Gladius gets the bad rap...

frostytheplebe

frostytheplebe

Seventh Part of the Seal
After trimming through Privateer, Armada, Standoff, and these forums, it seems that there is quite a lot of hostility toward this fighter in particular... why does everyone hate this ship so much? I could understand said loathing going towards the Tarsus or even the Scimitar (Scims cockpit reminds me of my mothers '89 Volvo station wagon with the red interior)... but whats so wrong with the Gladius? I happen to like flying off of it. Especially the Lexington's model.
 
It's slow and run out of fuel after about 2 second of afterburning. At least in Standoff.
 
We do not really get to fly the Priv-Gladius (apart from Standoff) and I have yet to see anyone complain about the Armada Gladius. Personally, I think the Armada Gladius is one of the most powerful fighters.
The bad reputation of the Priv-Gladius may result from the fact that it was very easy to kill, even easier than the Talon in my eyes. Though on paper, it seems a good ship, reasonably fast and maneuverable and good gun loadout.
 
I always liked the Armada Gladius, and I like the Standoff Gladius. Never really paid much attention to the Privateer Gladii - I don't usually bother fighting confed or militia when I'm being naughty. Although I might at some point if I continue my current game (in which I'm friendly to pirates and hostile to militia, and running a lot of contraband in my Galaxy.)
 
I liked the Gladius in SWC :) (For those that don't know, the Gladius model was also the SWC Raptor)

I hated the mother f'er in Standoff, as it was a cheap turd compared to the other ships.
 
Gladius was my favorite fighter in Armada. Its so slim it was hard to hit and it had a hell of a punch. Standoff went with the lighter version of the fighter and it didn't appeal to me as much.
 
The Standoff Gladius feels to me like a decent replacement for the Scimitar, although during that era it is still on its last legs. You have decent guns and armor, moderate shields, but are still the slowest Confed ship on hand that's not a dedicated bomber. Flying it feels to me rather like flying a Thunderbolt with moderately thinner shields, and I think that it fits its niche rather well (that niche being places where a Sabre would be too expensive but you still want a fighter-bomber).
 
Ijuin said:
The Standoff Gladius feels to me like a decent replacement for the Scimitar, although during that era it is still on its last legs. You have decent guns and armor, moderate shields, but are still the slowest Confed ship on hand that's not a dedicated bomber. Flying it feels to me rather like flying a Thunderbolt with moderately thinner shields, and I think that it fits its niche rather well (that niche being places where a Sabre would be too expensive but you still want a fighter-bomber).
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yeah ya think something this slow would have a turret on the back or something... maybe standoff shoulda added one.
 
That would probably be why the Gladius was apparently supplanted by the Thunderbolt soon after.
 
I sure did look forward to blowing them up in priv. I never did like flying them. Well I take that back. It was a way to hone the flying skills when using the sim in standoff.
 
I didn't like the Gladius, it didn't have any personality. None of the Armada ships had much personality.
 
Sir(s),

In Standoff, I didn't much care for the Gladius to fly, but it was good for the story - the emails from the engineers saying that the Gladii "were not meant to take such a pounding", and the gradual ticking away of their numbers was really atmospheric.

KvK
 
I think the Gladius is a lot of fun. It's good to fly missions on a medium ship. Some of the best missions of WC1 were aboard a Scimitar, and they wouldn't be nearly as much good if you could go on a Rapier.
 
You know, my biggest problem with the Standoff ship is the outside gun placement (not their fault, they didn't design the thing), but those lasers on the wings make it useless to fire full guns, and the neutron guns fire too slowly to be really effective. Give me a Rapier any day of the week.
 
Of course it's their fault, since they designed the model. If the WC1 Raptor was modelled in the same "realistic" fashion as the Standoff Raptor, it'd be the worst ship ever. Similary, the Gladius could've been modelled in a way that, despite the official dimentions, would have actually useful guns, if the makers of the mod so desired.
 
That would probably be why the Gladius was apparently supplanted by the Thunderbolt soon after.
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We don't *really* know that. Gladii and Thunderbolts are both around at the same time...

Of course it's their fault, since they designed the model. If the WC1 Raptor was modelled in the same "realistic" fashion as the Standoff Raptor, it'd be the worst ship ever. Similary, the Gladius could've been modelled in a way that, despite the official dimentions, would have actually useful guns, if the makers of the mod so desired.
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I love Standoff, but I've never understood their insistance on "realistic" gun positions... especially on ships like the Rapier - how is the 'blueprints suggest it should work like this' gun layout more 'right' than how they actually do work in the game?
 
The Gladius is ok, just functionally dated in Standoff, and rightfully so. I think if you're only comparing it to WC1 ships, it's pretty good- decent weapons loadout + comparable speed. That being said, who knows, with the way WC ship evolution works, it could come back and be as potent as the Vampire (I mean, the Arrow is supposed to be relatively ancient and it seems to have been upgraded in capability past newer fighters like the Epee or Hornet by the time of WC3, ditto with the Longbow vs. the Broadsword). I know, I know- the counter argument is "We don't know how much the other ships have been upgraded elsewhere."
 
The Gladius is ok, just functionally dated in Standoff, and rightfully so. I think if you're only comparing it to WC1 ships, it's pretty good- decent weapons loadout + comparable speed.
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You may be confusing the Gladius and the Raptor (I know SWC did! *rimshot*). The Gladius hasn't been seen before 2669, just after Standoff - it shows up in Privateer and Armada.
 
frostytheplebe said:
After trimming through Privateer, Armada, Standoff, and these forums, it seems that there is quite a lot of hostility toward this fighter in particular... why does everyone hate this ship so much?
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I haven't really noticed much either way on the Gladius, and the responses to this thread so far haven't been very negative. I notice even less random hatred.. people with complaints seem to cite certain things. If we're talking about Armada, the game where you can fly the Gladius, people seem to hate the Phantom a lot more.
 
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