M8 Bombers. Essential or a waste?

[Mental_Atom]

Im building a fleet and would be interested in your opinions on bombers. To me they look quite pointless but are they actually useful in practice?

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

havent tried myself but theoreticly you should send them to attack an enemy capital ship or station to clear a path for your frigates which then widen the berth for your own capital ships (whilst your fighters mop everything else up)

[b1rd]

Since you can't really fly them and your m7 at the same time, have a couple in a wing with nothing loaded but tomahawks sitting in a safe place. Spot an enemy capital, have them jump in and attack, wait till they put a few missiles in the air, have them jump out, spam the turrets with wasps or wtv, watch the fireworks.

Or get an M7M.

pretty useless ship, if the the hammers weren't so powerfull, fighter wings and autopilot so useless. then maybe, just maybe, they'd have a point. They make sense in theory.

b1rd

[philip_hughes]

Not at all useless. The plot gives you one. You get over 3 million for it second hand.

[Nanook]

M7M's cost 10 times as much as an M8, give or take. So an M8 early in the game gives you a lot of the destructive missile goodness of an M7M at a far cheaper price. So I'd say they're not entirely worthless. More like, made obsolete by the M7M when you can finally afford one, similar to the M4-M3 relationship.

[Dragoongfa]

It depends how you want to use them, agreed that the same function could be, more or less, covered by an M7M.

They make excellent hit and run ships, jump in fire and jump out, with little economic risk, they are faster than an M7M and the tomahawk missile is stronger (iirc).

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

just dont forget that bombers are hit and run, although that is what an M7M is designed for a bomber is much smaller! and cheaper so a wing of fully loaded bombers vs 1 full loaded M7M for the same price.. Bombers win (as long as the turrets are kept busy on the M7M).

[pelador]

M7M is better suited for this task but both are pretty toothless OOS.

M8 can be a cheap alternative in the interim. Especially if you want to strategically convince a pirate base to relocate.

[Szakalot]

id rather give M8 some kind of unique laser that takes a lot of time to power up, flies incredibly slow, and brings quite a punch.

I dont fancy an idea of micromanaging a heap of bombers that use money with each shot. Id rather have them twice as vulnerable, especially to fighters, but with a long-range powerful attack against caps, so that a wing of bombers can make a destroyer sweat.

[pelador]

Set=up a closed loop missile complex: After its paid for its investment the missiles are free. You dont need a lot to supply an M8. Two would be adequate.

Example, that will have excess intermediates as a resource to help pay for it: http://tinyurl.com/cyzw9s

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

yes that would be good, Death Star like power but vulnerable as mash potato.

[Azincourt]

I've used Gladiator alot and love it, perfect for assasination missions *did loads for OTAS!*, got bored with killing all escorts so jumped in, spammed off 10 missles and waited for the BOOM - missiles have very good range, speed & reload time; also bonus is any missles not hitting target will aquire a new enemy target *like Tempest*; be careful firing near friendly stations though!! Takes down M1/2's no problem, just stay out of range of their escorts though, if they catch you your toast - I usually take a couple of m6's as my escort. Gladiator looks good too. Shame you can't dock them at a carrier mind, would have thought a carrier would carry bombers! Other downside is if you let them loose on their own they fly far to close to target and end up deaded!! Player ship only I would think.

[Axeface]

I thought they were useless, but during a routine patrol mission I came across a kha'ak destroyer. I don't have the hardware to take this thing on so I thought I'de get myself an M8 and try it.

1x M8 + 40 Tomahawks + 1x M7M with 20 flails, and no more kh'ak destroyer.


M8's are amazing in player hands.

[Chealec]

M8's are amazing in player hands.

They make pretty good "wingmen" too...

Plonk yourself down in an M7M with a couple of M8s alongside - give them orders to barrage fire at whatever you want dead whilst you unleash a healthy mix of flails and hammers and you can pretty much destroy anything... in fact LOTS of anythings.

Don't underestimate Tomahawks, they do more than twice the damage of Hammers and track like Flails... they're possibly the best missile in the game. That alone makes M8s worth having... well, one or two of them.

[b1rd]

I have a dream, and in that dream bomber wings fly around capital ships attempting to effectively deploy ordenance. All the while light fighters fly to intercept missiles and bombers alike.
And in that dream heavy fighters escort their bombers duking it out with space superiority fighters who distract them just long enough for the interceptors to do their jobs. I envision wave after wave of attack to weather down the indisputable superiority of a capital vessel and it's escorts.

I dream of a free space2.

Not of "I win" buttons like the boreas, the m7m, the pbg or the pbe.



give me dogfights. give me heart racing, gut wrenching, sweaty, GLORIOUS moments of guns blazing, ppc stream dodging and negative G turning for that perfect, beautiful, omfg I OWNED THAT SOB kill. Or give me death.

I WANT MOAR.

b1rd





seriously, I'd just like fights to be more envolving. I don't think m3s should be the dang pointless ships they are. Capitals should fear swarms of fighters, not serve as ramming target ^^

[Spaceweed Adict]

The little M8 bomber is the most under-estimated ship in the game.
I use them as escorts to my M7M the reason for this is they fire Tomahawks and the M7M can't.
Look at the distructive power the Tomahawk can do compared to the Hammer Heavy Torpedo and the vast differance in price, ok I know the Tomaharks are slower and more easely shoot down but when your spamming your target with flails thats not really a problem its down to you the pilot to time thing right.

Were as 18 to 20 Hammers are needed to bring down the shield of most distroyers you'll only need 8 to 10 tomahawks to do the same job and at less than 1/2 the price.

Don't dismiss the little M8 they are very dangerious ships if used properly.

Since you can't really fly them and your m7 at the same time

Yes you can you can fly them from the bridge of your M7 by the use of Remote Piloting and launch missiles yourself.
You don't have to rely on the barrage command.

[Necrosexual]

I have a dream, and in that dream bomber wings fly around capital ships attempting to effectively deploy ordenance. All the while light fighters fly to intercept missiles and bombers alike.
And in that dream heavy fighters escort their bombers duking it out with space superiority fighters who distract them just long enough for the interceptors to do their jobs. I envision wave after wave of attack to weather down the indisputable superiority of a capital vessel and it's escorts.

Hah!! i was about to mention freespace2 while readint this then i saw you wrote freespace 2.

[Axeface]

I have a dream, and in that dream bomber wings fly around capital ships attempting to effectively deploy ordenance. All the while light fighters fly to intercept missiles and bombers alike.
And in that dream heavy fighters escort their bombers duking it out with space superiority fighters who distract them just long enough for the interceptors to do their jobs. I envision wave after wave of attack to weather down the indisputable superiority of a capital vessel and it's escorts.

I dream of a free space2.

Freespace 2... what a game. One of the best games ever, to this day I remember the first time I saw the Colossus get blown up, probably the most shocking experience in any game ever, brilliant, brilliant game. I miss it.

And yes the fights in that game were INTENSE.