Dear Folks -
Originally posted by Shere Khan:
I stand by my assumptions as the spacefighter's frame would only be stressed to handle 6 g's regardless of direction. Yes, the spacefighter would beat it on speed, but not in a turning game, whether or not the pilot feels anything ( IMTU, he would. Grav tech is severely limited for the sake of play balance. Grav tech makes planes, trains and cars and every other mode of transport worthless....where's the fun in that?)
Sigg and Joseph have already spoken about accel, so I'll chime in on the spaceframe:
Remember, the starfighter is at least
High Guard AF 0, which is
Striker (and CT and MT) AF 40 (I think its' even better, but I don't have my MT books here - my **new** CD is at home
). I also believe that TNE spoke to this - isn't there some internal structure requirement? I suggest to you that "starfighters" are designed for interface combat inherently; that is, they are extremely manouverable both in space and atmosphere. After all, they ought to be able to survive combat within the clouds of a gas giant, picking off refuelling vessels - and the atmospheric conditions (i.e. stress levels) there are much worse than on-planet.
As for the G-forces: yes, the pilot would feel something, but only when the accel goes over 6 G's. This means that the starfighter could turn at, say 12+ G's while the aircraft's pilot can only manage 9 G's. (BTW, I believe that high-TL planes
would build-in grav compensation
for the pilot, so your pilots should have a better chance).
My belief (OK, it's just that, a
belief) is that starfighters are not brilliant in large-scale space battles, but
are good against small vessels (esp. pirates - this being stressed in the M0 campaign background) and interface combat against ground forces. Why else would a
Broadsword be capable of carrying a cutter mounted with a fighter frame? Sure, only 4 x 6t "fighters" (lifeboats on speed!) but to me this is an indication that even these tiny craft must be extremely capable in planetary combat. For goodness sake, even the Hurcarles have a starfigher wing as part of their TOE - and they're a planetary unit!! Certainly, normal operational doctrine is not spelled out, but their inclusion says to me that starfighters are capable of achieving airspace superiority.
As I recall, Ramparts ( hi -tech first rate example? ) have fixed forward triple lasers ...fixed. I will never understand why people are so gung-ho for awesome point defense turrets when it makes so many exciting actions moot.
But... remember that a starfighter does not always have to follow standard atmospheric flight rules!!
Sure, I agree that that they normally would, in order to reduce stress levels in normal flight. How about supra-normal flight? A recent experimental USAF aircraft was equipped with baffles around the exhaust, allowing its thrust to be vectored (EDIT: this was the
Rockwell-MBB X-31 - and
not that recent!). It was designed to turn sideways - and
shoot! - while still flying "forwards". At this point, it's airfoils were stalled, at it manoevered on thrust alone. This is termed "supra-normal flight". It would have to allow the starfighter to perform things like the F-29's Pogachev Cobra (this is from memory - have I got the aircraft and spelling right? EDIT: it's the
Sukhoi Su-27 "Flanker" and its "Pugachev's Cobra" manouver) as standard.
However, I do note your final point above: it may make sense from a tech POV, but does it make the game FUN? OK, maybe not. So, what you do is balance the scenario more. The
Foxbat Amber Zone referred to by Starviking gives starship-grade missiles to the jets (one each), and pits the flight of jets against only
two Ramparts. This makes things... interesting.
a stomach churning dogfight in a canyon and over a desert floor between a cavalier turbo mustang-3 and a westland wyrven is cool. Too bad many people's view of things prevents PC's from seeing that sort of thing. just my opinion
I think you're wanting to see the canyon-dogfight from
Independence Day.
That'd be a really cool thing to play - just remember, only
one of the jets survived: the one with "Our Hero" in it.
