What do Lampreys DO?

V

Vinman

Vice Admiral
I've been playing through Prophecy again and it struck me. Lampreys don't seem to do ANYTHING! Are they just there to get the enemy's attention and dodge and absorb fire that could have been directed at a more worthwhile target?
 
IIRC, the shield draining gun they were supposed to have never made it into game code, so all they had in the release product was those overglorified lightfeathers (like lightsabers, but very much not).
 
Death said:
IIRC, the shield draining gun they were supposed to have never made it into game code, so all they had in the release product was those overglorified lightfeathers (like lightsabers, but very much not).
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I thought I heard something about Lampreys having shield-killing guns. Were they unable to make guns that only damaged shields?

Does anyone have any idea just how effective the guns were going to be?
 
Vinman said:
I thought I heard something about Lampreys having shield-killing guns. Were they unable to make guns that only damaged shields?

Does anyone have any idea just how effective the guns were going to be?
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apparently one blast from the sheild-killer guns was enough to take down the sheilds of an Excalibur.
 
apparently one blast from the sheild-killer guns was enough to take down the sheilds of an Excalibur.
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I... don't think there's anything like that in the continuity. As others have noted, the Lampreys don't *actually* do anything... and even the background in Origin's Official Guide to Wing Commander Prophecy deals with this (in a tongue-in-cheek manner). The guide claims that the 'rumor' is that the Shield Killer Cannon drains a target's shields... but that intelligence is unsure "if indeed this cannon exists at all". In practice the gun does a small amount of ordinary damage (12.5 cm, apparently).

The original plan for the Lamprey/Siren was (per shipsalien.doc) for it to be built around two special features. One was the Shield Killer Cannon which would completely (briefly) disable your shields upon taking a hit. The other was that it would maneuver without tuning - changing directions instantly (this background also makes it into the Official Guide).
 
Hehe, I remember using the ship editor to change their weapons to plasma guns once.
 
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