Forums » Suggestions
In the wake of lagging sales and overall usage of the TPG Raptor and Raptor MkII, The UIT Senate, being pressured by The Trade Guild to do something about increased Hive and Pirate activity of late, saw opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
As it is no large secret that most of the UIT Senate is lobbied and heavily influenced by TPG, when the issue came up, they saw it as a way to increase their own potential light fighter market at the same time finally offer a viable, economical Space Superiority Fighter / Intercepter to help the UIT Trade convoys.
The UIT Senate drafted a bill, to much fanfare, commissioning All corporations in mutual alliance with UIT to lend their assistance in this joint venture. All involved would be compensated for their efforts, with licensing and sub-licensing rights as well as a market-share of any potential profits.
Needless to say, at first, TPG was less than thrilled to consider their proprietary fighter design going open source, but their doubts were alleviated when their executives sat in on their first profit projection and demand meeting.
Being an entirely eclectic pursuit, the overall Raptor design was looked at in a new way. While the original concept seemed to have much potential, when comparing it to older, better, and subsequently less expensive designs, it simply cannot compete.
Realizing what needed to be done, the design team, comprised of TPG (focusing on the actual ship frame, engines, radar and using their production facilities to build the first prototypes), BioCom Industries (focusing on user-interface, life-support systems and pilot's cockpit/ergonomics), Valent Robotics (focusing on weapons integration, targeting systems and assisting in expanding the storm radar range), Orion Heavy Manufacturing (focusing on armor, hull plating and maximizing cargo hold volume as much as possible), and even a few, slightly shady representatives from Axia Technology Corps (No one knows exactly their role in this joint-venture, however there is some speculation that they are developing a new ultra-light and strong alloy as well as obtaining the main exotic ores needed to create it) are involved.
When the joint design team finally met up for the first time, TPG designers were taken aback by the blunt and direct criticisms of the initial Raptor design by the other companies involved. While their reaction, at first, was similar to a parent defending a child, they could not deny that the criticisms were all very sound.
Both the Raptor (and Raptor MkII), as a fighter, while technically light enough to be classified as a light ship, was still far too large to fit the role. For example, the Warthog, a medium fighter, is 10m in length. Though heavier, due to its larger engines and beefier hull, the Warthog's profile is still smaller than that of the 17m-long Raptor. Realizing that it was always too big to be an effective fighter, the existing Raptor design was given heavier armor and upgraded weapon systems to compete openly with the Hornet (of comparable size).
This variant would be called the UIT Joint Raptor Golden Eagle, and its specs are as follows:
UIT Joint Raptor Golden Eagle
Faction: UIT, TPG, BioCom, Valent, Orion or Axia
Faction Level: 600 (for whichever faction from which it is being bought)
Cost: 20,000-35,000 credits
Level: 7/6/7/1/-
Armor: 9600
Cargo: 6
Weapons: 2S 1L
Mass: 5000kg
Length: 17m
Thrust: 230 N
Spin Torque: 9
Max Speed: 65m/s
Turbo Speed: 220 m/s
Turbo Energy: 54/s
It retains its integrated Storm Radar Range extender, but is boosted to 2000m.
Realizing that this new configuration would finally use the original Raptor's size and configuration to its greatest potential, they went in the other direction: to make the light fighter they should have from the beginning.
By taking the blueprints, and keeping the frame and chassis and engine all in the same ratio to each other, the entire design was shrunk down by 20% in size. With the help of BioCom Industries designers, they were able to do so without compromising too much space in the cockpit and the pilot will hardly notice any difference from the original Raptor.
By shrinking the entire design by 20% caused some issues to arise, such as internal interconnectivity of components, a complete redesign of the four inverse-pulse gravitic drives by the TPG designers, and all thrusters and balance and weight-ratios to be considered.
After much testing, tweaking and redesigning (and after 7 prototypes which caused the design expenses to skyrocket beyond projections), they finally reached a configuration that met their goals and achieved light-fighter size, weight, speed, maneuverability, balance and capability. They even managed to shrink down their integrated 1500m Storm Radar Range extender without sacrificing its 1500m range.
When all is said and done, and with likely retail costs being higher than expected (due to high design costs), the joint group of developers still stand behind the final result, which they aptly named the UIT Joint Raptor Goshawk. Using the very best cutting edge alloys and materials, they managed to retain armor rating and engine power in the smaller, 80%-sized Raptor package.
Named after the Old Earth bird-of-prey (which would nimbly weave in and out of the forested trees and kill other birds in mid-flight), the Goshawk, it was a fitting description to this variant's purpose.
UIT Joint Raptor Goshawk
(20% smaller model than the previous Raptors)
Faction: UIT, TPG, BioCom, Valent, Orion or Axia
Faction Level: 700 (for whichever faction from which it is being bought)
Level: 7/7/5/1/-
Cost: 30,000-47,000 credits (depending on location of purchase)
Armor: 8500
Cargo: 3
Weapons: 2S
Mass: 3650kg
Length: 13.6m
Thrust: 235 N
Spin Torque: 7.1
Max Speed: 67m/s
Turbo Speed: 220 m/s
Turbo Energy: 55/s
It retains its 1500m integrated Storm Radar Range extender.
With much anticipation, the proud developers release their two revised Raptor designs to much fanfare and to great interest from the UIT (as well as the Itani and Serco). Finally, TPG has produced a strike-craft and a light fighter; both to effectively compete with other designs.
It is rumored, however, that both Itani and Serco are reacting in kind by developing new variants of their own ships with intermediate range radar jammers to try to counter the threat of such a potent craft with such a penetrating sensor system.
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NOTE: I realize that while new ship suggestions and their subsequent implementation by the game developers may be contentious, I figured instead of actually going in and trying to create a new model, if someone took the existing Raptor Model, all polygons intact, and shrunk it to 80% relative size to the existing Raptor model (and save it as the new Raptor Goshawk model), it would be an effective way to implement this change without too much work.
Also, bear in mind I'm an uber-noob at this game, but I've been playing these games for well over a decade and have at least a modicum of an eye regarding balance. I would surmise variants of the Centurion and Vulture with 1000m radar burst jammers. Meaning they send out jamming signals in bursts every 5 seconds, lasting 7 seconds (So the craft would get 7 seconds of 1000m radar jamming and 5 seconds without). These jammers would make targeting and homing-missles ineffective while active.
/me shrugs
Yeah, I'm very, very, very new, but as food-for-thought I figured I'd share my ideas just to see how crazy I am xD
As it is no large secret that most of the UIT Senate is lobbied and heavily influenced by TPG, when the issue came up, they saw it as a way to increase their own potential light fighter market at the same time finally offer a viable, economical Space Superiority Fighter / Intercepter to help the UIT Trade convoys.
The UIT Senate drafted a bill, to much fanfare, commissioning All corporations in mutual alliance with UIT to lend their assistance in this joint venture. All involved would be compensated for their efforts, with licensing and sub-licensing rights as well as a market-share of any potential profits.
Needless to say, at first, TPG was less than thrilled to consider their proprietary fighter design going open source, but their doubts were alleviated when their executives sat in on their first profit projection and demand meeting.
Being an entirely eclectic pursuit, the overall Raptor design was looked at in a new way. While the original concept seemed to have much potential, when comparing it to older, better, and subsequently less expensive designs, it simply cannot compete.
Realizing what needed to be done, the design team, comprised of TPG (focusing on the actual ship frame, engines, radar and using their production facilities to build the first prototypes), BioCom Industries (focusing on user-interface, life-support systems and pilot's cockpit/ergonomics), Valent Robotics (focusing on weapons integration, targeting systems and assisting in expanding the storm radar range), Orion Heavy Manufacturing (focusing on armor, hull plating and maximizing cargo hold volume as much as possible), and even a few, slightly shady representatives from Axia Technology Corps (No one knows exactly their role in this joint-venture, however there is some speculation that they are developing a new ultra-light and strong alloy as well as obtaining the main exotic ores needed to create it) are involved.
When the joint design team finally met up for the first time, TPG designers were taken aback by the blunt and direct criticisms of the initial Raptor design by the other companies involved. While their reaction, at first, was similar to a parent defending a child, they could not deny that the criticisms were all very sound.
Both the Raptor (and Raptor MkII), as a fighter, while technically light enough to be classified as a light ship, was still far too large to fit the role. For example, the Warthog, a medium fighter, is 10m in length. Though heavier, due to its larger engines and beefier hull, the Warthog's profile is still smaller than that of the 17m-long Raptor. Realizing that it was always too big to be an effective fighter, the existing Raptor design was given heavier armor and upgraded weapon systems to compete openly with the Hornet (of comparable size).
This variant would be called the UIT Joint Raptor Golden Eagle, and its specs are as follows:
UIT Joint Raptor Golden Eagle
Faction: UIT, TPG, BioCom, Valent, Orion or Axia
Faction Level: 600 (for whichever faction from which it is being bought)
Cost: 20,000-35,000 credits
Level: 7/6/7/1/-
Armor: 9600
Cargo: 6
Weapons: 2S 1L
Mass: 5000kg
Length: 17m
Thrust: 230 N
Spin Torque: 9
Max Speed: 65m/s
Turbo Speed: 220 m/s
Turbo Energy: 54/s
It retains its integrated Storm Radar Range extender, but is boosted to 2000m.
Realizing that this new configuration would finally use the original Raptor's size and configuration to its greatest potential, they went in the other direction: to make the light fighter they should have from the beginning.
By taking the blueprints, and keeping the frame and chassis and engine all in the same ratio to each other, the entire design was shrunk down by 20% in size. With the help of BioCom Industries designers, they were able to do so without compromising too much space in the cockpit and the pilot will hardly notice any difference from the original Raptor.
By shrinking the entire design by 20% caused some issues to arise, such as internal interconnectivity of components, a complete redesign of the four inverse-pulse gravitic drives by the TPG designers, and all thrusters and balance and weight-ratios to be considered.
After much testing, tweaking and redesigning (and after 7 prototypes which caused the design expenses to skyrocket beyond projections), they finally reached a configuration that met their goals and achieved light-fighter size, weight, speed, maneuverability, balance and capability. They even managed to shrink down their integrated 1500m Storm Radar Range extender without sacrificing its 1500m range.
When all is said and done, and with likely retail costs being higher than expected (due to high design costs), the joint group of developers still stand behind the final result, which they aptly named the UIT Joint Raptor Goshawk. Using the very best cutting edge alloys and materials, they managed to retain armor rating and engine power in the smaller, 80%-sized Raptor package.
Named after the Old Earth bird-of-prey (which would nimbly weave in and out of the forested trees and kill other birds in mid-flight), the Goshawk, it was a fitting description to this variant's purpose.
UIT Joint Raptor Goshawk
(20% smaller model than the previous Raptors)
Faction: UIT, TPG, BioCom, Valent, Orion or Axia
Faction Level: 700 (for whichever faction from which it is being bought)
Level: 7/7/5/1/-
Cost: 30,000-47,000 credits (depending on location of purchase)
Armor: 8500
Cargo: 3
Weapons: 2S
Mass: 3650kg
Length: 13.6m
Thrust: 235 N
Spin Torque: 7.1
Max Speed: 67m/s
Turbo Speed: 220 m/s
Turbo Energy: 55/s
It retains its 1500m integrated Storm Radar Range extender.
With much anticipation, the proud developers release their two revised Raptor designs to much fanfare and to great interest from the UIT (as well as the Itani and Serco). Finally, TPG has produced a strike-craft and a light fighter; both to effectively compete with other designs.
It is rumored, however, that both Itani and Serco are reacting in kind by developing new variants of their own ships with intermediate range radar jammers to try to counter the threat of such a potent craft with such a penetrating sensor system.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: I realize that while new ship suggestions and their subsequent implementation by the game developers may be contentious, I figured instead of actually going in and trying to create a new model, if someone took the existing Raptor Model, all polygons intact, and shrunk it to 80% relative size to the existing Raptor model (and save it as the new Raptor Goshawk model), it would be an effective way to implement this change without too much work.
Also, bear in mind I'm an uber-noob at this game, but I've been playing these games for well over a decade and have at least a modicum of an eye regarding balance. I would surmise variants of the Centurion and Vulture with 1000m radar burst jammers. Meaning they send out jamming signals in bursts every 5 seconds, lasting 7 seconds (So the craft would get 7 seconds of 1000m radar jamming and 5 seconds without). These jammers would make targeting and homing-missles ineffective while active.
/me shrugs
Yeah, I'm very, very, very new, but as food-for-thought I figured I'd share my ideas just to see how crazy I am xD
The name of the first one reminds me of an Alloh post, but overall these are solid suggestions.
ugh the last thing this game needs is another 1 large 2 small port ship the second one (the goshawk) is a bit too light but is overall a much better design and could probably even be shrunk down another 10 percent.
This is probably one of the best ideas for a variant that I've read in quite some time! These new Raptors would benefit Pirate hunters/pirates... (hunting in ion storms), traders, miners and combat pilots... (escorting/fighting in ion storms) and finally there would be an end to the nickname of one of the coolest looking ships in VO. This would be the death of the Craptor and the glorious birth of the Raptor!
+1
Also, if the Devs do implement these designs, which I truly hope they do... I think that they should include your immersive and in depth back story for it.
+1
Also, if the Devs do implement these designs, which I truly hope they do... I think that they should include your immersive and in depth back story for it.
Good, but can be improved:
1) Add a integrated shared group radar extender (Awacs) to both
2) Keep current 2s ports
OR make the larger version of Raptor with 2L ports.
1) Add a integrated shared group radar extender (Awacs) to both
2) Keep current 2s ports
OR make the larger version of Raptor with 2L ports.
"Good, but can be improved"
No, it can not... these variants are far and away the best that have been suggested so far.
No, it can not... these variants are far and away the best that have been suggested so far.
Indeed. Solid suggestions, and hopefully not too intricate to implement? The biggest problem should be the L port (judging from developers' comments), but it would be a really nice addition.
The L port would probably give the eagle much-needed bite.
The L port would probably give the eagle much-needed bite.
Yeah, because another mini-prom is just what we need. The more I consider this, the more I want to light the first idea on fire and watch it scream itself to a hyperventilated, lung-seared death, and just go with the second suggestion.
Well, I'd prefer it being a 2L-only-setup (the eagle), actually. But I figured 2S1L would be the best we'd get. You can hardly blame the OP for going with this setup, however.
After some consideration, however, 2L would probably be easier to implement than 2S1L, because the hardpoints already exist. I do not recall exactly, was there a specific (dev-given) reason for why the Raptor cannot have dual L ports?
After some consideration, however, 2L would probably be easier to implement than 2S1L, because the hardpoints already exist. I do not recall exactly, was there a specific (dev-given) reason for why the Raptor cannot have dual L ports?
I would have no issues with the Golden Eagle being setup as 2L only. I just figured that with a bird that size at least 1L would make sense.
Either 2L or 1S 1L makes a lot more sense to me, really.
Either 2L or 1S 1L makes a lot more sense to me, really.
There are no 2L ships now. And (c)Raptor model already have 2 hardpoints.
And don't forget the integrated Shared Group Radar Extender, that would make those new models a step closer to an AWACS, completing the integrated 2KM Storm Radar Extender to make it a perfect fit for teamwork / group operations!
And don't forget the integrated Shared Group Radar Extender, that would make those new models a step closer to an AWACS, completing the integrated 2KM Storm Radar Extender to make it a perfect fit for teamwork / group operations!
"There are no 2L ships now"
except the Centaur, Ragnarok, Tung Marauder and Behemoth... but yeah, apart from those there are no 2L ships.
"And don't forget blah blah blah blah..."
If you're so keen on having this make your own thread with your own variant, stop trying to hijack other peoples threads for your horrendous ideas.
except the Centaur, Ragnarok, Tung Marauder and Behemoth... but yeah, apart from those there are no 2L ships.
"And don't forget blah blah blah blah..."
If you're so keen on having this make your own thread with your own variant, stop trying to hijack other peoples threads for your horrendous ideas.
Awww, RR beat me to it. To recap: Alloh is a polesmoking retard who cannae type English to save his life.
Isn't that scottish? ryan, in Alloh's defense, perhaps he meant to say that there are no ships that have two, and only two, L ports, and nothing in the way of S ports.
Anyway. kyrottimus brings up an interesting point, namely asymmetrical port layouts, if we go with the current geometrical configuration. I'm unsure as to how that would work out, since it gives your ship a favored turn direction, which in turn (heh) makes it easier for an enemy pilot to take you out, at least in theory.
Putting the weapon ports in-line would probably work more wonders for turn/roll rate... but that would require more dev time, assuming that it really is more work to move ports around than it is to convert them. Circumstantial evidence supporting that assumption would be the Marauder, because there's the Tunguska Mineral variant.
Anyway. kyrottimus brings up an interesting point, namely asymmetrical port layouts, if we go with the current geometrical configuration. I'm unsure as to how that would work out, since it gives your ship a favored turn direction, which in turn (heh) makes it easier for an enemy pilot to take you out, at least in theory.
Putting the weapon ports in-line would probably work more wonders for turn/roll rate... but that would require more dev time, assuming that it really is more work to move ports around than it is to convert them. Circumstantial evidence supporting that assumption would be the Marauder, because there's the Tunguska Mineral variant.
I'm pretty sure that the basic behemoth has only 2 large ports (if you don't count the turrets), but it's not exactly combat-capable..
In any case, I think the second one is good and the first one would probably be better off with just the two large ports.
In any case, I think the second one is good and the first one would probably be better off with just the two large ports.
Spedy is right, the original moth is 2L ports, so there is another 2L ship that I forgot.
And 2L is not 2L3s neither 2L1s...
To finish, I am not hijacking any post. This is a public forum, where ideas are posted to be discussed and evolved. There is no rule that states that you cannot offer alternatives, instead of simply like/hate it. Indeed, it happens a lot, so, Ryan, try to post something related to topic. Or propose a forum rule that no one can propose any change on other's ideas, only agree or disagree!
And 2L is not 2L3s neither 2L1s...
To finish, I am not hijacking any post. This is a public forum, where ideas are posted to be discussed and evolved. There is no rule that states that you cannot offer alternatives, instead of simply like/hate it. Indeed, it happens a lot, so, Ryan, try to post something related to topic. Or propose a forum rule that no one can propose any change on other's ideas, only agree or disagree!
How about we propose a forum rule that you must have at least a 2nd grade-level command of the English language before you're allowed to post? Or, in your words, that you have to crate at least two monsters worth of candies before you can get out of the closet.
I think he meant to say there are no GOOD 2L port fighter class ships.
There is a rule here....Dont be a dick....In case you forgot.
This area is meant to be a positive place for constructive discussion of the game. Flames and other rude behaviour will not be tolerated. Offenders may have their accounts deleted. If you have a suggestion about the game, we would love to hear it. If you disagree with someone, please keep it good-natured. Thanks.
There is a rule here....Dont be a dick....In case you forgot.
This area is meant to be a positive place for constructive discussion of the game. Flames and other rude behaviour will not be tolerated. Offenders may have their accounts deleted. If you have a suggestion about the game, we would love to hear it. If you disagree with someone, please keep it good-natured. Thanks.
PaKettle, if that rule was valid, how come that lelecter is still posting here?
My charm and stunning good looks.