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Question regarding Defender


Xyvik

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I am both delighed and a bit worried to hear that the TIE Defender will be making it into the game. My question to the Devs, however, is based on past experience.

 

Both X-Wing Alliance and (obviously) Galactic Battlegrounds made the mistake of making the TIE Defender far less powerful than it actually is. For those who know the technical details of the craft, the Defender is, without a doubt, the best starfighter in the galaxy. It is as fast as an A-Wing(and faster if it shunts its shield power to it), has better shields and armor than an X-Wing, has more firepower than a B-Wing, and is even more manueverable than the vaunted TIE Interceptor. Obviously, however, such sheer superiority of the craft came with the vehicle being extremely expensive.

 

Is FoC going to remain true to the power of the Defender, or are you going to "nerf" it? Obviously it would have to cost more, but for once I'd like to see the craft get the honor it is due: that of the best starfighter in the galaxy.

 

-edit- also, the defender had a tractor beam. Is that going to be incorporated in any way?

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I've played all the old TIE fighter games - I remember how much of a nasty ship the Defender was. While we have to keep RTS game balance in mind, I want to make sure that the Defender lives up to it's history :)

 

*breathes a sigh of relief* So glad to hear that others feel likewise! I know it has to be balanced, but I'd so love to just -feel- the power of it. XWA it was powerful, but still a tad lighter than it should have been...yeah, I know, balance and all that, but at least you're looking to make sure it lives up to its history.

 

But dang is it expensive!

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Personally I don't think tractor beam on a fighter is going to work well game-wise.

 

But yeah I would rather the Defender cost more, and please give me the firepower it should have.

 

I rather they cost a fortune and a small unit size than a bunch of nerfed "slightly better" ties.

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According to Star Wars "history", didn't the Empire only have a few dozen Defenders scattered throughout the whole galaxy? If they mass-produced them, the Galactic Civil War could have turned out far differently... I'll be sure to keep that in mind when I'm playing the Empire in FoC. :)

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According to Star Wars "history", didn't the Empire only have a few dozen Defenders scattered throughout the whole galaxy? If they mass-produced them, the Galactic Civil War could have turned out far differently... I'll be sure to keep that in mind when I'm playing the Empire in FoC. :)

 

Indeed, even before Endor the Empire still considered hyperspace starfighters to be a waste of money (hence why the Advanced never made production) and then the upheavel caused by the death of the emperor and the funds drained by people like Isaard and warlords like Zsinj left the Empire without the resources to mass produce the Defender. If the Empire had seen things differently, then the Rebellion would never have survived. Even the vaunted firepower of the B-Wing was no match for a Defender.

 

And yeah, I think the tractor beam would be hard to implement, but I remember several of the manuevering tricks you could pull off if you used it right.

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I doubt that they'll use the tractor beam as one of the Defencer's special abilities. All it would be able to do with it is capture other fighters, and it would have to remain stationary itself to do so. I think it's more likely that it'll have some other ability, like the Y-wings' ion cannon blast.

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Actually, the idea of it having more firepower then a B-Wing is relative. The Defender had less ion cannons (2) for two more lasers (4) making it a much deadlier anti-fighter craft. However, it did not have the same warhead carrying capabilities then a B-Wing, making it "weaker" at taking out capital ships.

 

Certainly, Tie Defenders were hell to fight against. I remember playing Tie Fighter during the last few missions and having to fight them with an Avenger. Even at the easy difficulty, it was a nightmare. There was no way to out-run them or out-maneuver them.

 

Come to think of it, the game should seriously consider including the Assault Gunboat and the Missile Boat. Just for fun's sake :) But that's just wishful thinking from my part.

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Well, strictly speaking, the Missile boat kinda came into play to take out the Defender, didn't it? :)

That is rogue TIE Defenders I mean, the ones Zarin acquired. ;)

 

Or I guess it primearly was intended to be used against rebel fighters, not it's own sides ships. :)

Haven't read up much about it other than what I know about it from TIE Fighter:

4 launchers (was it 10 or 20 missiles each?).

1 laser cannon.

Engine Booster that drained energy from the cannon to the engines to increase speed by alot. :p

Came out first time some time between Battle of Hoth and Battle of Endor.

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Actually, 4 launchers could carry a maximum of 80 concussion missiles (20 each) if sent against fighters exclusively. However, the "normal" payload consists of 40 concussion missiles (the two top launchers could not carry anything else) and whatever else you wanted to have on the two bottom (generally proton torpedoes, but sometimes heavy rockets and bombs were used, well by me :p mag pulses were useless).

 

Generally, heavy rockets did much more damage but were easily intercepted so you had to get in pretty close before unloading everything. It was fun to stop the ship at 5 Km and just bombard the station/capital ship with your torpedoes. That was fun...ah Tie Fighter, how I love you :) !

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Actually, the idea of it having more firepower then a B-Wing is relative. The Defender had less ion cannons (2) for two more lasers (4) making it a much deadlier anti-fighter craft. However, it did not have the same warhead carrying capabilities then a B-Wing, making it "weaker" at taking out capital ships.

 

not to start an argument, but I'm curious as to where you got the info that the defender doesn't have the warhead capacity of a B-Wing. Defenders have 2 missile launcher tubes that can be stacked with either concussion missiles or proton torpedoes, depending on the mission, with a max payload of 12 or more don't they? Do B-Wings carry more missiles? I really forgot how many missiles the B-Wing can carry although I know they do have 2 missile tubes as well.

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According to X-Wing Alliance, the B-Wing can carry up to 16 concussion missiles or 12 proton torpedoes. I think that's actually equal to what the Defender can carry.

 

Based on the X-Wing series, which I always liked to a certain extent but always thought they made capital ships a bit too weak, a squadron of X-Wings alll launching torps could severely damage a capital ship, and X-wings could carry 12 torps. So that means that B-Wings and Defenders are on par in actual missile capacity, but the B-Wings extra ion cannons meant they do a bit more damage to a capital ship (just a bit) whereas a defender can outmaneuver any fightercraft and still damage capital ships...

 

they best make that thing bloody expensive! lol

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B-wings were bombers and TIE Defenders filled a space superiority role; it would make sense for the B-Wing to have a higher warhead complement. I thought that was what I remembered from XWA, but I haven't touched that in a while...and I'm a bit biased since I didn't fly TIE/D's that often 'cause I think they're ugly. TIE Phantoms look much cooler! ;)

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B-wings were bombers and TIE Defenders filled a space superiority role; it would make sense for the B-Wing to have a higher warhead complement. I thought that was what I remembered from XWA, but I haven't touched that in a while...and I'm a bit biased since I didn't fly TIE/D's that often 'cause I think they're ugly. TIE Phantoms look much cooler! ;)

 

Now see, I have the opposite viewpoint ;) and yeah, the B-Wings do carry more warheads. I concede the point :)

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about the cost of defenders and phantoms, I hope both of them are expensive, cause that was one of the reasons they never stoped makeing ties and interceptors both lacked of hyperdrive and life support and ofcourse had a lot less fire power, but they were able to overflow the space with those cheap fighters. Oh and i was forgeting about the shields hehehe.

 

About phantoms, I know its not going to happen, but it would be nearer to reality (in my opinion...and inside of what we can call reallity here hehehehe) if they were individual units, not squadrons like the rest of the starfighters, it's because they are radar blind (if u can see them in ur x-wing radar i guess the phantoms can't see each other in their radars), they only have visual, so if they were deployed on wings as the rest fo the fighters they could easily collide between themselves (with this I'm not saying that they won't collide if deployed individualy, but at least it will be harder).

 

well ill put that last point in my suggestion thread

 

and with radars im includeing the targeting sistem 2, I guess thats why they are phantoms, they completly vanish.

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