Pre-WC1 Ships

[Ijuin]

Has anybody given any speculation to what kinds of fighters Confed had back before Blair's time? What exactly DID pilots fly back at the beginning of the war when people like Tolwyn were fresh out of the academy?

Back in those days, I would think that fighters had very thin shields (and no shields at all on the lightest fighters--in WC1 the Hornet has only 40cm shields compared to the 200cm on the Arrow in WC3). Fighters also had only DF and HS missiles available, and no decoys at all--HS missiles were much more dangerous in those days if you had a medium fighter--armor too weak to survive the missile hit, and not agile enough to dodge it. At this time, the Scimitar was the hot new medium/heavy fighter, much like the Morningstar was in SO2. Available cannons would probably be Laser, Mass Driver, Photon, and Stormfire Mk. 1 (which Pliers said was outdated--figure the Stormfire to do about as much damage as a Mass Driver while the ammo holds out). I would think that Neutron cannons would still be under development at the time, with Particle, Tachyon, and Plasma cannons off in the future.

 

[Napoleon]

wildcats and hurricanes, read Action Stations

 

[panther]

I'd like to see those in a WC sim

AFAIK the hurri was the atmospheric capable space fighter of the time, while the wildcat was more just for space use.

 

[Delta_Strife]

It would be cool to see pictures of the Pre-Wc ships. They probably look very different from those in WC 1.

 

[Ghost]

IIRC there is a Wildcat in some WCA episode, maybe the first one, it is like the Hellcat but with rounded wings

 

[Starkey]

In the movie (supposedly before WC1), the ships shoot bullets but I think that was due to the lack of funding...

 

[LeHah]

The WC Movie fighters do not shoot bullets.

 

[Starkey]

What do they shoot then? Not laser bolts or anything like that...

 

[LeHah]

The CF-117b Rapier is armed with:

Two Wing Mounted Laser Cannons
Duel-Pulse Rotary Barrel Neutron Gun (Forward)
10 Missile Mounts

The CF-131 Broadsword is armed with:
3 Mass-Driver Cannons (2 Wing-Mounted, One Nose-Mounted)
3 Missile Mounts
2 Torpedoes
3 Turrets; 2 Neutron Guns In Each

Just because it sounds vaugely like a firearm, doesn't mean it is.

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Originally posted by Ijuin
(...)I would think that Neutron cannons would still be under development at the time, with Particle, Tachyon, and Plasma cannons off in the future.

IIRC the Neutron gun was developed 2621, the Particle gun was found in a Kilrathi wreckage at the beginning of the war.

 

[Delta_Strife]

Probably the ships from the Wc1 movie is what the planes looked like before the war.

 

[Valor NR]

Originally posted by LeHah
The CF-117b Rapier is armed with:

Two Wing Mounted Laser Cannons
Duel-Pulse Rotary Barrel Neutron Gun (Forward)
10 Missile Mounts

The CF-131 Broadsword is armed with:
3 Mass-Driver Cannons (2 Wing-Mounted, One Nose-Mounted)
3 Missile Mounts
2 Torpedoes
3 Turrets; 2 Neutron Guns In Each

Just because it sounds vaugely like a firearm, doesn't mean it is.

I thought it was a Gattling Mass Driver on the Rapier

 

[LeHah]

I'm just going by the Confed Handbook.

 

[Valor NR]

Oh ok it just looks like one

 

[RFBurns]

Originally posted by LeHah
The CF-117b Rapier is armed with:

Two Wing Mounted Laser Cannons
Duel-Pulse Rotary Barrel Neutron Gun (Forward)
10 Missile Mounts

The CF-131 Broadsword is armed with:
3 Mass-Driver Cannons (2 Wing-Mounted, One Nose-Mounted)
3 Missile Mounts
2 Torpedoes
3 Turrets; 2 Neutron Guns In Each

Just because it sounds vaugely like a firearm, doesn't mean it is.

I remember seeing a red dot inside the wing of the Rapier in the WC movie when they are preping for that mission to take out the coms ship for fuel. The scene shows the troops walking thru the hanger on the TCS Tiger Claw, and the camera gets a good shot of the left wing, and at an angle where you can see the laser gun embedded inside the wing, towards the edge.

What puzzles me is why they never fired the lasers! It would have looked neat with lasers and the rotating neutron gun fireing at the same time!

RFB
The Anomalies Network TEM forum moderator

 

[Hamlet]

Originally posted by Valor NR
I thought it was a Gattling Mass Driver on the Rapier

No, that was the Raptor.

The Rapier had it's two Laser's mounted on either side of the cockpit, and the Neutron guns on the wing tips.

 

[Wedge009]

Originally posted by Ijuin
Back in those days, I would think that fighters had very thin shields...

None at all - hence the insanely high kill scores of aces before the Kilrathi war, and why Blair is 'only' the 11th(?) Confed ace of all time.

Originally posted by Ijuin
...in WC1 the Hornet has only 40cm shields compared to the 200cm on the Arrow in WC3...

This is merely a product of using different baselines for shield measurement. WC3 (and later) ship stats measured shields in durasteel equivalents - multiply previous WC ships stats by 10 to calculate the equivalent shield strength. There's supposed to be some weird way of calculating Privateer ships' armour and shield ratings from numbers used inside the game files, but I can't remember what it was.

 

[TC]

Originally posted by Wedge009
This is merely a product of using different baselines for shield measurement. WC3 (and later) ship stats measured shields in durasteel equivalents - multiply previous WC ships stats by 10 to calculate the equivalent shield strength. There's supposed to be some weird way of calculating Privateer ships' armour and shield ratings from numbers used inside the game files, but I can't remember what it was.

Where the hell did you get that from... It says right in Claw Marks that shields are measured in centimeter's of durasteel (equiv.)

 

[Wedge009]

http://wingcommander.by.ru/VS/Streak22.html

Okay, so maybe I'm confusing it with the large upgrades in armour strength in WC3. And I forgot that 40cm is already 10x4cm That'll teach me to think too hard about WC.

 

[TC]

No, you're probably mixing it up with the armour unit system that's used to measure weapon's damage from WC3 onward. Each unit is 0.1cm of durasteel. This doesn't change the armour or shield statistics.