The Ultimate Fighter Review

F

Fatcat

Swabbie
Banned
What does everyone think about the following fighters? I'd like to hear what other WC fans have to say (Ratings out of 5, 5 being the best):

Wc2:
Ferret: The best fighter of Wc2. It's quick, highly maneuverable, and has really fast firing Mass Drivers. Had no problem taking on multiple heavy fighters at once. 4/5

Epee: Severely Disappointing. It had great firepower, but had the most obtrusive data screens ever. Made flying it almost impossible. 3/5

Rapier: I don't care what anyone says: This is the worst fighter ever . Period. It had a decent armament, but for the love of god, the cockpit window! It was like flying combat with the Spirit of St. Louis. 1/5

Sabre: The best all-around fighter, very good cockpit window, good armament. 4/5

Broadsword: My favorite fighter next to the Excalibur and Dragon. It's definitely the coolest looking fighter, plus the triple turrets made it easy to defend. 5/5

Wc3:
Arrow: The most deadly ship ever next to the Excalibur. The lasers fired and regenerates so fast, they never stop firing. I could take out multiple capships just by flying right up to their engines or into their flight decks with this thing. 5/5

Hellcat: Mediocre. Not very fast, not very well armed, not very maneuverable. All around suck. 3/5

Thunderbolt: A little bit to slow, but a killer in a dogfight. Really good against capships. 4/5

Longbow: Very cool design, way to slow. Brutal against capships, and even in dogfights. 4/5

Excalibur: The best fighter ever. Nothing can touch its speed or firepower. 5/5

Wc4:
Banshee: Very good speed and weapons, a little thin-skinned though. 4/5

Vindicator: Best BW ship ever. Pretty fast with good front guns, a turret, and torpedoes. 4/5

Avenger: Total bucket. Bad front guns, slow as molasses. Wouldn't fly it unless I had to. 3/5

Dragon: The thing that should not be. Firepower rivaling the Excalibur, with a full cloaking device and Flashpaks. Deadly. 5/5

Prophecy:
Piranha: Pretty good speed, terrible on the offensive. After the stormfires gone, it's useless. 3/5

Tigershark: Decent speed and weapons, the only thing that made it really good was the Charging Mass Drivers.

Panther: Very good fighter with powerful front guns. Very good overall 4/5

Vampire: Incredible firepower an manuverablility. Best in non-Secret ops Prophecy. 5/5

Shrike: The bombers got worse from Wc4 to Prophecy. These things have good armaments, but are slow and under-armored.

Devastator: My least favorite fighter next to the Rapier. Soooooooo slow. One really inaccurate gun + brick = Devastator. 2/5
 
Fatcat said:
What does everyone think about the following fighters? I'd like to hear what other WC fans have to say (Ratings out of 5, 5 being the best):

Wc2:
Ferret: The best fighter of Wc2. It's quick, highly maneuverable, and has really fast firing Mass Drivers. Had no problem taking on multiple heavy fighters at once. 4/5

Epee: Severely Disappointing. It had great firepower, but had the most obtrusive data screens ever. Made flying it almost impossible. 3/5

Rapier: I don't care what anyone says: This is the worst fighter ever . Period. It had a decent armament, but for the love of god, the cockpit window! It was like flying combat with the Spirit of St. Louis. 1/5

Sabre: The best all-around fighter, very good cockpit window, good armament. 4/5

Broadsword: My favorite fighter next to the Excalibur and Dragon. It's definitely the coolest looking fighter, plus the triple turrets made it easy to defend. 5/5

Wc3:
Arrow: The most deadly ship ever next to the Excalibur. The lasers fired and regenerates so fast, they never stop firing. I could take out multiple capships just by flying right up to their engines or into their flight decks with this thing. 5/5

Hellcat: Mediocre. Not very fast, not very well armed, not very maneuverable. All around suck. 3/5

Thunderbolt: A little bit to slow, but a killer in a dogfight. Really good against capships. 4/5

Longbow: Very cool design, way to slow. Brutal against capships, and even in dogfights. 4/5

Excalibur: The best fighter ever. Nothing can touch its speed or firepower. 5/5

Wc4:
Banshee: Very good speed and weapons, a little thin-skinned though. 4/5

Vindicator: Best BW ship ever. Pretty fast with good front guns, a turret, and torpedoes. 4/5

Avenger: Total bucket. Bad front guns, slow as molasses. Wouldn't fly it unless I had to. 3/5

Dragon: The thing that should not be. Firepower rivaling the Excalibur, with a full cloaking device and Flashpaks. Deadly. 5/5

Prophecy:
Piranha: Pretty good speed, terrible on the offensive. After the stormfires gone, it's useless. 3/5

Tigershark: Decent speed and weapons, the only thing that made it really good was the Charging Mass Drivers.

Panther: Very good fighter with powerful front guns. Very good overall 4/5

Vampire: Incredible firepower an manuverablility. Best in non-Secret ops Prophecy. 5/5

Shrike: The bombers got worse from Wc4 to Prophecy. These things have good armaments, but are slow and under-armored.

Devastator: My least favorite fighter next to the Rapier. Soooooooo slow. One really inaccurate gun + brick = Devastator. 2/5
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Hmmm well I acually agree with a lot of your rating but heres some of mine that I see diffrently IMO.
I dunno why I gave the Arrow a lower rating and the Devestator a higher one, but that's how I allways felt about them.

Epee 2/5
Rapier 4/5 (Even though the window thing never really bothered me, I'd give it a 5/5 if it had a better one.)
Arrow 3/5
Hellcat 2/5 (Believe it or not, I think I'd rather fly a Epee then a Hellcat :( )
Devastator 3/5
 
i really don't like rating ships. none of them are perfect, they all have shortcomings, and they are all designed for a specific purpose.
 
d3r3k said:
i really don't like rating ships. none of them are perfect, they all have shortcomings, and they are all designed for a specific purpose.
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True, but basicly I think Fatcat is just wondering what are favorites are.
 
Regardless of what everyone says: I liked the Epee, it made me feel like I was flying an important mission. The torpedo it was equipped with was pretty cool for a light fighter.
 
What the hell? In Prophecy Gold none of the stormfires have crosshairs, I have to fire a few shots to "zero" it in my head. Is there a patch or anything that will add crosshairs to this awesome weapon?
 
i really don't like rating ships. none of them are perfect, they all have shortcomings, and they are all designed for a specific purpose.
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Well, the Excalibur (and the Dragon to a lesser extent) was perfect. There was not a single flaw in my mind with the Excalibur from Wc3.
 
Fatcat said:
Well, the Excalibur (and the Dragon to a lesser extent) was perfect. There was not a single flaw in my mind with the Excalibur from Wc3.
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IMO, you sould of made the thread about rating your favorite fighters besides Excalibur and Dragon. It's no suprise that those fighters are gonna get the highest ratings. Especually sense everyone seems to love the Dragon.
 
WC1:
Hornet; light, manouverable, enough offense en defense to keep yourself alive, very good for patrols. 3/5

Scimitar; more powerfull guns and armarments didn't make up for the lack of speed and manouverability when compared to the arrow 2/5

Rapier: very, very fast and manouverable, more than needed actually, and good weapons, i'd call it a hornet on steroids. 4/5

Raptor: powerfull, fast and manouverable enough for dogfighting balanced shield and armor 5/5

Wc2:
Ferret: fun to fly, but nog enough firepower. good against a slower, less manouverable fighter 3/5

Epee: the armarment made you forget you were flying a light fighter. however when your shields take some hits you'll remember. 2/5

Rapier: balanced fighter, lacked in every way, just too slow/less armored/less armed 3/5

Sabre: gave you the feel you could take the entire kilrathi fleet on... 5/5

Crossbow: in the final mission of wc2 you could refit your sabre with torpedoes,
so this ship is completely useless 2/5

Broadsword: not my favorite, massive firepower though.. 3/5

Morningstar: handeld like a dream, incredible firepower 5/5

Wc3:
Arrow: fantastic fighter in every way 5/5

Hellcat: good fighter, nothing special 3/5

Thunderbolt: good strike fighter, needed more torpedoes though. 4/5

Longbow: excellent bomber. 4/5

Excalibur: excellent all-round fighter, too good to be true 5/5

Wc4:
Banshee: all power to the shields, switch guns to stormfires and it can take down almost everything 5/5

Vindicator: good fighter, but so ugly 4/5

Avenger: enough firepower, not very manouverable though 3/5

Dragon: this really is my personal fav. 5/5

Prophecy:
Piranha: good for patrols, handles like a dream 4/5

Tigershark: looked like a revamped vindicator, flew descently 3/5

Panther: excellent, especially the awesome move with those engines 5/5

Vampire: made it too easy 4/5

Shrike: fighter-bomber? for a solo strike this would be a nice one 3/5

Devastator: a dedicated bomber, i don't like bombers, handles like a tractor 2/5
 
WC1:

Hornet - Fast, manueverable, actually preferred using this thing to take out capships. Two lasers is a little light and speed/manueverability aside, it took a long time to take out a wing of gratha. 3/5

Scimitar - A little slow, but didn't really matter so much in WC1 it seemed. Not so manueverable but again didn't seem to matter much. Mass drivers were nice and dished out decent damage. Average armor. 3/5

Rapier - I hated this ship. Any mission where I had to fly a Rapier, I think I'd have preferred a Raptor. Great shields, but no armor. Weapons were OK, but not dazzling. Over-rated in my opinion. 2/5

Raptor - Again I say, manueverability wasn't such an issue in WC1. Speed was good. Gun loadout was awesome. Go full guns and make your shots count, or switch to mass drivers and lay into your target. Good missile armament, actually made good use of that mine every once in a while too. 5/5

Wc2: Havn't played it yet.


Wc3: Havn't played it yet.


Wc4:

Banshee - Say what you will about lasers, four fast firing ones could dish it out. Very nimble, very quick. So long as you didn't fly straight, the enemy couldn't touch you. 5/5

Vindicator - Not bad, but a little slow. Decent guns. Didn't seem that they had a real role in mind when they designed this thing. Definately better for atmosphere missions than the Hellcat. 3/5

Avenger - did it's job pretty well. Front guns were nothing special. That is until you switched over to the dual stormfires, Yowsa! Could take a beating and deliver torps with ease. Handled poorly, but didn't seem to handle like a bomber, if that makes sense? Best bomber I've flown thus far. 4/5

Dragon - I wish it was a little more nimble, but it was nimble enough. Charging fission cannon was a dream come true. Tachyons and Plasmas were nothing to scoff at though. Strap on some torpedoes and this became my favorite "Who knows what you'll find out there" fighter. 5/5

Bearcat - This thng flew like a dream and had a killer armament to match. Could outrun anything, not that you ever needed to. Small, nimble, fast. I wish I got to fly it more. 5/5

Hellcat - This ship seemed too generic. It did it's job so i'll give it that, but nothing special to set it apart for me. 2/5

Longbow - Loaded with torps and oodles of missiles. Handled like a pig. Did a great job as a bomber, but as a dogfighter I'm glad it had lots of missiles. 2/5

Prophecy: I'm gonna leave out Secret Ops ships, of course they're good.

Piranha - My favorite ship in the game. She was fast, she was nimble, and she had a stormfire cannon =) Not terribly heavy on missiles but was quick and manueverable enough to wittle down the toughest of opponents, even when greatly outnumbered. 5/5

Tigershark - Hated this thing. Felt just like a Hellcat and if it wasn't for the charging mass driver would've gotten the same grade. Was pretty much average except for having the slowest afterburn speed of any of the fighters. 2.5/5

Panther - Guns were alright, pretty manueverable, and that nacelle made it almost too easy to juke away from laser fire and spoof missiles. 4/5

Vampire - Basically just an upgraded Panther in my opinion. The guns were outstanding and made the killing go fast. Great pitch and Roll, but never really like flying it as much as a Panther or Piranha. 3/5

Shrike - Was OK as far as bombers go. If your going to take away my manueverability and speed just go all-out and give me a devastator. Charging mass drivers were nice though. 2/5

Devastator - I feel so stifled in the manueverability department in a bomber that a further downgrade doesn't bother me too much. Loved nailing fighters with that plasma cannon though so never really tried the stormfire. Had enough torpedoes to do the job and leave you some to spare.
3/5
 
Shooting from the hip

WC1: Overall, nice selection of ships for a nice selection of roles. Not spectacular, but definately nice. 3/5

Hornet: I'm naturally a huge fan of the smaller, faster craft, but the offensive armaments really were quite bad. Still, it was fun to fly and kept you out of trouble if you knew what you were doing. 3/5

Scimitar: Hated it. Absolutely. Too slow, too sluggish and you flew with Paladin, whom I did not much care for. 1/5

Raptor: Chicken anyone? Nose to nose, maybe one of the better WC ships ever. A very effective fighter in any role, high marks. 4/5

Rapier: Glimpses of the excellent craft it would become. Strong weapons loadout. Nice missile selection. Sweet handling. 4/5

WC2: An excellent game. I enjoyed how crafts were developed for and reflected specific purposes, the Broadsword especially. 4/5.

Ferret: Light and fast. Deadly if used correctly and in situations involving small numbers of craft. Lack of missiles really crippled the ship in escort situations and when a quick kill was needed. 3/5

Epee: I always feel self-conscious, but I absolutely loved this bird. A Ferret with particle cannons and a missile loadout. Throw in the torpedo capability and I'm disappointed I never got to try dodging Fralthi flak in one of the birds. The armor keeps it from being perfect. 4/5

Rapier: A more mature version of its predecessor. I liked the more balanced weapons loadout, lasers and PCs. A very nice dog-fighting craft, plus you get to fly it twice. 3/5

Sabre: A true all-purpose fighter. The type of ship that swaggers into a nav point, drops the escort in a furball and then ices the carrier just for kicks. Shields are a bit thin, but they recharge quickly. The turret is just icing on the cake. 5/5

Broadsword: I'm a light fighter guy, so that I can stand the B-sword at all is high praise. I liked the craft. Exceptionally capable in its role. Takes a licking and is absolutely deadly to Kilrathi capships. The turrets make it a very tough kill as well. 4/5.

Crossbow: Why not just fly a Broadsword? Limited visibility, fewer turrets and a lack of significant improvements make this craft nice, but not necessary. 2/5.

Morningstar: The mace missile is just flat out fun. The three particle cannons are just flat out nasty. 4/5.

WC3: Not the strongest game for ship types, in my mind. Fair designs all, but even the Excalibur falls a bit short. Ships seem to fit the idea that Confed is starting to lose a grip on the war effort. 2/5.

Arrow: Fast, loved the lasers. Link-firing dumbfires from all 4 hardpoints make the ship even a passable capship killer. My hands-down favorite in the game. 4/5

Hellcat: An average, forgettable craft. No major flaws, but nothing special either. More effective craft are available in the Thunderbolt or Arrow. 1/5.

Thunderbolt: Slow. Gun wagon, almost as bad as the Longbow. Not much fun to fly, but reminded me of the Raptor. Just go head to head, rinse, repeat. Torp is a nice touch. 2/5.

Longbow: I hate this ship. I really do. I would have given 0/5, but it is spaceworthy, and that's something. 1/5.

Excalibur: I might be crazy, but I actually really didn't like the autotracking guns. They missed. Still, the tachyon guns were deadly, the speed was nice, and there were a decent number of missiles. A strong craft definately, almost as much fun as the Arrow. 4/5.

WC4: A nice variety of selectable ship types, if you pick the right missions to fly. Nice selection of mission types encourages experimentation in different craft. 4/5.

Arrow: same as in WC3. 4/5.

Hellcat: same as in WC3. 1/5.

Longbow: Better due to the separation of the torpedo hardpoints (you can fire all 4 at once, instead of just three) but still worthless. 1/5.

Banshee: I loved this ship. Flat out fun to fly. The lasers were vicious, once you had the target between the crosshairs, you could pummel it to death. Nice missile loadout as well. Great dogfighter. 4/5.

Vindicator: If you absolutely had to have a craft between the Avenger and Banshee, I guess the Vindicator was alright. Personally, I never really found a strong use for it. 2/5.

Avenger: Not as bad as the Longbow, but still kinda crappy. The stormfire at least made things fun. I am and remain, not a bomber guy. 2/5.

Bearcat: Hey I have an idea, let's make an Excalibur smaller, faster and quicker, but let's keep the tachyon guns. This ship ate anything and everything. Minus the cloaking device, superior even to the Dragon. 5/5.

Dragon: I didn't like it. It was cool, but not cool enough to justify the rep. I'd rather fly other craft, unless cloaking was absolutely necessary. 2/5.

Prophecy: Back to WC basics. Strong craft with strongly defined roles. I also liked standard loadouts and assignments by squadron, not pilot selection. 5/5.

Piranha: Deadly. Fast enough to get on an enemies tale, quick enough to stay there. Had a little trouble with overwhelming numbers, but definately capable of holding its own, and then some. The stormfire helps here as well. This or the Sabre is my absolute favorite WC craft. 4/5.

Tigershark: Why not fly a Piranha or a Panther? Not a substantial enough craft in its own right. I missed the Piranha and was impatient for the Panther. 1/5.

Wasp: The idea behind this craft is cool. Great missile loadout, and the booster puts needed clicks between the Midway and aggressors. Quick, nimble, has a job and does it effectively. 4/5.

Shrike: Reminded me of the Broadsword. Nice loadout, nice design, not an effective dogfighter, but that's why you have escorts. Quick strikes over sustained assault. 3/5.

Panther: Very nice space superiority craft. Great guns, nice missile loadout. A very capable craft overall. 4/5.

Vampire: This craft just wasn't fair. Not a thing in the universe is a ship-to-ship match for the Vampire. Too fast, too strong, too bad I'm already behind you. 5/5.

Devastator: Bleh. Slow. Still, a regular corvette. Takes a pounding and gets the job done, end of story. I don't care how big your ship is. 4/5.

Privateer: not as much space here due to the modular nature of the craft. 3/5.
Taursus: You fly it because you have to. 1/5.
Orion: I loved keeping a lower level shield on this craft and amping the engines. Sure they were a bit thin, but they'd regenerate between laser-bolts. Also, nice heavy gun-loadout. 4/5.

Galaxy: Nope, didn't need it, didn't fly it. 1/5.

Centurion: The last ship you need to buy. Fun to fly, not fun to fight, I'd imagine. 4/5.
 
FrostyNSO said:
What the hell? In Prophecy Gold none of the stormfires have crosshairs, I have to fire a few shots to "zero" it in my head. Is there a patch or anything that will add crosshairs to this awesome weapon?
Click to expand...

Only a few shots is pretty good considering how fast the Stormfire fires.
 
I've cut this short to just WC1 and WC2, and they're listed in the order in which I played them.

Wing Commander 2
I've never really liked the Ferret, but it's undeniably powerful. Excellent speed and maneuverability, excellent firepower, and excellent shield recharge rate. It's fast enough to rarely take a hit, and if it does take a hit it'll recover extremely quickly. What I dislike about it is the single MFD, the lack of ITTS and I don't feel quite comfortable with such thin shielding. It just takes on accidental collision and you're history.

The Epee bothers me. It has all of the weaknesses of the Ferret but none of the advantages. I've always found it very hard to hit things with the particle cannon since they're chin mounted instead of wing mounted (they also seem to be auto-focusing and this does more harm than good most of the time). The shields aren't quite thick enough to be reliable, yet they still take a fair amount of time to recharge. It's got missiles, but they're heatseekers. Basically, the Epee is more trouble than it's worth.

I quite like the Rapier. It's got possibly the best cannon configuration, making it very easy to hit with the full load. It's not without its quirks (no ITTS, low visibility cockpit, slow charging shields) but these are tolerable tradeoffs for the excellent gun config, missile loadout and shield thickness. A very adequate fighter, if the mission isn't too demanding.

The Sabre is probably my favourite fighter although that's because I like a challenge. There are two principle failings of the Sabre that you have to constantly compensate for and the ship is only highly effective if you can overcome them. First: the cannon are spaced out a bit too far apart to make hitting targets easy, meaning you have to be dead on hit with the full load. That's not quite so bad for fighting most Kilrathi craft because most of them have wide profiles if engaged from the right angle but it's a pain in the arse when dogfighting Terran craft such as the Epee and Ferret, which have slim profiles. The other principle drawback of the Sabre is its weak armour and only ok shielding combined with slightly below average maneuverability, meaning you can barely take more than one consecutive hit without sustaining armour damage (and you can't sustain very much armour damage at all); there's also the reasonable chance of losing your target tracking system due to a single lapse in concentration, making it impossible to perform torpedo runs. The slightly lacking maneuverability means you have to really work to evade gunfire in thick melees and I find myself almost constantly afterburning to compensate. The Sabre's advantages, though, are that the shields recharge fairly quickly and the gun loadout does a lot of damage (assuming you can hit with it). Cockpit visibility is very acceptable and the missile loadout is excellent. The one disapointment is that the Sabre's shielding isn't nearly thick enough to properly take advantage of the rear turret.

The Broadsword has a lot going for it, if you know what you're doing with it. Very, very heavy shields, thick armour, the turret cover is excellent, the mass drivers in the nose are easy to land hits with and do a heap of damage. The biggest drawback is that it handles like a pregnant yak. How you overcome this depends on your piloting style, but I like to treat the Broadsword as if it were a gunship rather than a bomber - rather than try to engage enemy fighters with the front cannon I try to maneuver so that my turret gunners have a clean shot at the enemy. Typically this involves circling the enemy and is quite a bit easier than turning completely, to face the target. Overall, the Broadsword does its job very well.

I'm rather fond of the Crossbow, which manages to do a good job of bombing yet it accomplishes this quite differently to the Broadsword. The ship is aptly named - the front guns do very heavy damage but take a while to recharge (comparable to real crossbows, which are somewhat difficult to reload). Where the Crossbow differs most from the Broadsword is that it's surprisingly nimble, encouraging you to make use of the powerful forward cannon. In a dogfight, it's not difficult to turn to track enemy fighters then obliterate them in one or two volleys. There's also the very thick shielding and armour which is necessary due to the ship being quite slow (and lacking afterburners). The rear turret is just icing.

I really don't see what all the fuss is about the Morningstar. It has the same accursed chin-mounted, autofocusing particle cannon that make the Epee so difficult to use, and the missile complement is lacking. The Mace missile is little more than a gimmick; even if you can score kills with it you only get one (leaving you with only two other anti-cap weapons, or two combat missiles). The lack of chaff pods is irritating, but nothing major (fortunately the Morningstar still retains its afterburner!). However, the shields and armour are very reliable and the cockpit visibility is good (thankfully!). Overall, the Morningstar is adequate - not much more effective than a Sabre that's flown properly if at all. As a supposed superfighter it is disapointing. And the jump-drive doesn't work properly :P.

Wing Commander
Keep in mind that I played WC2 first, loooong before I played WC1.

I despise the Hornet. Paper-thin shields and armour, horrible cockpit visibility and the cannon are both weak and positioned far enough apart to make scoring hits difficult; kills even harder. A nod of repsect to any ace Hornet pilots out there, but I hate this craft.

The Scimitar is... better than nothing. Every aspect of the ship except is borderline tolerable, and the craft requires some hard work (and a LOT of afterburning) to get results out of. The shields are just barely adequate considering the Scim's sluggish performance. The one redeeming feature is the two mass drivers: positioned well enough to be easy to use, and powerful enough to get the job done. With the shields of a damaged Epee, the speed and handling of a Broadsword, the loadout of a Super Ferret (but with half the energy capacity!) the Scimitar is demanding and unrewarding.

The Raptor is without question my favourite WC1 fighter. It's something like a primitive Sabre - the cannon configuration is similar, the shields and armour are actually reliable and the array of missiles is good. I couldn't get much effective use out of the Porcupine mine but I'm certain it's good for something. I like this craft.

The Rapier in WC1 irritates me greatly, through no fault of its own. The craft is classified as a medium fighter (which it most certainly is), yet deployed as if it were a heavy superfighter. Rapiers get sent into thick dogfights that they are ill equipped to handle; the gun configuration is still excellent but with the low visibility cockpit and lack of ITTS it is often difficult to score hits with (which is a danger in thick dogfights, where you have to bring down craft quickly and efficiently with little room for error), and the much touted "heavy" shielding doesn't recharge fast enough to be reliable. This is fine for the kind of tasks the Rapier is assigned to in WC2 - patrols and moderate dogfighting, the type of tasks you'd expect a medium fighter to perform. However, in WC1 this ship is treated as if it were utterly invincible when it clearly isn't.
 
I'm not too worried about the wasted one or two shots, it's the fact that Confed makes a weapon and then gives the pilot no way to sight it in other than test-firing it. I mean it's possible, but seriously folks. That's like giving soldiers rifles with no sights.

I'm not talking about a 'lead indicator' either, I don't even use that. There is literally no sights when you select this weapon.

On a side note, somebody mentioned the autotrack guns not being able to hit anything. In WC4 you can turn those off. I hate autotrack.
 
I'm not all that technical. Glide Wrapper? Where do I get one?

All the other guns have sights, just that blasted stormfire doesn't.
 
SoulSkorpion said:
The Raptor is without question my favourite WC1 fighter. It's something like a primitive Sabre - the cannon configuration is similar, the shields and armour are actually reliable and the array of missiles is good. I couldn't get much effective use out of the Porcupine mine but I'm certain it's good for something. I like this craft.
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I'll give you a use for the porcupine mine...way back when I was playing WC1 for the first time (in other words still mesmerized by the game) I was playing a mission in the Raptor and one of the objectives was to blow up a Ralari and its accompanying escort. Things got heated and I was taking a lot of damage. I had either used or lost (due to damage) all my missiles except the porcupine and I was still hassling it out with one last fighter and the Ralari. All the sudden, as I'm tangling with the (Jalthi? Memory fails me) I hit the afterburners and come sailing into it's broad backside. Needless to say the damage is intensive. All my guns completely knocked out. Ejection system was hit. My Raptor was a death trap and the Ralari was still out there laying some heavy flack. I closed in as close as I could spun around and dropped my mine. BOOOM!!! That ole boy went up in a brilliant flash and I was left exultant. That's the only time I really ever used it in the game, I've never tried that maneuver again but for that one time it worked like a charm and allowed me to win the mission. They should call that the Major Striker maneuver. :)
 
Wing Commander 1

Hornet: I enjoyed flying in this fighter, but not fighting in it. While its shields and armor were allright for a light fighter, its putrid offensive weaponry leaves much to be desired. The two laser cannons have the advantage that they never run out of juice, but they aren't powerful enough to kill anything more powerful than a Krant with any speed. The single Javelin is easily avoided by most fighters and the two dumbfires are only good against stationary capital ships. Score: 2/5

Scimitar: While the Scimitar gets bashed about by the pilots of the Wing Commander universe, I have come to know and love this fighter. While not being the fastest or most manuevrable fighter out there, it does have a few things going for it. The twin mass drivers are excellent for killing any craft up to the Jalthi and its complement of three Javelins and two Dart Dumbfires are an excellent payload for killing the less manueverable fighters out their and capital ships. It also carries quite a bit of AB fuel for a fighter which makes the ship good to use in the 'turn and burn' attack. Score: 4/5

Raptor: What can I say? The best fighter in the Wing Commander 1 universe by far, this ship sports excellent shields, armor and an offensive payload to blow the utter crap out of any ship the Kilrathi can offer. The only blemish on its record is its slow yaw rate, but this can be overcome by using the classic 'sit and spin' manuever for the more agile Kilrathi fighters. The gun load obliterates any fighter within a few full salvos. Score: 4.5/5

Rapier-A: The first generation Rapier is a good craft but it has a few key flaws that keep it from being a truly great figher in this rendition. The shields and engines are a good match and nothing can out turn the Rapier, but once your shields are gone, the armor can't stand up to much punishment at all. While the gun load is adequete for killing fighters, the missile load is a bit to mismatched. Instead of having two Javelin HS's, a pair of IMRecs would be better to perform the strike duties this fighter was designed for. Score: 3/5

MORE TO COME LATER

[Bold nuked and navy color changed for better readibility. The "Preview post" button is there for a reason, folks. - Death]
 
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