127 replies to this topic

[Rob]

I'm a big fan of SW, especially Imperial Star Destroyers, but SOMEBODY has got way too much time on their hands. How on earth did they compile that photograph anyway? Do we ever get a sufficiently close-up shot in any of the films to tell the bridges apart from one another (apart from the big X shape antenna, that's clear enough in Ep. IV)

WOOT! Mine is the top post on pages TWO & THREE!
(Simple pleasures for simple minds...) :-D

[Imrix]

Some people just do stuff like that for pleasure. But then, some people are weird...

And yours would be the top post, if you view 20 posts per page. Which I'm not. I bumped it up to 25.

[Pred the Penguin]

Way to ruin happy first-post-guy's day.

[Imrix]

Yeah I do that.

To hark back to this topics original purpose; the Gamma-class ATR-6 assault transport rocks my nonexistent socks. As a heavy, durable bomber it excels- and is capable of tackling those oh-so-annoying corvettes as well, leaving its only weakness to be fighters. Even then, the sheer durability means it requires either several attack runs or truly advanced fighters to destroy.

Couple them with some Sentinel-class landers, and you have a recipe for pain. Sure, the Sentinel is slow- but that just means the fighters overshoot it to be blasted in the back! Plus, it doesn't get too far ahead of the Gamma's.

[Phoenix Rising]

Yeah, the transports are tough, but also their collision meshes were a little too slim in the mini-mod (less than the profile of the actual ship in many cases), so you could almost never hit them. They're still tough, but more destroyable now.

[Imrix]

I will await your upgrades for it in open glee- if, indeed, you are going to give every ship upgrades.

[Pred the Penguin]

Transports are very tough, I usually prefer them over bombers...

[Imrix]

It's something to ponder on. Bombers have light torpedoes, transports have standard ones. Bombers are faster and, over time, may be tougher (combined health/shields) but transports can defend themselves better.

Overall, it's a question of whether twelve light torpedoes matches up to four full torpedoes...

[Phoenix Rising]

12 light torpedoes = 12 * 32 = 384.
4 torpedoes = 4 * 48 = 192.

Of course, generally there are two launchers as well. But with transports, you get:

• A dedicated gunner for the warhead launchers, so they can be fired at anything in the forward arc (9 to 3) instead of just your 12 o'clock.
• Double the max range cap for energy weapons over starfighters (800 versus 400) and 150% of the warhead max range at 900 over 600. So where starfighters can just barely launch their warheads outside of the range of light lasers and quad lasers, transports only have to worry about heavy lasers, provided that they have the maneuverability to pull up in time.
• Much thicker armor and more potent shields over bombers (fighters and bombers were downscaled a bit to compensate for their biased XW values; if you look at how many times the Falcon was hit versus an X-wing, there's no way that those values are comparable).

Transports are essentially a hybrid class between a fighter and a true capital ship, so they add some variety to the battlefield, even if they are a little unorthodox.

[Imrix]

So basically, bombers could do more damage but transports will be around longer to do that damage over and over...

Plus, as of now you don't have to sink gods-knows-how-much in upgrades into them. Yes, I do think the starfighters aren't up to much without being upgraded out the wazoo.

Regarding your point on the Falcon; well it depends what you use to judge the Falcons shields by. If you're going from the base YT-1300 freighter then, well... don't!

The Falcon is, after all, customized beyond belief. I think Lando once noted that it's basically a huge jumble of parts held together by its shields, which run through the outer edge of the hull to strengthen it. I think the thing has got... What? Four overlapping heavy duty shield generators? Five? Frankly I'm surprised the TIE's bolts didn't just bounce off...

[Pred the Penguin]

The Falcon did malfunction a lot and generators might overheat, but it's still pretty much the best freighter... made? or customized...

[Rob]

Brings back memories of trying to take out rogue Imperial Assault Transports in my Gunship in the old TIE fighter game. Ahhh...the 90's.

[ShadowClaw]

Oh man, I remember that! That mission was hard as hell.

[Imrix]

The one I always had trouble with was defending freighters from bombers in X-wing vs TIE fighter... I just cannot shoot down THAT many torpedoes!

Going to meet the bombers only does so much, either...

[Phoenix Rising]

You guys remember the mission in XWA where the Executor assaults the Vergesso asteroid base and it was launching all kinds of bombers and transports and you have to shoot down wave after wave by yourself? That mission was sick.

Anyways, yeah, I know the Falcon has nasty outlaw tech shields, but even still, there's no way that fighter armor can be as thick as transport armor, if only for the reason that you're hauling a couple dozen passengers instead of a couple.

Actually, I just finished the Skipray upgrades the other day and they are nasty. The gunner station really does it; there were just missiles and torpedoes flying everywhere. If you really micro them well, you can just skirt outside the range of defensive lasers and deliver payload after payload. Obviously anything that gets upgrades is going to look weak compared to the 10th generation of it, but once everything is done, it should even out so you'll have to be more selective about which upgrades you take.

[Imrix]

Bah, I never bother microing my bombers well. I just organize the fleet into groups based on type, set up a flanking force on one end, another at another, charge with everything and pick a new target when something blows up. Worked so far.

Edited by Imrix, 01 August 2007 - 11:00 PM.

[Pred the Penguin]

Bombers die extremley easily, well at least in vanilla.

[Imrix]

Yeah, that's why I set them up as a flanking force. Let the enemy fighters and corvettes range ahead with their greater speed, then head in behind them to go for the more sluggish capital ships.

[Phoenix Rising]

The bombers in vanilla are toys. The flimsiness of the Skiprays annoyed me so much - among other things - that I started converting my mod files over from EaW and pretty much haven't looked back since.

[Imrix]

While yes, the Skiprays are incredibly flimsy (it's the size, makes them just about vulnerable to turbolasers), I disagree on them being toys.

They're not.

What they are, is a well-known archetype known as a Glass Cannon. They can dish out the hurt on capitol ships like no other, but they cannot take it.