Excals and T-bolts in WCPSO

Originally posted by Saturnyne
heh... the only thing is that you can't arm the Excal to full guns, or you'll only get two shots before your gun pool is empty. That would be a major disadvantage against the Nephilim, because despite what everyone thinks of them, they do fight hard... otherwise, your wingman would never go down. Hell, I died against a wing of devil rays, and... um... those ships that look like them... don't remember what they're called... manta? Anyway, you get my point... the Excal needs a better power plant to be more effective... and hey, why aren't Dragons in service? Even without their cloaking device, they can carry torps and are very swift and tough. Is it because they were for the Black Lance and they don't stand as a good symbol as part of Confed's navy?

Huh? One of the advantages of the Excalibur is that massive gun pool that lets you fire several salvos. It's true that if you allow it to run down ito the red, then you have problems with recharge, but the Excal's gun reserve is more than enough if you're not trigger happy.

As for the Dragon, there were but 40 built at the time of WC4, and all were captured or destroyed during the Black Lance affair. As for building more, why bother when the Vampire can outclass the Dragon easily? All that fancy gear they carry like the cloak and MAM drives makes them cost an arm and a leg while not adding much to their combat value.

Best, Raptor
 
Cloaking adds a hella lotta to your combat value. (Foo'.)

Ever try cloaking when there's a missile lock on you? It vanishes. Not only can you also pounce on ships without warning, but you can impress your girlfriend by pulling off moves like in the beginning of WC4 (that is, if she's interested in WC). Cloaking adds a new meaning to the "hit and fade" attack, especially with torpedo and Flashpak ability.

The M/AM engines give the unlimited afterburner capability...which is nice in outlasting other fighters (and further impressing your girlfriend by saying, "I can go all night"). It's also useful in providing an increased gun pool and manuverability.

[Edited by Nep Parth on 07-05-2001 at 16:02]
 
Originally posted by Raptor
Originally posted by Saturnyne
heh... the only thing is that you can't arm the Excal to full guns, or you'll only get two shots before your gun pool is empty. That would be a major disadvantage against the Nephilim,(...)

Huh? One of the advantages of the Excalibur is that massive gun pool that lets you fire several salvos. It's true that if you allow it to run down ito the red, then you have problems with recharge, but the Excal's gun reserve is more than enough if you're not trigger happy.

(...)

Best, Raptor

I agree with Nep, the biggest problem I had in completing SOPS in a Excalibur was that it's gun pool was rather small for my taste. But still bigger than the Shrike's
 
Oh, sorry, I was thinking of the WC3 Excalibur, not the SO fighters.

As for the cloak and MAM engines, I don't say that they have no value, just that the value they add is outweighed by their cost. Cloaking is of severly limited use against the Nephilim and the unlimite AB, while usefull, is hardly vital as every other fighter in the universe seems able to manage without it.

Best, Raptor
 
I'm sure Matter/Antimatter engines offer more than just the advantage of unlimited boosting. If that were the only advantage, I doubt even the Black Lance would've bothered spending money on them.
 
I personally love infinite boosting... and I like the idea of the Dragon... it doesn't need a cloaking device, but it does carry torps. At that, one could manuever quite easily through turret and missile fire while awaiting that ever-sought after target lock. I remember there's all of maybe one time that you fly a Vamp or a Panther that has a torp armament...

In any case, I like that idea better than flying a bomber. I always end up doing the clearing out of the fighter cover while everyone else does the bombing.

And if I remember, the Excal's gun pool empties after two shots at full guns...
 
Originally posted by Frosty
I'm sure Matter/Antimatter engines offer more than just the advantage of unlimited boosting. If that were the only advantage, I doubt even the Black Lance would've bothered spending money on them.

The Black Lance didn't spend *any* money on the Dragons. The Confed taxpayers did, they just didn't know it. :) The Dragon was designed to be the ultimate weapon for the Black Lancers, and they didn't bother cutting corners, as the black ops funding was there for the taking. The legitimate Confed military though, would have to work within a budget, and they couldn't simply demand "do everything really well no matter the cost" superships from the taxpayers.

Best, Raptor
 
The Lance was also the symbol of the Black Lance. I doubt that Confed taxpayers would want to have the symbol of an organization that killed its citizens in the military that protected the citizens.
 
I think the Dragon was an overkill.It was meant to be a reward for a player for doing so much missions (I'm not complaining about the number of missions!) against BL,and finally giving them the taste of their own medicine.It was tough fighting Dragons with a Banshee,it was frustrating sometimes and finally you get to do a little payback.YEEE-HAAAAA!!!!!
 
Anybody remember the Sabre.

It was a good fighter/bomber during Kilrathi war.
It could load torpedo, have rear turret, Afterburner.
 
I remember the Sabre rather well, as I am in the middle of playing WC2, right now. They're no match for a wing of Grikaths and a Ralatha, are they...

In any case, I figure the Dragon more evened the odds in WC4. Ever flown on Ace with missile after missile coming after you? You either need to always remember to cloak (which doesn't always work, because missiles creep up on you until you're fully cloaked), or you need something that can actually -take- a missile before being destroyed.
 
Yes, the ability to escape/survive missiles even when you run out of decoys (which can happen quite fast) was the main positive aspect about the Dragon in the game for me.

And who could forget the Sabre? :)
 
The borderworlds might have had Dragons/Lances, but I doubt they have the parts to keep them operational.
 
Originally posted by Saturnyne
heh... the only thing is that you can't arm the Excal to full guns, or you'll only get two shots before your gun pool is empty. That would be a major disadvantage against the Nephilim,(...)

A tip for using the Excal (in WC3 at least) is to turn OFF the Autotracking on your guns before engaging large/slow ships. With Autotracking on, the guns consume about 2-3 times the power of with them off. Against light fighters, the autotracking is great. Against heavies and capships, turn it off and you've got plenty of gun power to take them down.
 
Sabres...Dragons...Excalibers...

Know what I miss? the Banshee bomber. I could wipe out an entire system's worth of defenses with that sucker. She was strong and well-armed and just freaking cool! :D
 
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