TeamXbox has scored a real coup - a massive article comparing and contrasting all eighteen of Wing Commander Arena's ships! We now know their exact loadouts, specifications and some background history about each ship. If that wasn't enough, they've also posted all eighteen of the high resolution wallpaper-quality renderings that WingNuts have been lusting after since the official site posted the Rapier II Blade! You can now examine each of Arena's ships in painstaking detail! The articles seem to be expertly written: All it needs is a Venn Diagram (and it does include charts!) You can read all nine here! -- Original update published on May 18, 2007
Is the picture of the third dralthi not loading for you? I'm just getting a red x. Holy crap, are those the in-game models???
The third Dralthi is there, but their link is broken. I've put them all in http://www.wcnews.com/arena , you can access it there if you want.
Wow, those are awesome... the two heavier Arrows look slightly too heavy for my taste, but other than that I really love Arenas ship designs.
Fantastic! I love the Paktahns and Darkets, the Arrows and I now even like the Dralthis (it reads Dralthi IV for the Striker though). The Broadsword Executioner is nice as well and the Rapiers are ok. Only the Warpig and Behemoth look a bit odd to me. And, I know it's always the same old whining with me and I didn't even play the game so it's almost baseless but from what I read, the Terran once again get the better fighters overall. I am so looking forward to finding out firsthand.
I don't know - all those single-gun Arrows are pretty easily outdone by their Darket equivalents. (... of course, Terrans are *supposed* to have better fighters than the Kilrathi, generally speaking...)
But the Arrows' speed and YPR ratings are considerably higher than those of the Darkets. And, yes, game-wise the Kilrathi almost always had inferior fighters whereas in such a game where you can choose between the two sides and have human pilots on both sides, I think the sides should be balanced. But, of course, I don't know how much it's worth to have Vampire missiles instead of HS missiles, if a cloak is really powerful or not and if the difference between 470kps and 425 kps is really noticeable. Thus, it's only a first impression and my thinking what would be more important in a game than other things (which may be totally wrong of course). And I don't know anything about protection yet. Still, e.g. I consider a speed advantage of 5 kps (Striker/Blade) to be neglible, but an advantage of 5 dps to be a real advantage: because if you fly circles around each other, you'll be the one who gets the target in its sights first. And the Terran ships mostly have the advantage in manoeuverability.
Vampire missiles are a big deal... but I think the guns are really a deciding factor. Also, the article is somewhat off in that it compares each 'level' of fighter - I doubt space battles will ever evolve in exactly that manner... ... also, let me just note that I *love* the camo paint schemes on the Paktahns. I remember a reference in End Run to Kilrathi fighters having their ground-based camo, and this is exactly what I always imagined.
I am looking forward to find out how the classes fare against each other. Dragonfly against Behemoth, any bets? While I didn't think of camouflage, I do like the Paktahn colour scheme very much as well. I think it's also interesting that stealth technology is very much present. Except for the Tusk and Mauler, all Kilrathi ships have one and beside the Eclipse, the heaviest Terran ships mount them. What do we (or better: you) know about the devices? Cloak is clear. Flares: missile decoys? Gun/Shield/Engine Battery: I think I read here that they increase the amount of energy available. Engine/Shield/Gun Power core: no idea. The same as above perhaps? Deployable Turret: Read here that they work as the turret mines in WC4. Sonar: detects cloaked things. Bomber turrets: turrets on all sides? Vampire missiles: drain gun energy. Tractor beam (only the Executioner): I guess it keeps the enemy from manoeuvering. What are torpedoes for? Are they just super heavy missiles or are they useless outside the Capship fights?
Arena is designed very well for just this sort of battle. It's easy for the masses to jump in and just use the heaviest bomber to pump ammo at their targets... but people who spent time learning the special maneuvers, figuring out how the maps work and how to use their devices properly will grow to have a big advantage over those who don't. Yes, the same thing as decoys and chaff (the novels call them flares, IIRC). Batteries give you more overall power (slowing the rate of power drain) and cores increase the recharge rate. Yes, this is a left, right and back turret similar to the original Broadsword. You have to fire them manually. Yes, it emits a beam directly in front of your fighter which stops an enemy for a moment. They're for taking out capital ship components and I believe they double as large Dumb-Fires (similar to the torpedoes in Privateer).
Cool, thanks. Sounds all very good, I am curious to see how the Tractor beam works out. And hopefully the torpedoes also act as large DF. Do you know anything about shields and armour? I saw the "hull strength" stat - is that the armour or the core strength once the shields and armour are gone? I presume the former one. And shields: batteries and cores left aside, do the ships have individual shield strengths or do have the counterparts (Scout-Dragonfly / Eclips-Raptor etc) the same shielding and differences come from batteries and cores alone?
