Which ship do you want to fly on UE2?
- Thread starter Delance
- Start date
Wedge009
Rogue Leader
Yeah, I know that. I was just thinking that to give the two craft the same designation sort of implied to me that they were on par with each other. It's just me, I'm not trying to argue a point, or anything.
It's weird. In WC, I only have the games - no novels. With SW, or at least the X-Wing series, I have no game, only the novels. The novels describe the Interceptor as being more manoeuvrable than X-Wings, but the odds still seem to be in favour of the X-Wing in one-on-one combat.
Again from the novels, TIE Fighter pilots need a complete vacuum suit, because their pasteboard boxes have no life support systems (which would just weigh the ship down). X-Wings have life support, and any cockpit breaches are supposed to automatically switch on the pilot's personal magcon (magnetic containment) field.
Hmm. Okay, back to UE2.
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Almost certainly not. What you are likely to see is most or all of the fighters that flew off the Dauntless in UE1. Fighters that appeared only in the sim might still appear in the sim, but probably not in the campaign. As for the other ships in the campaign... you'll find out in due time
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As long as we don't have to fly those tissue-paper Epees again. I seriously would rather fly the Ferret instead of the Epee--in the Epee I feel like I have NO shielding at all.
As for the Scimitar, it was okay with those nice Viper guns--a bit sluggish, but flyable. I would not mind seeing it again.
The new Rapier, however, I do look forward to.
As for the Scimitar, it was okay with those nice Viper guns--a bit sluggish, but flyable. I would not mind seeing it again.
The new Rapier, however, I do look forward to.
TCSTigersClaw
Greek Special Forces B' Company "Naoussa" 2007-200
TCSTigersClaw <----- is not voting cause there is no HELLCAT in there...... 
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Sure they would, if they had them. As UE heavily implies, the Border Worlds has extremely few Banshees. Daniels' squadron had (hadOriginally posted by arQon
Preferably ones with Viper cannons, since the Banshee actually HAS the power plant to "drive them properly" *cough*.
Your love affair with the Scim notwithstanding, any sane Navy would have put them on the Banshee in the first place...
) two. Before its squadrons were dispatched elsewhere, the Dauntless probably had about ten to fifteen altogether.
Yeah, I know they were short on them. Still, even just 10-15 modded Banshees as Bastard Squadron would be a hell of a threat. Pretty cheap way to build a "Space Superiority"-class fighter that could kick a Vampire's arse, neh?
I'm a big fan of fast/mobile fighters, for all that people generally seem to prefer pseudo-bomber ships where they can eat damage all day without getting scratched paint. The problem with the Banshee right now is that its laser armament realistically isn't strong enough to use against Mantas and the like, as their shields regen at roughly 95% of the rate the Banshee can inflict damage, and that's assuming a 100% hit rate. Playing through 3A yesterday, you basically have to Stormfire the shields down then laser out the armour to conserve the limited "useful" weaponry.
With UE's standard 50+ enemy per mission
the ship's very close to becoming worthless since the lasers are the only "infinite" source of damage. I think that would be a shame, since there aren't that many different ships to work with as it is.Improving the base guns, while sacrificing some of the missile loadout and arguably even removing the Stormfire as well to avoid it turning into a Godship, would leave you with something functional and still coherent with UE's "all BW ships are cack" philosophy but still give people who PREFER fast, light fighters something to fly. ATM we're almost forced into the brick ships simply because otherwise our gunnery capability is spitballs and damp rags.
Something to mull over, anyway.
I don't think we are given the stats of the Rapier in the ship viewer. Have you been peeking at the stats by looking at the files? If so, are you willing to clue in the rest of us on what those stats are?
Second? The Intrepid is destroyed, and the only other BW carriers mentioned in the fiction are the Intrepid's sister, the Durango-class BWS Tango, the second Bengal-class carrier, and several Ranger-class carriers.
Of course. The Wing Commander of a fleet carrier should always be a full Colonel. ^_-
Originally posted by arQon
With UE's standard 50+ enemy per mission
Improving the base guns, while sacrificing some of the missile loadout and arguably even removing the Stormfire as well to avoid it turning into a Godship, would leave you with something functional and still coherent with UE's "all BW ships are cack" philosophy but still give people who PREFER fast, light fighters something to fly. ATM we're almost forced into the brick ships simply because otherwise our gunnery capability is spitballs and damp rags.
Something to mull over, anyway.
Due to the WCP/SO engine's handling of multiple guns--namely that having four of the same type of gun means that they fire only half as often as if you had two of that type of gun, resulting in, say, the Banshee's four lasers firing one X4 burst every 1000 milliseconds, it would be beneficial to change the Banshee's gun load from 4 Laser to 2 Laser/2 Ion. This would only increase the per-volley attack power from 72 to 96, but it would increase the firing rate substantially.
To understand why this works, let us compare the 2 Tachyon/2 Ion guns of the Panther against the 4 Tachyon guns of the Vampire. Intuition tells us that using the 4 Tachyon guns should inflict more damage than using the 2 Tachyon/2 Ion guns would, but the way that the WCP engine handles multiple guns means that the damage per second does not increase as you add more of the same type of gun. Rather, the damage per volley is increased, yet the rate at which volleys are fired will decrease by the same factor.
Let's look at the numbers. Tachyon guns take 450 ms to recharge and Ion guns take 350 ms to recharge, so let us look at a time period of 10.0 seconds. In that time, the Panther's Tachyon guns will have fired 11 times, for a damge of 11*2*70=1540, while its Ion guns will have fired 14 times, for a damage of 14*2*30=840. This gives a total damage of 1540+840=2380.
In that same 10.0 second period. the 4 Tachyon guns on the Vampire will have fired 5 times, and will be about halfway toward being able to fire a sixth time. This gives us a damage of approximately 5.5*4*17=1540. Take note that this is the same amount of damage as is inflicted by the Panther's 2 Tachyon guns in the same time period! That means that if you use the Vampire's 4 Tachyon guns, you will actually inflict less damage than you would using the Panther's 2 Tachyon/2 Ion guns, not more!
The lesson from this is that pretty much any fighter with two types of guns will inflict more damage than a fighter with only one type of gun (except for the case of comparing 2 Tachyon guns, which are the strongest, with a combination of 2 Laser guns and some other light gun).
Ijuin, the Dauntless and the Invincible are the only two Bengals in the BWM. the BWS Princetown is the only other ship of that size. If the Invincible were the better ship the game would be based off it.
Therefore, we must asume that, since the Princetown is the Flagship, the Dauntless gets second spot.
As to Banshees, why the hell are they so rare. Its like saying there aren't Hellcats all over Confleet in WCIII.
Therefore, we must asume that, since the Princetown is the Flagship, the Dauntless gets second spot.
As to Banshees, why the hell are they so rare. Its like saying there aren't Hellcats all over Confleet in WCIII.
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Why are the Banshees so rare? Well, we have two sources dealing with BW capabilities in WC4. There's the game and the book. The book goes into more detail, and it definitely downplays their capabilities. None of the WC4 fighters are even mentioned - it's all WC1/2 junk. The game has to be taken into account, of course, but I simply felt that it made the best sense to assume the top-of-the-line fighters were relatively rare even though they appeared in the game. This would certainly be consistent with what we know of the BW in general.
Is the Dauntless second-best? Well, certainly not any more, not after all the damage it's taken... there would have been a time when the Dauntless and the Invincible would have been tied for first place. The Princeton is the flagship not because it's better, but because it's a regular warship - Admiral Morheim is rather more cautious than, say, Commodore Wu. He prefers to be able to command the fleet from the centre of it, rather than from ships that are designed to operate stand-alone. Plus, of course, both the Dauntless and the Invincible were being scrapped, so he couldn't use either of them as the flagship anyway.
Should Daniels be promoted? Ok, so this isn't as significant an issue as the others. Still... keep in mind that he is not in command of a full wing - he's "Acting Wing Commander", which is just a fancy way of saying that the commander of the only squadron onboard also fulfils the functions normally associated with a Wing Commander. In UE2, there will be more squadrons on the Dauntless. Will Daniels be in command of them all? Probably, but not for certain. One thing I do know is that not all is well for Daniels' career...
As for the Banshees and other BW junk, I know we pushed their uselessness to the extreme in UE, but hey, you're still alive. There was good reasons for it, anyway - they weren't suppsoed to be front-line fighters. They were supposed to be enough to defend against the Kilrathi, who still used war-era craft. Remember, nobody saw the bugs coming.
Is the Dauntless second-best? Well, certainly not any more, not after all the damage it's taken... there would have been a time when the Dauntless and the Invincible would have been tied for first place. The Princeton is the flagship not because it's better, but because it's a regular warship - Admiral Morheim is rather more cautious than, say, Commodore Wu. He prefers to be able to command the fleet from the centre of it, rather than from ships that are designed to operate stand-alone. Plus, of course, both the Dauntless and the Invincible were being scrapped, so he couldn't use either of them as the flagship anyway.
Should Daniels be promoted? Ok, so this isn't as significant an issue as the others
. Still... keep in mind that he is not in command of a full wing - he's "Acting Wing Commander", which is just a fancy way of saying that the commander of the only squadron onboard also fulfils the functions normally associated with a Wing Commander. In UE2, there will be more squadrons on the Dauntless. Will Daniels be in command of them all? Probably, but not for certain. One thing I do know is that not all is well for Daniels' career...As for the Banshees and other BW junk, I know we pushed their uselessness to the extreme in UE, but hey, you're still alive
. There was good reasons for it, anyway - they weren't suppsoed to be front-line fighters. They were supposed to be enough to defend against the Kilrathi, who still used war-era craft. Remember, nobody saw the bugs coming.Ijuin: yeah, WCP/SO gun handling sucks ass. :/
Given how mobile enemy ships are, full-volley attacks have a pretty high luck component at anything other than point-blank ranges.
Agreed that a 2Laser/2Ion style loadout would be a noticeable improvement without Godshipping it, especially since the Stormfire could then be junked completely to maintain the balance.
Quarto: I get where you're coming from, but given the number of missions where you're forced to fly the Cow^H^H^H Scim already, it IS nice to have a viable (i.e. not massively inferior) alternative on the missions where you do get to choose your ship.
Given how mobile enemy ships are, full-volley attacks have a pretty high luck component at anything other than point-blank ranges.
Agreed that a 2Laser/2Ion style loadout would be a noticeable improvement without Godshipping it, especially since the Stormfire could then be junked completely to maintain the balance.
Quarto: I get where you're coming from, but given the number of missions where you're forced to fly the Cow^H^H^H Scim already, it IS nice to have a viable (i.e. not massively inferior) alternative on the missions where you do get to choose your ship.