Well, I would design a fighter for the Prophecy era:
1. M/AM drive, for unlimited afterburn.
2. Space for *LOTS* of decoys. Preferably some inherent
ECM that would make it difficult to track even without
decoys. Perhaps a towed decoy as well.
3. 4 Tachyon cannons for weaponry (reliable, powerful,
technology well-understood). This would give the ship
quite a powerful punch against corvettes and below.
4. Supplemental weaponry: 2 light plasma weapons similar
to the ones used by the Nephilem. This would give us
a light weapon for use against maneuverable craft
and also give us a weapon that could penetrate phase
shielding.
5. Missile armament: At least 8 swarmers, preferably
an improved fire-and-forget model that can be fired
at longer range.
6. Secondary missile armament: IMRECs. Lots.
7. Best Shields money can buy.
8. SPEED! At least 1700 on afterburn, full military
of 600, and cruise of 400.
9. As much maneuverability as we can pack into the vessel
without compromising the above. With its heavy
armament, it will have a great deal of inertia, but
tricks such as vectored thrust can compensate for that
to some degree.
10. As much armor as we can get without compromising
maneuverability (not much, but I hope to depend
primarily on the shields).
Wish list:
1. Phase shields. If we can miniaturize M/AM drives,
how about phase shields as well? We would then be
invulnerable to anyone not carrying a plasma, antimatter
or Heavy Particle gun.
2. Cloaking device. Apparently the cloaks of WC4 time
frame are no longer effective. Be nice to get 'em
back.
3. Cloaked missiles (i.e. a "Skipper" IR -- let's see
'em dodge THAT).
4. Jamming field. Remember the jamming missions from
WC4? Wouldn't it be nice if, just before engaging the
bad guys, you could drop a mine that would begin
broadcasting a field like the one broadcast in WC4? It
would not, of course, affect our own fighters. But
all the bad guys just went blind and their missiles don't
work anymore. Their shields dropped, too. So what
if there ain't no honor in pokin' someone in the eye --
it's effective
.
Respectfully,
Brian P.