Originally posted by Eder
I think that by 2681 the BW should have better ships than the ones on this list
Originally posted by Eder
I think that by 2681 the BW should have better ships than the ones on this list, except for maybe the Sabre and Wraith (and the Gladius, if you go with the Armada version).
I mean, going by the UE fiction, it's safe to assume that the Dauntless' Epees and Scimitars were some of the less capable BW ships, and not the kind of thing they plan to use onboard fully operational carriers during wartime... as opposed to a carrier that's heading for the scrap yard, and has had all of its major squadrons transferred off already.
Originally posted by Aries
what would the BW have that is better than a Raptor? nothing, since Quarto already said we won't get the Dragon, and AFAIK the BW don't have any Excals or Panthers or Vampires, and those are the only ships better than the Raptor
The Arrow has more shields, equal armor, can fly circles around a Raptor, although lacking a decent missile load.Originally posted by Aries
what would the BW have that is better than a Raptor?
Originally posted by Tempest
Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to create an excuse to continue using the exceptionally old ships in UE2, simply due to the fact that at the end of UE, the Dauntless is due to be refitted and sent into combat again. I mean... if it was sent into the front line with some squads of scims and raptors, even upgraded, it'd be kinda lame and wouldn't make too much sense.
I can understand why people want to be able to continue playing with the old ships that we love, but we must look at this from a realism point of view. This -is- a plot, and it is -meant- to make sense. UE2 is in prophecies time line, therefor I doubt the BW are so poor to not have some of the later technology.
Originally posted by Eder
The Arrow has more shields, equal armor, can fly circles around a Raptor, although lacking a decent missile load.
The Bearcat has the same maneuverability, more speed, better guns, shields, and armor.
The Vindicator is just as fast, only slightly less maneuverable, and has much more armor and shields, not to mention a better loadout.
The Hellcat has slightly better maneuverability, is faster, has much better shields, and slightly better armor.
I'm as nostalgic as the next guy, but nobody has yet explained to me WHY they think UE2 should depict the BW dealing with a now imminent and unavoidable alien threat in the same way they used a half-empty hundred year old carrier to deal with half a dozen Kilrathi pirates.
UE's plot provided a good excuse to use those old ships. IMHO UE2 can't afford that anymore... Coming up with something to justify throwing Scimitars to the front lines of an all-out war would be an insult to any player's intelligence. In 2681, I bet not even the Landreich are serious about taking Raptors or Scimitars into front-line service anymore, no matter how many upgrades they've had.
Be reasonable. When making fighter comparisons, you need to assume pilots of equal skill.Originally posted by Aries
and with the right pilot (me) a Raptor could kill all of the above
Agreed. The capships in UE probably still have a few good years left in themOriginally posted by TC
Eh... there's no reason to think the Bengal class is stupidly out of date... Confed was probably building them up until the end of the war.
Thunderbolts were used in SO, alright... but they were top-of-the-line bombers only 12 years before that, and since then there have been at least three other confed bombers... two of which have entered service just recently, in the last decade, presumably not having been produced into large enough quantities to replace the Thuds and Longbows just yet.Originally posted by TC
I'll also point out that Confed is using Thunderbolts in Secret Ops, it's not a stretch to think the Border Worlds are using ships in that generation and a couple earlier when you look at the lifetime for a fighter class in various sources. We've seen fighters that stay in use for a century or so, and fighters that are used as front-line ships for at least fifteen years.
It really doesn't, but IMO that's only because of the Dauntless' situation. Were the Dauntless fully equipped, it would probably have at least a squadron of Vindicators or Sabres. I don't think the Dauntless' original compliment had anything as old as Scimitars - or that the WC1/2 era ships comprised the majority of the Dauntless' fighters.Originally posted by TC
The situation in UE doesn't seem that odd.