Excalibur gripes

M

Max Gene

Spaceman
....whaat? We've already complained about the Scimitar, Rapier, and Longbow, and I thought they were great ships. So, I figured we might as well start complaining about all the ships that were supposed to be really good. That's right- Concordia gripes is on its way, as is "Col. Blair gripes". Man, I hate pilots who get the job done.

Staying on topic, however, my main complaints with this powerhouse was that they fused together packing peanuts to hold it together, and then called it "armor", and also, it made certain confrontations... too... easy. Taking on Hobbes and Thrak at the same time should be a _challenge_, and it ended out taking less than 15 seconds. That just ain't right.

Yeah, it was meant to incredible, but that auto-aiming just ruined certain parts of the end. Cloaking did that too- what's the point of traveling so far over Kilrah if I don't have to fight anything? Because of the fact that we were meant to cloak, it ends out only being annoying if you don't- shoot down an ekapshi, there's another one, whee. I would've preferred a MUCH harder fight on the surface- and while some of the fault there lay in the distraction that the fleet was providing, it still felt anticlimactic...

I guess my only real faults with the ship had to do with how it ruined certain missions. Still, the thing was way overpowered for what got thrown at me.
 
Space Point

The lack of armor kind of interests me - it's a good mirror of the Rapier II in Wing Commander I... and, like the Rapier, it's a rare point in Wing Commander where a ship's flaws are actually discussed in the continuity (Flash complains about the armor in Victory Streak.)

I didn't know you were supposed to recloak on the planet for years - I always fought Ekapshi over and over and over slowly until I made it to the fault... that said, I think anything would have been anti-climactic after finally dogfighting Thrakhath (and Hobbes, optionally.) I wouldn't have mind seeing the Kilrathi dreadnaught in the mission, though...
 
Max Gene said:
....whaat? We've already complained about the Scimitar, Rapier, and Longbow, and I thought they were great ships. So, I figured we might as well start complaining about all the ships that were supposed to be really good. That's right- Concordia gripes is on its way, as is "Col. Blair gripes". Man, I hate pilots who get the job done.
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Still... the Excalibur has many MANY groupies here on the CIC, plus has the two best guns in the game. Its an... interesting fighter to see in gripe threads... unless you're talking about the SO version.
 
I had a dreadful problem with the Excalibur's autoaiming guns. If the target was close to the edge of the firing cone, I'd miss anyway. There were also a few times where I had a good lead, but the ITTS/autoaim decided to aim elsewhere due to the target dodging. Minor things all in all, but it always irks me when I'm hitting the final leg of WC3.
 
t.c.cgi said:
I had a dreadful problem with the Excalibur's autoaiming guns. If the target was close to the edge of the firing cone, I'd miss anyway. There were also a few times where I had a good lead, but the ITTS/autoaim decided to aim elsewhere due to the target dodging. Minor things all in all, but it always irks me when I'm hitting the final leg of WC3.
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Is there no way to shut it off?
 
t.c.cgi said:
I had a dreadful problem with the Excalibur's autoaiming guns. If the target was close to the edge of the firing cone, I'd miss anyway. There were also a few times where I had a good lead, but the ITTS/autoaim decided to aim elsewhere due to the target dodging. Minor things all in all, but it always irks me when I'm hitting the final leg of WC3.
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IMHO, this is exactly how a new weapon *should* work - you should have to become adjusted to it... upgrading to different ships *shouldn't* simply be a process of making the game easier and easier - it should force you to learn new tricks, adjust to different things, etc. right from the get-go. This is another reason why I especially like the Bearcat - the stupid wide guns force you to fly a little differently.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
IMHO, this is exactly how a new weapon *should* work - you should have to become adjusted to it... upgrading to different ships *shouldn't* simply be a process of making the game easier and easier - it should force you to learn new tricks, adjust to different things, etc. right from the get-go. This is another reason why I especially like the Bearcat - the stupid wide guns force you to fly a little differently.
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Right. It was minor really because most of the time the autoaim did work and it was easier. The only time it's consistantly annoying is when fighting Ekapshi, and that's about when I decided I had 12 spare missiles I needed to start using.
 
Hey, if it weren't for the Excalibur, then you wouldn't have met Flash.

Wait, that's not a good argument...

... But then you get to kick the punk's ass!
 
Bandit LOAF said:
IMHO, this is exactly how a new weapon *should* work - you should have to become adjusted to it... upgrading to different ships *shouldn't* simply be a process of making the game easier and easier - it should force you to learn new tricks, adjust to different things, etc. right from the get-go. This is another reason why I especially like the Bearcat - the stupid wide guns force you to fly a little differently.
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And once you learn how to fly it, it may very well be the best ship in the game... It does require some adjustement - you have to attack ships differently and possibly use a bit of rolling, but once you're used to it the Bearcat is very fun to fly.
 
But...is the Excalibur's armour reall that weak? I remember the manual stats as being 110 on all sides and that's not bad.

Well, the Rapier II had only mediocre armour but it was till better than that of the lightest fighter.
 
Max Gene said:
Heck, whoever said it was actually a problem most of the time?
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Just Flash, and he's kind of a wuss.

Although he did shoot down the evil computer airplane in Stealth.

(I assume, not having seen Stealth. It would probably be pretty disappointing if the end of the movie was that the evil computer airplane actually was better than a human. Disappointingly awesome!)
 
Actually he did not shoot down the rogue AI airplane. :>

He damages it which forces it to reevaluate its priorities, then they work together to stop a conspiracy until the end of the movie, where the AI sacrifices itself to save him.
 
Well, you people may complain about the Excalibur, but I won't.
The ship's nice - I mean - nice target. She blows easily enough. Whether you are in a captured Bearcat, or a Vindycator - just do remember where you are and what are you doing - you'll deal with those pirates (and I won't call Confeds other than pirates) easily enough.

Yes, I do know that WC-IV doesn't give an opportunity to fight the Excalibur with the 'cat. But then why are we given our imagination?

P.S.
U.E.'s simulator does show that the Excalibur is no 'godlike ship', but just a ship which can be fought and defeated.
 
Secret Ops clearly shows the Excalibur's limitations, too.

They a welcome addition to any reinforcements but the black ops ships do outperform them.
 
On the other hand, black ops ships from WCSO are a special version, not the fleet-standard ships; they outperform major carrier assets (which Excaliburs aren't, though the Midway is supposed to have T-bolts in its full complement) like we flew in Prophecy as well.

If anything, the Excalibur is not unlike the Rapier II. In the original WC, it's considered God's Own Fighter, but by WC2, 10 years later, it's just a competent medium fighter; not the best, but a good all-around ship for its purpose.
 
As I understand it, the early Excalibur models flown in the WC3-era were far more powerful than the later models seen in WCSO.
 
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