Confed Corvettes

[Lt.Overload]

I read in the Prophecy book about a corvette called "TCS Brack." Why is their no corvettes in Prophecy or Secret Ops? They are mentioned in the ICIS book, but no where ingame. Even the Drones from the opening movie had a mesh, but their is no sign of a Confed corvettes. Why is that?

 

[Deadman_ny]

WCP takes place deep in Kilrathi space and corvetts are normally assinged to escort or picket duty. The Midway is a standalone carrier meaning it has no real escort aside from it's own fighter complement. One of it's selling points was to be more costs effective. In the day's of the Kilrathi war and even today a carrier requires a number of destroyers, crusers act for escort. That gets exspensive to build, crew and maintain.
Seeing as how it was peacetime when the Nephilem attacked most of the corvetts would be in Confed held systems dealing with pirats and whatnot. You could also reason that being peacetime most of the obsolite corvetts were mothballed or scraped to save on costs.
Who knows what programers and game writers are thinking.

 

[t.c.cgi]

WCP takes place deep in Kilrathi space and corvetts are normally assinged to escort or picket duty.

Well, there's the Johnny Green (I think?). And that other one the Johnny Green found that I can't remember the name of. Both were used for super secret black ops recon. (End Run)

Who knows what programers and game writers are thinking.

They were probably thinking something like "Watching big capships duke it out for 30 minutes with nothing to do but twiddle their thumbs* is a good way to kill the living shit out of this genre, so we're going to keep the focus on letting the player do the duking and killing." Thus Confed corvettes, destroyers, and cruisers were not included.

*Thank you, Freespace 2, for the most boring epic battles ever.

 

[Jason_Ryock]

The Midway is a standalone carrier meaning it has no real escort aside from it's own fighter complement.

I'm not sure this is correct - I don't think the Midway was designed to operate without an escort, I think it just worked out that way in WCP.

If I remember correctly, one of the biggest complaints about WCP was that it didn't include enough Friendly Capital Ships. But then you look at the story and it's no surprise - the Midway is supposed to be accidentally thrown into action combating a surprise threat. It didn't have time to pick up even a scratch built escort, it had to do what needed to be done, and that, unfortunately, meant operating alone.

 

[Lt.Overload]

Okay I understand why Prophecy didn't have any, but what about Secret Ops, none are shown. This time your closer to home too. All missions are in Confed space. So why are none active? Murphy, Plunkett, and the other one (forgot name), are added even though they are somewhat outdated. If the Corvettes are also outdated why arn't they stored in older cap-ships in case of emergency, like during the Nephilim war.

 

[Death]

Why no corvettes in the games? They weren't needed, simple as that.

 

[RogueBanshee]

I was always disapointed that we never got to see more Confed corvette or frigate classes.

All said in game we see 5 or 6 Confed destroyer classes, 4 cruiser classes, 1 frigate class, 1 corvette class, and 1 class claiming to be a destroyer but armed almost identically to the Kilrathi corvettes from the same game.

 

[Deadman_ny]

You never see any real large fleet engagments either. Yeah there are a few long range duke outs in WCP. But you never get to see any real large scale battles.
Seeing a large scale battle with two carrier groups slugging it out would be sweet. You read Holding the Line and you want to see frigates, corvetts, destroyers, cruisers surrounding the heart of the group, the carrier or carriers. Most of the time you just see a lone carrier with maybe a destroyer or a few corvetts and a handfull of fighters. Going into hostile territory with a weak force like that is asking to die. Even in present day carriers have an extensive escort made up of several differnt ship clases and even subs. Chulk it up to limitations in computer power, but now days...BRING IT ON!!! Be so much fun to fly into combat (in a game) with cris crossing fire from a dozen light and heavy capital ships while trying to fend off fighters and protect your bombers. I'm getting worked up just thinking about it.

 

[Deadman_ny]

I'm not sure this is correct - I don't think the Midway was designed to operate without an escort, I think it just worked out that way in WCP.

If I remember correctly, one of the biggest complaints about WCP was that it didn't include enough Friendly Capital Ships. But then you look at the story and it's no surprise - the Midway is supposed to be accidentally thrown into action combating a surprise threat. It didn't have time to pick up even a scratch built escort, it had to do what needed to be done, and that, unfortunately, meant operating alone.

It was one of the selling points Blair used when pitching the Midway class. In Zero's words... "You put all of your eggs in one basket. And if this ships gets hulled? What then?" The Midway by design was meant to operate alone with little of no escorts. A cost saving thing. If you've read through the lit that came with the game or played the game, it's mentioned. The Cerberus was designed along similar lines as a quik strike assult carrier. Able to go in, knock down or piss off the enemy then get the hell out.

 

[Deadman_ny]

Well, there's the Johnny Green (I think?). And that other one the Johnny Green found that I can't remember the name of. Both were used for super secret black ops recon. (End Run)

That was war time, and a black ops run. The Johney was exspendible along with the half dozen or more other dead hulks they found in the asteriod field.
It would be more fesible to station corvetts along the frontier instead of larger more exspensive ships like a destroyer or cruiser. God, when was the last time we saw a Confed corvette? WC2? Maybe Confed did away with them all togeather

They were probably thinking something like "Watching big capships duke it out for 30 minutes with nothing to do but twiddle their thumbs* is a good way to kill the living shit out of this genre, so we're going to keep the focus on letting the player do the duking and killing." Thus Confed corvettes, destroyers, and cruisers were not included.

*Thank you, Freespace 2, for the most boring epic battles ever.

You don't really twiddle your thumbs, there is still crap to do. Kill off fighters and bombers, destroy turrets and vital ship componets.
FS2 did blow in some aspects.... The battle when the Sheiven "juggernought" and the Colosis meet. That was a real letdown. As ruthless as cunning as the Sheivens were spos to be. Leaving a ship like that sitting there...a few pitiful fighters to protect it. Stealth tech or no, when my ships litteraly being nuked you exspect more of a reaction.
That was the cool thing about FRED. Back in the day our "sqaud" would make maps and buff the hell out of them with formations of capital ships covering each other while their escort fighters tried to intercept you and your bomber escort. It's one thing to have ai on your wing compared to people. People know what to do and how to fight "dirty." Half the time you just want your ai wingman to die so they'll shut up. The groundwork was there, just wish they had taken it further. Truly loved the mutiplayer aspect and being able to play custom maps easily.

 

[t.c.cgi]

God, when was the last time we saw a Confed corvette? WC2? Maybe Confed did away with them all togeather

Wing Commander 1: Secret Missions 1 is the only time a corvette ever appears. Similarly Wing Commander 4 is the only time a frigate appears, although Wing Commander 3 had the stats and models in place I believe. And they obviously aren't retired since End Run takes place after Wing Commander 2 and its expansions.

As you say corvettes are for low-priority areas where any old clunker will do. It would be logical that they would be shifted out of areas where a proper war fleet takes over. It's like bitching that WW2 carriers never saw their own nation's coast guard cutters or destroyer escorts as they were bombing islands in the Pacific.

The groundwork was there, just wish they had taken it further.

I wish all industries allowed me to lay the groundwork then give up and wet-fart my way through the rest of the project. I can't be completely ungrateful though, they did release the source code.