One tech from the dragon that makes no since to not incorperate is its new drive. Before everyone goes off saying that it is too expensive look at its benifits. You basically cut the feul demands which will save billions a year. A fighter with this will pretty much pay for itself in saveings from the fuel it no longer needs.
What Happened to the dragon
- Thread starter Loco337
- Start date
Lord_Nathrakh
Spaceman
sure Loco im sure it would and while i love the dragon u gotto realise cap ships have the same matter/anti-matter drives, yet as the behemoth alrdy stated they need at least some fuel.
i dont care who thinks so but running the same fuel through an engine over and over again even if it were possible just would make for to many repairs and such it may be cost effective sure getting twice as much juiece per flight allowing for extended runs, but it it worth it when u have got mission specific craft that can do the same with with the same(if not better) results.
i dont care who thinks so but running the same fuel through an engine over and over again even if it were possible just would make for to many repairs and such it may be cost effective sure getting twice as much juiece per flight allowing for extended runs, but it it worth it when u have got mission specific craft that can do the same with with the same(if not better) results.
Death
gh0d (Administrator)
Umm, V61, there weren't all that many Dragons remaining by the end of WC4. The 2 squadrons (each squadron having 10 craft) on the Vesuvius were destroyed in the battle on the way to Sol, 1 on the Lexington was captured by the UBW, and the official fate of the 1 squad posted at Axius is unknown, IIRC, but the odds are rather heavily against their continued survival, since they were flying in support of a group residing on the [excrement] lists of at least 3 governments (Confed, UBW, and Kilrathi).
10 fighters (and likely not even that many; Blair's ship was shot to hell in the Seether battle, and even wonderships die, especially when not flown by experienced vets like Blair) are not exactly going to make all that big a difference, even used as SpecOp vessels (for which they're marginally suited anyhow... there's a lot more to SpecOps than just the vehicle used to get on the scene, and often even the transportation issue is better handled by something as anonymous as a plain-as-dirt transport looking like it's doing normal stuff instead of some wondership trying to sneak in [not to mention losing a transport when something screws up is a lot less expensive than losing the wondership]).
As for the political thing, in a cold war-ish context, where higher concepts take a back-seat to "we must contain the Red Menace" (or insert your color of choice), the Dragon might not raise many eyebrows, but there was no equivalent of the Soviet Union in WC after the Kilrathi were defeated. Peacetime isn't conducive to wartime-type spending or gear of dubious non-terror value (like the stocks of cold war era chemical weapons that the US is working on destroying, for example).
10 fighters (and likely not even that many; Blair's ship was shot to hell in the Seether battle, and even wonderships die, especially when not flown by experienced vets like Blair) are not exactly going to make all that big a difference, even used as SpecOp vessels (for which they're marginally suited anyhow... there's a lot more to SpecOps than just the vehicle used to get on the scene, and often even the transportation issue is better handled by something as anonymous as a plain-as-dirt transport looking like it's doing normal stuff instead of some wondership trying to sneak in [not to mention losing a transport when something screws up is a lot less expensive than losing the wondership]).
As for the political thing, in a cold war-ish context, where higher concepts take a back-seat to "we must contain the Red Menace" (or insert your color of choice), the Dragon might not raise many eyebrows, but there was no equivalent of the Soviet Union in WC after the Kilrathi were defeated. Peacetime isn't conducive to wartime-type spending or gear of dubious non-terror value (like the stocks of cold war era chemical weapons that the US is working on destroying, for example).
Ya the dragon uses a little fuel but it makes most of it by picking up free floating hydrogen. Im wondering why those engins havent been implimented at least to some degree in the craft of the WCP era. The bombers and heavy fighters could use it to give them extended stike capablities. I agree it wouldnt be needed on light fighters and other short range point defense craft.
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Except that I wasn't asking a question - I was pointing out that the Dragon's super-usefulness makes it a waste of resourcesViper61 said:
.How often do you see a really state-of-the-art fighter being used as a testbed? I highly doubt that ever happens - test flights are risky business, and using the most expensive fighter available is just begging for trouble.
Returning to your graphics card example... this new graphics card probably carries with it the risk of the whole system blowing up at random - therefore, I'd rather shove it into an old piece-of-shit Pentium that I've been keeping around just for that purpose
.Wish I had an answer
. The best guess is that we just happen not to see them, but that they are out there - you know, like the way we didn't see the Midway's Thunderbolts until SO.If it makes you feel any better, I don't think so either - I think it had been skewered long before the PR issue even came up. The Dragon's reputation was just a finishing blow.
Lord_Nathrakh
Spaceman
we should leave the poor dragon alone its not here defending itself. Basicly it was a terror weapons used by the lance unfortunatly it couldnt have been manufacted in mass it cost as much as a medium cap ship it seems the money spent on it may have been better used to creat a better capital ship or a privetter fleet for tolwylons use
Haesslich
Spaceman
Lord_Nathrakh said:
About the only really good thing about the Dragon program was that its technologies paved the way for future heavy fighters which, when combined with the innovations gained in the Bearcat's design philosophy, gave us the really nice Vampire and Panther-class Space Superiority fighters.
Otherwise, it was far too expensive for what it did - and what other fighters could do almost as well, if not better, when they specialized. WCP's fighter designs reflect this, a concept that the Kilrathi apparently understood for the most part, to judge by their non-combat craft in False Colors.
Lord_Nathrakh
Spaceman
still if the dragon had of been used in the war, oh would the kilrathi have been sorry, imagine a fleet of dragons uncloacking on a kilrathi fleet dropping flash pacs all over there cap ships then recloacking and jumping out all in under 5 min leaving behind only the burn husks of a dozen enemy cap ships
Haesslich
Spaceman
Lord_Nathrakh said:
The problem was that the Dragon and the Genetically Enhanced types weren't ready till several years after the end of the Kilrathi war, and there weren't apparently enough of them to take on the Kilrathi anyways, not at that stage of the conflict.
Remember, BioConvergence was designed to be used to make humans stronger. You couldn't use that on Kilrathi, and after they'd seeded Locanda and several other planets with their own bioweapons, Confed was more than a little leery of the idea.
Okay, so you didn't ask the question, but I'm sure you wanted toQuarto said:Except that I wasn't asking a question - I was pointing out that the Dragon's super-usefulness makes it a waste of resources
. It would be a waste of resources if you had alot of pilots at your disposal. As I stated earlier, the BL needed craft that could do everything (strike, dogfight, and ground assault) in one flight and at a long distance too. The Dragon was perfect for their needs. That's why I can see the Dragon in a light SO squadron. able to strike far away targets without pulling a carrier off-station and letting who your going after know you're coming. You got me there, the few I saw being used as testbeds were front-line, but they were ones on the cheap end of the spectrum. But if the Lance is going to be put in mothballs anyway (or dismantled), why not? Plus, as I said earlier, you'd have to augment an existing craft with what the Dragon has on board to test an improved part. Could go either way.Quarto said:
lol - That is true, if a graphics card came with the sticker "Warning may cause total systems failure - and maybe explode", I don't think that would go in my top-of-the-line systemQuarto said:Returning to your graphics card example... this new graphics card probably carries with it the risk of the whole system blowing up at random - therefore, I'd rather shove it into an old piece-of-shit Pentium that I've been keeping around just for that purpose
. But as stated earlier, if the computer/Dragon is done for anyway. . .Those were the Midway's? I thought those were from a cruiser (along with the Excals). I've got to let the ICIS mission briefing finish before I go on a mission.Quarto said:Wish I had an answer
As a front-line, mass-production fighter, sure. As a strategic, small run, "ace in the hole" type craft, I think its another thing that could go either way.Quarto said:
C-ya