Why Not Requisition Kilrathi Ships?

Mjr. Whoopass

Mjr. Whoopass

<FONT color=lightblue><B>I was going to say someth
When the Kilrathi surrendered, why didn't Confed absorb some of their ships? The Kat Strakhas, Dreadnoughts, Fralthi II's, Bloodfang fighters, Skipper missiles, and other Kat hardware would make excellent weapons and technologies to strengthen the Confederation. Yet in WC4 we don't see Confed fielding any of these ships. It would seem more cost productive to make alterations to a Kilrathi Dreadnought than to spend what must be astronomical resources to build new confed supercarriers. From a gaming standpoint, it might also be fun to fly a Kilrathi fighter or see the Dreadnought in Confed blue.
 
That would have been like the Royal Air Force using german-bombers RIGHT after WWII. From a public-relationship point of view, it just can't be done. For an entire nation, those machines where, in their minds, the embodiment of evil. It also doesn't look good when you start using other nation's ships... bad for morale -like saying "our stuff isn't worth crap, lets use theirs"
 
They certainly *studied* Kilrathi ships, like the allies did with German technology after World War II... but actually flying them as front line units would be rather odd.

There's all sorts of other reasons I can think of. Among them:

* The effect on private industry. The Confederation is going to spend generations recovering from the expense of the war... and the military won't help that by telling aerospace companies to get lost. There's also no support network here -- no one is manufacturing new wing spars or wingnuts to allow your scavenged Darket to keep flying.

* The lack of necessity. When a war ends, the military generally cuts *back* on its forces. The millions and millions of men who were drafted to fight the Kilrathi are going to be leaving the service -- they're not looking to gain and maintain as many new fighters as possible.
 
There's also the tech base to consider... you'd have to train a LOT of techs to work with Kilrathi equipment, using Kilrathi-sized (and Kilrathi-torqued, ouch) tools, flying in uncomfortably large chairs with no ejection mechanism in a generally inferior fighter (yeah, that'd be REAL popular). Also the Kilrathi system was based as much on the warrior code, Clan rivalry, and feudal duty as much as monetary incentive, so the actual cost of running Kat equipment might be relatively high.

That said, I'd be surprised if some of the tech wasnt conveniently "appropriated" by Black Ops - cloaking ships, Skippers, Bloodfangs if there were any more of that line available. The really big ships are fleet-operation type vessels with huge crews, not what you want around when demobilizing, and difficult to train new crews for because of the sheer alienness. Besides, if there was a Dreadnaught in WC4 chances are the Black Lance would have tested a Flashpack on it. You know, just for fun.
 
But the point of the flashpak was destroying the soft innards of a ship. It was not designed to do structural damage... IIRC, all the ships we see f'packed in WC4 stay "complete" i.e. they don't split up or anything. they become empty hulls.
 
The difficulties in converting a kilrathi ship to almost fully functioning terran ship is highly detailed in FC. There they also had access to cadre of kilrathi specialists and it still took a good deal of time, although they were working on a fairly battered ship, nonetheless it describes a lot of the problems that would be faced.
 
Edfilho said:
But the point of the flashpak was destroying the soft innards of a ship. It was not designed to do structural damage... IIRC, all the ships we see f'packed in WC4 stay "complete" i.e. they don't split up or anything. they become empty hulls.
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Yeah, but would the empty hull would be able to keep the two remaining pieces together on its own? :confused:
 
Doesn't this answer you question?

Edfilho said:
But the point of the flashpak was destroying the soft innards of a ship. It was not designed to do structural damage... IIRC, all the ships we see f'packed in WC4 stay "complete" i.e. they don't split up or anything. they become empty hulls.
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If you want evidence then have a look at what happens in wc4 when that transport from the into is flashpacked. If you are still not convinced then look at Melek's ship. Then there is also the Vesuvius and the Ella superbase. None of these blow into two halves. The hull stays in one piece.
 
Paddybhoy said:
But if the atmosphere was superheated isn't it possible that munition stored inside the ship could ignite?
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Valid point dude. That's pretty mutch exacly what would happen- at least with todays conventionnal amunition.

BUT, if I remenber correcly, today's nuclear warheads are sead to be able to sit in a pool of burning napalm for hours and still not ignite (actually, I think I heard that in a movie somewhere... bah.)
It stand to reason that amunition 600+ years from now can stand up to the same kind of punishment, if not more, and just melt away without going boom.
 
I think it's like we saw in Fleet Action -- the armor has a reverse effect, containing the explosions inside the hull... the ship doesn't blow up in the traditional sense, but it's completely ruined. A flashpak isn't a way to steal capital ships.
 
Wow, lots of very good answers!
Chernikov said:
There's also the tech base to consider...
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Hey Chernikov! I think this is the first time I've seen one of your posts, at least on a thread I've posted on. I thought I'd let everybody know: Chernikov picked up WC4 for Mac and sold it to me- he doesn't own a Mac and has WC4 on PC already. He picked it up knowing a WC fan would love to have it. Thank you Thank you Thank you.. a thousand thank you's!!!!!! What a great guy!!! I can go on for several paragraphs about how much I appreciate this guy!!! I sent a few emails and WC Forum PM's asking where to send your $$$, but haven't heard from you- I'm very greatful am very eager to repay you, so please let me know by email or Forum PM. Sorry if I interrupted the flow of this thread, but I'm sure every true WC fan would agree that he deserves some public praise for his considerate act :).
 
Marc said:
It stand to reason that amunition 600+ years from now can stand up to the same kind of punishment, if not more, and just melt away without going boom.
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Except on Battlestar Gallactica when a missile is loaded so that a simple metal hook is latched in such a way that the missile's weight can put enough pressure to snap it, and falling on the floor is all it takes for the missile to self launch inside the launch bay and explode :rolleyes: . Your comment is valid- I'm not rolling the eyes at you. Rather, I'm just venting frustration at the BSG show. I would guess that since we have nukes now, 600 years in the future it seems reasonable that we could have the technology to create such an intense heat, that metal could melt and even become fuel for the fire. Some fires- such as one created by allied bombing of Germany towards the end of WW2- can have such intense heat, that even the streets ignite and become fuel for the fire. This is also something I saw on the History channel (since it is from T.V., I'll give it the same "bah" that Marc did for the movie). With this in mind, it is reasonable to assume that this heat is so intense that not only does every item inside ignite, but even the ship's hull becomes fuel, and likewise it stands that the metal encasing missiles would melt (inflame?) away. With this in mind, whether or not the ammunition ignites is a moot point as the intense heat will engulf anything on ship including the ship itself- leaving only charred remains similar to items engulfed by lava.

As far as comments r.e. a Dreadnought breaking off into 2 pieces, it should be possible if the heat created wasn't quite intense enough to carry throughout the whole Dreadnought. We know that the heat created from a flashpack is at least enough to engulf and destroy the entire Ella Superbase. I consulted the wcnews ships database and couldn't confirm the size of the Ella Superbase compared to the Dreadnought, as the size and strength is listed as question marks. We know that at least a Vesuvius size chunk would be engulfed (assuming similar construction- equivelent heat conductivity, flame retardant systems, etc.). If a section of the Dreadnought somehow remained untouched, the part that was engulfed would be only charred remains and could quite possibly break off- especially if what was left of the ship attempted to turn or otherwise exerted pressure (firing guns, Dreadnought crew firing flame retardant material against the ships hull to keep the fires in check, etc).
 
That is one fine peice of reasoning Mjr Whoopass.
Even though we're basing our theories on Movie and TV data, you've won me over.
In my opinion, yours is the better explanation... untill someone else comes up with something better :)
 
This discussion of the Flashpack has brought up another question that I was curious about. How does the Flashpack make its way though a ship or a base's shields? Missiles and Torps do damage to the shields and use their damage power to eat away the shields before they can begin on armor. In the movies, we see that the Flashpack simply attaches itself onto the ship and doesn't seem to be hindered from it. Possibly all we could do is formulate theories, but I might guess that one of our WCForum canon experts may have an answer from WC canon.
Marc said:
That is one fine piece...
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Thank you Marc, that is one fine quote you have. I think there's truth to that.
 
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