New US Fighter proto-type is leaked

[Janos]

This gave me wood.

[FeatsofClay]

While it is looking pretty sleek and piratey and cool can you tell me anyhting about it? I know naught for this stuff and would love to hear why we need a new plane.

[Ergeheilalt]

While it is looking pretty sleek and piratey and cool can you tell me anyhting about it? I know naught for this stuff and would love to hear why we need a new plane.

New military tech generally trickles down to new commercial tech and while getting parts for existing planes isn't always a problem and could probably create an industry around it, moving forward with new safety designs and modern hardware make them more fuel efficient, more human-mistake proof, and all around better?

Or, it could be because a big fat wad of our taxes (and the deficit) go to our military and they have to do something with that money.

[Janos]

You both fail the geek test.

[Sobek]

I was wondering why that looked familiar.

[Bagpuss]

I was about to say it's a photoshop job of a the battletech aerotech mech (which was robbed from some Japanese animation).

[Dark Jezter]

Excellent.

We're one step closer to developing the X-Wing.

[Ancalagon]

You both fail the geek test.

:D

darn it, "can't rep until spread...." it returns!

[Northcott]

That's hillarious! I stared at the picture for a few seconds then burst out laughing. :D Thanks, man.

[Lisa Nadazdy]

Y'all call yourself geeks. Couldn't recognize a veritech on sight- how in hell do you expect to fight the Zentraedi and protect the secrets of Protoculture if you can't recognize the profile of Earth's defense force?

Turn in your geek cards!

[Northcott]

Y'all call yourself geeks. Couldn't recognize a veritech on sight- how in hell do you expect to fight the Zentraedi and protect the secrets of Protoculture if you can't recognize the profile of Earth's defense force?

Turn in your geek cards!

You're a gigantic Roy Fokker fan, aren't you? :D

[Freedom Canadian]

Y'all call yourself geeks. Couldn't recognize a veritech

Of course I can !

[shabois]

You're a gigantic Roy Fokker fan, aren't you? :D

Roy Fokker rocks!!!!! :)

[Atticus_of_Amber]

Excellent.

We're one step closer to developing the X-Wing.

Has anyone ever done the geek out and compared the performance of the X-wing and the TIE fighter?

It always seemed to me that the TIEs were faster and more manoeuvrable but that the X-wings could take a LOT more punishment and were more versatile because they had a hyper drive and could make planetfall.

[Northcott]

Roy Fokker rocks!!!!! :)


And Roy suffered the fate of every character that I point at and go; "Yeah, that one there? That's my favourite character in the show."

[Dacke]

Has anyone ever done the geek out and compared the performance of the X-wing and the TIE fighter?
X-wing
Cost: 150,000 credits
Hyperdrive: x1
Maneuverability: 3D
Space speed: 8
Hull: 4D
Shields: 1D
4 fire-linked laser cannons: Fire control 3D, range 1-3/12/25, Damage 6D
2 proton torpedo launchers: Fire control 2D, range 1/3/7, Damage 9D

TIE/ln (standard TIE fighter)
Cost: 60,000
Hyperdrive: no
Maneuverability: 2D
Space speed: 10
Hull: 2D
Shields: none
2 fire-linked laser cannons: Fire control 2D, Range 1-3/12/25, Damage 5D

So the X-wing is better at pretty much everything except raw speed, but on the other hand you get 2.5 TIEs for the cost of one X-wing.

As an aside, when doing concept stuff for Babylon 5, they started thinking about how a "realistic" space fighter would look, and decided that there should be a central pod, with thrusters pointing in multiple directions and mounted a bit away from the pod, to provide maximum maneuverability (basically, thrusters positioned at the corners of a cube and each corner has thrusters pointed in three directions). As they drew how it would look, they went "Shit, we've built an X-wing." Then they went about making the Starfury look as little as possible like an X-wing, with things like reducing the size of the central pod and so on.

[The Winslow]

X-wing
Cost: 150,000 credits
Hyperdrive: x1
Maneuverability: 3D
Space speed: 8
Hull: 4D
Shields: 1D
4 fire-linked laser cannons: Fire control 3D, range 1-3/12/25, Damage 6D
2 proton torpedo launchers: Fire control 2D, range 1/3/7, Damage 9D

TIE/ln (standard TIE fighter)
Cost: 60,000
Hyperdrive: no
Maneuverability: 2D
Space speed: 10
Hull: 2D
Shields: none
2 fire-linked laser cannons: Fire control 2D, Range 1-3/12/25, Damage 5D

So the X-wing is better at pretty much everything except raw speed, but on the other hand you get 2.5 TIEs for the cost of one X-wing.

After playing both sides in the TG X-Wing series (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/X-wing_computer_game_series), I can tell that, for the X-Wing not to be the better choice, the TIE would have to be cheap enough so that you could get at least 10 of them for the cost of an X-Wing... There's no contest: hyperspace ability + shield, that's completely worth it.

Which is why, in the end, the Empire developed the T/A and T/D. Man, what's more munchkiny than a TIE Defender? Honestly, the sources outside of the computer games have not make it eye-gougingly expensive enough to justify that not everybody did buy them. (It's what, just twice the cost of an X-Wing? But it's worth twenty X-Wings in combat... Or two thousand T/Fs...)

[Bagpuss]

Another hidden cost is the training costs for multiple TIE pilots compared to 1 X-Wing pilot. Also with the increased survivability of the X-Wing the pilot is likely to get greater combat experience and thus be a better pilot over all.

[Dacke]

TIE pilots appear to generally have worse training than X-wing pilots. Typical skill levels:
X-wing: Starfighter piloting 5D, Starship gunnery 4D+2, Starship shields 3D
Tie/ln: Starfighter piloting 4D+2, Starship gunnery 4D. Shield skill is irrelevant since they don't have shields.

[Atticus_of_Amber]

I must say, those stays don't reflect the impression I got from the films.

The feeling I always got was that TIEs were significantly faster and more agile than X-wings; but that the X wing was far tougher and more versitile.

[Freedom Canadian]

Also with the increased survivability of the X-Wing the pilot is likely to get greater combat experience and thus be a better pilot over all.

But the rare Tie pilot ace will be very very good at dodging. :D

[The Winslow]

But the rare Tie pilot ace will be very very good at dodging. :D

Yeah, but in my experience, the rare TIE pilot ace gets to fly Assault Gunboats, TIE Advanced, TIE Defenders, and Missile Boats. :D

Man, I liked the Gunboats. Not very maneuverable, not very tough, but still quite polyvalent; they were a good craft to fly for challenging missions. Kinda half-way between the Y-Wing and the X-Wing. The other crafts in the list are all ridiculously powerful and the game had to challenge you by making most of your missions protection missions (it's far easier avoiding getting hit than it is preventing another craft from getting hit) or time runs.