The greatest starfighter ever built?

Shannon · Post by **Shannon** » 2007-07-29 01:07am

I've often seen the X-Wing hailed as 'the greatest starfighter ever built' in the EU literature, despite the fact that nothing of the sort is suggested by the canon films. In-universe, we can probably put much of this down to the victors' view of history.
But if the Rebel Alliance hadn't won, what ship would then wear this title? Would it even be a topic of discussion, given the difference in tactics and strategies?

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2007-07-29 01:21am

This is an easy question to answer,

If the Empire own of course it would be The ISD. Technicaly it is a ship and the best design deployed by anyone in the GFFA.

In terms of starfighter probably one of the TIE variants.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-07-29 01:53am

Sarevok wrote:If the Empire own of course it would be The ISD. Technicaly it is a ship and the best design deployed by anyone in the GFFA.

Thats seems a bit of a stretch given the thread title

Anyway, considering the amount of wank over it, probably the Tie Defender.

Jericho Kross · Post by **Jericho Kross** » 2007-07-29 03:56am

I would say that the best Imperial starfighter would have to the T.I.E. Defender.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-07-29 04:19am

Wouldn't it be the regular TIE? It may be cheap and simple, but that's what it was designed as. It was the backbone the Imperial fleet and spawned several successful spin-offs. You can't really call the TIE defender the best fighter ever when it didn't really do anything beyond limited strikes.

FTeik · Post by **FTeik** » 2007-07-29 06:22am

Please define "greatest".

TC Pilot · Post by **TC Pilot** » 2007-07-29 11:19am

TIE Defender.

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2007-07-29 02:59pm

Defining "greatest" is probably he hard part here because it starts with whether multi-purpose counts for more or excellence in a paticular task. Does dogfighting count more than bombing? What arethe standards to which we hold things and measure quality against. That all being said here is my quick rundown

Best All-Purpose: TIE Defender, it has the speed shields manueverability and weapons load out that from an out-of-universe perspective makes it look to be pure wank but in-universe make it the best all around fighter you can get

Best Interceptor: A-Wing, all thaat given above the A-Wing exemplifies the interceptor role regardless of which side wins. it is small and incredibly fast while armed to cover the maximum possible arc, give its pilot best forward visibility possible (thus part of the reason it won't be winning my dogfighting award in a second here as it has great forward but poorer lateral and rear visibility) and good choice of dogfighting weaponry loadout

Best Dogfighter: TIE Defender, the shields give it survivability, the speed gives it the ability to use the manueverability it has against anyone and the weapons loadout means it can kill anything else in the sky repeatedly and efficiently.

Best Bomber: Missile Boat, it can burst with speed and carries a huge payload. That alone is what really takes the cake with this ship. The amount of ordnance it can deliver and deliver quickly makes it perfect for the heavy bomber role and the only ship that has a chance on taking it down would be the K-Wing because of the accuracy plus of having the dedicated bombadier. Anyway the Missile Boat still carries the bigger payload and its burst acceleration gives it the right ingredients for closing and unloading of heavy targets.

Best price/performance ratio: TIE Interceptor, although it is outclassed in survivability, speed, and weaponry by other fighters this vessel combines a lot of everything for a relatively lower price tag. One would probably give this to the TIE/ln for simply being cheap but the same argument goes for the Z-95 and it at least has shields and a possible missile loadout so it is instantly more mission flexible. That said the TIE Interceptor ouclasses both those (and quite a few other fighters) while still being relatively inexpensive.

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2007-07-29 04:44pm

Tie Defender

The only way to make it better would be to strap a SLAM drive and the missle racks from a Missle Boat on it.

Ion Cannons
Laser Cannons
50% faster then an X-wing (making it 25% more then an A-wing or Tie Interceptor), with excellent maneverability
Good Shields
Hyperdrive
limited capacity Tractor Beam.

It can handle it all.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2007-07-29 05:17pm

Suncrusher

I joke I joke

Phantasee · Post by **Phantasee** » 2007-07-29 05:24pm

Honestly, it sometimes sounds like the X-Wing is wanked over like the Spitfire of the RAF, when it was really the Hurricane that won the war. Only problem I have with that analogy is I can't come up with the Star Wars Hurricane. Which I suppose is the question you asked here, and it appears to be the TIE Defender.

Trajanus · Post by **Trajanus** » 2007-07-29 06:41pm

It depends on what we're talking about:
If it's one-on-one dogfights, then the TIE Defender wins easily.

But if not, I would say the TIE Interceptor. It rivals Rebel craft in speed and firepower. It may be worse than the TIE Defender individually but they are easily produced in massive numbers and having better individual fighters doesn't mean shit when you're outnumbered a thousand-to-one.

Baal · Post by **Baal** » 2007-07-29 07:40pm

Do we ever see the TIE Defender, Missle Boat, or any of the other wank crafts from the video games anywhere besides the game?

I only ask because the nature of video games result in totally wnked ships like this that dont fit into the rest of the EU at all.

Also when considering best craft you need to state version. The X-Wing that destroyed the first Death Star is really nothing like the X-Wings designed and upgraded to fight the Vong. Really they are two completely different ships that look the same.

TC Pilot · Post by **TC Pilot** » 2007-07-29 07:53pm

TIE Defenders are shown in Isard's Revenge, Starfighters of Adumar, and The Final Prophecy.

DeTejas · Post by **DeTejas** » 2007-07-29 08:46pm

greatest single?

Well even though it was only a prototype I'd have to say the missile boat. What can beat having enough missiles to destroy an entire fleet of star fighters... Then using slam to get yourself in and out of the action safely (to get refilled)...

At least if i had to strap myself into something that would be my choice...

though you might be a gunboat i feel that it is still within the spirit of the original question...

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-07-29 09:54pm

Phantasee wrote:Honestly, it sometimes sounds like the X-Wing is wanked over like the Spitfire of the RAF, when it was really the Hurricane that won the war. Only problem I have with that analogy is I can't come up with the Star Wars Hurricane. Which I suppose is the question you asked here, and it appears to be the TIE Defender.

The Defender is more like a Star Wars Mosquito.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2007-07-30 01:03am

Probably the X Wing, every depiction of it shows great survivability, good firepower for a starfighter, and it was mass produced. However, the reverence for this craft by tools such as Michael Hackpole kill the fun a little bit for me.

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-07-30 02:08am

Solauren wrote:Tie Defender

The only way to make it better would be to strap a SLAM drive and the missle racks from a Missle Boat on it.

Ion Cannons
Laser Cannons
50% faster then an X-wing (making it 25% more then an A-wing or Tie Interceptor), with excellent maneverability
Good Shields
Hyperdrive
limited capacity Tractor Beam.

It can handle it all.

Actually you forgot the multipurpose warhead launcher.

Darth Massacrus · Post by **Darth Massacrus** » 2007-07-30 08:25pm

anyone ever heard of the TIE Hunter?

based upon it's appearance in the game Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike, it was equipped with the pilots choice of either proton torpedos, cluster missiles, or concussion missiles. It had ion cannons, excellent laseer cannons, shields, hyperdrive, excellent speed, and a smaller profile than a TIE defender did. Unfortunately, only a few flights worth were ever created.

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-07-31 05:12am

Actually the TIE Hunters only use a Proton Torpedo Launcher, and the TIE Defender have two more laser cannons than the Hunter.

Meest · Post by **Meest** » 2007-07-31 08:09am

What about the TIE Avenger/Advanced, wouldn't it fall between being cheaper than a Defender but still outclassing Interceptors/A-Wings.

Trajanus · Post by **Trajanus** » 2007-07-31 11:45am

Meest wrote:What about the TIE Avenger/Advanced, wouldn't it fall between being cheaper than a Defender but still outclassing Interceptors/A-Wings.

According to ICS, the Advanced x1 was actually slower than the TIE Interceptor. Not only this but Interceptors had twice the firepower of the Advanced. The only advantage the Advanced has over the Interceptor is shields, which can only stand up to a couple shots at best. Then when you add in the cost factor, we see that the Interceptor is actually better.

As for the Avenger, I like to stay away from ships that only appear in video games since gameplay mechanics usually have unbalanced and unrealistic stats.

Darth Massacrus · Post by **Darth Massacrus** » 2007-08-01 06:48pm

General Schatten wrote:Actually the TIE Hunters only use a Proton Torpedo Launcher, and the TIE Defender have two more laser cannons than the Hunter.

actually, Rebel Strike shows that TIE Hunters can be configured with the pilots choice of secondary weapons. Also, TIE Hunters are shown to be equipped with ion cannons. They are even used in several of the missions from the game.

Eleventh Century Remnant · Post by **Eleventh Century Remnant** » 2007-08-01 07:36pm

All of which is game mechanics. What's the thing actually for?
The Hunter seems to be a long-range light multirole; laser, ion, standard multilauncher.
How much do energy weapons weigh- how much does carrying extra weaponry degrade performance? The extra annihilation mass you have to carry to generate the energy to fire the thing, and the extra fuel you need to carry to generate the thrust you need to carry the annihilation mass which... tradeoff time, isn't it? Fast, powerful, cheap, pick two.

Hyperdrives seem to require very dense hypermatter, I do not understand exactly why- either to be spun rapidly in some sort of gravity wave generator I do not get, or simply to be annihilated as fuel, or both, or neither and something else.
Anyway, it seems to me that hyperdrive variants would add significant weight and so reduce acceleration, I reckon this is the main reason the intereptor outperforms the Advanced/X1.

What this has to do with the Hunter- unless it has masses of cash thrown at it for a significant reactor and engine upgrade, it's going to be a lot slower than the Interceptor, possibly than the Advanced.
I personally reckon the thing is intended as Sienar's attempt to recover the slice of lost business taken from them by Cygnus Spaceworks' Starwing fighter-bomber, and I'd expect it to be a partial success at that- faster and harder to hit, better fighter, much smaller warhead load so not as good a bomber.

For 'the best', I'll opt for the Defender as well. It's probably no faster than the Eta-2 Actis (5,250 'g'), but it's larger and carries more weapons and a bult in hyperdrive, which means it's putting out more power to lug that lot along- more energy available for firepower and shields.

Darth Massacrus · Post by **Darth Massacrus** » 2007-08-03 09:05pm

unfortunately, the very game mechanics that allow for the various TIE Hunter weaponry configurations do not specify things like weight, speed, ect. However, the TIE Hunter handled real well in-game, going at least as fast as the TIE Interceptor.