killing things at 1/3 of the speed means that your average “small thing” is alive for 2/3 longer. That means they’re shooting at your squad for 3x longer on average. They’re also not splitting their fire between 3 squadrons, they’re focusing it on 1 squadron.
It’s not about the DPS. It’s about the ability to split that DPS.
When ratting, even in a carrier, you will always see your fighters take damage. But if you do it right, the damage will not be enough to actually destroy a fighter.
Alright, I realize now why we’re talking past each other: There’s no such thing as bandwidth for fighters.
I thought you could give an escort carrier 3 tubes to get 3 squadrons, but limit the bandwidth so that it could only field a limited number of fighters (ex.: just enough bandwidth for 9 fighters). This would open the possibility of, say, 3 squadrons of 3 along with 1 of 9, so you could split dps to take out smaller targets before they can take out your fighters.
It doesn’t seem like carriers have bandwidth, instead being limited solely by tubes and fighter types, so that doesn’t work.
Unless a role “bonus” can be added to a smaller carrier that limits the number of fighters launched instead of the number of squadrons, there is no way to implement this is a way that would be interesting. Flying a single squadron would be boring, you might as well fly a gunship and do your own shooting and flying then.
Escort Carriers do not have the same function as the normal carrier. They are designed to operate with other fast attack ships to provide a mobile platform for moving into an area and securing it.
Escort Carriers could also be role specific for each race and would include bonuses for Light Fighters, Heavy Fighters and Support Fighters.
The hangar bay of the Escort Carrier is smaller and would carry less fighter craft which would make them able to maneuver better than a Dread but not a Battleship.
The Escort Carrier could be based off of the Nestor hull but much larger, slightly smaller than a Force Auxiliary, to facilitate the launch and control of five Gecko drones along with having the drone bay to carrier at least two full flights of Geckos.
The max velocity would be around 75 m/sec
The Escort Carrier would trade out its Command modules and Remote Repairer bonuses for weapon turrets with bonuses as well mid slot bonuses for shield boosting, drone modules, ECM and other trade offs that would allow it to support Battleship operations but also stand alone during a fight.
The Escort Carrier would also be able to be used for PVE and PVP and would be the first carrier to be allowed to operate in .5 space.
One of the uses for the Escort Carrier would be to clear the belts of NPC mining barges and defense ships when they came to the aid of the NPC mining barges.
This is a bad idea, do you know how ridiculous your suggestion sounds. Like really squad of geckos, you almost sound like a person who doesn’t even fly carriers.
Also no the the idea of giving fighter bombers/heavy fighters to a escort if they are only allowed on supers