Arena's Fighting Ships (April 14, 2007)

Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
Curious about the ships of Wing Commander Arena? Well, so are we - but we have collected a good amount of information from the interviews and screenshots posted so far... and we've started to collect it into an article! Read on for a brief history of the fighters and capital ships which we know make a reappearance in the newest Wing Commander game. We've included both 'before' and 'after' shots wherever possible, allowing you to see for yourself how much effort at historical accuracy has gone into this XBLA game. You can find the collection here. This is just a temporary measure, as we expect there will be official information available about all of these fighters in the near future...



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Original update published on April 14, 2007
 
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I think the winner is the Dralthi, with eight: WC1, WC3, WC4, WCP, Armada, Privateer, CCG, Arena. Arrow comes in second with five: Armada, WC3, WC4, CCG, Arena... and then the Rapier II ties with others for third with four games: WC1, WC2, Academy, Arena.

(The others tied for third would be the Excalibur and the Thunderbolt, which both appear in WC3, WC4, WCSO and the CCG).

In terms of games where the ships are flyable... the Dralthi still wins with five (WC1, Armada, WCP, CCG, Arena). It's followed by the Arrow and Rapier tied at four each (WC1, WC2, Academy, Arena for the Rapier and Armada, WC3, Arena and the CCG for the Arrow).
 
I should of known the drathi but I was thinking more design wise its alway the same looking arrow. Where the Dralthi has many redesigns. I can't wait to see the other upgraded versions of the Arrow will look like in game.
 
I always got the impression the Drathli was the Kilrathi equivilant to the German or Japanese ME-109 or Zero. They were great fighters that they kept just making newer and newer models, while still creating new fighters, it was old reliable.
 
Dundradal said:
I always got the impression the Drathli was the Kilrathi equivilant to the German or Japanese ME-109 or Zero. They were great fighters that they kept just making newer and newer models, while still creating new fighters, it was old reliable.
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But in the end they were no match to the aircrafts that were developed by the Allies:
American P-51 Mustang and British Tempest and Typhoon were both superior to the Me-109 in every way except may be armament.
(the Germans actually had a fighter that was better then the Mustang and Tempest - Fw-190 - but Messerschmidt, who manufacture the Me-109, was in better relations with Goering, what made the Me-109 the preferred aircraft, despite the Fw-190 being the better one)

On the Pacific theater, the American had the F6F Hellcat and the F4U Corsair, which were both superior to the Zero, by the end of 1942/beginning of 43.
They even produce the F8F Bearcat, which was introduced in Dec 44, and was too late to make a difference on the war (and was inspired by the above mentioned Fw-190).

But... about the subject at hand - I look at your "Arena fighting ships" and saw you forgot one!
in the Sean Penny interview, just in the end, you get a split second look at this:

(I added a shot of the Blade for reference purposes, as the Vanguard apearse to be a much larger and more massive craft)
 

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HammerHead said:
But in the end they were no match to the aircrafts that were developed by the Allies:
American P-51 Mustang and British Tempest and Typhoon were both superior to the Me-109 in every way except may be armament.
(the Germans actually had a fighter that was better then the Mustang and Tempest - Fw-190 - but Messerschmidt, who manufacture the Me-109, was in better relations with Goering, what made the Me-109 the preferred aircraft, despite the Fw-190 being the better one)

On the Pacific theater, the American had the F6F Hellcat and the F4U Corsair, which were both superior to the Zero, by the end of 1942/beginning of 43.
They even produce the F8F Bearcat, which was introduced in Dec 44, and was too late to make a difference on the war (and was inspired by the above mentioned Fw-190).
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I understand this, but I was just looking to the parallel. As to the outcome of it during the kilrathi war, I would say it was a solid fighter nonetheless.
 
My point was that the same thing happened with the Dralthi - every time confed has at least one fighter which is superior to the Dralthi in every way (in addition to some which are better at only one or two categories).
By the time of WCP it's totally obsolete (despite still being a old and reliable).

I some what lost it on my previous post... :)
 
And the rest of the Bunch:
 

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I can't say why, but I don't like the new Dralthi design very much, especially the "Shank" version. (What's a Shank anyway, my dictionary gives me weird translationes). It's strange because I always liked the Dralthi designs in any given WC game best from the Kilrathi fighters, most beautiful in my eyes being the SWC/Priv Dralthi.
Though, at a second glance and from what I see, I like the "Rhino" verson rather well. I'll probably like them better when I see them on the screen.

But aesthetics aside: in the videos when they change between fighters in the selection screen, I can't make any difference out in the stats (Hull strength etc), whereas the weapon statistics change.
Am I too blind?

Edit: I mean when they chance between versions of a craft. I can see differences between the Paktahn and Dralthi.
 
Mekt-Hakkikt said:
I can't say why, but I don't like the new Dralthi design very much, especially the "Shank" version. (What's a Shank anyway, my dictionary gives me weird translationes). It's strange because I always liked the Dralthi designs in any given WC game best from the Kilrathi fighters, most beautiful in my eyes being the SWC/Priv Dralthi.
Though, at a second glance and from what I see, I like the "Rhino" verson rather well. I'll probably like them better when I see them on the screen.

But aesthetics aside: in the videos when they change between fighters in the selection screen, I can't make any difference out in the stats (Hull strength etc), whereas the weapon statistics change.
Am I too blind?

Edit: I mean when they chance between versions of a craft. I can see differences between the Paktahn and Dralthi.
Click to expand...

I'm not crazy about the new design either, but you can tell that they are dralthis. A shank is an stabbing weapon, commonly associated with homemade weapons made by prison inmates.

The reason that the fighters and bombers stats don't change is that they are all variants of the same chassis. It could be argued that the designs look so different that they should have different masses and performance, but that is sort of a caveat to gameplay. It would stink if you couldn't tell a Striker from a Shank and couldn't adjust your strategies accordingly.
 
The reason that the fighters and bombers stats don't change is that they are all variants of the same chassis. It could be argued that the designs look so different that they should have different masses and performance, but that is sort of a caveat to gameplay. It would stink if you couldn't tell a Striker from a Shank and couldn't adjust your strategies accordingly.
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The stats do change, that's an old menu shot.
 
The drathli reminds me more of darket in some of those shots because of the shape of the wing farther from view.

I think the Drathli Shank gets its name because of the extra blade like surface on the wing.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
The stats do change, that's an old menu shot.
Click to expand...

Oh, ok, then I suppose there is even more justification for their different appearance.

By the way, it is pretty clever of them to set the game in a period of disarray, so there could be non-standard variants of the different fighters.
 
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