Originally posted by TCSTigersClaw
Well,maybe we dont -see- rapiers in the games or in the novels but I dont think they are retired.....They are new ships compared to other and their stats are very good.Look at the manuerability!
Its perfect for a medium fighter!Even for a light fighter.....
Also ,the crossbows,the Mornigstars,The Wraith.All these are also new crafts produced at 2667-2668....I dont think will just scrap them.....
Problem: you can only upgrade them so much. Also, WC4N explicitly states that Rapiers, Sabres, Scimitars, and Raptors are considered second-line fighters, compared to the Hellcats, Thunderbolts, and Arrows that the Lexington uses. We have canon sources which state these craft are not considered fit for front-line duty anymore. Therefore, shoving them onto Escort Carriers or other ships which are likely to go onto the front line is not something you're likely to do.
Especially when you have smaller craft like Piranhas or the like to put in. The Arrow was 20 meters long, versus the 12.5 meters for a Piranha. You're going to want the Piranha for the space and mass savings, plus the fact that the Piranha's faster and has better protection than the Arrow does. On an Escort Carrier that's likely to hit the front lines, you're going to outfit them with your best fighters... and the Arrow's a very old design anyways. You're going to keep your Arrows on second-line duty, perhaps for Home Guard or sleepy rear-line base garrison.
Rapiers are ancient, and are so outmoded that the Border Worlds was able to buy them for use in WC4N... you don't usually sell off assets which you can upgrade, if you can help it. These were only used by the Border Worlds because they didn't have enough Banshees or Avengers or Vindicators for all their little fleet. Those were about as front-line as they could field. Remember why you were in Speradon in the first place, if you took that route - you were there to steal ships, because the Border Worlds had crap for their fighter inventory. They're easily outperformed by even modern heavy fighters, by WCP (look at the Thunderbolt stats: 50/50/50 versus 10/10/10 for WC2's Rapier. They were excellent fighters
in their day, but that day's long gone.
Also, the Crossbow was a prototype, as was the Morningstar - as stated in WC2:SO1 and SO2. They were there for testing, and the Morningstar apparently never made it into mass production though the technologies pioneered in both craft probably made their way into WC3-era ships. The Wraith of Academy was also a prototype, and didn't exist outside the simulator - the Armada version was a limited production run, and you built those buggers yourself with the equipment you had on the Lexington. Apparently, they were never widely adopted.
Heck, look at what 'old' fighters we see in WC:SO - Thunderbolt VIIs and Excaliburs. These are both heavy fighters, which usually get the most 'generalist' roles, according to WC3N. They can be used for strikes OR for anti-fighter defense... they do a lot of general busywork, versus the lights which are used for scouting or (maybe) interception, and the mediums which tend to do more escort or intercept work.
So yes, they're likely to have been scrapped or sold off. It's like trying to keep F-4 Phantoms flying now, when you've got the F-15 nearing the end of its operational life (20 years later) and the F/A-22 about to be adopted en masse.