There are lots of Raptor proposals going around. This one is different: it's intended to fill the escort fighter role. An escort fighter needs to be able to dogfight, but more importantly, in needs to be able to chase attackers away from what it's escorting. The faster Valkyries and the Biocom Vulture have been popular in this role, but not optimal. Valkyries and Greyhounds can easily hit and run, while the escort fighter is lucky to get in more than a couple shots.

The Peregrine is intended to offer a better solution. Like a real peregrine falcon, the Peregrine is able to reach extremely high speeds for a short period of time. Its turbo acceleration, top speed and turbo drain are higher than anything currently on the market. It can catch anything, briefly, but it cannot run for a long distance. A Peregrine pilot would have difficulty escaping most other combat ships.

On paper, the Peregrine looks like it should be the equal of a Serco Vulture Guardian in a dogfight, but this is misleading. The large size of the Raptor frame makes it a much easier target. It also has a significantly slower turning rate, despite higher spin torque. Making certain assumptions, an empty Peregrine with only a battery has a maximum angular acceleration of 91 radians/second^2 to the SVG's 156.

TPG Peregrine escort fighter
Faction: +960 (like Tunguska)
Price: 100,000 credits, or thereabouts
Armor: 8500
Cargo: 2
Weapons: 2s
Mass: 4000kg
Length: 17m
Thrust: 240N
Speed: 65m/s
Turbo thrust: 400N
Turbo energy: 62/s
Turbo speed: 240m/s
Spin torque: 9Nm
Extra: built-in storm radar

Due to the high speed and thrust of this ship, I find this a much more viable escort ship than peytros's recent suggestion (see link below), even despite the lower armor and two guns. If the devs are willing to break the speed barrier, I'd like to see this ship in-game. I'm pretty sure this guy is decently balanced too. [stamp of approval]

peytros raptor: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/21011#260000

I like this ship too my only qualm is the turbo speed I highly doubt the devs will go over 225s. Although ish I see your ship and my ship making a great combo as yours would be used to scout ahead and in ion storms mine would stay with the convoy and protect it from attackers. I like your 240 thurst too I maybe have to do some tweaking to mine

Without exceeding 225m/s, it won't be catching up to a Greyhound or Valkyrie. Merely equaling their speed won't make for an effective deterrent to hit-and-run tactics. The escort fighter MUST close distance and deliver damage to be effective. It only has 21 seconds of boost on a FC battery, so while it's very fast, it's not fast for very far.

I actually see the use case being different from what you describe, peytros. The Peregrine should stay fairly close to the ship it's escorting to discourage hostiles from approaching. A hostile would be risking a flare up the exhaust port by approaching close enough to fire on the ship under escort.

I like the idea a lot. I would just bring the armor down to around 8k and the max speed down to 60 m/s. Anything that is fulfilling a niche like this needs to have trade-offs in other areas, so it shouldn't be quite as good in PvP as the other 2 raptor variants (although the spin torque and thrust still seem pretty crazy on this model). With those tweaks, you could then bring the mass down to 3500 kg and I think we would have a useful balanced ship.

The spin torque looks high, but the estimated angular acceleration is just over 1/3 that of a Rev C, and slower than any non-Raptor light or medium fighter. It's even worse than a bus.

It is fairly nimble with regard to speed and thrust - the target was the SVG. I believe that even with those specs, it will be about the equal of the Vulture Mk. III in a dogfight due to its large size and relatively slow turning. The Peregrine pilot should be at a disadvantage in a dogfight relative to a good light fighter, but it shouldn't be impossible to win.

I'm not comparing this to the other Raptor proposals just yet. Right now, they're just proposals, and chances are only one will make it in, if any. With the originally proposed specs, the Falcon still has no purpose; it is inferior to a Vulture for its stated purpose. Regardless of any other specs, the Nighthawk has extra firepower and speed. I think it probably needs some more spin torque, but otherwise it's a significantly better dogfighter than the Peregrine.

I swear to god i'm going to pistol whip the next guy who comes up with a raptor variant.

I was comparing it to the current production raptors. I've been giving this some thought and I think there should be a ship that can go 240 m/s with 62 drain, and I think it should be a raptor. I'm actually thinking that the entire raptor series should be updated with the new state of the art "raptor engine" that allows for this high speed over short distance sprinting. Then we could balance the various models with differences in mass, armor, and cargo capacity. This would finally give the raptors a useful role.

I like that idea, Strat. Right now, even low-level players have no use for the basic Raptor because they can get Vultures. Making it a very fast sprint ship would give it a reason to exist.

I think the base models should be a bit slower - still quick, but not this quick. Maybe 230 or even 235, but the Peregrine is meant to be the top sprinter.

I swear to god i'm going to pistol whip the next guy who comes up with a raptor variant.

My sentiments exactly.

I like this, in fact this idea applied universally might be able to fix the "anyone can run" thing. If we give interceptors and the like higher turbo speed and turbo thrust but higher drain and the other ships less drain/infiniboost but low top speeds, it might make things a bit more realistic rather than have every ship match the same speed as the "Why" mentioned in the op. though piracy/trading issues are definitely there with that idea :/

I like this raptor variant, and i have always liked the raptor for doing escorts.

[major stamp of approval]

Omg lecter, grab a life, we're just trying to fill content.

[Mega-super-hyper stamp of Approval]

I like this fighter, but I must echo the sentiment that I do not think the Dev's will exceed the present 225m/s threshold.

Recognizing your arguement that the escort needs to be able to catch up to an attacker, I must counter that the escort should never be caught with his pants around his ankles to the point he needs to play catch-up. The fighter should always be proactively acting as a screen for the convoy.

Now, I must also note that the 225 threshold has been enforced because the Red Queen Effect would take control of the game (that is, the effect that all elements must evolve as quickly as possible just to remain static in the status quo), and soon we'd have ships dashing to and fro at 300, 400, or even 500m/s and we'd be constantly suggesting ships that move faster and faster until we're outrunning everything, and the game is unplayable.

To counter the issue of reduced speed, give it either a longer burn, or infiniboost to take down the Hounds.

That said, I give it my support if it's maxed at 225m/s

225 m/s would defeat the entire purpose. It has to be 240 m/s at 62 drain. That's the whole point... I don't believe that the "Red Queen Effect" that you are thinking of will become an issue. This is not faster than the greyhound. It's simply different. The high drain makes it a short-distance sprinter, which compliments the greyhound. It doesn't try to match or beat it. This would create what we call "balance".

ok why does vo need this again?

VO needs an escort fighter to counter hit and run tactics. Fast ships, especially the Greyhound can currently attack a target such as a transport or capital ship[0], inflict some damage, and run away for another pass without significant risk. An escort can do little to prevent or discourage such tactics with current ships, as it's nearly impossible to hit the attacker on the way in, and impossible to catch up to it on the way out.

Making the Peregrine infiniboost at 225, or even 225 with 55 drain like a Valkyrie would just make IT the ship of choice for hit-and-run. To fill its role, it has to have the fastest acceleration, highest top speed and highest drain. Slowing down other ships would accomplish the same goal, but it would mean changes to quite a few ships.

This is about correcting an imbalance, not ratcheting up the speed of ships until they exceed the ability of the game engine, servers or players to cope.

[0] If its shields are already down.

and why wouldn't people just use this ship over a greyhound to hit and run, its way more maneuverable granted it doesn't last as long boosting any skilled pilot in that thing would be far far more devastating than a greyhound or a valk.

With only 21 seconds of boost, the Peregrine will have a hard time fleeing - even from another Peregrine, as it will have used up several seconds starting its attack run.

It's dumb that the ship with the highest speed in the game also has the lowest drain. Ships with high speed should have high drain. Ships with infini-boost should have a lower top speed. Adding a raptor that could go 240 m/s with 62 drain would bring balance back to the force, young padawan.

While I am all for this ship... there is one flaw in the logic thus far:

With only 21 seconds of boost, the Peregrine will have a hard time fleeing
Assuming that you are going full speed for 18 of those seconds, the Peregrine has gone over 4000m. That's enough to make it to jump zone and high-tail it. So... it could easily run. Granted, it can't hit-and-run too effectively... unless it arms with flares and sneaks up behind someone.