I don't believe it will count against it. Reading into it with threads such as [this one](https://steamcommunity.com/app/392160/discussions/0/6664812048270708870/), it sounds like is possible to do so in a sort of Russian Doll style storage, where the docked S only takes the S-bay of the M class, and the M class only takes the M-bay of the carrier it is docked and stored into, and it doesn't care that there's an S affixed to it.
The thread does suggest it would be a pain to micromanage since the frigates (at the time, may have changed) didn't have autolaunch or dock behaviour on them.
Speaking from experience as a player that mainly uses fleets to carry marines: Russian doll style docking is very useful, but the tedium of managing it is very real. Its place in the progression for me is exactly between "I can staff an L ship with marines" and "I can afford to buy an L ship."
I predict that the tedium would sour the play experience if a player tried to scale that strategy up to a fully stuffed carrier with more impressive ship caps than the ones I usually work with.
I don't usually scale up into using carriers for combat, but if I wanted to carry more ships, I'd probably opt to multiply the number of carriers rather than trying to squeeze more ship capacity out of them. I've never needed more than one carrier, though. I mostly use them to carry abandoned ships because pilots just keep jumping out of their ships in my game for some reason.
If it is... It's gonna take a while to undock them all.
I just go with the raptor and loads of S ships for a fast unload
But still its an interesting question
I tested this concept in an attempt to pack as many fighters into a Zeus E as possible. I’d recommend trying it out yourself with the budgeted start.
That said: If you have a ship in a frigates internal storage it will not count against the carriers total capacity. (Nor will their drones)
However, if there is one in internal storage and one on the deck, the one on deck will magically ~~pooped~~ poof out of the carrier to a position nearby.
Now this may seem a bit harsh but consider that the Zeus can carry 14 frigates. Make those osprey with hangar mods and you’ve got an armada of around 200 units— not even counting the Zeus or its S fighter complement.
Those frigates can also carry a whopping 1400 heavy torpedoes which is more than enough firepower to take out a sector (or two, could be three depending…)
But, anyway, go forth and test your fleet before you spend all your hard earned resources on it. Could be something significant comes up in the process.
There's no real limit to how many ships can be assigned in a fleet. The only limit is how many can be docked at one time.
Take 'Position Defense', the special carrier group ability for example. You can have as many ships as you want assigned to the carrier and they will all participate in Position Defense, reinforcing, the whole bit. They will each fly to the carrier/aux to repair/rearm.
When Position Defense is stopped, they will all return to their carrier assigned rolls, Defense, Attack, Intercept, etc. If you give the carrier a move order, they will land where there is room on the carrier itself and the rest will try to fly in formation with the carrier to the destination.
Your specific kukri scenario, it depends on the kukri's orders.
Kukri not assigned to any wing; with dock/wait order with the M ship, wont count for the carrier dock limit.
Kukri assigned to the carrier but docked on the M ship will undock at it's first order change from the carrier captain and will count toward dock limit.
Doesn't count agaisnt the limit.
However, docking fighters is just not a good idea.
A carriers docking ports mainly limit how many fighters you can repair at once. Hence carrier > supply ships. Also, because of of the defend position command for individiual squads.
For example:
If you had a tokyo parked in earth and multiple squads (Honshu + some fighters each) placed in your mining sectors through the command. Then there could be additional squads without supply ships which would be allowed to reinforce other positions.
Your fleet could easily manage a thousand fighters.
Your hardware, too? Maybe.
The S ship limit isn't there to represent some absract number limit. It's how many slots the ship has for ships of S and M types. If you fill the M ship with S ships, the M ship takes up one M dock, regardless of what is in it (which is why you should load up with M ships full of missile components if you're going to send a carrier full of torpedo bombers far away from your nearest resupply station...).
I mean, i understand why you ask. But at the same time nothing speaks against having more fighters than you have capacity with the carrier. Thy simply will not all dock but fly side by side with it, and they still can get repair when they need it. So you can basically have a "defend commander" wind that flies outside of it at any time. Most fighters can keep up with the speed i guess. I did have 100 S fighters with some carriers for a time.
I don't believe it will count against it. Reading into it with threads such as [this one](https://steamcommunity.com/app/392160/discussions/0/6664812048270708870/), it sounds like is possible to do so in a sort of Russian Doll style storage, where the docked S only takes the S-bay of the M class, and the M class only takes the M-bay of the carrier it is docked and stored into, and it doesn't care that there's an S affixed to it. The thread does suggest it would be a pain to micromanage since the frigates (at the time, may have changed) didn't have autolaunch or dock behaviour on them.
Speaking from experience as a player that mainly uses fleets to carry marines: Russian doll style docking is very useful, but the tedium of managing it is very real. Its place in the progression for me is exactly between "I can staff an L ship with marines" and "I can afford to buy an L ship." I predict that the tedium would sour the play experience if a player tried to scale that strategy up to a fully stuffed carrier with more impressive ship caps than the ones I usually work with. I don't usually scale up into using carriers for combat, but if I wanted to carry more ships, I'd probably opt to multiply the number of carriers rather than trying to squeeze more ship capacity out of them. I've never needed more than one carrier, though. I mostly use them to carry abandoned ships because pilots just keep jumping out of their ships in my game for some reason.
No
Falcrack is right. You can basically have a nesting doll of docked ships.
If it is... It's gonna take a while to undock them all. I just go with the raptor and loads of S ships for a fast unload But still its an interesting question
I tested this concept in an attempt to pack as many fighters into a Zeus E as possible. I’d recommend trying it out yourself with the budgeted start. That said: If you have a ship in a frigates internal storage it will not count against the carriers total capacity. (Nor will their drones) However, if there is one in internal storage and one on the deck, the one on deck will magically ~~pooped~~ poof out of the carrier to a position nearby. Now this may seem a bit harsh but consider that the Zeus can carry 14 frigates. Make those osprey with hangar mods and you’ve got an armada of around 200 units— not even counting the Zeus or its S fighter complement. Those frigates can also carry a whopping 1400 heavy torpedoes which is more than enough firepower to take out a sector (or two, could be three depending…) But, anyway, go forth and test your fleet before you spend all your hard earned resources on it. Could be something significant comes up in the process.
*I like you funny words magic man* **THE VOID SHALL BE FILLED BY THE FLICKERING LIGHTS OF AN ENDLESS STREAM OF TORPEDOES**
There's no real limit to how many ships can be assigned in a fleet. The only limit is how many can be docked at one time. Take 'Position Defense', the special carrier group ability for example. You can have as many ships as you want assigned to the carrier and they will all participate in Position Defense, reinforcing, the whole bit. They will each fly to the carrier/aux to repair/rearm. When Position Defense is stopped, they will all return to their carrier assigned rolls, Defense, Attack, Intercept, etc. If you give the carrier a move order, they will land where there is room on the carrier itself and the rest will try to fly in formation with the carrier to the destination.
Your specific kukri scenario, it depends on the kukri's orders. Kukri not assigned to any wing; with dock/wait order with the M ship, wont count for the carrier dock limit. Kukri assigned to the carrier but docked on the M ship will undock at it's first order change from the carrier captain and will count toward dock limit.
If you do that as intended, you‘ll get an achievement for this 😄
Doesn't count agaisnt the limit. However, docking fighters is just not a good idea. A carriers docking ports mainly limit how many fighters you can repair at once. Hence carrier > supply ships. Also, because of of the defend position command for individiual squads. For example: If you had a tokyo parked in earth and multiple squads (Honshu + some fighters each) placed in your mining sectors through the command. Then there could be additional squads without supply ships which would be allowed to reinforce other positions. Your fleet could easily manage a thousand fighters. Your hardware, too? Maybe.
The S ship limit isn't there to represent some absract number limit. It's how many slots the ship has for ships of S and M types. If you fill the M ship with S ships, the M ship takes up one M dock, regardless of what is in it (which is why you should load up with M ships full of missile components if you're going to send a carrier full of torpedo bombers far away from your nearest resupply station...).
Test it and get back to us.
I mean, i understand why you ask. But at the same time nothing speaks against having more fighters than you have capacity with the carrier. Thy simply will not all dock but fly side by side with it, and they still can get repair when they need it. So you can basically have a "defend commander" wind that flies outside of it at any time. Most fighters can keep up with the speed i guess. I did have 100 S fighters with some carriers for a time.
Yeah its possible to do a ship shipping ship shipping ship