Wing Commander 3 Frigate - similar to a DL/DLG?

[Dragon1]

I was recently re-reading Victory Streak and something about the Frigate entry made me think about a ship development which came about in the years after World War II.

Large anti-aircraft ships originally called destroyer-leaders, later called frigates (in the US), took on the role of providing anti-air escort for carrier groups. After 1975, many of these ships were reclassified (again, in the US) as cruisers to help shore up a perceived US-Soviet cruiser gap.

The Confed Frigate is not only as large (mass) as the light carrier, but also is the only capital ship which is equipped with anti-fighter missiles. When originally planned, did the game designers have in mind the DLGs of the past, which incidentally also equipped anti-air missiles as a primary armament?

 

[Vinman]

Were there frigates in WC3? I only recall seeing them in WC4.

 

[Red Baron]

You can create a mission with HCl's editor and put them in. The pictures in the database show the destroyer model, but it's also covered in the "lost ships" section http://www.crius.net/zone/showthread.php?threadid=20607

 

[Dragon1]

Paladin was brought to the Victory on a frigate. However, a Southampton model was used instead of the Frigate model. Does anyone know why the frigate model wasn't used?

 

[Prometheus]

Paladin was brought to the Victory on a frigate. However, a Southampton model was used instead of the Frigate model. Does anyone know why the frigate model wasn't used?

Maybe they weren't satisfied with how the Frigate model looked and decided to not use it. That's just my shot in the dark, I don't even know what it might look like

 

[Wedge009]

It's the same as the frigate model used in WC4.

 

[Dragon1]

The laser/flak turrets of capital ships seem generally ineffective in shooting down fighters. It is a little surprising that we don't see more war-era ships with IMREC/IFF launchers. As far as I can remember, the only Confed ships that carried an anti-fighter missile battery were the frigates and Exeter-class Destroyers.

 

[Prometheus]

It's the same as the frigate model used in WC4.

Maybe they just found no place in WC3's missions to put it.

 

[Dragon1]

The target ID of the ship Paladin came in on was 'frigate', so the game designers obviously wanted to put in something different than what we had seen escorting the Victory.

 

[t.c.cgi]

The laser/flak turrets of capital ships seem generally ineffective in shooting down fighters. It is a little surprising that we don't see more war-era ships with IMREC/IFF launchers. As far as I can remember, the only Confed ships that carried an anti-fighter missile battery were the frigates and Exeter-class Destroyers.

It's not surprising at all. The designers wanted the game to be fun and exciting as well as run on hardware currently available (even if top-end). That meant that capital ships of both sides had to be close to helpless.

In the novels, where there's no concern about combat being a frustrating experience of die 50 times then finally get lucky and survive a torpedo run, capital ships are much more dangerous and require large wave attacks of more than 2-4 fighters and bombers to take down.

 

[Dragon1]

It seems Confed also recognized a growing ineffectiveness in anti-fighter weaponry. The flak cannon was, according to the Kilrathi Saga manual, scheduled to be retired in the last year of the war. Confed antimatter guns, per Victory Streak, were used mainly to defend against bombers and corvettes.

The Murphy class Destroyer seems to represent a new ideology, were the primary anti-fighter defense comes from the IMREC battery and fighter squadron, while the laser turrets may have been retained to shoot down incoming torpedoes and missiles.

Perhaps the massive jump in fighter defenses between 2667-2669 accounts for these developments. Fighter shields and armor figures differed tremendously between WC2 and WC3 reflecting the use of phase shields and updated armor alloys. It would be logical to assume that the old anti-fighter weapons were just not up to the task of dealing with new fighters.