ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Yeah, on paper the Epee has some advantages, but in practice, the Ferret is more survivable and hits harder. And with the Super Ferret, it even gets missiles.
Defiance's Eyecandy Thread
- Thread starter DefianceIndustries
- Start date
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
The Super Ferret is interesting in and of itself, because it's a clear step towards making the Ferret equal the Epee in terms of armament. I can't help wondering if this isn't a sort of tacit admission on the part of the designers that the Epee didn't turn out to be as fun as they hoped. Once Special Ops introduces the Super Ferret, there just doesn't seem like there's any role left for the Epee as a light fighter. Then, of course, Academy came out, and its manual suggested in no unclear terms that yes, the designers are aware of how players feel about the Epee's survivability.
DefianceIndustries
Commodore
The real issue with the Epee in my mind is that the particle guns are such energy hogs that they don't deal as much damage over time as the mass drivers. otherwise it's ok, if they gave it different guns or beefed up the armor a touch it would be a better fighter.
Star Rider
Rear Admiral
Sounds like a good opportunity to take WC2 and the Ship editor out of mothballs after work, and try it out
ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
It'll always have a job as a light torpedo bomber...
Star Rider
Rear Admiral
So I've performed some initial testing in Wing Commander Academy. Thanks to HCI's WC2/Academy Ship Editor, I've added additional armor to the Epee equivalent to that on the Ferret. The Epee can now take two missile hits with shields up. The first hit knocked out the forward shields and armor.
The Second hit knocked the forward shields down again and caused internal damage to the following: Target Tracker Destroyed, Acceleration Absorbers Destroyed, and Shield Generator Moderate Damage.
I was still able to fight and managed to destroy a flight of 4 Drakhri on the highest difficulty setting.
As far as changing the guns, I tested the Epee with Lasers, Neutron Guns, Mass Drivers, and it's default Particle Cannons. Mass Drivers performed the best followed by the Particle Cannons with Lasers, and Neutrons coming in third and fourth.
I'll modify the Epee next to simulate the Belly Torpedo that Angel refers to in the Tesla Mission 1 briefing and perform some test runs on some Dorkrathi and Ralatha
Star Rider
Rear Admiral
After Action Report 2019.227
Last Night I performed two anti-ship attack simulations with The up-armored Epee equipped with a torpedo. Both attack runs were against Ralatha.
On the first attack run, I used my afterburners to take up a position about 10,000 Meters from the Ralatha to set up my attack run, and acquire torpedo lock. As I closed the distance I began taking fire from the Ralatha's Flak Guns. Shields took the brunt of the damage thanks to the recharge rate, and I continued to close on target. At 2500 Meters I unleashed the Torpedo, and proceeded to peel off to avoid any splash damage should the torpedo get hit by the flak. As I was making my hard turn away, to my surprise the right VDU lit up with a message from the Ralatha. "NO..." My guess at the time was that the torpedo must have scored a critical hit on a vital area. As the Ralatha broke up I flew back to base mission accomplished.
On the second run I pretty much repeated my attack pattern from the first run. At around 2500 Meters I released my torpedo, and began to peel off. This time however as I peeled off I took damage with the rear armor of the ship being completely destroyed, and moderate damage to the Repair System. Bringing the Ralatha back into my gun sights I checked the Right VDU for targeting data. The display showed that the Ralatha had been hit by the torpedo in the forward section. With no remaining torpedoes I ended the mission .
That concludes my report.
Last Night I performed two anti-ship attack simulations with The up-armored Epee equipped with a torpedo. Both attack runs were against Ralatha.
On the first attack run, I used my afterburners to take up a position about 10,000 Meters from the Ralatha to set up my attack run, and acquire torpedo lock. As I closed the distance I began taking fire from the Ralatha's Flak Guns. Shields took the brunt of the damage thanks to the recharge rate, and I continued to close on target. At 2500 Meters I unleashed the Torpedo, and proceeded to peel off to avoid any splash damage should the torpedo get hit by the flak. As I was making my hard turn away, to my surprise the right VDU lit up with a message from the Ralatha. "NO..." My guess at the time was that the torpedo must have scored a critical hit on a vital area. As the Ralatha broke up I flew back to base mission accomplished.
On the second run I pretty much repeated my attack pattern from the first run. At around 2500 Meters I released my torpedo, and began to peel off. This time however as I peeled off I took damage with the rear armor of the ship being completely destroyed, and moderate damage to the Repair System. Bringing the Ralatha back into my gun sights I checked the Right VDU for targeting data. The display showed that the Ralatha had been hit by the torpedo in the forward section. With no remaining torpedoes I ended the mission .
That concludes my report.