[aldo_14]

Which do you prefer - a stupidly fast ship that handles like a barge pole, or a slow ship that can turn on a 5p piece?

And no, 'balanced' is not an option.  I'm just 'researching' what extreme characteristics are best in a fighter/bomber.

[Woolie Wool]

Agility. The lack of agility was one of the main reasons why the Myrmidon sucks so much.

[Solatar]

Agility. You can't outrun a laser or most anti-fighter missiles no matter how fast of a fighter engine you have. You can however dodge them if your ship is agile enough.

[Jetmech Jr.]

agility, hands down.

[Blaise Russel]

Mostly bomber? Speed, you're not supposed to be dogfighting anyway.

Mainly fighter? Agility, all the engine power in the world doesn't help if you turn like the Colossus.

[Moonsword]

Agility, definitely.  With agility comes  a reasonable amount of speed anyway, based on the lower mass necessary.

And the Myrmidon's not that unmaneuverable.  Try dogfighting in a Medusa sometime because your idiot escorts won't or can't peel a fighter off your butt.  Now that sucks.

[Unknown Target]

Well, in real life, I'd prefer speed. But FS's flight characteristics are seriously screwed up, so I'm going for agility.

[HotSnoJ]

Fighters need speed and agility. Bomber don't need agility really, but a higher speed is nice, so you can get outa the blast area.

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by Blaise Russel
Mostly bomber? Speed, you're not supposed to be dogfighting anyway.

Mainly fighter? Agility, all the engine power in the world doesn't help if you turn like the Colossus.

I agree with BR, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick speed.  I always preferred the Valkyrie to the Ulysses in FS1, and I got annoyed in Inferno when the basic fighter (Vesuvius, IIRC) was too agile for me to even control properly.

[Flipside]

Agility all the way, heck, speed is what the afterburner key is for

[SA22C]

Originally posted by Goober5000
I agree with BR, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick speed.  I always preferred the Valkyrie to the Ulysses in FS1, and I got annoyed in Inferno when the basic fighter (Vesuvius, IIRC) was too agile for me to even control properly.

Yeah, that really bothered me in FS1 too.  Here was the Ulysses, which was supposed to be the bee's knees when it came to fighters and all I could do was jerkily miss all my targets because it was so damn twitchy.

As for the Myrmidon, the six primary banks MORE than make up for any lack of maneouverability.  I found the good ol' Myrmidon equipped with dual Prom S cannon and dumbfires was the best ship to use in dogfighting.   The Herc II didn't pack a big enough punch, primary wise and the Ares was too slow.  The Erenies seems like a good successor to the Myrmidon, but lacks gun power.  That good ol' Myrmidon can go all day firing dual Proms.

[DragonClaw]

Speed, definately. I won't make a Freespace application to this though. Rather, IL-2 Sturmovik sums it nicely. I love to fly the me-262 in multiplayer games. Once you get your speed and you're high up, nothing can touch you really. Just making highspeed passes and shooting up into the sky, there's not much the other player can do but try and hit you on a head vs. head pass, and the me-262 almost always wins those.

[Knight Templar]

Screw you woolie, Speed owns.

See the Athena.

[Black Wolf]

Speed. The overly manoeuvrable fighters just make the game frustrating for me, though they do make the AI more of a challenge to kill.

[Nico]

Originally posted by SA22C


Yeah, that really bothered me in FS1 too.  Here was the Ulysses, which was supposed to be the bee's knees when it came to fighters and all I could do was jerkily miss all my targets because it was so damn twitchy.

I feel like I didn't play the same games as you all first time I flew the ulysses, it was turning so fast I had a hard time aiming... and the myrm is way more agile than, say, the Hercules ( mk1 ).

[Liberator]

Yeah, but it should have handled at least as good as the ship it replaced in the fleet(the Uly).  I think the Myrmidon is yet another example of a collosal(sic) blunder in ship designations.  It's more of a strike bomber that can dogfight relatively well after it's dumped it's payload.

[TopAce]

Speed. Agility has no use against the Ai. Being able to run away from Flaks and slower fighters is more temptating.

[Nico]

I prefer to have to choose between speed/agility and heavy hull/shield, personally.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Nico
I prefer to have to choose between speed/agility and heavy hull/shield, personally.

Ah...but - no shields.  I'm trying to figure out 'extreme' characteristics that distinguish between ships, actually.  Because there's no cockpit differences, really, so if you want to make each ship unique you have to add in some interesting handling or performance characteristics.

[Fineus]

Bombers - Speed. I want to zoom in and out of the combat area, unloading bombs and getting the hell out of the way of the blast/enemy fire.

Fighters - Agility. Speed is all for nothing if I can't dodge out of enemy fire/turn fast enough to keep my target in my sights.