WC4: Which Confed ship do you hate more!
- Thread starter Ghost
- Start date
Dynaco
WildFire-
The confed ship selection did blow ass, just give me an Arrow and I would have been happy, but nooooo. Same friggin Hellcat just about every mission. Gotta have multiple jets, yo. Like cars, I'm not happy with 1. I have three and I need more. Flying a Ferret would have been cool but I bet the Border Worlds wouldn't even touch those.
I voted for the longbow, always despised that big hunk o'chunk both in WC3/4, does make good space debris though 
I always pick the Thunderbolt for bombing missions in WC3. There's only 2 missions in WC3 that I can think of where I've flown the longbow. The one where you plant mines around nav points (you have to actually use this ship if you want to complete the mission as no other bomber/fighter can carry enough mines) and one mission near the end where at the last nav point there's a kilrathi cruiser a mother load of torps is the only way to bring it down fast, it still can be done with other ships but will take a long time to destroy it.)
I actually like the Hellcat but I would pick an Arrow over an hellcat any day. Too bad you couldn't fly the Arrow in WC4.
I always pick the Thunderbolt for bombing missions in WC3. There's only 2 missions in WC3 that I can think of where I've flown the longbow. The one where you plant mines around nav points (you have to actually use this ship if you want to complete the mission as no other bomber/fighter can carry enough mines) and one mission near the end where at the last nav point there's a kilrathi cruiser a mother load of torps is the only way to bring it down fast, it still can be done with other ships but will take a long time to destroy it.)I actually like the Hellcat but I would pick an Arrow over an hellcat any day. Too bad you couldn't fly the Arrow in WC4.
Mystery muppet
Spaceman
Eh... I actually like both of them... Though I like the Longbow the least, I suppose.
I despise the Longbow by far. It's a nice fat target for smaller, more agile fighters and can't maneuver very well. I liked the firepower and powerful shields, but without the speed and maneuverability, I found it a nightmare trying to go up against superior wings of lighter, faster fighters.
Here is my take on WC3 fighters:
Arrow:
Wonderfully fast and agile, great for dogfighting with Darket, Strakha, and Dralthi fighters, but a bit tougher going against Vaktoths and Pakhtans on account of the rear turrets. Its main drawback, in my opinion, is that it can only use HS/IR missiles--I would love to have Leech or Dumbfire missiles to use against Pakhtans and corvettes.
Hellcat:
A decent balance between speed and firepower. The guns are slightly heavier than those of the Arrow, although with shorter range, and it has slightly better shielding and armor, plus it can use any type of missiles. However, I think that in comparison to the Thunderbolt, it sacrifices too much firepower for too little added speed and agility--it only has 40kps faster cruising speed, 200kps faster afterburner speed and 10dps faster turn rate, and in exchange it gives up 20 armor, 30 shields, the torpedo, the rear turret, and about 40% of its gun power (ion/neutron vs. plasma/photon/meson). If it were up to me, I would give it an extra 5dps turn rate and 20kps cruising speed to bring it back in line (for a total of 440kps cruising speed and 65/65/65 dps turn rate).
Thunderbolt:
This fighter packs the most firepower up until the Excalibur becomes available--it even has a torpedo for going up against cap ships! This is my fighter of choice for fighting heavy targets. On the minus side, its 50/50/50 dps turn rate makes dogfighting against Darket and Strakha fighters difficult. I reccommend the Tbolt for missions with capital ships in them.
Longbow:
If any WC3 ship is a pig to fly, it is this one. Don't even bother trying to dogfight Darkets in a Longbow--just shoot missiles at them. As for Strakhas, by the time you have turned to face them, they are already starting to cloak again, and if you use FF missiles, they have an annoying habit of STAYING cloaked until your missile runs out of fuel. Just wait for the Strakha to decloak behind you, and use your turret to blast it. The main strength of the Longbow is in its missile/torpedo load--the extra shields and armor hardly help at all because you NEED them just to survive since this ship is so slow. I only use the Longbow for the Torgo jump point mining mission and for missions where you need multiple torpedos--using it for anything else is a waste when you can take the Thunderbolt instead and get more speed and gun power.
Excalibur:
The autotracking quad tachyon and dual reaper guns on the Excalibur frag Kilrathi so quickly that you only need to use its twelve missiles against capships (dumbfire missiles reccommended) or when you are grossly outnumbered and need to take out a couple of enemies quickly to avoid being caught in a crossfire. It also has more speed and agility than any other WC3 fighter except the Arrow. Once you get the Excalibur, you will not want to fly anything else! Its biggest drawback is, as the manual states, a relatively weak defense (are you SURE it has 110 armor? It sure feels like less!). Personally, I would like to take the reaper cannons and move them to a rear turret.
Arrow:
Wonderfully fast and agile, great for dogfighting with Darket, Strakha, and Dralthi fighters, but a bit tougher going against Vaktoths and Pakhtans on account of the rear turrets. Its main drawback, in my opinion, is that it can only use HS/IR missiles--I would love to have Leech or Dumbfire missiles to use against Pakhtans and corvettes.
Hellcat:
A decent balance between speed and firepower. The guns are slightly heavier than those of the Arrow, although with shorter range, and it has slightly better shielding and armor, plus it can use any type of missiles. However, I think that in comparison to the Thunderbolt, it sacrifices too much firepower for too little added speed and agility--it only has 40kps faster cruising speed, 200kps faster afterburner speed and 10dps faster turn rate, and in exchange it gives up 20 armor, 30 shields, the torpedo, the rear turret, and about 40% of its gun power (ion/neutron vs. plasma/photon/meson). If it were up to me, I would give it an extra 5dps turn rate and 20kps cruising speed to bring it back in line (for a total of 440kps cruising speed and 65/65/65 dps turn rate).
Thunderbolt:
This fighter packs the most firepower up until the Excalibur becomes available--it even has a torpedo for going up against cap ships! This is my fighter of choice for fighting heavy targets. On the minus side, its 50/50/50 dps turn rate makes dogfighting against Darket and Strakha fighters difficult. I reccommend the Tbolt for missions with capital ships in them.
Longbow:
If any WC3 ship is a pig to fly, it is this one. Don't even bother trying to dogfight Darkets in a Longbow--just shoot missiles at them. As for Strakhas, by the time you have turned to face them, they are already starting to cloak again, and if you use FF missiles, they have an annoying habit of STAYING cloaked until your missile runs out of fuel. Just wait for the Strakha to decloak behind you, and use your turret to blast it. The main strength of the Longbow is in its missile/torpedo load--the extra shields and armor hardly help at all because you NEED them just to survive since this ship is so slow. I only use the Longbow for the Torgo jump point mining mission and for missions where you need multiple torpedos--using it for anything else is a waste when you can take the Thunderbolt instead and get more speed and gun power.
Excalibur:
The autotracking quad tachyon and dual reaper guns on the Excalibur frag Kilrathi so quickly that you only need to use its twelve missiles against capships (dumbfire missiles reccommended) or when you are grossly outnumbered and need to take out a couple of enemies quickly to avoid being caught in a crossfire. It also has more speed and agility than any other WC3 fighter except the Arrow. Once you get the Excalibur, you will not want to fly anything else! Its biggest drawback is, as the manual states, a relatively weak defense (are you SURE it has 110 armor? It sure feels like less!). Personally, I would like to take the reaper cannons and move them to a rear turret.
pygmypiranha
Vice Admiral
I love the arrow. If there is any WC ship I would love to own/fly it would be this fighter. Small to just skim across the ground and small enough to hide in my garage (yea it is a big garage).
In regards to the question: I'd love to take a missile launcher to the Long Bow. Die you stupid POS die!
I have opinions on almost all the confed fighters and ships actually.
I could do a huge color commentary, and actually I just may in another post.
I like the Arrow (WC3) because of it's speed and maneuverability. 8 missiles is definitely useful.
The Hellcat I'm not fond of. The Rapier was a far better machine in terms of speed and agility, plus it had the same missile arrangement. Gun arrangement wasn't too far off either (the Hellcat had ion's and neutron's vs the Rapier's lasers and neutrons). To my knowledge the Hellcat had better armor though. The Rapier's was rather thin.
Thunderbolt VII: I think they should have kept the Sabre honestly, 6 missiles and 2 torpedoes, plus it was faster. The Thud is rather slow and not exactly very maneuverable. It does look cooler than the Sabre in my opinion, but aesthetics doesn't matter much when you need 2 torpedoes instead of 1. The Thud does have better guns though.
Longbow: I have another name for the longbow, but it ain't a fond one! I actually like it more than the Broadsword in the fact that it carries 16 missiles. I honestly prefered the 16 missiles over the 3 turrets the Broadsword had. There was another thing that I liked about the Longbow: Afterburners! Most complain about the Longbow, but I actually like it MORE than the Broadsword. What I would have liked to have seen would have been a Crossbow with afterburners and some extra missiles. They could do 370 non afterburning, if they had burners they would have gotten at least 740 kps, excellent maneuverability and all that stuff.
Excalibur: The Excal's one of my favorite fighters. It's like a superfighter in the fact that it has great maneuverability, 12 missiles, and a great set of guns. The Tachyons do a good degree of damage, and fire quickly (relatively anyway). The Reapers fire real fast and do more damage than ion-guns. I simply wish there was a way to put some torpedoes on it. Like an alternate arrangement with 10 missiles and 2 torpedoes, or even 8 or 9 missiles and 2 torpedoes or something. With 500 kps top speed, and 1,300 on afterburner that would have made it incredibly nasty to capships. 12 missiles also hurt capships pretty well. In WC4 they committed a travesty by reducing the armament to 8 missiles. Why even bother with that then? They did add some extra armor, 110 cm vs 90 cm on the WC4 Excal.
Bearcat: It's a good fighter. I really like it actually. 8-missiles, awesome speed, it's even faster than the Arrow. The four Tachyon guns were a nice touch too. Fantastic maneuverability. Sure beats that wussy hellcat.
Dragon: The dragon is a bad-ass ship. For a 40 meter long ship, it has some good speed and agility. It's dry-speed is that of a Excalibur, and afterburning that of a hellcat. 10 missiles and 2 torpedoes. You got 2 tachyons and 2 plasmas and those badass fission guns. They really chew through other ships. Maneuverability is that of a medium fighter, and speed rivalable to them as well, somewhat on the high end. The thing that's impressive about them is those glowing red-intakes. They run on a surplus when at dry power, and only on a slight deficit when on afterburner. In otherwords, you have a capship like powerplant pushing a fighter. Drag is only that of a fighter too, so you get 500 kps speed with intakes on, not the usual 100-250 something you get with a capship. It's atmospheric capabile as well.
-Concordia
I could do a huge color commentary, and actually I just may in another post.
I like the Arrow (WC3) because of it's speed and maneuverability. 8 missiles is definitely useful.
The Hellcat I'm not fond of. The Rapier was a far better machine in terms of speed and agility, plus it had the same missile arrangement. Gun arrangement wasn't too far off either (the Hellcat had ion's and neutron's vs the Rapier's lasers and neutrons). To my knowledge the Hellcat had better armor though. The Rapier's was rather thin.
Thunderbolt VII: I think they should have kept the Sabre honestly, 6 missiles and 2 torpedoes, plus it was faster. The Thud is rather slow and not exactly very maneuverable. It does look cooler than the Sabre in my opinion, but aesthetics doesn't matter much when you need 2 torpedoes instead of 1. The Thud does have better guns though.
Longbow: I have another name for the longbow, but it ain't a fond one! I actually like it more than the Broadsword in the fact that it carries 16 missiles. I honestly prefered the 16 missiles over the 3 turrets the Broadsword had. There was another thing that I liked about the Longbow: Afterburners! Most complain about the Longbow, but I actually like it MORE than the Broadsword. What I would have liked to have seen would have been a Crossbow with afterburners and some extra missiles. They could do 370 non afterburning, if they had burners they would have gotten at least 740 kps, excellent maneuverability and all that stuff.
Excalibur: The Excal's one of my favorite fighters. It's like a superfighter in the fact that it has great maneuverability, 12 missiles, and a great set of guns. The Tachyons do a good degree of damage, and fire quickly (relatively anyway). The Reapers fire real fast and do more damage than ion-guns. I simply wish there was a way to put some torpedoes on it. Like an alternate arrangement with 10 missiles and 2 torpedoes, or even 8 or 9 missiles and 2 torpedoes or something. With 500 kps top speed, and 1,300 on afterburner that would have made it incredibly nasty to capships. 12 missiles also hurt capships pretty well. In WC4 they committed a travesty by reducing the armament to 8 missiles. Why even bother with that then? They did add some extra armor, 110 cm vs 90 cm on the WC4 Excal.
Bearcat: It's a good fighter. I really like it actually. 8-missiles, awesome speed, it's even faster than the Arrow. The four Tachyon guns were a nice touch too. Fantastic maneuverability. Sure beats that wussy hellcat.
Dragon: The dragon is a bad-ass ship. For a 40 meter long ship, it has some good speed and agility. It's dry-speed is that of a Excalibur, and afterburning that of a hellcat. 10 missiles and 2 torpedoes. You got 2 tachyons and 2 plasmas and those badass fission guns. They really chew through other ships. Maneuverability is that of a medium fighter, and speed rivalable to them as well, somewhat on the high end. The thing that's impressive about them is those glowing red-intakes. They run on a surplus when at dry power, and only on a slight deficit when on afterburner. In otherwords, you have a capship like powerplant pushing a fighter. Drag is only that of a fighter too, so you get 500 kps speed with intakes on, not the usual 100-250 something you get with a capship. It's atmospheric capabile as well.
-Concordia
Hellcat : Try playing WC3 on the 2 highest levels and then tell me that the extra 10 dps of manueverability doesn't more than make up for the reduction in armor (I get the extra armor slagged off because I can't avoid the fire). The Thud is jsut too damn slow on the stick to take on the Kilrathi at the top levels. It could also be that I'm not that great of a shot with ships weapons but I'm a hell of a pilot. Maybe that figures in to my decision just a bit
. I also enjoy playing a game all the way through, not restarting mission when I've failed but acting like I'm really in the cockpit, popping the top and moving on if I have to. So I have to conserve my armor and missles instead of charging straight ahead with my superior armor and weapons and resatrting the mission when I've failed (Problem is I lose at least 2-3 ships a game using this doctorine, but hell I'm still alive to fight! ). As a result I would much rather enjoy a ship with more manueverability.Longbow: Here's a strategy for those Strakhas in a longbow (it's something I actually picked up from watching my wingman! See your wingmen do provide you with something!
). When facing Strakhas wait for them to cloak and decelerate to 0. When a Strakha appears (sometimes right in front of you) turn towards the fighter and accelerate when you are about to complete the turn. The Strakhas seem to like to fire from extreme range, so your little "clear out" movement will get you out of the line of fireand headed into a fighter with very thin armor and depleted capacitors with your full frontal arsenal. Result: Getting out of a pack of stealth ships with little more than a few laser hits (sometimes maser if his caps were not as depleted) to your forward and side shields (usually what I have to worry about is my side being exposed to other ships while I'm turn ing into the forward Strakha, but the oncoming ships bursts are all too easy to jinx even in a "pig boat" such as the 'Bow.)Oh I had ot go with the Bow as my least favorite. I love my Hellcat!
ON a second note, I always wondered how the BW's could make a converted shuttle into a comperable/better bomber then the Confed designers could come up with!
C-ya
to me, the Longbow was one of the worst ships I've ever seen. I started flying it in WC 3 when I stopped turning.
"WTF?!" I screamed.
the steering mechanism was jammed. for some reason.
so I went out and bought WC:KS , uninstalled WC3 and installed the KS version
guess what happened.
"WTF?!" I screamed.
the steering mechanism was jammed. for some reason.
so I went out and bought WC:KS , uninstalled WC3 and installed the KS version
guess what happened.
Dynamix478
Spaceman
i had the same problem.. plus a turning problem like that in the thunderbolts too
any ideas why?
any ideas why?
I would say that the Longbow is the worst craft to fly in WC3/4. Certainly it has heavy shields and armor, but it turns so slowly that it is easy for a lighter opponent to keep out of your gunsights. As the manual states, the one thing that it is good for is blasting capships with its torpedos. Light fighters can be taken care of with its sixteen missiles, but once those run dry (and they WILL in many WC3 missions if you do not budget them carefully), you are a sitting duck for any Darkets in the area. Unless I seriously need the torps/missiles for the current mission, I would much rather go with the Thunderbolt's greater speed, agility, and gun power.
Ladiesman^
Spaceman
Blah...I use the Longbow religiously, and i've never had a problem hitting fighters. The thing is, on full guns you should only need to hit the fighter once, maybe twice to kill them. It's REALLY not difficult at all.
The Longbow is simply the coolest ship in ANY sci-fi.
Ladiesman^
Spaceman
I dunno...whatever it defaults too is usually what I play.
Still, it doesn't take many with fully charged full guns, depending on the fighter.