[FT] Fighters - some thoughts

Well, all the recent discussion about fighters has kind of got me
thinking;

Fighter Morale, SV Drones, Robotic and Remote Piloted fighters:

The usual conception (AFAIK) of the fighter morale check is to represent
fighter groups being 'scared off' by too many losses and to much
opposing fire - an alternative view that I like (for reasons see below)
is that it represents the 'self preservation' instinct of the fighter
pilots, who abort an attack run because the 'flak' is just to heavy to
survive.

The reason I like this interpretation - apart from style, it allows for
a 'balancing factor' I hope for robotic fighters; either these are
programmed which a survival instinct (the stereotype is that they are
not), in which case they check 'morale' (estimated probability of
survival) as normal, and take losses as normal. If they are without a
programmed survival instinct, then they need not check morale, but
suffer double losses (According to my calculations, a fighter group that
does not check morale is about twice as effective as one that must check
morale).

In the case of the Kra'Vak under Ro'Kah, the KV pilots under Ro'Kah have
their reflexes hyped up, so they don't suffer double casualties, but at
a cost of expending all of their combat endurance factor.

I also think that the double casualties effect should apply to SV drone
fighters as well (they also do not check morale).

Remote Piloted fighters (which brings us back to the Andromeda thread
:-) may make morale checks or not as desired (the pilots, 'back home' on
the mothership decide which is more important, conserving fighters, or
attacking). If they chose not to check morale, they will suffer double
casualties.

Charles