[Wanderer]

Hmm.. wonder where i read that... after not so quick search there is something about it here... Dunno where that info has been taken but it states something that implies that early war kilrathi fighters were even more cannon fodder than the versions seen in WC1 and later on (when quality difference was much smaller).

With the end of the War, Blair was considered the 11th greatest ace of the conflict on the basis of sheer kills alone. He was the number one all time record holder for Kilrathi ace kills and the most decorated officer. This is actually a significant revelation considering only two pilots, Blair and Todd Marshall, entered service after Custer's Carnival in 2644. All 38 other top Confed pilots were from the first half of the war when Kilrathi defensive technology was very bad and they were more prone to throwing numbers at their enemy. Some Kilrathi even saw him as something of a prophet. He'd saved them from themselves; the long war against the Confederation had made them corrupt, and with Kilrah destroyed they had a chance to start over.

[nowd]

...,their fierce aggressiveness has driven them to devote a disproportionate amount of ressources to draw even with terran technology. With the advent of stealth technology, this gap grows smaller.

(From the WC3 Warbirds)
The Kilrathi are trying to draw even with Confed but I think Confed still remains the upper hand. Just take the Excalibur, the most recent craft in WC3. It is vastly superior to anything the Cats have except the Bloodfang which is so expensive that is only given to one squadron in the empire.
Confed on the other hand has no problem to mass produce the Excalibur.

i.e. Vaktoth have weaker shields than T-bolt, but is more manouvreble, a bit faster iirc and carry more missiles, while having equal gunpower, and Pakthan is also superior to longbow in any aspect but shielding.

Actually the T-Bolt and the Vaktoth are almost equally manouvreble though the Vaktoth has more missles and speed. However it lacks the Torpedo of the T-Bolt macking it less effective against capships.
And the Longbow has a lot more shielding and armor, a more powerful rear turret and more afterburner speed than a Paktahn. If had to choose between one of the bombers I'd take the Longbow anytime.

Its true that the heavier fighters can compete with their terran counterparts but I think Confed still has a slight advantage thanks their superiority in defensive technology.

[Akalabeth Angel]

Both Darkets and Dralthis are very common mass produced fighters that are thrown at you in masses. A single one isn't much of a thread.
Problem is that for some people its quite hard to avoid the missiles as they are. Others think they are to easy to avoid and aren't doing much damage.

        I wonder if it's possible to change the tracking abilities and/or damage based upon the skill level of the mission? I'm playing on medium for example, and like I said. The pirate missiles were rather tense, but later on vs the Kilrathi it wasn't such a big deal. Maybe it was because I was fighting the bombers and the escort seemed to be totally ignoring me for some reason.

[Mancubus]

Actually the T-Bolt and the Vaktoth are almost equally manouvreble though the Vaktoth has more missles and speed. However it lacks the Torpedo of the T-Bolt macking it less effective against capships.
And the Longbow has a lot more shielding and armor, a more powerful rear turret and more afterburner speed than a Paktahn. If had to choose between one of the bombers I'd take the Longbow anytime.

Its true that the heavier fighters can compete with their terran counterparts but I think Confed still has a slight advantage thanks their superiority in defensive technology.

As of Pakthan - yes it has less shields and armor, weaker turret and 2 less missiles, however it carries more torps, is mor manouvreble, faster in cruise speed, and have waaaaaaaaaaaay stronger gun array (actualy scecond strongest ingame after excalibur) as for vaktoth's manouvribility comapared to T-bolt. yep, according to manual they are almost the same, however the manual data isn't that accurate (because the manuals were made befor final balancing  of the game), and i always felt ingame, that vaktoth had some edge over thud.

I'd agree with the final statment but still, the hevies are almost equally matched, while light fighters of the cats are waaay inferior with darket having less than half arrow's shields, around three quaters arrow's armour roughly 2/3 of it's gunpower and four time less misiles ...

[Backslash]

Well, back on the original topic, there's two values in the tables you'll be particularly interested in... $Max Velocity (for adding side thrusters) and $Damp (for inertia).

I agree, I like the momentum and thought WCSaga could use a bit more... but it turns out it is true to WC3.  Fortunately us more picky types do have the option of customizing things

The Kilrathi are trying to draw even with Confed but I think Confed still remains the upper hand. Just take the Excalibur, the most recent craft in WC3. It is vastly superior to anything the Cats have except the Bloodfang which is so expensive that is only given to one squadron in the empire.
Confed on the other hand has no problem to mass produce the Excalibur.

At least at the time of WC3 I got the impression that the Excalibur was pretty darn expensive -- my guess is, by the time mass production ramped up enough, the war was already over.