Scimitar Gripes

frostytheplebe

Seventh Part of the Seal
Unlike the other "gripes" i've done, this one is slightly different. Unlike the Epee, there is actual complaints about this fighter in-game... why? She's slightly slower then other fighters, but not by much, and we'll all fly things even slower then that! The weapons loadout is nothing to scoff at, and her shields and armor are top knotch! Plus the cockput LOOKS cool.

So why all the hatred?
 
Well, at the time, she WAS the slowest thing we could fly on Confed's side, and compared to the sleek and nimble Rapier, it just must've felt like a pig to the Confed pilots. Everything it could do, the Raptor did better, for instance -- more armor, maneuverability, speed, firepower... at least the Hornet had speed to commend it.
 
'Why' is easy in this case - the game *tells* you to. :) All the cool pilots put down the Scimitar, so you're expected to, too...

It's interesting to note that it gets worse as the game goes on - it's sort of an internal debate in WC1 alone which you can choose a side on (protection versus speed)... but by the addons the Scimitar is getting made fun of in general and used to 'punish' the player in the losing serieses.

Nevertheless, those of us who started with WC1 were pretty darned excited the first time we were promoted to the Blue Devils...
 
Scim was the second greatest ship in the game! Stable enough to let me fine tune my aim, the mass drivers could fire longer than any other ship's armaments besides the hornets and dral II... and it wouldn't fly into pieces like Dral II did in my hands. I'd take a scimitar over a hornet anyday, and I didn't mind that the guns fired longer than the raptor's. True, I couldn't ice a ship on the first pass within seconds, but that rarely happened anyways. I was good at tailing, and indeed I could.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the rapier even moreso- but when it came down to it, I wanted to scream at Halcyon for giving me the dralthi when we could've used scims.
 
... but by the addons the Scimitar is getting made fun of in general and used to 'punish' the player in the losing serieses.

IIRC, in SM1 (before the Dralthi 2) there are a few places were you are being sent to fly Scims because of "operational reasons" (shortage of spare parts for the other ships?) - essentially the programmers say to you "hey dude - we have 4 fighters, and we want you flying all of them"

I actually liked it :D
 
I didn't like the Scimitar that much, I was a Raptor fan, but I felt safer in it than in a Hornet, and since I like to shoot short distances I didn't care that the mass driver cannons have less range. They do a lot of damage, though, and consume less energy than the neutron guns.

It wasn't such a bad ship after all.

My brother loved the Scimitar, the raptor was too sluggish for him and had a bad view from the cockpit, the Hornet was armored too lightly, and the Rapier was too "fidgety" he said.
 
My one real Scimitar gripe - the armor/shield indicator doesn't tell you how much front or aft armor you still have left. Sometimes it's good to know that.

Other than that, I love the Scimitar and all of its shortcomings. Old, tough, long in the tooth - and still up for any challenge you'd care to throw its way.
 
I mostly liked flying the Scimitar more than the Hornet because shooting anything heavier than a Dralthi with 2 Lasers was annoying.
Just like Toast, I was a bit put off by the lack of an armour indicator.

But whenever I have to go against Salthis and especially against Bhurak Starkiller, I hated the Scimitar. I still have problems to nail all of them when escorting the Drayman. Often enough, they escape.
 
A little OT, but: I thought it added much atmosphere to WC1 that the Kilrathi (or somebody else) sometimes hit afterburners and tried to escape. They never did that in WC3 or later. I don't remember if they did it in WC2.
 
I agree with that, it added much. I think they still flee in WC 2 but since almost every Kilrathi ship is slower than the Terran one you're flying, they are rarely successful.

(Well, of course, there are missions in WC 4 and WCP where you have to stop fleeing fighters but it's scripted.)
 
It was my least favorite ship in WC1, but on the other hand, I did fly some of the most exciting missions in it.
For me, the scimitar had the record of most systems damaged or destroyed while still making it back to the claw.
I had (only once) 7 systems damaged or destroyed and both my mass drivers ripped off. still managed to complete the last part of the mission with my missiles & with some help of my wingman (couldn't turn off the eject alert at the end & my afterburner kept malfunctioning, because the ion drive was damaged ~~~)
Ah, great times. :cool:
After landing, the scimitar also had the most visual dmg, often looked like swiss cheese.
 
The old trusty Scim...
You know - I was expecting for "Scim gripes" to show up - to have a pleasure of defending my favourite fighter.
You people say: "raptor's better". I would agree, but raptor is far mo expensive.
You people say:"raptor has more firepower". Agreed, again. But Scim's mass drivers are effective enough with their refire speed.
You people say:"she's ugly slow". Well, I say - she is not! She's stable, she's armored, she's shielded... And in meny situations when Raptor pilot would act arrogantly and die, Scim would allow you to accomplish mission and return alive.

I would agree that Scimitar rarely gets out of dogfight without damage. But unlike those Krants which were so eager to hunt me down - my Scim did make it back. Always.

So... my opinion of Scimitar - she is really trusty. She is the ship which radiates stability. IMHO :)
 
For me, the scimitar had the record of most systems damaged or destroyed while still making it back to the claw.
I had (only once) 7 systems damaged or destroyed and both my mass drivers ripped off. still managed to complete the last part of the mission with my missiles & with some help of my wingman (couldn't turn off the eject alert at the end & my afterburner kept malfunctioning, because the ion drive was damaged ~~~)

I'd argue that this is a positive - the Scimitar can take a lot of damage and go on fighting, while some of the other ships blow up early on. It's the Hurricane to the Rapier II's Spitfire.
 
The reason of Scimitar returning WITH numerous scratches is simple. The mass drivers' range. You can't expect that frontal approach in Scim would be a "clear victory" when dealing with Krants and Salthis. The will start shooting long before your cannons will be in range. But... it it THAT bad? It's a matter of style. Every ship needs a special style.

A Hornet needs a 'dance & dance' style, and I didn't hear much complains that it can't blow a gratha with a couple of shots. Somehow you people do understand that 'punch close, punch hard' is not a Hornet's role.

Raptor is a ship for a fast frontal attack. You approach on burners, and give the target a couple of her four-cannon salvos. Voila! And again, I didn't hear someone complaining that she's not as agile as Hornet.

Now, the Scim. She needs her own style, too. Iceman's insults for her are just subjective points of view. "Burn to target" - is a style too. You burn, you turn, and have a 'kick-kick-kick-kick-kerblam!' on you target. Just don't make a frontal attack, but hit the enemy from flanks instead. In this case Scim would be VERY EFFECTIVE kitty killer. Of that I am sure.

And if you have learned the only 'trick' - wait till he's in range, than fire 'head-to-head' ... Why complain that the ship can't perform too good when she's used not in her natural way of doing things?
 
Good to see people defending the scimitar. Like LOAF, I was very happy to move up to the scimitar. I tend to get in close and hose down a target, which explains my affinity for the scimitar and ferret.

I didn't understand all the hate for the scimitar, but then again, I didn't get the hate for Knight, so what do I know?

People like to brag about dancing around their enemy, but I found it a lot more satisfying to tear apart an enemy fighter on the first pass.
 
I didn't understand all the hate for the scimitar, but then again, I didn't get the hate for Knight, so what do I know?

Minorities have never fared well in Wing Commander... sure, our fighter squadrons are diverse, but it's always the two white guys who end up surviving. :)
 
I'd dare say that in my simulator runs in 'Unknown Enemy' my Scim records of 'Gauntlet' are much better than any others. Well, maybe, Gratha records are sometimes better.

Avenger is a real 'mud pig', Banshee's too weak to be a quick killer. Epee (while BW version is much better than then original one) is too fragile, and the Scim - is a ship of the day...
 
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