Fighter-like missiles

Ok, a bit of rambling about fighter-like missiles, or pilot-less
fighters.
Not so long ago I read Hamilton's "The Naked God". He uses lots of
different drones in space combat. It's all very deadly. If a drone comes
through the defensive drones, the target is toast most of the time.

These drones have a reasobable lifespan(more than 1 turn), so either
MTM's
or fighters would do to simulate them. I like the idea of modeling these
drones
as pilot-less fighters: the drones are intelligent and they can go
anywhere
they want. It should be possible to have several types of drones,
similar to
current fighter types.

Mass cost: this should be less then for normal fighters, as the drones
don't
need lifesupport for pilots, and they only need launching/storage
facilities,
and no recovery/landing facilities. Mass 1 instead of mass 1.5 should
do.

Characteristics(should balance each other out):
- Endurance:3, this gives them a maximum of 3 endurance moves and/or
  engagements.
  Normal fighters have endurance 6.
- No morale problems.
- No recovery during battle, only at end of battle.
- Launch per group of 6 as for normal fighters.

Different types: see fighters, ex:
- standard interceptor drone: engage any fighter/drone within 6 MU.
- ER drone: endurance 6 instead of 9 (3 extra like ER fighter)
Extra type:
- EMP counter drone: disable any drone(not fighter) within 9 MU
  (no return fire, same roll as for interceptor)

Costing should be the same as for similar fighters. There is a mass
advantage,
so launching facilities are cheaper. On the other hand, their endurance
is less, and the existence of EMP counter drones will probably
compensate
any advantages that remain.

A question about normal fighters though. I put in that the drones can't
be
recovered during battle. Do people actually recover fighters during
battles?
What I read about fighters seems to give the impression that they are of
the
"forgive and forget" type. They forgive their captain for sending them
into
battle, and then he forgets about them.
If this is the case then I doubt that the decreased endurance alone
compensates
for the removal of morale problems.

As this is just a bit of rambling it hasn't been playtested yet. I think
I got
things pretty balanced though.

Frits
-- 
Frits Kuijlman			   F.Kuijlman@{its,cs,twi}.tudelft.nl