Poll

Whats your weapon of choice, pilot ?

GTF Hercules
16 (6.3%)
GTF Herecules MK II
16 (6.3%)
GTF Erinyes
77 (30.3%)
GTF Perseus
61 (24%)
GTF Pegasus
19 (7.5%)
GTF Myrmidon
14 (5.5%)
GTF Ares
43 (16.9%)
GTF Ulysses
8 (3.1%)

Total Members Voted: 252

Author Topic: Favorite terran fighter  (Read 97344 times)

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Offline Mars

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
The Serapis sucks horribley

 

Offline Stormkeeper

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
I personally like the Serapis. Its a pretty nifty fighter, can turn on a dime. Although, its kinda made out of paper.
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Offline eliex

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
The Serapis weapon compatibility is pretty good for its class, but I never liked it's engine power when turned on max compared to the Myrmidon - even the Tauret nearly matches the Serapis' speed.

 

Offline Stormkeeper

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
Its still more maneuverable than either fighter, and the Myrmidon's profile is horrible no matter which side your facing.
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Offline Iranon

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
The Serapis seems wasted potential. Why the hell did the Vasudans install the most powerful reactor to ever grace a light fighter (more output than that of an Erinyes!) without making sure the craft is compatible with the most beloved energy hog (UD-8 Kayser)? While we're at it, how can they call it an advanced interceptor if it can't carry Trebuchets?
Impressive shield recharge, manoeverability and target profile mean this thing can dodge heavy fire all day long. At the same time, low shield capacity and primary firepower make it difficult to actually do something useful without getting one's butt shot off.
The way the engine responds to different power setting negates some of the excellent energy power plant - top speed suffers significantly when fed less than default yet it doesn't benefit much from additional energy.

Whining aside, it's a craft capable of many different jobs: It's fast enough and has enough secondary capacity to be a reasonable interceptor if you can live without Trebuchets, it's an effective (if unforgiving) dogfighter and it can wield Maxims against capital ships with more than enough power to spare. For a multi-role craft I prefer this over the Myrmidon, but on the whole I expected a more elegant solution from the Vasudans. If I don't need to take cheap shots at capital ships I'd rather fly the Thoth.

***

Regarding the assault fighters...  in this class all of the modern ships are balanced and have their uses. I'm leaning towards the Tauret because it has all I want from a heavy fighter; being less nimble than an Erinyes or a Herc II isn't a problem if you assign 3 Taurets + 1 light fighter to a wing.

 

Offline Stormkeeper

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
The Serapis seems wasted potential. Why the hell did the Vasudans install the most powerful reactor to ever grace a light fighter (more output than that of an Erinyes!) without making sure the craft is compatible with the most beloved energy hog (UD-8 Kayser)? While we're at it, how can they call it an advanced interceptor if it can't carry Trebuchets?
Actually, the role of interceptor is just to intercept. An interceptor is generally small, and fast, tasked with chasing down enemy fighters and bombers. A Trebuchet is a heavy missiles and carrying these in large capacities would probably slow it down. Interceptors (imo, anyway) tend to use primaries to kill anyway, hence the smaller secondary bank.

Impressive shield recharge, manoeverability and target profile mean this thing can dodge heavy fire all day long. At the same time, low shield capacity and primary firepower make it difficult to actually do something useful without getting one's butt shot off.
Like I said above, its an interceptor. Its supposed to stay on the move, and its definitely not meant for head on strikes on capital ships.


The way the engine responds to different power setting negates some of the excellent energy power plant - top speed suffers significantly when fed less than default yet it doesn't benefit much from additional energy.
Can't really call it suffering significantly. 75ms-1 is still respectable. Although, the measly 3ms-1 is quite ... disappointing. But you can see it as the Serapis already having alot of power drawn from the power plant.

Whining aside, it's a craft capable of many different jobs: It's fast enough and has enough secondary capacity to be a reasonable interceptor if you can live without Trebuchets, it's an effective (if unforgiving) dogfighter and it can wield Maxims against capital ships with more than enough power to spare.
I think the main weapon an interceptor needs to have is the Harpoon, since its the de facto dogfighting missile.

For a multi-role craft I prefer this over the Myrmidon, but on the whole I expected a more elegant solution from the Vasudans. If I don't need to take cheap shots at capital ships I'd rather fly the Thoth.
Agreed.

Regarding the assault fighters...  in this class all of the modern ships are balanced and have their uses. I'm leaning towards the Tauret because it has all I want from a heavy fighter; being less nimble than an Erinyes or a Herc II isn't a problem if you assign 3 Taurets + 1 light fighter to a wing.
GTVA tends to group their wings with similar fighter classes, though. Besides, the single interceptor/space superiority probably won't make much of a different.

Sidenote: Try to space your text out a little, makes it easier to read.
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Offline Iranon

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
Actually, the Freespace designations are roughly equivalent to the real-life distinction between interceptors and air superiority fighters in the 50ies to 70ies, the former are optimised for speed and/or standoff capability as opposed to dogfighting ability.

This makes the Serapis slightly misclassed as it's neither terribly fast nor able to carry long-ranged missiles, but very manoeverable. The Vasudans, however, still have a pure interceptor in the Horus (which is optimised for quickly picking off bombers/disabling beam cannons, then retreating to a friendly capital ship instead of picking fights with anything lighter than a Basilisk).

As you said yourself, the Harpoon is also a missile optimised for dogfighting rather than interception although its quick lock-on time makes one bay of them useful: the quickest way to pick off a group of bombers would be to fire Trebuchets from afar, then pick off survivors with Harpoons and primaries.

Regarding the engine I overlooked something; apparently decrease in speed is linear between default and no power assigned to the engines, with the latter resulting at half the normal cruising speed. A measly 3 m/s increase for full power is disappointing though.


About 3+1 wings... many things in the game don't quite work as expected. In the hands of the AI, a a few Medusae loaded with Infyrnos/Piranhas  can be more successful against fighters than the finest space superiority fighters the game has to offer for example. Likewise, 3 assault fighters/bombers slow the enemy down while a manoeverable space superiority fighter rips them to shreds. The only real drawback is if that the lightweight has a low life expectancy if you send the wing into heavy flak. This is usually not a problem if you just let them do their thing though.

 

Offline Stormkeeper

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
I suppose it returns to your playing style. If you prefer interceptors to have long range missiles, that's your nick. For me interceptors are fast and can turn on a dime, and don't need long range missiles. I actually use the Harpoon to pick off bombs, because of its fast lock on and manueverability. And besides, interceptors are

Quote from: Wikipedia Article
... a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft, particularly bombers, usually relying on great speed.
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Offline Snail

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
Then Interceptors are pointless. The best way to defend a ship is to match its speed in an Ares and Trebuchet anyone who comes near.

 

Offline Stormkeeper

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
The point to interceptors is that they are meant to destroy all aircraft, but pilots are trained to prioritise bombs and bombers first. So an interceptor has to be fast and nimble, which means having paper thin protection. Because if an interceptor is spending a lot of time still, its obviously not doing its job.
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Offline Snail

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
Trebuchets have made all interceptors pointless.

  

Offline Stormkeeper

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
Pair Trebs don't take down everything, and they're worthless against bombs because of long lock on time. And besides, the most Trebs I've ever carried were 13 (Herc II), which didn't really last long in game.
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Offline Snail

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
You can Treb a bomber before they fire their ordnance (faster than an interceptor can take a bomber down, anyway).

 

Offline Kie99

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
Pair Trebs don't take down everything, and they're worthless against bombs because of long lock on time. And besides, the most Trebs I've ever carried were 13 (Herc II), which didn't really last long in game.

Unless you have a big wing of Seraphim coming at you from less than 3 clicks, you should be able to take down a wing of bombers before they can do anything.
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Offline Iranon

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
It's possible to defend in something other than a dedicated interceptor craft... if you don't have to cover a lot of ground, simply staying close to one's charge and lobbing trebuchets from an assault fighter/bomber might be the easiest way. Likewise, it makes sense to use a space superiority fighter for interception duty if surviving the fighter escorts is the bigger problem than shooting down the bombers/bombs in time (often redundant for Terrans since the Perseus is a respectable dogfighter in its own right).
This doesn't magically turn those craft into interceptors though, in the same way that an Ursa full of Infyrnos still isn't a space superiority fighter.

From the same wiki article:
"[Interceptors] sacrifice performance in the air superiority fighter role (ie fighting enemy fighter aircraft) by tuning their performance for either fast climbs or high speeds, respectively. The result is that interceptors often look very impressive on paper, typically outrunning, outclimbing and outgunning less specialized fighter designs. Yet they tend to fare poorly in combat against those same "less capable" designs due to limited maneuverability."

The Horus and Valkyrie are such vulnerable performance craft ('express missile delivery vehicles' rather than superior dogfighters); echoing western aviation history the line between space superiority fighters and interceptors blurred in the following generation: the new designs sacrifice sheer speed for shielding (Terrans) or agility (Vasudans). Dedicated interceptors are still the way to go when defending multiple targets against enemies from different attack vectors; slow craft might be incapable of responding in time even when wielding Trebuchets.
Despite some concessions, the Perseus still functions for pure interceptor duties. The Serapis will usually do, but in many situations the Vasudans have no alternative tot he Horus.

 

Offline Droid803

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
I find an Ares far more efficient than any interceptor at defending a convoy.
However, if I need to defend something big (like an Arcadia or a Destroyer), it is usually better to use an interceptor, as you can't simply lob a trebuchet through the ship you're defending, you often need to cover a click or so before you can actually let loose with the missiles.
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Offline Mongoose

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
I find a lot of this debate over missile performance rather amusing, since I usually wind up coming back with almost my full load of them at the end of a mission. :p In my mind, interceptors make for the best defensive ships because I'm able to afterburn over to whatever wing of bombers has last jumped in in the shortest time possible, allowing me to open up on said bombers with whatever primary weapons I had loaded at the time.  Trebuchets are all well and good for attacking slower targets, but they do miss, and one can usually hold only a handful of them.  Give me a nice Prometheus S or Kayser 300 meters behind my target any day of the week.

 
Re: Favorite terran fighter
We need one of those big whiteboard-type things like on Top Gear split up into sections titled sub-zero, cool, uncool, seriously uncool, not worth a mention...

 

Offline Stormkeeper

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
We need one of those big whiteboard-type things like on Top Gear split up into sections titled sub-zero, cool, uncool, seriously uncool, not worth a mention...
Yea. But where would we put it ?
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Offline Rodo

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Re: Favorite terran fighter
Dog fighting is not the same that intercepting, I guess that everyone knows this but I said it anyway..
perseus description seems a little off at this subject, as it can be used as a good dog fighting craft as well.


the best way to difference this is when you try going after a wing whose orders are to kill you and only you.. If you go right straight to them you'll find yourself surrounded by a rain of primaries and they wont miss! dog fighting gets easer when you hold their 6' and gets like an interceptor role kind battle but well..
(and I havent seen an AI wich tries to overcome this scenario by puting at your 6', the only way of being killed is with two fighters against you)

Personally I use the Trebuchets only to bring down turrets from afar, and if I have some to spare I target any kind of fighter/bomber that's coming right straight to me, just to weaken it's front shields, then I charge and throw a couple of 1's on it's face on the approach.

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