Vampire Gripes

[Dyret]

Hmmm, this seems like a good time to ask - what exactly ARE the ship killer weapons? Are they what they seem like, massive ship killing guns?

They're the crystal thing they weilded to the Midway.

 

[LeHah]

I'll say this about the Vampire - it always got the job done for me. It wasn't my favorite fighter in the game by any means but it let me coast through some levels pretty easy.

I really dislike the Panther. I think this is because (to me) it seemed like you flew that rust-bucket more than any other fighter but unlike the WC3 version (Thunderbolt VII) it lacked in both the gun and missile department. Add to that the "slow" speed and it just felt more like a frustrating death trap than anything else.

 

[Jason_Ryock]

I really dislike the Panther. I think this is because (to me) it seemed like you flew that rust-bucket more than any other fighter but unlike the WC3 version (Thunderbolt VII) it lacked in both the gun and missile department. Add to that the "slow" speed and it just felt more like a frustrating death trap than anything else.

AGREED! If you want to see how much you fly it in Secret Ops, switch the Panther with any other ship and see what happens.

 

[Dundradal]

I really dislike the Panther. I think this is because (to me) it seemed like you flew that rust-bucket more than any other fighter but unlike the WC3 version (Thunderbolt VII) it lacked in both the gun and missile department. Add to that the "slow" speed and it just felt more like a frustrating death trap than anything else.

It's not just you. Your comment spurred me to do a quick count of the winning paths of WCP and SO.

You fly it 11 times in WCP and 17 times in SO. The next closest to it in WCP was the Vampire with 9 and I didn't bother counting SO.

I like the guns but the Panther does lack in the energy pool department. I don't have as much as a problem with the amount of missiles (12) as I do to having the weaker IFF onboard instead of a more varied loadout. The speed does feel slow during combat, but with the vast amounts of AB fuel we get in it it's more of an annoyance than anything.

 

[Ijuin]

My big gripe is with the different turning rates for yaw vs. pitch.

Sure it's cool and quirky to have the Panther yaw faster than it pitches, and the Vampire pitch faster than it yaws, but it gets a little TOO extreme, what with the Panther's pitch rate being nearly as low as the Shrike's.

 

[Wedge009]

You need to learn how to roll.

(The out-universe reasoning for the Panther and Vampire's designs is probably gameplay novelty, I would think.)

 

[Vinman]

If you look at the aircraft of the two World Wars, you'll notice than many of the best fighters were hard to fly. The Sopwith Camel, BF-109 and F4U Corsair in particular were notoriously difficult to fly.