Victory Gunnery Control

[AD]

I was doing some thinking about the window view in the gunnery control room on the victory in wc3. I've always figured the objects out the window were some kind of battery. Now is that image indicative of the scale of all gun emplacements on a ranger class? How does this compare to the positioning of guns in relation to the whole ship? (as seen in exterior shots of FMV or in engine)

I've always assumed the positioning of rooms in game was a gameplay choice as opposed to the actual positioning of rooms in relation to each other.. (kind of the way wc4 indicates that rooms arent necessarily adjecent to each other just cause you get to it by clicking on a door. the first time on the leg you see blair walk the hallways between rooms)

 

[Marc]

I always thought that gun was a low-yeld perimeter defence battery. Something to shoot down incoming torps or missiles, but not as important as the 11 heavy laser turrets - so not depicted on the in-game model...

Either that or they shot the footage and put it together before they actually decided on the final model for the Victory. Thus, it was too late to go back and change it...

So in other words, I don't know... it might have been more efective if I wrote this last part at the begining.

 

[Dragon1]

My thoughts have been that the guns seen from the control room were some kind of old school point-defense laser cannon that wasn't removed during any of the modernization refits. If the gun was really old, it would have been totally obsolete (against fighter or capship). Phase shields had evolved so much within just 10 years that even weapons introduced during the WC1 era would have caused little to no damage to a light fighter like an Arrow.

Perhaps due to the complexity of the design of the Victory, the guns couldn't have been easily removed. With this in mind it becomes clear why Confed wouldn't have listed them in the Ranger-class CV's armament specs.

Or....maybe they are the CSM launchers?

 

[Edfilho]

They could be spotlights.

 

[Dragon1]

I don't know. I guess they could be spotlights, but why in the 27th century would spotlights need to be so long and high caliber?

 

[DyNaMiX]

I think they're just small turrets designed for anti-fighter, anti-torp missle etc. They can be aimed manually and even if they aren't, they are controlled by those manning the stations in the gunnery area.
Much like how the Tiger's Claw had the torpedo room taking care of things.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I agree with the idea that they're smaller caliber anti-fighter weapons, the kinds the novels describe all capital ships as having.

(That is to say, from a formalized perspective the 'batteries' we see in Wing Commander III/IV are the high calibur weapons that are in place for ship to ship fighting... while carriers 'actually' have numerous smaller batteries for warding off enemy fighters.)

 

[Dragon1]

Most modern carriers have small .50cal MG's scattered throughout, so the idea of a light, manually armed laser system on the Victory would make sense.

Perhaps areas of the ship that have large windows or sections not covered by armor plate have such small guns to protect against ramming or missiles.

 

[Dragon1]

While we are on the topic of the Victory, I always had a question in my mind about the bridge layout. In the crew pit I was under the impression that there was a row of control stations and the COs chair furthest back (kind-of like the TCS Vesuvius), Eisen stood at an observation station above the crew pit usually.

Playing the game again lately though it seems that there is an even more forward set of control stations. I unfortunately don't have a pic of the Victory's bridge handy, but hopefully you guys get what I am referring to (the Gamma correction was always set a little low so I couldn't quite make much out). Does anyone have a birds eye floorpan of the Victory bridge?

 

[ChrisReid]

I agree with the idea that they're smaller caliber anti-fighter weapons, the kinds the novels describe all capital ships as having.

(That is to say, from a formalized perspective the 'batteries' we see in Wing Commander III/IV are the high calibur weapons that are in place for ship to ship fighting... while carriers 'actually' have numerous smaller batteries for warding off enemy fighters.)

I actually had a dream about this because of this thread last night. In my dream I happened to be playin WC3, and for some reason, smaller batteries were visible and I got a screenshot for AD.

 

[MajorCamKollent]

Ha