Old Confederation Fighters

There's been much discussion about the WC3 Confed craft appearing in Academy, they're basically all there apart from the Excalibur, and the Thunderbolt. This led to some to believe that the 'bolt was new when we see it in 2669, but StarSoldier* and WC3 novelisation seem to suggest it's a lot older.

As for the Arrow, I seem to recall SS* explaining that Maniac flew in Arrow squadron before the Morningstar project, sometime between SM2 and WC2. Must agree though, Arrow V is prettiest by far.
 
I really like your drawings. If my modelling skills were better, maybe I would attempt to make models of your designs and put them into WC:Saga. :)
 
I think that the "original" version of the Arrow was similar to what we saw in Armada (fast, but very light on the weapons with only 2 missiles and dual lasers). The interceptor variant that we see in WC3 is a "new" variant upgraded to have an extra pair of (ion) guns and carry eight missiles to allow it to take on incoming enemy bombers.
 
I think I remembered a few of the wc2 kilrathi designs.. it's very hard not to cheat right now and just look at a picture while drawing.. but that'd defeat the entire purpose. The Gothri is there but done quickly.. since it'll be getting the VIP treatment when I cover privateer next.
 
since I forgot to link to it in the last post:

wc2erak.png
 
Ijuin said:
I think that the "original" version of the Arrow was similar to what we saw in Armada (fast, but very light on the weapons with only 2 missiles and dual lasers).
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Perhaps some of you have heard this sentence before in a different situation ;)
2 Dumbfire missiles and two Laser cannons ought to be enough for anybody!

I don't like the WC3 Arrow very much. It sure looks good, but I like the Armada version much better.
To be honest the Armada/Standoff Arrow V is unmatched!

If Wing Commander was real and I would live in 2669 ... I would go for the Arrow. Even if lots of ships offer a longer survival time due to better shields and armor. But hey - who wants to live forever?
 
wc3era.png

It's really getting fun seeing how my memory compares to the reality of the designs.. turns out.. not so much :D I'm rather enjoying this though.
 
Ninja, could you draw a couple of alternative versions of the Thunderbolt for me? I remember in the WC4 novel, Pliers mentioned that the Thunderbolt shared some parts (some of the struts or something) with the Rapier. And of course, they look nothing like one another - the Rapier is sleek, the Thunderbolt is basically a brick. But I figure... what if the Thunderbolt we see in WC3 was so chunky because it had additional layers of armour piled on top, but there was in fact also a sleek, low-armour version out there? You know, the way the Arena fighters exist in multiple variants of heaviness.

So, my request (if you have the time to take requests :) ), would be to draw three Thunderbolts side by side - the medium would be the standard WC3 Thunderbolt, the light would have some armour removed to expose a sleeker fighter underneath (perhaps with a couple of winglets or fins added for good measure), and the heavy would have even more armour than the WC3 version, plus maybe some additional exposed firepower.
 
NinjaLA said:
could be done.. any specific reason why though?
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No specific reason, I just think it would be an interesting thing to look at - and also, because that wing strut thing had always intrigued me. Back then, I just scoffed and figured that the author must never have seen a Rapier or a Thunderbolt. Today, I think the more imaginative approach would be to take the reference and run with it, and see where it takes us.
 
quote="Rylex, post: 378910, member: 2096"]Perhaps some of you have heard this sentence before in a different situation ;)
2 Dumbfire missiles and two Laser cannons ought to be enough for anybody!
[/quote]
For fighting against light and medium fighters it is certainly adequate--in WC1 the Hornet had that plus one Heatseeker and it was quite adequate, and in WC2 the Ferret was fine with 2 mass drivers and zero missiles. However, you wouldn't be able to take on four Pahktans per wave and kill them all before they could fire any torpedoes with that kind of weaponry since you'd be racing against the clock to blow them up faster than they could get missile lock.
 
Ijuin said:
For fighting against light and medium fighters it is certainly adequate--in WC1 the Hornet had that plus one Heatseeker and it was quite adequate, and in WC2 the Ferret was fine with 2 mass drivers and zero missiles. However, you wouldn't be able to take on four Pahktans per wave and kill them all before they could fire any torpedoes with that kind of weaponry since you'd be racing against the clock to blow them up faster than they could get missile lock.
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You are right. If it is a battle against the clock and the fighters are heavy, you need more time.
If you have all the time you need, then it is no problem :p - as long as you have your afterburners :cool:

@Ninja Thank you for drawing the Arrow. Looks very good! (The cockpit is a bit small but I still like it!)
 
Rylex said:
You are right. If it is a battle against the clock and the fighters are heavy, you need more time.
If you have all the time you need, then it is no problem :p - as long as you have your afterburners :cool:
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A light, ultra fast Arrow would make for an excellent scout--I would love to tangle with Darkets and Strakhas in something even faster than the interceptor Arrow (with the lighter guns of course). We ought to have had a "light scout" Arrow for the regular missions (a little faster, only two guns but 2x2 missiles of any type we choose), while reserving the regular "interceptor" Arrow (2 ion / 2 laser, 2x2 ImRec + 2x2 Heatseekers) for the "carrier defense" missions.

Having the default Arrow be a bit lighter would have helped the balance between the Confed craft as well. As it currently stands, the Hellcat gains relatively little weapon strength over the Arrow (120 per volley vs 96, with the Hellcat's neutron guns having 1/3 less range than the Arrow's lasers, and 2x3 missiles on the Hellcat vs 2x4 on the Arrow), and relatively little shield/armor protection (20 of each on all facings according to the in-box documentation). On the other hand, the Hellcat loses a lot of speed and agility over the Arrow--too much to be worth the relatively small boost in attack and defense strength in the opinion of some players. Just why does the "light" fighter get more missiles than the "medium" fighter anyway?
 
Thanks again, that Stiletto looks great, but the most interesting of the bunch has to be your Dralthi VII, I never noticed just how the Priv Dralthi resembles the Drakhri. Do keep these up.

Ijuin said:
For fighting against light and medium fighters it is certainly adequate--in WC1 the Hornet had that plus one Heatseeker and it was quite adequate, and in WC2 the Ferret was fine with 2 mass drivers and zero missiles
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Yup, especially given that with a little practise in a Hornet you can destroy a wing of Drakhai Jalthi and a small fleet of capships (and still be chewed out for it) - my problem with the Arrow has always been that by 2669 the Kilrathi heavy fighters had all improved and it can take a lot of time and patience to kill the best enemy fighters.
 
Got a quick question: are there any stats out there for the first set of fighters NinjaLA drew on this thread? I'm specifically interested in the Gladiator (an old bomber), the Falcon (a heavy fighter/bomber), and the Hurricane (a POS hybrid design). If there are, where at they at?

If there aren't, who'd like to help me make them up?
 
My only suggestion is for inspiration - look at the historical Gladiator & Hurricane (from pre-ww2 and during, respectively) and try to reflect those designs. For instance, in the case of the Hurricane, perhaps instead of 2 laser cannons and 2 something-else cannons, you might want four (or eight!) low power cannons, like we saw on the Banshee in WC4. The Gladiator was one of the last Bi-planes ever designed, so your design for a WC Gladiator might be configured around the idea of four wing surfaces, similar to the Raptor. Just examples.

I've been thinking about the WC Wildcat, being a predecessor to the WC Hellcat, and what that might look like. A hybrid between movie & game style is where I'm at. (that should be no surprise considering my Avatar pic, huh.)
 
Yeah, I don't have any real stats.. I was just trying to come up with designs that were spiritual precursors.
 
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