Kilrathi ships

[z30]

After hitting my head bloodily and repeatedly against the wall on the Palan 3 mission (I'm beginning to HATE Demons) I decided to take a break and make an alternate scenario.

Modifying a few files, I bought myself a Gothri at New Detroit. This Kilrathi fighter is a military grade ship and comes with shields,guns,radar,jump drive ,missiles and a meson rear turret built in. You can upgrade the guns and missiles but not the others though you can purchase a tungsten hull and armor, buy engine enhancements etc.

You can check out the standard config at this link :

http://www.wcnews.com/ships/p1gothri.shtml

The Privateer PR version is quite faithful except for a few minor details.

Cost for the stock ship is 2.5 Mill and it's worth every penny.

The Gothri has fantastic acceleration,deceleration, top speed (1200kph), high cruising speed (455kph) and tight turn rates. Keeping up with agile ,dodging Talons and Demons was no problem - I completely forgot that it was a heavy fighter.

My modified Gothri has 2 Meson and 2 Ion cannons in front (kept the Meson turret) and I plan to load the 3 single missile mounts with proton torpedoes and FF missiles on the lone dual missile rack.

The standard Vegafighter cockpit layout made it seem like a really alien cockpit - very cool. Placing a hit on the Gothri front, rear and sideways is a nightmare btw because of it's sleekness and low profile, best bet is to aim from above or below because it's quite broad.

Weaknesses include the inability to mount a reactor (no energy reserves) and (according to lore) thin armor. The rear fins also interfere with your rear turret sight.

Going to see if I can kill enough Retro ships at Oxford to gain a friendly standing with the Confed. Thanks for making this beauty available in PR guys, I fell in love with this fighter even while they were chewing holes in my shields and armor and now that I've actually have driven it am determined to obtain it normally via the bonus missions.

[MamiyaOtaru]

Awesome! Well there's one reason to play the bonus missions

I quite like it myself, and happened to by flying it when I took the screenshots in this thread.

I had thought to add another armada cockpit for the gothri at some point, W=would it be better in your opinion as is?

[z30]

Awesome! Well there's one reason to play the bonus missions

I quite like it myself, and happened to by flying it when I took the screenshots in this thread.

I had thought to add another armada cockpit for the gothri at some point, W=would it be better in your opinion as is?

I'd say yes but someone might burn me at the stake for not being canon

Thats' a beautiful rear shot of the Gothri btw - hope you don't mind my saving and using it as a desktop background.

One of the things I loved about Cherryh's alien catlike hani were the way their ships were designed around them. Some of their controls were only reachable by clawtips so their poor human recruit had to use a pick to operate his console.

I'd imagine Kilrathi cockpits were the same, for one the color hues and shades would be different - suited for eyes that had better than human nightvision.

Those manually operated emergency hatches/controls must have required a great deal of strength to operate if you were a "monkeyboy".

Coolest fighter in PR hands down , don't mind going renegade for a while just to get it hehe

[z30]

* Gothri shields are Medium, level 3 and non upgradable. stock Gothri armor is thinner than the Centurion's. Just like the Demon, hit and run is the name of the game.

* It doesn't take much to get on the good side of the Confed. You can go from hunted to neutral/friendly with just a few bounty missions on Retros (Oxford is good

* Good combo for hull guns are two Ions and two Mass drivers. Gave up on Mesons - too much of an energy drain on top of the ion guns.

* It's pretty difficult to operate the rear turret manually. I think it has something to do with Gothri manueverability and turret twist being too stiff (unlike the smooth steady Galaxy turret action).

Will check out the Dralthi next.

[z30]

The Dralthi is a decent light fighter with emphasis on light. This definitely isn't the ship you pick to take on a bounty mission involving six Talons, it doesn't have the firepower nor the protection for it.

Three mass drivers is the best combo so far, just one medium weapon will use up what 3 light guns can live with. With just 3 hard points for missiles (not all can take FF or guided) , firing one requires thought and judgement.

Don't upgrade the radar - the best you can get is the Iris with no way of telling friend from foe. At least the stock radar knows which is which and locks as well:)

This actually is close to what I would consider a true intermediate fighter for those who wish to upgrade/complement the Tarsus on the way to getting the Centurion. Too bad we can't use it that way, too much violence done to lore.

Tried out the Centurion so I could compare it with the Gothri. It's a decent Hunter ship but lacks the flair of the Kilrathi heavy fighter. In a Gothri, you won't think twice about tackling six Talons at one time - with it's speed and firepower you can slash in at full speed, gain distance then turn around and rip at the pack again.

With the 200kph speed advantage over the Talon and a rear turret there is no way one of those is going to stay at your rear for long.

[Duke Derek]

i agree with much of that although i love fighting massive swarms in an agile ship so i'd say go for it in a Dralthi.

im pretty sure the stock Kilrathi ships can take any mods including top radars and stuff, then you can really make yourself a killing death machine

[z30]

i agree with much of that although i love fighting massive swarms in an agile ship so i'd say go for it in a Dralthi.

im pretty sure the stock Kilrathi ships can take any mods including top radars and stuff, then you can really make yourself a killing death machine

I altered the Deprecated label for the Kilrathi ships in the masterlist.csv and placed the appropriate ship class, maybe that's why I can't upgrade everything.

Managed to squeeze in two tachyon guns and a laser into the Dralthi , my aim and piloting sucks for light fighters - you need to be able to hammer at a weak point consistently. Too dependent on missiles to take out Talons, I need to learn the trick of staying on their tail.

http://www.wcnews.com/ships/p1gladius.shtml

I like odd ships and was taking a look at the Gladius, it's manueverability is less good than the Dral's but it has 10 missile hard points. It would make the perfect missile light fighter partner, great for softening up heavily armored targets like Orions and capital ships. Too bad they're on opposite sides

Curious to see what the Salthi is like, nearly over my Palan 3 trauma fyi - piloting Kilrathi ships does me good hehe

[z30]

I tried the Salthi which is actually an unremarkable ship except for one or two features, so went back to the Dralthi trying to get an optimal gun mix.

Duke Derek and Stratovarius came up with a great spreadsheet on PR weapon performance at this link :

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... php?t=5865

Two Ion heavy guns caused too much drain, based on the figures about 5K energy units per second (Dmg/sec was 60). What really worked for me was two Particle guns and a Laser with a peak Dmg/sec of 76 and drain factor of about 4.4K/sec (particle only) and 5.7K (particles & laser).

I'm at a loss why the Tachyon gun combo didn't work as well. Maybe the extra 2 dmg/shot per Particle gun has something to do with it or maybe Kilrathi ships just don't like Confed Milspec weapons

At any rate I'm finally starting to get a better feel of this light fighter and am beginning to appreciate it's features. It's great to be able to keep up with Retro Talon acrobatics for one, and those Heatseekers really do damage once you get used to them.

One food for thought is that in a multiplayer version of WCU where economics is a factor, the cost of a single stock milgrade Gothri (2.5 M) will easily pay for ten fully upgraded Dralthi's (assuming 250k each).

A pack of Dralthi's is a lot to handle, reminds me of the wild dogs of Africa.

[Duke Derek]

a pack of anything is hard to handle, i learned that the hard way in 'nam

but yea, i find Drathli's quite formiddable due to them being harder to catch.

the Salthis you get from Eden are poor, the guns arent all that either... but im yet to try the Stock one i got, i think i've outfitted it fully, might be a bit of a giggle, though my experiences in fighting them makes me think it might be quite a short test flight...

[z30]

the Salthis you get from Eden are poor, the guns arent all that either... but im yet to try the Stock one i got, i think i've outfitted it fully, might be a bit of a giggle, though my experiences in fighting them makes me think it might be quite a short test flight...

Yeah, the Salthi left me cold - kind of a let down after my interesting flights in the Gothri and Dralthi.

Incidentally I was intrigued enough with the latter to restart the Sandoval and Tayla missions with it. Wanted to see if it was too overpowered to be a good light fighter alternative to the Tarsus. So far so good

What it is though is overpriced - the price tag is 1.4 Mill but I only needed 35K to decently upgrade it!

Going through the bounty and escort missions now to earn my keep, I kept to cargo runs in the Tarsus because it's really more built for trading than fighting. Flying the Dralthi as a mercenary for hire is proving to be very interesting - it's almost like a new game, very different perspective.

Packing two Particle guns and a Meson now - I've really underestimated this Kilrathi ship initially, it's a gem once you get used to it.

[z30]

The Dralthi makes a good prototype for an introductory civilian fighter , something to learn the mercenary ropes on on the way to buying the Centurion. Conventionally the intermediate fighter is weaker in everyway to it's more expensive cousin but I'll go against the grain and recommend a ship with similar performance for the ff. reasons :

* Armor and shields are paper thin compared to the Centurion. A light fighter's defense is speed and manuevrability, you survive by *not* getting hit. You learn good combat habits by getting accustomed to driving a small fighter - relying on thicker armor/shields is not always a good thing.

* Missile load is miniscule , just 3 and limited in type at that compared to the 20 projectiles the Centurion can carry.

* Gun load is much weaker, it takes more skill and patience to take down a target even if it's a lowly Talon

* Players who choose to take the mercenary route will end up holding onto this light craft and buy the Centurion as their second ship. The right fighter for every mission - richer gameplay.

One thing about the Dralthi, it's so knife thin that blasting at full speed through a thick asteroid field isnt' a problem

I'd also have to mention that the introduction of such a ship kills the Orion as a viable choice, the Centurion and light fighter have many things in common - not so with the Orion.

[z30]

Fluff text for the Dralthi :

Kilrathi fighters emphasize high velocity and maneuverability. Similar to the Gothri, the Dralthi is designed in precisely this manner. Excellent acceleration powers, powerful afterburners and high velocities allow a Kilrathi pilot to close in on his kill quickly and efficiently. This ship’s blaster loadout is relatively weak. Even though the Dralthi carries several missiles, Dumb Fires are more easily avoided than guided missile systems.

The Gothri, btw, is classified in this page as a medium fighter which may be more accurate considering how close it's weapon loadout and armor is to the Centurion's. In the config above, this Kilrathi fighter has two turrets, hmmm - maybe it's a heavy after all

[z30]

There's a beautiful symmetry that happens when you load the Dralthi with 2 mass drivers and an ion gun (middle).

In afterburn mode, once energy reserves are depleted, the ion automatically shuts down leaving enough surplus to keep the mass driver guns firing continuously.

[z30]

Didn't feel right about the Tachyon gun on a Kilrathi ship, so switched back to the meson. The 2 laser/meson combo actually performed better

The Dralthi has the tight Demon gun cluster arrangement, this and the low engine energy output makes light guns the best choice. The stock 3 laser guns can shred shields or armor pretty quickly. Anything under a 2 shot/sec firing rate doesn't seem to mesh well with the lasers.

Adding the turn and acceleration engine enhancers also made it easy to stay on the tail of a Talon. In a Demon the headon attack, U turn then repeat is the safe and sure way of taking down a ship. The Dralthi handles a bit differently, it doesn't really have the firepower to destroy a bogey in a single pass head to head confrontation unless it's already been damaged.

This is where the 3 missile hardpoints come into play, unfortunately you can't mount autotrackers on them and they're limited in what missiles can be attached there (DF and HS only).

My usual tactic is to fire 2 HS head on then use guns to finish the target off, holding one HS in reserve.

Still evaluating it as an escort guard, but the previous No is now a Maybe

[z30]

Upgraded the Meson cannon to a Particle gun, this ship now has serious killing power for such a light vessel. You can still fire all guns in afterburner mode for quite a few salvos.

In fine tuning the gun combos I relied heavily on Duke & Stratovarius's weapon spreadsheet statistics (see link above).

Was mistaken about FF, one missile hardpoint can mount it. Now packing 1 FF and 2 HS and the combo rocks. Fire FF during first head on pass, blaze away with your guns after it hits then U turn and dogfight use HS whenever possible.

Jumped into one scenario where I faced off against 3 Talons, and another Dralthi wandered in and joined the fun. Too bad you can't hire Kilrathi wingmen, we tore into the fanatics.

You can forget about what I've ever said before about the Dralthi being a lightweight fighter - it's really deadly given the right upgrades. I've taken bounties on Gothri ships, bagged the target and returned with hardly a scratch.

[micheal_andreas_stahl]

Is there any way to get a Kilrathi Cap ship? Would like to have one. i try not to tackle with kilrathi fighters that much as thay always come in pacdks.

[micheal_andreas_stahl]

I just Found out! You fly to Sunn' Kpta then fly to Kilrathi Large Asteroid. There is Missles, Cloaking, Drelthi, Gothri, and Kamekh available. So i have Confed and Kilrathi Cap ships.

[z30]

I just Found out! You fly to Sunn' Kpta then fly to Kilrathi Large Asteroid. There is Missles, Cloaking, Drelthi, Gothri, and Kamekh available. So i have Confed and Kilrathi Cap ships.

Perfect timing, I just came back to the game after taking a break to deal with some RL issues (all done now) and the Gothri is high on my list.

[micheal_andreas_stahl]

They are? Someone better convince me that they are worth my money! Only one i like are Drelthi and Capships

[ijuin]

The Gothri has better agility and afterburner speed than the Centurion--in fact it's almost like a Demon wihh a turret and an extra reactor/shield level.

[z30]

The Gothri has better agility and afterburner speed than the Centurion--in fact it's almost like a Demon wihh a turret and an extra reactor/shield level.

I just love this ship, 1.2k top speed , the manueverability of a medium fighter (the Centurion is sluggish in comparison), good gun array. Anything you can't defeat head on you can run away from

[ijuin]

Yup. You get all of the speed and agility of the Demon, with shields, reactor, guns, and armor nearly the match of the Centurion. It's a very nice choice, given that there is no diplomatic penalty for flying one. However, you might want to modify it (in the units.cvs file) to have 16 or 20 units of upgrade space instead of the default 12., otherwise you will not have room to mount the Righteous Fire upgrades.

As an aside, my personal reccommendation is to fly the bonus campaign when you have the Steltek gun, because that nearly doubles your firepower--use fast-bolt-speed laser, meson, or tachyon guns for your other gun slots to match the Steltek gun's bolt speed. However, you may wish instead to fly the bonus campaign first in order to fly the Steltek Gun campaign with a Kilrathi ship, in which case I reccommend that you first upgrade to some ship other than the Tarsus/Talon and fit it with at least level 2 shields and level 3 reactor plus tungsten armor.

[z30]

As an aside, my personal reccommendation is to fly the bonus campaign when you have the Steltek gun, because that nearly doubles your firepower--use fast-bolt-speed laser, meson, or tachyon guns for your other gun slots to match the Steltek gun's bolt speed. However, you may wish instead to fly the bonus campaign first in order to fly the Steltek Gun campaign with a Kilrathi ship, in which case I reccommend that you first upgrade to some ship other than the Tarsus/Talon and fit it with at least level 2 shields and level 3 reactor plus tungsten armor.

Very useful tips, I was not aware of the RF campaign's need for that much storage space. I'm a great fan of fast firing guns myself but need at least 4 of them to have an effect - my reflexes are not what they used to be alas.

I'll probably finish the standard campaign first, will have to bite the bullet and get the Centurion. The Demon campaigns are too much for the Galaxy, god knows I've tried beating that particular one so many times.

[ijuin]

Very useful tips, I was not aware of the RF campaign's need for that much storage space. I'm a great fan of fast firing guns myself but need at least 4 of them to have an effect - my reflexes are not what they used to be alas.

For the full normal set of upgrades, you would have:

Radar
Armor
Reactor
Shield Generator
Jump Drive
ECM
Afterburner
Repair Droid
Multi Thrust Enhancer (RF)
Multi Turn Enhancer (RF)
Multi Speed Enhancer (RF)
Multi Shield Regenerator (RF)
Gun Cooler (RF)

That makes thirteen units of upgrade space. You will need a few more units if you want to mount the small cargo expansion (necessary if you want to take multiple simultaneous cargo missions when flying a fighter that has a base cargo capacity of 20).

[micheal_andreas_stahl]

So it IS good for some thing! Also what Gun Combinations work for the Gothri? With drethi i just put three mensons on but they don't cut the butter (or Margarine in my case ).

Too Bad. I have just finished RF. It has kind of a lame ending, though plenty of fighting. i manage well in most instances with either a Orion or a Demon.