Piranha... bites!

[MjavTheGray]

Looking all over the threads about the different fighters I just miss my fav: the F-106A...

This was the fighter I'm looking for since the time of the old Ferret from WC2! No massive weapons, no super shields - but a fast, nimble and great looking vessel...

Deacan

I disagree strongly!
Ferret DID have a super-weapon, her mass-drivers were very effective Grikath-killers. And while the shields were never that strong, the ship itself had a very high endurance. So comparing Pirahna to Ferret is wrong. Whatever nimble and fast is Pitrahna, she can not kill anyone stronger than Moray (and even this is difficult task for her). And look at Ferrets in UE? They blow up Mantas without problems!

I do not say Pirahna is bad. She's a good scout. But she's not made for a fight, you can fly with cannons offline, it would make no difference. She would sneak and see, than run and report - that's her primary goal.

Ferret's quite the opposite task - Ferret the enemy, and engage them, hold the line till the reinforcements arrive. And it is quite possible that the reinforcements would be late - the enemy can be dead by the hands of Ferret pilot by the time they mamage to get there...

 

[Lt.Overload]

The original Piranha was a good first mission ship, and that's it. After that, I fitted it with 2 techyons instead of ions. Added armor and speed by about 100 each. Also added 2 Pike T's and 10 Anti-Raditions. Making it a Turrent and Component killer. I called it the G-217B SaberTooth.

 

[ChrisReid]

I disagree strongly!
Ferret DID have a super-weapon, her mass-drivers were very effective Grikath-killers. And while the shields were never that strong, the ship itself had a very high endurance. So comparing Pirahna to Ferret is wrong. Whatever nimble and fast is Pitrahna, she can not kill anyone stronger than Moray (and even this is difficult task for her).

Did you never launch a missile when flying one? The Piranha definitely has a heavier ordnance loadout.

And look at Ferrets in UE? They blow up Mantas without problems!

Fan mods don't really tell you anything. Someone could release one tomorrow that has Piranhas which easily kill Devil Rays.

I do not say Pirahna is bad. She's a good scout. But she's not made for a fight, you can fly with cannons offline, it would make no difference. She would sneak and see, than run and report - that's her primary goal.

Ferret's quite the opposite task - Ferret the enemy, and engage them, hold the line till the reinforcements arrive.

Destroying Grikaths certainly isn't the primary goal of the Ferret. The ship is used for patrol, escort, courier duty and recon. Both the Ferret and Piranha have very similar roles.

 

[MjavTheGray]

Destroying Grikaths certainly isn't the primary goal of the Ferret. The ship is used for patrol, escort, courier duty and recon. Both the Ferret and Piranha have very similar roles.

Agreed. The scout who engages three Fralthis with a Hornet is a madman or Christopher Blair (which is the same in some way ), and that madman very soon is a vapor in a space.

But Ferret *is capable* of dispatching enemy even without missiles, while Pirahna - isn't much of use once her missile loadout is gone.

Summary:
Pirahna is a pure SCOUT. Nothing more.
Ferret is a PATROL CRAFT. She can be used for scouting, but she can fight back. And she's the best (and maybe the only good) craft in WC-II

 

[Deacan]

Looking all over most posts here, there is a strange thing in the air: didn't they say that they start to replace the older fighters with the Piranha?

Far more interesting: we only used this ship in two missions... can we really call it just a scout?

Deacan

PS: I played with it in the sim aboard the Midway and... well, the experience wasn't that bad.
I think its a question of tactics. If you're just a pilot looking for kills on your scoreboard, thats not a craft for you. But think twice, using a couple of this fighters, teaming up...

 

[MannPower]

Ferret is a PATROL CRAFT. She can be used for scouting, but she can fight back. And she's the best (and maybe the only good) craft in WC-II

I was pretty partial to the Saber in WC2 over the Ferret, but that's all flying style and personal preference. In fact, it's been years since I played WC2 far enough to hop into a Saber, so my opinion may have changed.

Still, I'll take the Ferr's twin drivers any day. I didn't have much trouble outmaneuvering ships in WCP - especially with the Pirahna - and I'd imagine it'd be just as easy in a Ferret.

 

[Mancubus]

The problem with piranha is that it is so much less than Wc3 Arrow. I mean I know that Arrow was REALY overpoweerd (it certainly felt that way), but piranha - it has less main guns, less missiles, and is slower. The stormfire is great, but it just cannot compensate these drawbacs.

Generally, having a scout that is slower than havier, better armed craft (I.E. Arrow, Vampire) is somewhat strange.

Don't forget that the reconaissance Excalibur that Major Washington flew into Kilrah only had lasers - no missiles or other weapons.

agreed, but don't forget, that Excalibur had her shields only slightly weaker than a bomber. also, as she went at 500kps with full armament, she would easily do atl least 550 without it

 

[Vinman]

Generally, having a scout that is slower than havier, better armed craft (I.E. Arrow, Vampire) is somewhat strange.

My guess is that it ties into the cost-cutting of the era.

 

[Haesslich]

My guess is that it ties into the cost-cutting of the era.

Or else it just had better range than the Vampire and Arrow Interceptors, which meant it could fly long patrols whereas the latter two would have to be kept fairly close to home-base, lest they run out of O2 or other essentials for the pilot. Or else they were easier to maintain, which would mean they could be run on longer duty rotations before being taken apart for their several-hundred-hour refitting-and-overhaul.

Edit: On page 203 of Fleet Action, Doomsday mentions the following after Bondarevsky asks him about the fighter status on their escape from Kilrathi space:

Doomsday gave his usual glum look.

"Enough for one more strike, sir. Eight torpedoes are all we have left for ship busters. The fighters will have to sortie with half standard missile and mass driver round bolts."

Given that the Tarawa's fighter at the time complement consisted of four fighters, prior to Normandy's being blown to pieces and their recovering the surviving craft, only Broadswords and Sabers along with Ferrets would've used mass drivers... and none of them had turrets which used mass drivers. Thus, at least on the surface, it appears that the mass drivers that the fighters used, at least for Confed strikecraft, needed actual ammunition and the electromagnetic coils or rails that launched them sucked power from the gun capacitors for the fighter... which the Stormfire weapons didn't seem to need, albeit at the expense of range and limited munition capacity.

 

[Vinman]

Now that I think of it, I don't think that the arrow from WC3 was a scout in the first place, more of a point defense fighter, so the range bit would make sense. The scout variant just has the two lasers and a pair of darts.

 

[Haesslich]

Now that I think of it, I don't think that the arrow from WC3 was a scout in the first place, more of a point defense fighter, so the range bit would make sense. The scout variant just has the two lasers and a pair of darts.

That's the reason I love the Star*Soldier manual - it actually shows the same fighter... but with its variants, so the changes from the WC3 Arrow to the WC4 Arrow actually make sense in context, and show why one was so heavily armed compared to another; they were the same family of fighter, but weren't the same MODEL, and thus had different missions, like the F-35 variants (one's a STOVL, one's a standard interceptor like the F-16, a third is basically a carrier-launch version with larger wings that fold).