Who still plays XvT?

Coaan · Post by **Coaan** » 2003-04-13 02:25pm

RogueIce wrote:
Coaan wrote:You know the luck of the gods is with you though when your 'unarmed' (all systems bar flight control and engine toast) tie fighter that's taken at least 4 hits, is still alive.

You also know the gods have a sense of irony when your partner rams promptly after surviving all that
A TIE Fighter taking FOUR hits? What were they, the underpowered lasers?

Glancing blows...scratched the solar panels four times...yeesh did that cockpit light up.....or was that it half exploding..

Post by **RogueIce** » 2003-04-13 02:39pm

Coaan wrote:Glancing blows...scratched the solar panels four times...yeesh did that cockpit light up.....or was that it half exploding..

I love it when the cockpit consoles get blown up after I take a hit across the nose. Nothing's more fun than a battle damaged TIE Fighter vaping that sorry X-wing's ass on the next pass.

Coaan · Post by **Coaan** » 2003-04-13 02:41pm

RogueIce wrote:
Coaan wrote:Glancing blows...scratched the solar panels four times...yeesh did that cockpit light up.....or was that it half exploding..
I love it when the cockpit consoles get blown up after I take a hit across the nose. Nothing's more fun than a battle damaged TIE Fighter vaping that sorry X-wing's ass on the next pass.

Two words.

Heavy rockets

(even more fun in xwa with blast areas)

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-04-13 05:00pm

You're the only one I know to do well in fighter on fighter engagments in a B-Wing.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-04-14 08:58am

I stopped playing that game when Alliance came about, but damn it was fun. There are better flight/space sims out there, but there's something particularly revving about piloting a TIE Advanced, with Williams' famous themes blasting from your sound system.

Darksider · Post by **Darksider** » 2003-04-14 09:59am

Lagmonster wrote:I stopped playing that game when Alliance came about, but damn it was fun. There are better flight/space sims out there, but there's something particularly revving about piloting a TIE Advanced, with Williams' famous themes blasting from your sound system.

Damn straight i loved the Endor battle theme. I though one of the greatest failings of the Endor levels in XWA was that it didn't have the music from ROTJ. (that's why i prefer the endor levels in Rouge leader)

Coaan · Post by **Coaan** » 2003-04-14 10:16am

Keevan_Colton wrote:You're the only one I know to do well in fighter on fighter engagments in a B-Wing.

It's the extra payload and furry upholstry

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-04-14 10:56am

Actually, yeah. B-wing as dogfighter, I'm there.

No matter what space sim I play, give me the biggest, heaviest, slowest behemoth out there and I'm happy. The bigger and slower the better. If someone ever made a space sim where one of the pilotable vehicles was essentially a fifty-foot gun with maneuvering thrusters, I'd have an orgasm.

Even in Wing Commander and Freespace, I never had problems loading up a giant bomber full of anti-fighter toys and then gunning everything out of the sky while trusting to my superior armor to hold me together.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-04-14 11:08am

Lagmonster wrote:Actually, yeah. B-wing as dogfighter, I'm there.

No matter what space sim I play, give me the biggest, heaviest, slowest behemoth out there and I'm happy. The bigger and slower the better. If someone ever made a space sim where one of the pilotable vehicles was essentially a fifty-foot gun with maneuvering thrusters, I'd have an orgasm.

Even in Wing Commander and Freespace, I never had problems loading up a giant bomber full of anti-fighter toys and then gunning everything out of the sky while trusting to my superior armor to hold me together.

There's nothing more fun than playing XWA and unloading all of your guns onto those pesky TIEs in front of you

WCP/WCSO's Devestator is fun, too - I go hunting Devil Rays in that fat pig.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-04-14 11:16am

I was once in a XvT squadron. And I do mean squadron. You have clans for stuff like Quake, but you are in a Tribes for the Starsiege Tribes universe and it is a Squadron for XvT any flight sim.

Anyway, my preferred fighter was the plan old Tie-Fighter. That surprised a great many people, but they quickly learned why. First of all you advance in rank depending on a series of variable. Flying a Tie-Fighter against X-Wings give you a boost in your ranking points. But thats not the real reason I flew the Tie-Fighter. As already mentioned the Y-Wing is very accurate when it comes to firing at other fighters. Well so is the Tie-Fighter, and its both faster and more manueverable to boot. Sure its got less armor, but I can handle that.

With my precision flying I can snipe at enemy fighters in head-to-head duels with relative ease. Most pilots when having their frontal shielding being blown away will jink to try and avoid fire and thus not fire back. Provided I haven't killed the X-Wing outright (almost always X-Wings I go up against) I get into a standard manuever battle in which the Tie-Fighter will almost always win. That is because of smaller profile and greater manueverability.

Against more experienced pilots things change. An experienced pilot knows that head-to-head with a Tie-Fighter should be death for the Tie. The reason why is because they can survive the shots and kill the Tie. So instead what I did was use a spiral pattern to come in on the X-Wing firing whenever I have the chance. This denies the enemy the chance to make a clean shot at me while I can still fire at them before we enter furball range. At this point I can again take advantage of my superior manueverability and small profile to take them out in a close range dogfight.

For a pilot who knows what they are doing in XvT, the Tie-Fighter can be a very deadly fighter.

Lagmonster wrote:The X-Wing is a boat. I don't care how much touting you do about the 'space superiority fighter', the X-Wing is a freaking light bomber. It occupies a very nice middle ground that was obviously held by the earlier Y-Wing and, as such, is an 'everyman' ship, fast enough to dogfight and heavy enough to take out capital ships.

The problem with that is the problem with anything that tries to be a multitasker - it spreads itself too thin, trying to be good at everything and masterful at nothing. In an honest dogfight, all piloting skills being equal, the TIE will win far more often because it is designed to do nothing BUT dogfight, and this is reflected in the play mechanics with a tight cone of fire, quick turn, small profile, high speed, and uncomplicated anti-fighter weapons.

However, in honest-to-goodness missions involving Star Destroyers and Frigates, that little TIE fighter is just a nuisance waiting to be shot down, whereas the X-Wing is a reasonable threat to any target. Most XvT players I knew were pure fighter-on-fighter dogfighters, and never threw in capship bots for missions.

First edited by Lagmonster by accident, edited again by Alyeska to restore original contents (or as close as possible) while leaving in Lagmonster's intended text reply.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-04-14 01:20pm

Cap Ship shoots can be fun.....I remember when Coaan and I used the gunner enabled patch to take on an SSD plus its fighters at max AI...that was fun, taking the 'Falcon spiralling about the place tearing chunks out the SSD as we went......

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-04-14 02:24pm

Just for the hell of it, I once modified a bunch of X-Wing Alliance missions to have squadron-level battles

There's nothing more fun than watching a squadron of B-Wings unload into an ISD, covered by A-Wings, X-Wings and a few old Y-Wings

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2003-04-14 04:53pm

TIE Fighters are fine, but I always flew squints. One hit from a quad burst would ruin anyone's day. Funny thing is Alyska, I never really went against mixed fighter matches. the WoWs that the DG used to participate in never allowed such.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-04-14 05:40pm

What I want to know is, why haven't a bunch of us signed up for a SD.NET Imperial Flight Group clan or somesuch? It just seems so...appropriate. Do none of us have XvT or Alliance anymore?

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-04-14 05:58pm

Cal Wright wrote:TIE Fighters are fine, but I always flew squints. One hit from a quad burst would ruin anyone's day. Funny thing is Alyska, I never really went against mixed fighter matches. the WoWs that the DG used to participate in never allowed such.

The Squint is nice, but its accuracy isn't quite as good because of the distance on its weapons. Although in a nice sized furball the Interceptor is good because of better speed and more weapons. In Ballance of Power I was rather fond of the shielded version.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-04-14 05:58pm

Lagmonster wrote:What I want to know is, why haven't a bunch of us signed up for a SD.NET Imperial Flight Group clan or somesuch? It just seems so...appropriate. Do none of us have XvT or Alliance anymore?

I still have both as well as the Ballance of Power addon to XvT.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2003-04-14 06:04pm

Cal Wright wrote:TIE Fighters are fine, but I always flew squints. One hit from a quad burst would ruin anyone's day. Funny thing is Alyska, I never really went against mixed fighter matches. the WoWs that the DG used to participate in never allowed such.

WoW, eh? A fellow Zoner? Neat.

I never really played in 'em, but I knew a ton of people who did. Maybe I can go to BSC sometime and get an account again.

This is asuming we're talking about the same WoW (Week of War) here.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-04-14 06:09pm

The TFA and TRA Week of Wars are the only WOWs I knew of at the Zone. My little squadron did well, although we spent more time combating another squadron through clandestine means then anything else. I was one hell of a spy master those days. I knew much about certain organizations and I plotted their downfall.

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2003-04-14 06:17pm

This is the Week of War I'm talking about. Battlestats.com had it in just about every game. It got to the point, when I can't really say our height of playing, but I know I was switching from GB/CC to XvT, XWA JK WoWs. Sometimes they'd overlap, and I'd be scurrying. I was about the only member with every game. Seeing how I'm navy commander, I was participating in most. We stopped though because BSC kept fucking us over.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2003-04-14 06:30pm

Alyeska wrote:The TFA and TRA Week of Wars are the only WOWs I knew of at the Zone. My little squadron did well, although we spent more time combating another squadron through clandestine means then anything else. I was one hell of a spy master those days. I knew much about certain organizations and I plotted their downfall.

What Squad were you in? I was in a mostly JK Clan myself, but we sometimes dabbled in the affairs of XvT, though not too much.

And your job seems like what mine was. I was a behind-the-scenes kinda guy. Sadly, those days are over, at least in our corner of the Zone.

Cal Wright wrote:This is the Week of War I'm talking about. Battlestats.com had it in just about every game. It got to the point, when I can't really say our height of playing, but I know I was switching from GB/CC to XvT, XWA JK WoWs. Sometimes they'd overlap, and I'd be scurrying. I was about the only member with every game. Seeing how I'm navy commander, I was participating in most. We stopped though because BSC kept fucking us over.

Ah, yes, good ol' BattleStats... My clan did some JK WoWs, but we had a very short peak time sadly. Maybe you ran across one of our guys? We were SR (Shadow Runners).

I never knew of anyone BSC was screwing over, however. I assume you mean bugs and the like? Those I saw. Or maybe Admins being dumbasses?

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-04-14 06:37pm

RogueIce wrote:
Alyeska wrote:The TFA and TRA Week of Wars are the only WOWs I knew of at the Zone. My little squadron did well, although we spent more time combating another squadron through clandestine means then anything else. I was one hell of a spy master those days. I knew much about certain organizations and I plotted their downfall.
What Squad were you in? I was in a mostly JK Clan myself, but we sometimes dabbled in the affairs of XvT, though not too much.

And your job seems like what mine was. I was a behind-the-scenes kinda guy. Sadly, those days are over, at least in our corner of the Zone. :

I first joined Crimson Demon Squad. I was recruited to be someones XO for their flight group and I quickly advanced after that. Then the Squadron leader left and our group splintered. Part of us formed a group called Outer Rim Alliance. CDS's original enemy was the Dark Angel Alliance and their leader Deep Lord. This translated into ORA as well. We hated DeepLord and his DAA. Through a lot of work and some spying I managed to get some dirty goods on DeepLord and I convinced half of his squadron to splinter away. Anyway, the ORA slowly fell apart and the two highest people left and I ended up in charge. We continued to plod along for a while until the few remaining members admited we just couldn't keep things going. About a year latter we tried reforming CDS and we did ok for a while untill we all realized none of us wanted to do the work required to keep the organization going.

That was a long time ago. I knew quite a few people in the XvT rooms at the time and we were all glad when DAA fell apart. Of all the people I knew in the squadron I only have one left on my ICQ list.

Darth Gojira · Post by **Darth Gojira** » 2003-04-15 11:49am

XWA rocks, XvT sucks, and I love TIE fighter(I just like the Empire better*Revs up TIE ad shields to prepare for heavy fire*)

Coaan · Post by **Coaan** » 2003-04-15 12:38pm

Darth Gojira wrote:XWA rocks, XvT sucks, and I love TIE fighter(I just like the Empire better*Revs up TIE ad shields to prepare for heavy fire*)

Pah. Xwa's only saving grace in multi is the furballs...everything else, xvt does better

Thunderfire · Post by **Thunderfire** » 2003-04-15 05:08pm

Darth Gojira wrote:XWA rocks, XvT sucks, and I love TIE fighter(I just like the Empire better*Revs up TIE ad shields to prepare for heavy fire*)

Nope the connection quality is better in XvT - so is the craft balance.
Just look at the craft value in XWA.

X-Wing 100 points
Gunboat 90 points
Tie-Defender 130 points

on veteran.
X-Wing 100 Gunboat 150 and Tie-Defender 450 would be closer the
the real capabilities of the crafts.

Coaan · Post by **Coaan** » 2003-04-15 07:05pm

Thunderfire wrote:
Darth Gojira wrote:XWA rocks, XvT sucks, and I love TIE fighter(I just like the Empire better*Revs up TIE ad shields to prepare for heavy fire*)
Nope the connection quality is better in XvT - so is the craft balance.
Just look at the craft value in XWA.

X-Wing 100 points
Gunboat 90 points
Tie-Defender 130 points

on veteran.
X-Wing 100 Gunboat 150 and Tie-Defender 450 would be closer the
the real capabilities of the crafts.

Uh, lemme get this straight...the gunboat is worth less than the xwing even though it has more in the way of capabilities and a larger payload?...yeesh..