Defiance's Eyecandy Thread
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DefianceIndustries
Rear Admiral
Oh speaking of Bearcats...
This is oddly one of my favorite Confed designs, it's clearly an evolution of the Hellcat but there's some definite Excalibur influence as well. Also on paper, it's actually quite a nice fighter; she's fast, nimble, and has better shields and armor than her big sister. About the only gripe are the lackluster guns. While working on this one I thought: "With the Excalibur they built a sword, with the Bearcat, they made a scalpel." Not sure why but that sums the F-104 up nicely in my mind.
And a fun little fiction sales brochure cover because...why not?
This is oddly one of my favorite Confed designs, it's clearly an evolution of the Hellcat but there's some definite Excalibur influence as well. Also on paper, it's actually quite a nice fighter; she's fast, nimble, and has better shields and armor than her big sister. About the only gripe are the lackluster guns. While working on this one I thought: "With the Excalibur they built a sword, with the Bearcat, they made a scalpel." Not sure why but that sums the F-104 up nicely in my mind.
And a fun little fiction sales brochure cover because...why not?
L.I.F.
Vice Admiral
A pretty elegant incremental improvement on the Hellcat indeed. As indicated on the Discord, I must wonder what a finalized version would have looked like, if the ones fought and flown in IV were prototypes. I don't know about other people, but its rugged and very functional look is particularly attractive to me. No unneeded aesthetics, a very compact design that would be wonderful for storage on carriers unlike most Confed designs: the cockpit part could probably fit between the engine pods of the fighter next in line, while the flat configuration makes vertical storage effective. It's simple, it's blunt and if its teenage trouble were sorted out, it could have been an excellent alternative to the Tigershark, IMO.
@DefianceIndustries, I have no idea how feasable it'd be, but do you think that at one point such wonderful crafts could be integrated and playable in the MUP for Prophecy? I kinda wish we could have had this beast.
Something overlooked by many is that the Bearcat not only replaces the Hellcat but also the Arrow, being a bit faster than the light fighter while much more armed and armoured. Fix its few flaws and you just got yourself an excellent baseline fighter for the entire fleet. That is, if in-universe and out-of-gameplay parameters do not prevent its widespread adoption. I suppose that it could have been a maintenance hell or have huge cost/reliability issues like we see IRL with some planes.
@DefianceIndustries, I have no idea how feasable it'd be, but do you think that at one point such wonderful crafts could be integrated and playable in the MUP for Prophecy? I kinda wish we could have had this beast.
Something overlooked by many is that the Bearcat not only replaces the Hellcat but also the Arrow, being a bit faster than the light fighter while much more armed and armoured. Fix its few flaws and you just got yourself an excellent baseline fighter for the entire fleet. That is, if in-universe and out-of-gameplay parameters do not prevent its widespread adoption. I suppose that it could have been a maintenance hell or have huge cost/reliability issues like we see IRL with some planes.
DefianceIndustries
Rear Admiral
There's no reason I couldn't make an .IFF for it - it'd have to be restricted to WCP:Unlimited obviously, and if you wanted to make it "canon" you'd have to tweak the bullet file to make the light tachyon guns (alternatively you could give it Ions - too weak or full fledged Tachyons - OP). But I wouldn't modify the game itself to include it. At but you could copy the files and replace the tigershark or something if you wanted to mod it. Or you could write up some sim missions to try it out.
L.I.F.
Vice Admiral
Heh, that's something I'll have to try, thanks!
FekLeyrTarg
Rear Admiral
"Unknown Enemy" features the Bearcat, too. So if there ever will be a Remaster, your Bearcat would be perfectly placed there.
Yes. As a replacement for both the Arrow and Hellcat it would have been ordered in large numbers; which would help keep costs down. It could actually replace the T-bolt in many missions as well. The location of it's Tachyon Cannon needs to be changed though. I LOVE THE BEARCAT!!
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Well, with the DLL patches, it's possible to add more gun types beyond what the game originally had, and it's possible to add more ship types than the game originally had, and it's possible to add more ship types in the sim. So, you know, it certainly wouldn't hurt to add the Bearcat to the sim. Of course, for a start, it would be good to add the Thunderbolt and Excalibur from SO, since with them, at least, we know they're active-duty ships, and really should have existed in the sim originally (I assume they didn't, to save time on developing cockpit meshes for them).
DefianceIndustries
Rear Admiral
Well if you're gonna do a Lexington, you also need to do an escort, I mean you can't have a fleet carrier floating around unescorted can you? So here you go, one WC4-style Southampton DDG. Complete with a variety of paint jobs. We have your Confed variety:
And of course, the Union gets one too:
and this is just me dorking around making a 90's style art piece.
And of course, the Union gets one too:
and this is just me dorking around making a 90's style art piece.
DefianceIndustries
Rear Admiral
My WC4 era kick continues. We did a destroyer, now we get a frigate. Hooray for the Caernaven class frigate. Apparently these guys are the Talons of capships - just about everybody has one -
We have Confed (which in WC4 livery is really plain. boo for post-war color schemes!)
We have the Union:
And my personal favorite the Pirate version
I took the most liberties with the pirate version. The original one was just solid orange. This version seems more piratical. Arrrgh Avast! Walk the airlock and all that.
Anyway enjoy. I guess I'll have to do a Tallahassee at some point...hmmmmm….
We have Confed (which in WC4 livery is really plain. boo for post-war color schemes!)
We have the Union:
And my personal favorite the Pirate version
I took the most liberties with the pirate version. The original one was just solid orange. This version seems more piratical. Arrrgh Avast! Walk the airlock and all that.
Anyway enjoy. I guess I'll have to do a Tallahassee at some point...hmmmmm….
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Ahhh, the frigate. There is something really exciting about frigates and corvettes in Wing Commander. But the excitement, oddly enough, stems really from the way these ships are so terribly under-used. Corvettes and frigates are ships you're more likely to read about in the novels, than see in the games.
We see one Confed corvette in WC1 - but only in the manual (in the game, you see an Exeter instead). Another Confed corvette then appears in WCP - but again, only in the manual. We see two Kilrathi corvette types, in WC2 and WC3 respectively (the latter returning in WCP). They're a lot of fun, even if you mainly just shoot at them. And of course, there's a Nephilim corvette in WCP.
With frigates it's even worse: we read about them time and again, but only ever encounter one frigate type. It almost
shows up in WC3, and then comes back with a vengeance in WC4. Only, you'd be really hard-pressed to explain the difference between a frigate and a destroyer based on your experiences in WC4.
All in all, there is definitely plenty of room for more corvettes and frigates in the WC universe - something that both Standoff and, IIRC, Saga, tried to address to some extent. Back when I was seriously thinking I might one day get around to doing UE2, the Caernaven frigate was slated to show up there, too.
We see one Confed corvette in WC1 - but only in the manual (in the game, you see an Exeter instead). Another Confed corvette then appears in WCP - but again, only in the manual. We see two Kilrathi corvette types, in WC2 and WC3 respectively (the latter returning in WCP). They're a lot of fun, even if you mainly just shoot at them. And of course, there's a Nephilim corvette in WCP.
With frigates it's even worse: we read about them time and again, but only ever encounter one frigate type. It almost
shows up in WC3, and then comes back with a vengeance in WC4. Only, you'd be really hard-pressed to explain the difference between a frigate and a destroyer based on your experiences in WC4.
All in all, there is definitely plenty of room for more corvettes and frigates in the WC universe - something that both Standoff and, IIRC, Saga, tried to address to some extent. Back when I was seriously thinking I might one day get around to doing UE2, the Caernaven frigate was slated to show up there, too
.
DefianceIndustries
Rear Admiral
L.I.F.
Vice Admiral
Same, I definitely agree they need more love, which is why I got out of my way to try and make them useful for escort and picket duties in FC. A pair of frigates as escort for larger ships is money really, really well spent.Ahhh, the frigate. There is something really exciting about frigates and corvettes in Wing Commander. But the excitement, oddly enough, stems really from the way these ships are so terribly under-used. Corvettes and frigates are ships you're more likely to read about in the novels, than see in the games.
We see one Confed corvette in WC1 - but only in the manual (in the game, you see an Exeter instead). Another Confed corvette then appears in WCP - but again, only in the manual. We see two Kilrathi corvette types, in WC2 and WC3 respectively (the latter returning in WCP). They're a lot of fun, even if you mainly just shoot at them. And of course, there's a Nephilim corvette in WCP.
With frigates it's even worse: we read about them time and again, but only ever encounter one frigate type. It almost
shows up in WC3, and then comes back with a vengeance in WC4. Only, you'd be really hard-pressed to explain the difference between a frigate and a destroyer based on your experiences in WC4.
All in all, there is definitely plenty of room for more corvettes and frigates in the WC universe - something that both Standoff and, IIRC, Saga, tried to address to some extent. Back when I was seriously thinking I might one day get around to doing UE2, the Caernaven frigate was slated to show up there, too
Sylvester
Vice Admiral
I agree with your assessment of the color schemes, Defiance. I was always more partial to the Silver/Green tones that Confed ships had from the 2650s to mid 2660s. That's why I especially loved your Yorktown model in WC2 livery.
DefianceIndustries
Rear Admiral
"After the war, the boys over in R&D and Special Projects started slapping a cloaking device on anything with wings. They were obsessed with trying to close the gap between us and the fur balls; even after their disarmament at Torgo they still had a big lead on us in cloaking technology. So when we heard Douglas was shipping us a new model of Hellcat to test out we were a bit...skeptical is probably the best word for it. But when they brought us the first Black Cat we saw this was really the first step forward.
The cloak itself hadn't changed much, it was still a huge energy hog and it's heat dissipation curve still lagged way behind the Kilrathi's mid-line models, but the hull plating was something totally new. It was a brand new neoferro-carbon composite that absorbed incoming radar/lidar signals or simply reflected them off in a different direction. It could fly in a limited stealth mode even without a cloak engaged - and with the cloak active we were able to sneak up to the sensor nets along the Kat's border, tail a patrol or convoy, and zip away unseen. It was the first time we ever had anything like parity.
Unfortunately we couldn't do anything about the Hellcat's giant intakes and the big ol' engines, which really cut down on the Black Cat's stealth profile, the hull can only do so much. It was obvious to us then that we needed something new, even an Excalibur couldn't make full use of the new hull plating - and she was designed for a cloak out of the gate. So that's when Admiral Tolwyn stopped by my office and asked me to start drafting a new heavy fighter, something that was fast, mean, and could use the new hull and cloak to it's full potential..."
The cloak itself hadn't changed much, it was still a huge energy hog and it's heat dissipation curve still lagged way behind the Kilrathi's mid-line models, but the hull plating was something totally new. It was a brand new neoferro-carbon composite that absorbed incoming radar/lidar signals or simply reflected them off in a different direction. It could fly in a limited stealth mode even without a cloak engaged - and with the cloak active we were able to sneak up to the sensor nets along the Kat's border, tail a patrol or convoy, and zip away unseen. It was the first time we ever had anything like parity.
Unfortunately we couldn't do anything about the Hellcat's giant intakes and the big ol' engines, which really cut down on the Black Cat's stealth profile, the hull can only do so much. It was obvious to us then that we needed something new, even an Excalibur couldn't make full use of the new hull plating - and she was designed for a cloak out of the gate. So that's when Admiral Tolwyn stopped by my office and asked me to start drafting a new heavy fighter, something that was fast, mean, and could use the new hull and cloak to it's full potential..."
.
DefianceIndustries
Rear Admiral
ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Also compare to the Arrow we see in WC4. Confed standard model has green colors and Confed star. Black Lance variant has the purple markings denoted here and no star. https://www.wcnews.com/ships/armarrow.shtml