Morningstar-First Superfighter?

Ptarmigan

Spaceman
I wonder if the Morningstar is the first superfighter in the Wing Commander universe? Before the Morningstar, I do not remember seeing any fighter classified as one, until it came along in SO2.
 
Well, you could consider the Rapier a superfighter as well, in a sense - it vastly outperformed all the other craft that came before it in the game, the same way the Morningstar or Excalibur did for most of the other fighters available prior to their arrival. They all represented the next big step in fighter technology, when they were delivered to the player's carrier; they all were fast, well-armed, and had manueverability and shields in generous proportions.

The Morningstar DID, at least to me, seem to be the first fighter that had a gimmick or 'special ability', with its Mace missile. The Excalibur carried on the tradition with its cloaking device, and the Dragon with its cloak and Flash-Paks.
 
you forgot the dragon's fission blasters.

the raptor might have been a superfighter of it's era to, considering the speed and firepower compared to the other craft during it's service.
 
The Morningstar project was experimental and later abandoned (Like Wraith etc).Excalibur was the late 60`s superfighter that Confed decided to produce.
 
Neither was abandoned -- we see that Morningstars are Confed's "premiere heavy fighter" in the Academy manual, and the Wraith appears in normal service in Wing Commander Armada.
 
as far as i know of, the morningstar's jump drive is thesame device as used in the rapiers in SM, no reason for it to fail.

the reason was as simply as staged by blair;

"I have a nuclear missile onboard my ship?"

a correct salvo at a morningstar would have it explode and probably die with a lot of fighters...
 
...then there would be the Twlight Purchase comm of many deaths as dozens of Confed and Kilrathi pilots scream at the top of their lungs for at least as long as half-a-second. :p
 
Mace said:
the reason was as simply as staged by blair;

"I have a nuclear missile onboard my ship?"

a correct salvo at a morningstar would have it explode and probably die with a lot of fighters...

The reason for what? Blair was surely exaggerating, as the torpedoes, ships' engines and other technologies equally rival or exceed the power output of a regular nuke. The missile obviously wasn't set to explode with the hit of a "correct salvo" either. It's clearly armed when it's fired, like current nuclear missiles today.
 
as far as i know of, the morningstar's jump drive is thesame device as used in the rapiers in SM, no reason for it to fail.

You don't know far enough, then -- the fact that the Morningstar used an experimental jump drive that was prone to failure was a major plot point in Special Operations 2.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
You don't know far enough, then -- the fact that the Morningstar used an experimental jump drive that was prone to failure was a major plot point in Special Operations 2.

I also don't recall any jump drives on Rapiers in SM1 - they either launched off the Johann/Gwenhyvar or else were leftovers from the ship's complement when we were attacked by them in SM1.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Neither was abandoned -- we see that Morningstars are Confed's "premiere heavy fighter" in the Academy manual, and the Wraith appears in normal service in Wing Commander Armada.

I rechecked it and you are right about the Morningstar.

About the Wraith in Armada I remember we discussed some time ago that TCS Lexington was full of expiriemental Fighters and technology and Confed used that Carrier to reach Kilrah.
Well at least that is my idea and point of view about the Lexington there is no actual senario in WCA so nobody can tell :p
 
I also don't recall any jump drives on Rapiers in SM1 - they either launched off the Johann/Gwenhyvar or else were leftovers from the ship's complement when we were attacked by them in SM1.

There were jump drives on Rapier IIs and Hornets (apparently) in a Super Wing Commander cut scene. I kind of doubt that's what the original poster is referring to, though.

Jump drives mounted on fighters aren't an unusual thing -- we see them on the aforementioned ships, on the original Rapier, on the Broadsword, etc... but we are specifically told that the Morningstar has a special, experimental and bug-ridden jump drive.

About the Wraith in Armada I remember we discussed some time ago that TCS Lexington was full of expiriemental Fighters and technology and Confed used that Carrier to reach Kilrah.
Well at least that is my idea and point of view about the Lexington there is no actual senario in WCA so nobody can tell


We're specifically told in the Gauntlet mode mission briefings that the fighter seen in Armada is "the production model of the Wraith, a medium fighter equipped with Leech missiles".
 
I think that the "experimental" part of the Morningstar jump drive is that it's very small -- compare the size of a Broadsword (jump capable) with everything else that you can fly in WC2. If nothing else, the Broadsword has enough room for 4 people, a cargo bay to hold ejected people and presumably some first aid equipment for them, etc. while the Morningstar is clearly a single-pilot fighter.
 
Well, quite a few of the other fighters we've mentioned in this thread -- Rapier, Rapier II, Hornet -- were also very small. In fact, we know there's a jump capable spit-and-glue version of the tiny Ferret.

Rather, the jump drive on the Morningstar probably has some other undefined characteristic -- perhaps it allows multiple jumps without refueling or allows the ship to jump silently (with no flash).
 
spiritplumber said:
... the Broadsword has enough room for 4 people, a cargo bay to hold ejected people and presumably some first aid equipment for them, etc. while the Morningstar is clearly a single-pilot fighter.
The broadsword is in fact closer to a corvette than a fighter in that regard, IMHO.
 
PopsiclePete said:
The broadsword is in fact closer to a corvette than a fighter in that regard, IMHO.

The broadsword was never meant to be a rather, it was built to be a bomber :)

Anyhow, why was the mace nuke never implemented any further, even though the Morningstar had some problem (junp drive? only if you're lucky) ?
 
Lazy Panda said:
Anyhow, why was the mace nuke never implemented any further, even though the Morningstar had some problem (junp drive? only if you're lucky) ?

Because you never captured the TCS Princeton in the Speradon System. :)
 
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