What are the roles of fighters and bombers?

[scotten_usa]

It seems to me that bombers should be attacking ships and fighters should be attacking enemy fighters/bombers (if present). I've never really looked very closely, but in my Extended Universe game... my fighters and bombers are both going after ships. Only my Point Defense Cannons are countering the enemy fighters/bombers.

[Vardis]

They just have different types of weapons. Lasers vs torpedoes, that sort of thing. Point defense are best for taking them out, as you've noted, although ships will also shoot lasers at them if they have them.

[DeadlyShoe]

Fighters do like to shoot down bombers, but they will tend to beat on a ship once they've targeted it.

[Kilravock]

Yeah the fighters will attack other fighters and bombers, but they mainly go after ships and bases if it was their first target. The fighters' lasers do good damage against shields and are good at chasing down ships, so it's not something to worry about or need to micromanage.

[Nanaki]

Yup, fighters will chase down other enemy fighters/bombers until there are none left, then go after capital ships.

[Werewolf13]

New guy stupid question alert... [&o]

Ummmm.... shouldn't bombers be bombarding planets? [&:]

[Nanaki]

Nope. Bombers are anti-capital ship weapons, not anti-planet weapons.

[scotten_usa]

I'll have to figure out some way to capture video showing me:

attacking a base with ~ 140 fighters (70 fighters, 70 bombers).
Enemy base has ~ 8-16 fighters
My fighters and bombers repeatedly attack the base, while his fighters attack my ships.

[Nanaki]

Unable to switch targets, more than likely. Its probable that the fighters launched, targeted the starbase, then remained locked on until the starbase was destroyed.

[Vardis]

I haven't noticed my fighter targeting other fighters. They always seem to go around and attack random stuff. Then again, point defenses usually shred the enemy fighters pretty quick, so maybe they haven't lasted long enough for me to notice.

[Mortimer14]

Perhaps they could add an option in setup to make it a % chance to attack ships or other small craft (i.e. 25% fighters, 20% bombers, 5% missiles, 50% ships)

[scotten_usa]

After slowing down the game and watching very closely, I do notice fighters targeting fighters. I cannot say I understand what conditions cause this to happen, though. Maybe each fighter pilot has his own idea of what to attack...