Action Stations. . .

Viper61

Spaceman
I've got a couple of questions about Action Stations (which I just finished) . . .

In the Foreward, the "author" of the history document thanks Vance Richards for adding the info from his personal documents (which was 8 years after the Kilrathi war) even though Forstchen killed him in the book False Colors (which was 2 years after the Kilrathi War). Little Discrepancy or did I miss something?

Also, I thought I read some threads earlier that at the beginning of the war, the Confed and Kilrathi fighters had no shields (which is why with 2000+ kills, Blair is still only 11 on the Confed aces list ). Was this froma previous war and if so, with whom and when? thanks.

C-ya
 
Originally posted by Viper61
I've got a couple of questions about Action Stations (which I just finished) . . .

In the Foreward, the "author" of the history document thanks Vance Richards for adding the info from his personal documents (which was 8 years after the Kilrathi war) even though Forstchen killed him in the book False Colors (which was 2 years after the Kilrathi War). Little Discrepancy or did I miss something?

From what I understand, he didn't really die...and would have been in the next books had they been come out....

Also, I thought I read some threads earlier that at the beginning of the war, the Confed and Kilrathi fighters had no shields (which is why with 2000+ kills, Blair is still only 11 on the Confed aces list ). Was this froma previous war and if so, with whom and when? thanks.

I'm pretty sure they had shields...that's why there were so many Battleships and such. Fighters were innefective until the invention of the torpedo, and a cap ships pretty much pounded on each other until one's sheilds failed.

Although, the war before the Kilrathi War was the Pilgrim War from the movie. The Pilgrim War started in the 2620's, IIRC...
 
Re: Re: Action Stations. . .

Originally posted by Ladiesman^

I'm pretty sure they had shields...that's why there were so many Battleships and such. Fighters were innefective until the invention of the torpedo, and a cap ships pretty much pounded on each other until one's sheilds failed.

Although, the war before the Kilrathi War was the Pilgrim War from the movie. The Pilgrim War started in the 2620's, IIRC...

I was solely concentrating on the fighters. I thought it had something to do with the power plant not being able to support weapons, engines and shields, but like I said, it could have been from way earlier in the Confed history.

Also, Action stations said that the Confederation had enjoyed a century of peace before the start of the Kilrathi war, how does the *new* Pilgrim War fit in?

C-ya
 
Well, you get only one kill added to your killscore regardless of whether you dust a Remora or a Tiamat. I guess the same rule applies to planets. :D

Best, Raptor
 
In the Foreward, the "author" of the history document thanks Vance Richards for adding the info from his personal documents (which was 8 years after the Kilrathi war) even though Forstchen killed him in the book False Colors (which was 2 years after the Kilrathi War). Little Discrepancy or did I miss something?

Richards also shows up in The Price of Freedom, which (though written earlier) takes place after False Colors too. False Colors was to be the first of a trilogy of novels which would take place between Wing Commander III and IV... Andrew Keith hoped to follow it with a book about Murragh returning to the Empire and then a book resolving the conflict between the Landreich and Confed. He'd mentioned that Richards would have been ressurected at some point in these stories. Unfortunately Baen lost interest in publishing Wing Commander book and Mr. Keith has since passed away.

Also, I thought I read some threads earlier that at the beginning of the war, the Confed and Kilrathi fighters had no shields (which is why with 2000+ kills, Blair is still only 11 on the Confed aces list ). Was this froma previous war and if so, with whom and when? thanks.

IIRC the quote (it's from the Prophecy Guide) was that ships had 'limited shields' and not 'no shields'... and it goes on to say that the high killscores are also due to the fact that in the early years the Kilrathi were far more willing to waste fighters on suicide attacks. The era in question is the *first* twenty years of the Kilrathi War (2634-2654), before Blair and company came onto the scene.

Also, Action stations said that the Confederation had enjoyed a century of peace before the start of the Kilrathi war, how does the *new* Pilgrim War fit in?

The Pilgrim War (which was actually going on at the time of Action Stations...) may be seen as a much smaller conflict. It involved only a few star systems compared to the hundreds or thousands involved in the Kilrathi War.

I think blair should be number one on the aces list seeing as how he dusted two entire PLANETS.

More likely 'planets' wouldn't be counted at all -- pilots don't keep track of their 'kill score' as some horrific reminder of how bloodthirsty they are: it's the more noble "I bested this number of enemy pilots" (IIRC some of the games don't even count cap-ships).
 
Originally posted by Bandit LOAF


IIRC the quote (it's from the Prophecy Guide) was that ships had 'limited shields' and not 'no shields'... and it goes on to say that the high killscores are also due to the fact that in the early years the Kilrathi were far more willing to waste fighters on suicide attacks. The era in question is the *first* twenty years of the Kilrathi War (2634-2654), before Blair and company came onto the scene.


That's the era I'm asking about with Action Stations. The shield technology seemed pretty well developed to me from the reading (at least for Confed Fighters). :)

C-ya
 
Ehh, I don't know -- shielding seemed pretty limited... Tolwyn's WildCat took a lot of hits, but they seem to have been to the fighter itself (twisting it into pieces, cutting up his legs, etc.) rather than to a shield.
 
Yeah, I think the Wildcat's shields only absorbed a volley or two before overloading.
 
...

Early fighter shields were probably only meant to prevent cheap kills from flak or fragments or stray shots.

Flack, Fragments.......or missiles. I remember missiles causeing (or at least implied so by the wingmen at the bar) mucho more damage in the early wing commanders when they directly hit the enemie ship's hull (up that Tail pipe !), instead of the shields.

... Then again you have wing commander 4, where each missile is a death sentence =P
 
Originally posted by LeHah
Yeah, I think the Wildcat's shields only absorbed a volley or two before overloading.

Yeah, look at the Hornet's shields compared to its gun strength--it has two lasers, which means that it does 2 x 18 = 36 units of damage per volley, compared to its 40 units of shielding.

Compare this to the Banshee, which has four lasers for 4 x 18 = 72 units of damage per volley, compared to its 220 units of shielding!

The Banshee has nearly triple the shield strength relative to its own gun power compared to the Hornet (40 / 36 = 1.11 vs. 220 / 72 = 3.06). From this I think it is reasonable to believe that shields have been growing more powerful compared to the attack power of the fighters ever since they were first implemented. I could easily imagine a "heavy" fighter that is a contemporary of the Wildcat and early Scimitar sporting shields of 30, armor of 50, and twin neutron cannons.
 
Re: ...

Originally posted by TheEmperor


(...) I remember missiles causeing (or at least implied so by the wingmen at the bar) mucho more damage in the early wing commanders when they directly hit the enemie ship's hull (up that Tail pipe !), instead of the shields.

(...)

That's the impression I got too but I was never sure if it was only in my imagination or really that way.
 
What always amazed me is how in WC1 the Hornet has 1 HS and 2 DF and in WCSO the Black Wasp has 8 Swarmers and 4 ELRIR
Basically the large amount of missiles in the WCP-WCSO ships
 
also the wasp was built to be a bomber interceptor, making it necessary to have a large missile payload, there was no dedicated design before that although some craft excelled in the area
 
Well, yeah, fighter design tends to advance rather significantly in roughly three decades, particularly when there's a major interstellar war going on in the meantime...
 
Yep, though heavy fighters seem to have advanced a lot more than the lights. Early on, the lights could count on on being faster and more manueverable, even though the heavies had more shielding, armour and firepower. When the Excal, Bearcat and Dragon were introduced, the heavies could just about keep up with the lights. By the time you got to WC:p, the Vampire could fly rings around the lights while still packing much more firepower.

Best, Raptor
 
Originally posted by Death
Well, yeah, fighter design tends to advance rather significantly in roughly three decades, particularly when there's a major interstellar war going on in the meantime...

I thought that the majority of the fighters in WCP were designed after the Kilrathi War.
 
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