Defiance's Eyecandy Thread

skymaster said:
The Morning Star is supposed to be armed with three particle cannons. It looks like she received an upgrade. There seems to be 2 different types of cannons. I recognize the two original particle cannons. I wonder what are the other two.
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Whatever is wanted. In FC, I gave the fighter to the Border Worlds as a second series, making it wield 4 particle guns and 2 mass driver ones.
 
I've had a half-finished Krant laying around forever, and I krant leave things in a half-finished state. So, here it is: the Vega sector's medium bomber and general target. Enjoy!

Krant3.jpg
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Krant4.jpg
 
Cool stuff. It's such a weird configuration, once you pause to think about it. Why two cockpits, side by side, instead of one? I suppose it could be the Kilrathi favouring redundancy designs. And then, why shove the cannons out to the wingtips, when you could have them both in the middle between the cockpits, firing straight down the middle with no alignment issues?

And of course, it's hard not to fantasise about a Krant being split right down the middle, and the two halves just carrying on as though nothing happened...
 
Yeah the Krant is weird. I mean, I like the lines, it looks cool - but it is pretty nonsensical. I suppose that's why so many other fan models eschew the double cockpit configuration and instead mount a single cockpit between the tines up front - which has the added bonus of addressing both of your concerns at once @Quarto :).

My thought is that the Krant was designed sort of as a fighter-bomber so the 2nd cockpit would house the bombardier/RIO. Of course, because they die spectacularly, Confed pilots get a 2-for-1 deal on dead cats.
 
It also fits with the line art in Claw Marks, where the oval cockpit canopy sits on the side-tip rather on the space between the tips.
 
We shouldn't be too harsh on the Krant. There's every indication that by the time we saw it in WC1, it was on the edge of retirement (and what a replacement the Hhriss was...). A decade or so earlier, fighting different opponents, the Krant may have appeared much more powerful.
 
Quarto said:
We shouldn't be too harsh on the Krant. There's every indication that by the time we saw it in WC1, it was on the edge of retirement (and what a replacement the Hhriss was...). A decade or so earlier, fighting different opponents, the Krant may have appeared much more powerful.
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I always figured the Krant was kind of the Stuka of the WWII analogy. Actually the Krant has a great missile loadout, it's just undergunned compared to it's confed counterparts.
 
Quarto said:
And of course, it's hard not to fantasise about a Krant being split right down the middle, and the two halves just carrying on as though nothing happened...
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See... now all I can think of is the Krant being a gimmick fighter, like the Cobra Condor from the 80's G.I. Joe series.
 
DefianceIndustries said:
I always figured the Krant was kind of the Stuka of the WWII analogy. Actually the Krant has a great missile loadout, it's just undergunned compared to it's confed counterparts.
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Funny, even though I'd read the Confed Handbook, I didn't remember anything about the Krant being used as a dive-bomber until I looked up its entry on the WCPedia. The author had a nice idea there, adding a bunch of completely new facts that yet somehow still fitted with the ship and how it had been used in WC1.

Of course, with WC1 itself, I don't think they ever gave much thought to the Krant's backstory. The impression I get is that the Kilrathi fighters were designed purely for gameplay purposes. In terms of shields and armour, speed, manoeuvrability, and missile loadouts, the Kilrathi ships are pretty smoothly ramped from the Salthi to the Jalthi, and so the Krant occupies a middle ground between Gratha and Dralthi. The only thing that doesn't quite get such smooth ramping are guns. Makes me wonder if perhaps at some point the Dralthi and Krant had been intended to carry heavier guns, which were then replaced with lasers for balance. But if that had been the case, then would both have used mass drivers, or would the Krant have used neutrons initially? Now that would be interesting, but it would be a very short-range loadout.
 
@Quarto I agree that the guns were likely due to game balance. Logically in the pantheon of Kilrathi ships the Slathi and Dralthi would have lasers, the Krant should have something like mass drivers, and then the Gratha as the Raptor analog with it's laser/mass driver combo. However, I think usually you're up against krant at 3-1 odds in most cases, maybe mass or neutron guns were too difficult for hornets & scimitars? Of course SM 1 threw that all out the window. Go on Maverick! Take on that wing of Gratha in your Hornet! Do it! Do it for Halcyon!
 
In all fairness, that is concept of the Defender...to which I hope they give more practical forethought before finalizing her design. CIG loves their Rock/Paper/Scissors gameplay balance.
 
Whistler said:
In all fairness, that is concept of the Defender...to which I hope they give more practical forethought before finalizing her design. CIG loves their Rock/Paper/Scissors gameplay balance.
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Some of the concept art also has the wings drop down in landing mode... so there's some movement on the arms where there likely would be a way to get them out of your view during combat... from the Q&A:
Will you address the issue with cockpit visibility?

Short Answer: Yes.

Longer Answer: As we discussed on the Subscriber’s Town Hall (helpfully included down below) we’ve been looking at several solutions for the visibility issue since before the sale was announced, as indicated in this month’s Jump Point. While we’re exploring several options, none of them should majorly impact the overall look or aesthetic of the ship, but we anticipate will greatly improve pilot and co-pilot visibility.

Will the front prongs fold back during combat to offer a better view forward?

The mechanisms on the prongs offer a lot of movement flexibility, so this is certainly one of the likely avenues for improvements to the visibility we’re exploring, possibly by angling them down/outwards more.
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This was kind of a "what if" spin off of a WC1 or 2-ized Yorktown. I got the idea looking at some of the renders from the old Tac Ops manual. The mesh has a few minor changes from the WC3 variety, the most obvious being the oval conning tower as opposed to the rectangular one, and the round-style turrets. Also the engine nacelles are rounded and beveled a bit. Anyway here is the end result. Enjoy...

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FYI - The background isn't mine - I can't find the artist otherwise I'd do some attribution here.
 
Dang, that really sparked up the page. Look at the capital ships from the Exeter down.

Are there any Draymen or Caernavens running around in this thread?
 
Dang, there are more ships here than I expected. All of them look fantastic. It would really improve the page's look if I used more of these images to increase the uniformity of the image style and quality. Mind if I borrow a few more? Attribution is given at the bottom of the page.

PS That Talon is Beautiful
 
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