Arena's Fighting Ships (April 14, 2007)

[LeHah]

The one thing I've yet to see in this thread is a general disposition toward the somewhat stylized new design of all the traditional ships. Personally I'm not too found of the designs they came up with for them, they seem lackluster and honestly I think some of the hobiest modellers on these forums have put up better looking renditions then these arena ones. Just my two cents, aethetics I guess is to each owns matter of taste.

 

[NinjaLA]

The one thing I've yet to see in this thread is a general disposition toward the somewhat stylized new design of all the traditional ships. Personally I'm not too found of the designs they came up with for them, they seem lackluster and honestly I think some of the hobiest modellers on these forums have put up better looking renditions then these arena ones. Just my two cents, aethetics I guess is to each owns matter of taste.

next time you decide to use a thesaurus to make yourself sound smarter.. make sure you spell hobbyists, modelers and aesthetics correctly.

 

[Vinman]

next time you decide to use a thesaurus to make yourself sound smarter.. make sure you spell hobbyists, modelers and aesthetics correctly.

Modeller can be spelled either way, like Traveller.

My only real gripe with the Arena designs is that they used the Super Wing Commander version of the Rapier II. I like the WC1/2 design a lot more, but I suppose it does fit in better with the other ships than the original design.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

This keeps getting bumped from the front page for more pressing news, but y'all may enjoy it. Here's a spiffed up version of the ships page featuring all the recent information and the known specifications: https://www.wcnews.com/arena/ships.shtml

 

[Vinman]

This keeps getting bumped from the front page for more pressing news, but y'all may enjoy it. Here's a spiffed up version of the ships page featuring all the recent information and the known specifications: https://www.wcnews.com/arena/ships.shtml

I like how that page is set up, it's nice that I can get information about the ships without having to load the full-size pictures

Edit: There is some weird garbled html in the Dralthi section

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Sorry 'bout that, should be fixed now.

 

[Black_Lightning]

next time you decide to use a thesaurus to make yourself sound smarter.. make sure you spell hobbyists, modelers and aesthetics correctly.

Funny, I always thought it was the people who had nothing better to do then correct other's spelling that are those whom try to appear smarter than they are

It’s not as if people in forums use words such as l337, omg, lmfao, and so on, I don’t feel the need to run a spell check on the things I type in such a writing atmosphere.

and F.Y.I. I don't use a thesaurus.

 

[LeHah]

and F.Y.I. I don't use a thesaurus.

Alec Guiness, one of the finest actors of the 20th Century, said that the thing he admires most about another actor is "simplicity of line".

That edict carries over to this forum. Be brief, be blunt, don't beat around the bush like a 6th grader who found a big word that he can use. If you need to chose between something big and important or something that everyone will understand, always pick the later.

In other words, you may not have used a thesaurus, but stop making posts like you are.

 

[Chicken]

The one thing I've yet to see in this thread is a general disposition toward the somewhat stylized new design of all the traditional ships. Personally I'm not too found of the designs they came up with for them, they seem lackluster and honestly I think some of the hobiest modellers on these forums have put up better looking renditions then these arena ones. Just my two cents, aethetics I guess is to each owns matter of taste.

Your complaint is too verbose.

For example, you could say: "I don't like the stylization of the models because [insert reasons] and felt they could do better."

Personally, I don't like the bulkiness/extravagance of some of the fighters - i.e. variants of the Arrow have too many fins that jut out, but for the Rapier there's a nice mixture of Super WC and WC II. It says: "You're gonna die!"

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

I, personally, feel profound joy that apparently the Neutron Gun is back again! That was my favourite gun in all WC (flavourwise, I hope that's a word), I found them to be a classic. I know that they tried to kill them off but never really succeeded but since they weren't present in WC4 and WCP+SOPS, I feared for the worst.
And it's nice to see the Meson Blasters again and the Ionic Pulse guns for the first time.
That reference to Najji is also awesome. It seems as if they paid more attention to the WC universe in this small (relatively spoken) arcade titel than they did in WC4 or WC3 with the other games.

I like the new designs of the Arrow very much and some of the Darket designs.

But green laser bolts for Confed? How could they? The Kilrathi one appear to be red.

 

[Vinman]

I, personally, feel profound joy that apparently the Neutron Gun is back again! That was my favourite gun in all WC (flavourwise, I hope that's a word), I found them to be a classic. I know that they tried to kill them off but never really succeeded but since they weren't present in WC4 and WCP+SOPS, I feared for the worst.
And it's nice to see the Meson Blasters again and the Ionic Pulse guns for the first time.
That reference to Najji is also awesome. It seems as if they paid more attention to the WC universe in this small (relatively spoken) arcade titel than they did in WC4 or WC3 with the other games.

I like the new designs of the Arrow very much and some of the Darket designs.

But green laser bolts for Confed? How could they? The Kilrathi one appear to be red.

The neutron gun sucked up a bit too much juice for my tastes, but yeah, it's great to see some of the old toys make a comeback!

 

[Dundradal]

I, personally, feel profound joy that apparently the Neutron Gun is back again! That was my favourite gun in all WC (flavourwise, I hope that's a word), I found them to be a classic. I know that they tried to kill them off but never really succeeded but since they weren't present in WC4 and WCP+SOPS, I feared for the worst.
And it's nice to see the Meson Blasters again and the Ionic Pulse guns for the first time.
That reference to Najji is also awesome. It seems as if they paid more attention to the WC universe in this small (relatively spoken) arcade titel than they did in WC4 or WC3 with the other games.

I like the new designs of the Arrow very much and some of the Darket designs.

But green laser bolts for Confed? How could they? The Kilrathi one appear to be red.

It is interesting to see the neutron gun comeback, I wonder if they will have any back story for why its appeared again or fell by the wayside to begin with.

We see Ionic Pulse cannons in Privateer.

Those green bolts could be Meson blasters as opposed to lasers. IIRC Meson are green in WC3.

I think we again have to thank Sean Penney for being so considerate to the universe. I sure the hell hope he is in charge of the next major WC title, I think he would do an amazing job.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

It is very cool to see all the classic guns again. Not sure about the colors... the classic games didn't keep a very good continuity when it came to weapon appearance. They even changed them completely from port to port of the same game on occasion!

 

[Dundradal]

The Tachyon looks like it continues to be a very prominent weapon as it appears a quite a few of the Arena fighter variants.

I also thought it was interesting that only Confed has IR missiles on the Rapier Cavalier.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Oh, and 'Vampire Missiles' are a continuity reference a lot of you might not know... they were the replacement for the Leech in Wing Commander III 3DO, where they did the same thing they do in Arena.

 

[Ijuin]

Hey, just what are all of these devices that the fighters mount? Deployable turrets, gun batteries, etc.?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

The batteries give them more energy in whatever category (engines, guns, shields)... the deployable turret is a turret-mine, similar to the ones seen in Wing Commander IV. You drop it somewhere and it fires at enemy ships automatically.

 

[Private_Maestro]

wow! the arena ships look amazing, especially the Arrow Guardian, it's different seeing it all spruced up like that with armour

i'm sure "spruced" is a word - and spelt correctly

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

The neutron gun sucked up a bit too much juice for my tastes, but yeah, it's great to see some of the old toys make a comeback!

They certainly weren't the best guns but I like it when guns (and fighters) fill a traditional role. And the Neutron gun was always the heavy hitting, slow firing and energy eating gun for me and that just because of WC 1.

It is interesting to see the neutron gun comeback, I wonder if they will have any back story for why its appeared again or fell by the wayside to begin with.

I think it's very fitting: the whole setting is getting at the "you have to use old technology".

It is very cool to see all the classic guns again. Not sure about the colors... the classic games didn't keep a very good continuity when it came to weapon appearance. They even changed them completely from port to port of the same game on occasion!

Of course, I wasn't too serious. Lasers were orange (WC1+2, Academy), pink (Armada) and red (WC3,4,P, Privateer) and thus mainly some sort of red. Of course, the SNES port has blue lasers thus already breaking that not very strong tradition.
And the guns in Priv2 are also called lasers, so I guess there's no real deal.

 

[Dundradal]

I think it's very fitting: the whole setting is getting at the "you have to use old technology".

Yes, Meson blasters were green in WC3. But if you look at the fighters firing their green weapons in the videos and get a look which fighter is chosen you can deduct that the weapon fired is a laser. At least, I am pretty sure and it also fits with the characteristics shown (fast firing and low energy consumption, though that's also fitting for the Meson blaster).

Yeah, I do like that appeal, makes you understand what it was like to fly with the FRLN.

Looks like we'll have to wait and see what it is on gameday...