Firekkan Concept Fighter design

[Lynx]

I don't like it. It looks too much like a bird. I never like it when starships resemble an animal; just look at those fugly Brit ships in Freelancer, they look like some kind of fucking insect.
And it's also too smooth. If they Firekkans would ever build their own ships, they'd be kind of low-tech since they have almost no infrastructure, so it'd probably look edgy and simple.

 

[MaHeSw]

And it's also too smooth. If they Firekkans would ever build their own ships, they'd be kind of low-tech since they have almost no infrastructure, so it'd probably look edgy and simple.

Unless the confederation gave them a helping hand that is. They where allies for a while and I can't see why confed wouldn't give them some technology.

 

[Eder]

I don't like it. It looks too much like a bird.

I agree that it's too bird-like... that's too "in-your-face" a reference for me, it kinda puts me off the whole thing. I'd go "Oh, right, Firekkans are BIRDS! Good thinking, man!" whenever I saw it in a game.

If they Firekkans would ever build their own ships, they'd be kind of low-tech since they have almost no infrastructure, so it'd probably look edgy and simple.

Edgy and simple... man, let go of your WC3 addiction.

If EA only had kept working on WC for another year or two, the Firekkan ships we see in the WCO sketches might have been truly canon (as opposed to "unreleased canon"), but they're still the closest thing to a Firekkan ship we've ever seen.

They kinda followed the same basic principles that Vermin used in his model, except without blowing them out of proportion: they had long and thin wings, sleek noses/cockpits which resembled beaks in shape, minimalistic engines, a fragile look overall, and reasonably simple layouts that subtly resembled birds (small body with internal engines + 2 or 3 big wings).

Granted, WCO would take place a few decades after Confed's first contact with the Firekkans, but I think that due to their nature and lack of technical prowess in the field it's reasonable to believe there wouldn't have been any major advances in Firekkan spaceship design from, say, 2660 to 2680. They'd probably get technology from Confed (at least for the duration of their affiliation to Confed), but I don't think their design philosophies would evolve much.

IMHO Vermin started from a very good concept but just got a bit carried away.

 

[Lynx]

Edgy and simple... man, let go of your WC3 addiction.

Actually I'm a WC1 guy...and the WC3 ships look edgy but advanced .

 

[rapierdragon]

Not bad a design.

As to the cockpit view / HUD's, they'd probably be more like the typical kilrathi design than the terran design (by this I mean the bulk of the display info would be at the top of the screen rather than the bottom... remember, like the cat's their beak blocks off part of their view, so sticking a radar or shield-strength indicator in the bottom-center of the screen would be like putting it in the pilot's personal blind-spot.)

atypical Terran type HUD vs atypical Kilrathi HUD
+-------------------------------++-------------------------------+
|.................................| |..+--+........=.......+--+..|
|................\/...............| |..+=+...-----------...+=+..|
|................/\...............| |................\/...............|
|..+=+...-----------...+=+..| |................/\...............|
|..+--+........=.......+--+..| |.................................|
+-------------------------------++-------------------------------+
(left and right huds with gun-power in middle and jump/auto/eject lights in middle and target in nearly the exact center of the screen)
(kilrathi designs seen in wc-armada looked kind of roughly upside down)

If you're familiar with that quicktime program that lets you create a 3d-like left/right scrolling screen, I'd say the Firekkan cockpit would be kind of horizontally stretched. HUDS would be at the top of the screen and right at the left and right edge of the screen. Gun-power, auto, eject, and lock-on lights/indicators would run along the leading edge. If a human sat in a Firekkan cockpit they might actually see two targeting reticules (or two half-reticules a few inches apart, depending on how a Firekkan HUD would function to compensate for their vision, and the human would only see about 1/2 or 1/3 the HUD. So while a Firekkan saw something like the above Kilrathi HUD, a human would see something like what's below)
+-------------------------------+
|.../..//.................\\..\...|
|.././/.....................\\.\..|
|/.//.........\..../.............\|
|............./....\..............|
|.................................|
+-------------------------------+

 

[Fatcat]

Here is my suggestion for the cockpit: there should be quad flightsticks. The Firekkans obviously have prehensile legs, and would use them for balance in flight, and I think that it would be easier on the pilot, with foot "perches" that control rolling or pitching. Notice in Wc3 that there is a Flightstick and a handle/pad used for the throttle.

 

[McGruff]

The Firekkans are still stuck back in the 25th century.

 

[Mjr. Whoopass]

The windshield reminds me of a jet airliner- which I think is cool. I liked this because it could be a 2 or even 3 man (bird?) fighter like the old BSG series cylon ship, the last starfighter ship, the Laserhawk, etc.. The Firekkan culture seems to revolve around flocks, so maybe this concept could fit in with their culture- members of the same flock could occupy the ship. It could fill a gap between Corvettes and heavy fighters. This would make sense economically because the Firekkans would be more likely to purchase their cap ships from confed than build their own massive shipyards, since their resources are more limited. This could be their makeshift defense against enemy capships. This kind of ship would've been fun to take on- it could have extremely heavy firepower, but be slower and vulnerable to missiles. Attacking it head-on could be suicidal, and attacking it without missiles could be prohibitively dangerous for all but the most skilled fighters. It also would've been fun to rendezvous with it on a mission. It could fire seemingly endless missiles at the enemy fighters or could be sent after a capship while you kept the enemy fighters off its back. I agree with some posters that it looks a little TOO bird-like. I would prefer it without the feathers and landing gear talons.

 

[Lazy Panda]

Well, that design looks pretty cool, but I really find the Raptor-ish wings on the side quite big for a light fighter.