[SaltyWaffles]

So...it's been years since I've been active on this forum. But one thing I do remember feeling and thinking about a fair bit was how the missions in Part 1 (where you play as Samuel Bei) felt a bit held back by the fact that you're still piloting the same fighters as you did in FS2, save for the Aurora (and, of course, the missions where you use Vishnan strike craft, which was really damn cool), especially on the missions where you're doing a similar kind of thing that you were in FS2, where you needed to cover lots of distance in too short of a time.

Add on to the fact that you can only use any of the new Tev fighters in one mission of War in Heaven, and that mission being what it is, the lack of repair ability really hurts the viability of using one of them.

So: why not allow for the new Tev fighters in the Part 1 campaign? Since you're playing as the GTVA in that entire campaign, that seems like an excellent way to give the players the chance to enjoy the new fighters (which are really fun to fly/use) when you basically can't do that in the War in Heaven campaigns (and War in Heaven has its own slew of new fighters/bombers, too).

While balance is something of an issue, the player can always increase the difficulty, and each of the new generation of strike craft still has its own serious limitations--the Atalanta has very limited utility against warships and is severely lacking in secondary flexibility, the Nyx is slow and not very maneuverable, and the Draco's armament only as strong as the Perseus. And, of course, you'd still be using the old bombers in missions where you need that.

It would also make sense, lore-wise, for the battlegroup to have them, since they're supposed to be the best of the best to have the best possible chance to pull off the Tev's plan to conquer Sol.

[spart_n]

to be a bit of an unpaid shill, warmachine is an entire reimagining of Age of Aquarius' gameplay that grants access to the WiH era fighters as well as new toys to mess around with.

as for actual AoA, i dont think it's balanced for the kind of fighters WiH's got, difficulty or no difficulty. you can fly circles, if not outright keep up with dragons in an atalanta (going by WM's stats which seems to be just reprinted from WiH i think) and other crafts which remove base shivans as a threat.

to speak more out my ass, i believe AoA was also unreleased before these fighters came out? something have to correct me on that one

[EatThePath]

Regarding Warmachine, our versions of the fighter differ in a few places from current BP. Some due to intentional broad changes, some probably due to forking off of BP starting many versions ago.

In the category of intentional changes, we turned on glide for every fighter, and sideways thrust for some.

The WM Atalanta is actually slightly *less* nimble than the current BP Atalanta, but it's marginal. So unless glide is a vital part of your tactics or you are leaning on our missiles, spart_n's experience there should be pretty accurate to a ideally armed BP Atalanta.

[FrikgFeek]

You'd really have to buff the Shivans(like warmachine does) for the new fighters to be anywhere near balanced. The Draco has a 4-bank instead of double 2-banks so it has way more firepower than the Perseus. Linking banks reduces your firerate by 33% so the Perseus only has 2.66.. effective banks while the Draco has 4.

The Nyx is also almost as manoeuvrable as the Perseus(0.2 seconds slower for a 360 rotation) and has the same speed on afterburners at 140.

And the Atalanta is just absolutely ridiculous. Sure, you have to pick between Tempests and Trebs but the 4-2 weapon configuration means you don't gain any DPS by linking guns so you can use the 2-bank for the Maxim, which offsets not having trebs for long-range disarming.

That said you do at least get the Kulas in AoA and the Kulas is really good for AoA. Try it in forced entry with a balor in the 4-bank and 5 trebs for secondaries. The burners last for 21 seconds and your relatively high shields means you get a high shield regeneration rate too(since shield regen is always a percentage of max shields).

[SaltyWaffles]

to be a bit of an unpaid shill, warmachine is an entire reimagining of Age of Aquarius' gameplay that grants access to the WiH era fighters as well as new toys to mess around with.

as for actual AoA, i dont think it's balanced for the kind of fighters WiH's got, difficulty or no difficulty. you can fly circles, if not outright keep up with dragons in an atalanta (going by WM's stats which seems to be just reprinted from WiH i think) and other crafts which remove base shivans as a threat.

to speak more out my ass, i believe AoA was also unreleased before these fighters came out? something have to correct me on that one

Warmachine? I've never heard of that. What is it, and where can I find it?

[EatThePath]

Warmachine is a mod derived from Blue Planet. It was initially the product of a close friend of mine musing about where he'd take BP and what he'd do differently, as well as implementing a lot of visual and gameplay ideas. It's currently available as a remix of sorts for Age of Aquarius alone, working in new weapons for everyone and some changes to ships, plus a few adjustments to levels to keep them from getting boring with the new firepower, and a few instant action missions. Maybe it'll grow into it's own story some day, but until then the AoA missions make a great place to play.

There's a release thread over in the campaigns section, with links to knossos and a few special instructions.