Allow players to recover and repair destroyed fighters

[Mechanisto]

I've only been playing for a short time, but Avorion has now become my favorite game. I recently started a new galaxy to rush Trinium and focus exclusively on carriers, torpedoes, and long-range artillery. So far It's been a blast (literally and figuratively). Unfortunately, my combat fighters were instantly wiped out by the first pirate that wandered by. I lost two full squadrons that took an hour to build and cost more than the carrier itself. The pirate then died to a single shot from my carrier ship's cannons. I don't remember if it was an anti-fighter pirate, but even if it was, that was a VERY expensive mistake for a new player like me to learn from. A quick google search suggests I am not the first person to have this problem. People have suggested making fighters cheaper and faster to build, but I actually like the idea that they should be a heavy investment.

So instead of making fighters faster and cheaper to build overall, why not allow players to recover lost fighters? If a fighter is destroyed, it could leave behind a tiny wreck that players can then scoop up manually, just like any other piece of loot. Once collected, a wrecked fighter goes into its designated hangar slot, but cannot be launched or deconstructed into a blueprint: It is displayed with a big red X mark over it. If you have the blueprint installed, assembly blocks can restore wrecked fighters to working order at a fraction of the cost associated with building a new fighter from scratch: Perhaps a quarter of the usual time, credits, and minerals. Recovering the wrecks wouldn't be too inconvenient, since players will already be flying around after battle to gather up loot and salvage.

If you leave a sector, your wrecked fighters will eventually disappear. This rewards players who stay and fight, and makes it easier for them to prepare for the next battle. However, players who flee a losing battle will either have to mount a quick rescue operation or build replacements from scratch. Risky captains might be tempted to fly their carrier directly into a fierce battle to recover their wrecks before making a dramatic escape! Newly built carriers, or old carriers that want to swap their fighters for different types, would also have to build their squadrons from scratch.

I think this would be a good balance between making fighters a significant investment and an important decision, while not punishing the player too heavily for simply playing the game. Avorion already does this with ship repair kits, which reward players who are willing to accept a little extra work and risk to recover what they've lost. It's a great feature, so why not have a similar system for fighters? I'm still new to the game and haven't even reached the Xanion stage yet, so I'd love to hear what more experienced players might think of this idea.