[wardog300k]

After seeing the ,,Not a fan of Perseus" thread,I actually wanted to know which fighter is the most loved and flown.So,write which one is your favourite and why.(Note:Terran Mara isn't counted)

Let me start off.

My favourite fighter is the GTF Ares,ultra-heavy assault.
Very strong hull and shields,large missile capacity and not so bad speed make this ship excellent in everything,from attacking interceptors from 2 clicks with the Maxim,to blowing up Cains with the Tornadoes.Low maneuverability isn't a problem to me,as you can destroy everything before they start making circles around you,if you can aim that is.I became so good with this ship that I can do interceptor stuff too.

[General Battuta]

For which difficulty?

[Kestrellius]

As I said in that thread, the Pegasus. It's...maneuverable enough.

[Lepanto]

Erinyes.

I know its weaknesses, but EIGHT GUNPOINTS OF KAYSERY AND PROMETHEUSY (OR MAXIMY) DEATH.

The Ares is also cool, on the rare occasions that campaigns let you fly it. Treb and Tornado spam FTW.

[Thisisaverylongusername]

Other than the Terran Mara, the Loki.

[General Battuta]

Man we really gotta talk about difficulty, a bunch of ships that work on low difficulties are just terrible on the more challenging realistic:7 ones

[Spoon]

SF Ray MkIV

[Mars]

Are we talking canon fighters?

GTF Valkyrie, until the advent of those terrible AAA beams.  After that it just has to be the Perseus, simply because its the only FS2 fighter that doesn't have ludicrously crippling flaw. The other exception is the Mara, which I count not as a fighter so much as basically being in god mode for one mission.

Non canon but Freespace versed based fighters:

Blue Planet's Atalanta is fantastic, it's not fat like a Kent and its more maneuverable than the Uhlan

[niffiwan]

Man we really gotta talk about difficulty, a bunch of ships that work on low difficulties are just terrible on the more challenging realistic:7 ones

The missions themselves are important too, if you don't have many AI's attacking you the Ares can work quite sweetly even on insane.

Anyway, if I were to rephrase the question to this:  When playing the Freespace2 campaign on insane, which ship do you change to most given the choice?

I'd probably answer: GTF Ares - it's purpose built to lob Trebs at bombers and capships from long range and you generally don't need to engage fighters in the missions where it's available. However I also view it as a deathtrap (on insane) if enemy fighters are out for your blood, target profile is too big and it's not fast enough to run away (hahaha, you should see me and my Myrmidon bravely-bravely-run-away in "... But hate the Traitor")

[AdmiralRalwood]

I definitely don't enjoy flying anything as much as the Erinyes. Even when testing **** (like when I was working on nebula lightning, and flying As Lightning Fall repeatedly), I feel downright giddy when I get to fly that sleek-looking fighter and fire 8-gun-strong Kayser barrages.

I am aware of the Erinyes's weaknesses; I just don't care.

[wardog300k]

Cannon fighters,both Great War-era and FS2-era.If we're using the difficulty,I'll say medium.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Tough call, but I'm gonna name the Serapis, despite it's obvious flaws, for a few reasons:
- it's pretty much the only craft in which I feel confortable facing dragons
  * I like its gun placements better the the Ulysses' and the Toth's
  * It carries more missiles than the Uly
  * Unlike the Uly, I never had to fly it with only TAGs & crap guns over and over
- it can carry the maxim and has a good energy reserve to support it
Runner ups include the Ares 'cause trebs'n'maxim'n'kayser, the Erinyes 'cause screw those Shivan Bombers.

Honorable mentions go to the Shivan Mara for being the only Shivan craft that doesn't suck ass to fly - the Dragon is disqualified due to more awkward gunpoints and small secodary bank, and the Nahema for not carrying enough bombs.

[Vrets]

The Perseus is probably the best all-around fighter. But my favorite ship to fly is the loathsome Ulysses. Now that I am converted to mouse-and-keyboard-over-joystick paradigm I can finally handle this sick abomination of a fighter.

Shields are of a lesser importance when nothing can hit me!

[Gee1337]

I find myself going for the Erinyes. Load the lasers with Kaysers and Maxims to make it a good multi-role brute. The downside of this ship is the power drain with continuos fire of the Kasyers or Maxims.

I'm also prone to a bit of Perseus action, because that speed is very useful. Some might find it surprising that I am not a fan of the Ares. It's more of a tanking fighter and I'm not a fan of tanking... tanking is what cap ships should do!

I'm a bit vain as well, so I believe that the best looking fighter in retail FS2 is the Perseus.

Out of mod fighters, I think my favourite is the Ezechiel because of its power and the way it looks!

[Black Wolf]

The Thoth. Hands down the most fun to fly - handles somehow better than just about anything else in the game.

[Klaustrophobia]

Erinyes, as long as the difficulty is low enough that you can actually use the gun banks.  But I'm a pansy and mostly play on easy anyway. 

[swashmebuckle]

The Thoth. Hands down the most fun to fly - handles somehow better than just about anything else in the game.

Thoth what I think too.

[Klaustrophobia]

But those gunpoints....

[Vrets]

But those gunpoints....

No kidding.

As I said in the other thread, if you're flying a thin fighter, you can orient yourself so that your ship's hull is perpendicular to the thoth's gunpoints ("+") and it just misses you head-on. It's absurd(ly funny). In this context, the Ulysses is the natural predator of the Thoth.

[Kestrellius]

Yesterday I learned that if you're flying a Loki, you can just completely ignore an Aeshma's guns.