Unfinished!
Although I'm a Scout pilot at heart, Strike Fighters are often incredibly fun. They're a bit longer range and more reliant on missile play, which can make for a nice change of pace.
The Pike in particular dials missile-based starfightering up to 11. Seeing that it boasted two sets of missiles, I envisioned playing my Pike as a long-range stand-off interceptor. While sometimes the necessities of a match mean getting in close with lasers, I find that I can often just hang back at the edge of a battle and lob missiles into the fray.
Components:
Primary Weapon: Quad Laser Cannon
T3 - Critical Hit Chance, T4 - Increased Shield Damage
The Pike has limited laser options, but Quad Lasers are an excellent middle ground choice for all purposes. Although power hungry, they're accurate and deal good damage at decent range. They're better close-in than the Heavy Lasers, and better at long range than the Light Lasers.
Secondary Weapon 1: Proton Torpedo
T3 - Firing Arc, T4 - Range Increase
First up is the long-range doom machine. Upgraded, it can potentially one-shot (with a critical) almost any ship. It ignores shields entirely, and is an excellent obliterator of gunships and bombers alike. It's of limited use against a Scout or Strike Fighter, due to the long and difficult locking time, but in rare instances you can sometimes score a hit. The firing arc upgrade makes locking much easier, and the range increase gives you nearly comparable range to a gunship's railgun. Of course, any ship packing an evasion manoeuvre will likely dodge it, but that's why you have...
Secondary Weapon 2: Concussion Missile
T3 - Range Increase, T4 -
The one-two knock-out combo! Concussion missiles don't have quite the range or sheer power of proton torpedoes, but have the noted advantage of locking a little faster and being more effective against Scouts and Strike Fighters. They still hit quite hard, and even if the target's shields are still up, you'll do decent damage to their hull. However, you get best results when the shields are already down, dealing catastrophic damage directly to the hull. They're solid, all-purpose missiles that will rack up most of your kills when properly used - especially if the target has already blown their evasion on your torpedoes!
Shields: Quick-Charge Shields
T3 - Regen while damaged
Nothing special here, just a functional shield that gives you a nice boost now and then when your hull is exposed, and gets you back in the action quickly. Of course, it helps that Charged Plating is awful, and I've never been a fan of Direction Shields.
Engines: Koiogran Turn
T3 - Increased Engine Speed
The meta says it's for noobs, and the "pros" will tell you it's predictable and makes you an easy kill, but that's because they're stupid and don't know how to use it right. It combos with your boosting: Once you're in hot water, getting missile locks and damage that your ship can't take, a quick one-two-three of F3(engine power)+3(Koiogran)+Space(Boost) will have you laughing all the way to the nearest friendlies while you make the space cops eat bass. In rare circumstances, it can also be useful to pull a tight head-on counter pass, getting your lasers and rockets back on your opponent while he's still turning around and aiming at you. In this case, you don't use it defensively, but rather as a deliberate enhancement of the normal manoeuvres you're making as you fly.
Armour: Lightweight Armor
Evasion! Good for not getting shot.
Capacitor: Range Capacitor
This is a long-range king: range is its friend! The further away you can hit someone, the better - if you're engaging a target with lasers, then one who's 5500m away is much easier to lock with your missiles than one who's 2000m away.
Magazine: Jury's still out!
Thrusters: Speed Thrusters
This is an interceptor - it needs to get to an optimal range bracket (5,000m - 10,000m) quickly, and then stay there as much as it can. Speed helps you dictate range - the faster ship has the advantage in determining the range a fight occurs at.
Crew:
WIP.
