Which doesn't make sense to me. I understand the need for maintaining a low profile to avoid attention from Kilrathi intelligence by using an obsolete carrier, but it was tasked with the single most important mission of the war - protecting the Behemoth, and later delivering the T-Bomb. Wouldn't it figure that they would equip Victory with the latest and best fighters including the above mentioned ships and not just a limited number of Excaliburs.
The only thing that is annoying about this is that the Lexington in WC4 is a front line carrier, yet still operating with the same old junk that the Victory had. Obviously, from a gaming standpoint this was pretty necessary, but it does add a little "weirdness" to the fact that the T-bolt, Arrow, and Hellcat are all supposed to be out dated (obviously, the Excalibur is another story).
I don't know if old is the same thing as outdated. Take the Arrow - we're talking about a brand new version of a design that's fifteen years old... not a fifteen year old fighter. For what it's worth, the fighter complement on the Lexington was factory fresh, according to the Wing Commander IV novelization. They're still building these things.
Speaking of Armada ships, do we ever know what the deal is with the Gladius and it's two wildly seperate variants that we see in Privateer and Armada?
I think that if you pull up the specifications they're remarkably similar -- the Armada version is a platform for those dumb-fire Proton torpedoes where the Armada version is a platform for dumb-fire Darts.
And as for Morningstars - is it possible that Confed would use it against BW in border conflict?
Well, yes... but that war didn't actually happen.
I believe that in the novels, possibly TPoF, it is explained that Confed high command did not really support the Behemoth Project, and that was part of the reason that Tolwyn was using the Victory in the first place.
That was False Colors -- but it's questionable as to how much we should believe this, since it's part of an elaborate story Tolwyn is telling Bear to get him to 'join' a portion of his conspiracy.
I wonder if it could be thought of in WWII terms when it comes to some of the fighters. In Germany, the Allies operated largely with P-47's, P-51's, etc. In the Pacific, there were the Wildcats, Hellcats, Avengers, etc. Obviously, there were two different branches (Army, and Navy) operating, but even the ground based fighters in the pacific were largely still Navy fighters.
That would be interesting, although Wing Commander does the services a little different from the United States - you're a 'Space Force' pilot on a Navy carrier. (The USAAF did fly in the Pacific, though -- they were running strategic bombing campaigns from the very beginning of the war. Think of LBJ's B-26 flight...)
Actually, to my eye, the Hellcat and the Morningstar have a very similar looking design. I had wondered for the longest time if the 'Cat might be a production scale fighter built using technology pioneered for the Morningstar, but LOAF shot that idea down for me by pointing out that the 'Cat probably pre-dates the Morningstar.
Well, I do have to agree with the others that your eye is somewhat poor here -- the Hellcat is boxy where the Morningstar is sleak. That said, we don't necessarily know the age of the Hellcat yet... I think it's the one flyable fighter which still lacks an official designation.
You know, this whole question of the Morningstar just hit me- it was being developed as part of a special program where _Maniac_ was the head... and Bluehair himself comments that whoever approved this must have been insane.
I don't think we should be so eager to accept Maniac's version of the truth - after all, that fact comes at the end of a scene where he brags about getting the two Ralatha to collide and explains that he turned down a promotion to Colonel. It seems clear that Blair doesn't believe his bragging in that very scene -- "You know, Todd, people say a lot of things..."
I was suffering from a very bizarre temporary amnesia at the time of my post that meant I remembered everything I had personally encountered in WC but forgot a very specific LOAF post.
Yes, a
very specific post... that you were replying to.
By the way, I would strongly disagree with the opinion that the 'bolt is a "junk".
Isn't it the most long-lived bomber because of its non-aging design?
Confeds did use it effectively against bugs, didn't they?
I'm betting the Broadsword gets this record.
.
??????.............because they both have a place for a pilot to sit??
