A faster lighter fighter gets hit less, but if you're a crap fighter like me you need all the guns you can get so heavy is better. 6 of one half a dozen of the other..............

If you throw enough mud ..some's gonna stick.

Heavy Fighters also have (usually) a disruptor/torpedo hardpoint as well, along with more cargo, and as was said, more (and higher level) gun hardpoints, armor, and I guess power.

The main difference between light fighters and heavy fighters is that the light fighters are more maneouvrable while the heavy fighters have more weapon hardpoints and can use torpedo launchers.

Note: a normal light fighter like the Hawk has the same powerplant and armour as a heavy fighter of the same class and the difference in shield capacity is negligible. The Bloodhound, Dagger and Piranha even have more armour and a stronger powerplant than the Defender ... The very agile fighters (Starflier, Patriot, Drake) have a bit less armour and power than a comparable heavy fighter but their agility more than compensates this.

There are three degrees of agility:
(a) can dodge
(b) can track enemies
(c) can do neither

A very agile fighter like the Patriot can dodge almost all enemy fire and no other ship can dodge a Patriot. An average light fighter (Piranha, Hawk) cannot dodge well and gets hit more often, but it still can dodge a bit - especially slow projectiles or fire from far away - and it can track most enemies pretty well (i.e. stay on their six). An average heavy fighter cannot even track enemies reliably but it can deliver punishing amounts of firepower during the brief window of a firing opportunity.

As regards fighting value, the difference between the Patriot and the Dagger (both LF) is much greater than that between Dagger and Defender - the Patriot can take down enemy fighters much faster and more reliably, despite having less armour, shield, power and weapon hardpoints. Dagger and Defender can do much more damage in a shorter time but most of the time they are not delivering anything - they are busy turning to get an enemy into their firing cone.

You do notice the difference between a light and heavy fighter when you fly them. When an enemy arrow is off the screen and you are trying to turn to bring them into firing it is very noticeable how much slower the heavier fighters turn.

I recently started on a new MP server and therefore changed from a Sabre to a Starflyer, launched, flicked the mouse left to goto Norfolk and nearly crashed due to the massive turn difference. This is going from one extreme to the other, but the better manoeuvrability of the light fighters is noticeable.

A light fighter always has between 3-5 guns/turrets.
A heavy fighter always has 6 guns/turrets, and can carry a torpedo launcher.

All other comparisons are relative to the 'lineage' of the fighter. Within the same line, the light fighter is always more manueverable, has less armor, less power, less cargo, and an equal or lower class of weapons than the heavy fighter.

An example of the lineage of a fighter is Starflier->Startracker->Hawk->Falcon->Eagle
or Legionaire->Ceturion->Titan.

Light fighters are more maneuverable, but they have weaker hulls/shields, and are always lower class than a HF from the same series. Here are the possible weapon configurations for a LF:

4x gun, 1x CD(most LF's)
3x gun, 1x turret, 1x CD(bloodhound)
4x gun, 1x turret, 1xCD(dagger)
3x gun, 1x CD(startracker)
3x gun(starflier)

HF's are less agile and higher class than an LF of the same series, but carry more weapons, including torpedoes. There are two possible HF weapon configurations:

6x gun, 1x CD/T
5x gun, 1x turret, 1x CD/T

Both can carry the best possible mines, countermeasures, and thrusters.

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Reaper: $200,000,000.
Rockets: $100,000
The look on that pilot's face when you launch a full pod of screamers up his tailpipe: priceless
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You're not just beating the dead horse, you're cutting down trees to do it with!

NukeIt - yes, that is the same as what Gung_ho described as 'lineage'. Like Dagger (class 4 LF) - Stiletto (class 7 HF) - Sabre (class 10 VHF).

However, people rarely have reason to compare fighters of a lineage. Quite often it is necessary to chose between fighters of the same class and price category, like between Drake, Hawk, Barracuda or Dragon during the Kusari phase of the campaign. Except for the Drake (weaker armour/powerplant) all ships have the same armour, powerplant strength and shield even though the Hawk is an LF and the other two are HFs. Of course, the agile Drake owns them all.

yup, drake rules, and can do div 43 missions (230k, 240k missions)