Tarnus and I spent some time today working out a new change for Sector Defense fighters that will match the new A&R and fighter code. This change isn't going into the main game yet. We will add it to the new beta that will be starting shortly. We will be tweaking the settings there.
We decided to tie the SD Fighters to the planet fighter tech completely. Since the planets control how well the SD Fighters can perform combat we decided the number of SD Fighters should be tied to the planet Fighter Bay tech levels.
Planets can now control 10 times the number of fighters per tech level compared to a ship with the same tech level.
A ship with a Fighter Bay tech level of 200 can carry 33,254 fighters.
A planet with a Fighter Bay tech level of 200 can support 332,540 SD fighters.
If you have a sector that can support 5 planets and all of them have Fighter Bay techs of 200 then the sector can support 1,662,700 SD fighters.
Players who farm out a large number of planets and then pack the sectors with millions of fighters can't do it anymore. If they want fighter support for their sectors they will have to upgrade at least their Fighter Bay tech.
Players can still fill their sectors with as many mines as they wish.
If the sector doesn't contain any of your own planets or team planets or is a zero planet sector you will not be able to deploy any SD fighters.
Also, any planets must be BASED before they can support SD fighters. If you attack and capture a planet with 200 FB tech it will not support any SD fighters until you base it.