fighters in ground combat

Never done it with fighters only, I am not sure that you can as on the attack you have to land troops to initiate a ground combat on the defence any planet based fighters will launch if you have not used them in the space combat

to be honest I have never tried using fighters in a planetry attack, it would be rather nice thou as fighters are far more powerful than troops.

As per the vehicleunittypes.txt file, fighters can be dropped onto a planet and will initiate ground combat just like troops. In stock, fighters make troops redundant because they are bigger, faster, and can also be used in space. AFAICT the only thing troops do that fightes don't is affect happiness.

But how do you get the fighters to deploy in ground combat mode as whenever I have used fighters to attack a planet I have done so to deal with space based defences and cover the landing of troops and I have always left them in orbit wile the troops take the planet. I have used them in the simulator and would like to use them for real. They are as you say more powerful ton for ton than troops

Don't launch them. Use the Drop Troops order.

that can be dropped. troop, fighters, platforms... Of course the AI is unlikely to do so, but you can.

Inter-Related Tactical Conversion v 0.53

http://www.rogepost.com/n/3594323592

Managed to drop fighters had a small pursuit carrier with an invasion fleet escorting the troop ship. these approached the planet and dropped a little landing shuttle each and there where five fighters in the subsequent ground battle. Odd thing is that the five fighters from the carrier scrambled to chase down fleeing out of supply ships and where the other side of the space combat area at that time.

The carrier and the troop ship where both in the same task force and had planet capture orders not duplicated it as I don’t routinely use carriers as assault ship escorts they are more useful chasing down stuff like empty AI carriers. (We need to fix that)