The peak of Confederation technology and starfighter design right here. The Rapier and the Sabre were legendary in their own right, but the Excalibur was on another level. The ultimate sword name for the ultimate ship.
True, but the cats had two respectable fighters: The Gotri, which was a heavy fighter, but could dance, and the Hriss (WC1 SMII) which had a fearsome punch with 4 mass cannons and 2 neutron cannons. I would have loved to drive it.
At the beginning of the first mission on the way to blow up Kilrah I always have all my wingman retreat back home to make sure none of them die. What a challenge! I really enjoyed it!
Same, I used to do that was younger. I always felt guilty for killing off Vagabond. Not so much Maniac because he was sort of a dick at times, and Flint since I always went for Rachel. Lol.
This came out my Jr year in Highschool! that late 90s graphics lol ,there was nothing like it. The movie interaction made you get close to each character...and that plot twist with Hobbs, damn! Memories
@@MacsLore In high school, I found a utility that you could modify everything in Prophecy, i.e., change ships, loadouts, and values. I legit played through Prophecy in a "Chris Blair Custom". Got all the values the same as WC3, and tweaked the Ions to fire much faster (Also turned down the power required and damage per shot.) It was a blast.
The Excalibur was the BEST Confed fighter ever built! (Even in later eras afaic!) Its autotracking guns cut any fighter to ribbons! & The cloak just handed the cats their own arses back to them!
100% Agree! Let's look at the runners-up one at a time: Anything from the WCI / II era has far lower defensive stats (usually single or low double digits). The thing that comes closest is the _Centurion_ of Privateer when equipped with (see a pattern there?) two pairs of tachyon guns and a jump drive. Still slower than Excalibur on afterburner (but doesn't use fuel). _Thunderbolt_ (WCIII model): similar defenses, but much slower and less agile. The meson guns are almost on par with the reapers, the plasma cannon are a poor man's tachyons, but the pair of photon cannon is among the crappiest weapons ever: mediocre firepower and an energy consumption almost as high as plasma that's sustainable only due to its low rate of fire. It does carry a torpedo in its default config, but the Excalibur could do the same (since it could carry a T bomb in the final mission), so that's a tie. The WCIV era offers some runners-up, but none of those compares to the Excalibur in the space superiority rôle. Like all Border Worlds craft, the _Vindicator_ is equipped with a pair of Leech guns. Conventional armament consists of a pair of Stormfire autocannon, tachyon guns, lasers (both fairly energy-efficient), six missiles and three torpedoes. Its superior defense comes at a price of low speed and agility, making it an excellent strike craft but a poor dogfighter against anything but bombers. The _Bearcat_ comes with two pairs of tachyon guns, but those are a scaled down type approximately equal to three standard issue weapons with a slightly improved range. It's faster, but otherwise fairly unremarkable, and since the guns are so far apart, hitting a fighter with all four shots is impossible from some angles. IMO, that's the ship that comes closest to an Excalibur, even more so than the next one. Finally, the _Dragon_ features two pairs of truly heavy guns, but since two of them are plasma, its firepower isn't that much better than that of the Bearcat, and range, rate of fire, and energy efficiency are much worse. It comes with a cloak and a pair of fission weapons, but those are highly situational. For example, the fission weapon has enough recoil to throw the entire fighter backwards, and since it lacks the Stormfire's rate of fire, the lack of a lead estimator really hurts accuracy. It doesn't feel like a successor to the Excalibur, but like a "budget Excalibur" intended for covert strikes without a missile loadout to match. The _Vampire_ of the Prophecy era seems to get most things right, if not for a fatal flaw: any fighter with multiple guns of a type (e.g. four tachyon guns) has to charge those one at a time rather than simultaneously, which gives the Vampire a crippling 2-second delay between tachyon bursts. Its secondary armament resembles the Excalibur's: a pair of efficient but less damaging cannon, but even those suffer from low rate of fire, so they can't compare to the Reapers either. With a 20-missile complement and improved defenses, the Vampire can last longer in battle, but it's still a far cry from the Excalibur. The biggest merit of the Vampire is that it was designed after a discontinued fighter project IRL, the VJ-101. Even worse, few ships share the excellent quality-of-life features of the Excalibur: lead estimator (available on most ships mentioned, but not for the Leech, Stormfire, or fission weapons), glide mode (which allows you to turn sideways or even back to fire at pursuers - only the _Arrow_ can do that), and auto-aim guns (which track the current target, taking lead into account - the Bearcat and Dragon do that, but again only with most conventional guns, and in easy mode, all WCIII and WCIV can do this to a tiny extent, roughly the width of the crosshairs).
I wonder if the development of the Excalibur was a continuation of the Morningstar fighter project. It also was a fighter with a jump drive and it was equipped with the heavy ordinance of the mace missile. The two fighters also have a somewhat similar shape.
Excals were a dream to fly in WC. No other ship in any game captured the feel of you flying such a truly powerful and state of the art fighter, even the Dragon. The fighter that won the war. I can close my eyes and still recall the feel of ripping cats apart with those tracking tachyons. Magnificent.
Back in the day my copy of WC3 had a weird bug while flying during any mission. All the other ships around me, including enemies, would move at normal speed while my own fighter would turn so slowly that ONLY the Arrow because of its maneuverability, or Excalibur because of its automatically aiming guns could be used. Any other fighters were utterly useless. Even so, the Arrow turned and handled like a Thunderbolt was supposed to but without the armor. If you had to fly in a Hellcat or Thunderbolt it was impossible to dogfight and the only option was to launch and immediately eject. It was quite the challenge beating the game like that but it could be done.
I think I kinda had this same problem before when I was using the keyboard. Somehow holding down shift and using the arrow keys allowed for quicker turns. it was a thing I believe in the first 3 games, although I might be (Heavily) misremembering.
Great video... I owned Wing Commander 3 long before I had the means to actually play it. My Dad, did however, have a capable PC and when I came to visit every other weekend, I would play until the wee hours of the morning. Such great memories. Then my Sophomore year in high school, circa 1997, I got my own PC for Christmas; used of course but the only things I cared about were: Can it handle Wing Commander 3? Yes. Can it handle Wing Commander 4? Yes. Can it handle Command & Conquer? Yes. Can it handle Star Craft? Yes. Then I don't care how old or used it is 😆
what makes me facepalm was that Flash refused to scramble to help defend the Victory because it was 'beneath him' and that he was following his orders to the letter. So if the attack had succeeded, he'd be dead and the fighter destroyed. He'd have been drummed out of the service after.
@@MacsLore Probably you were thinking about the Vampire. I mean they do have similar armerment. Quad tachyons and FF and IR missiles it's just the Vampire has 8FF and 8IR. I was kinda bummed that I couldn't fly the Excalibur in Prophecy just because she's a little old doesn't mean she's useless. an armor refit would solve her problems. I would take an Excalibur over the Panther.
@@michaelkenny7314 Indeed that's how it worked in 'Saga' but having a couple of torps might have made things easier against Fralthis and the odd Bantakara carrier.
Or in more basic term just think of them making a F-15 or a F-22 and the other guys are using MiG-25, that is how out class the other guys was when that fighter hit the space and rekt everything in it path
I liked how they gave you a brief taste of what you'd be flying later in the game during the Flash storyline.
It's great when a game gives you a preview of some of its late-game tech
The peak of Confederation technology and starfighter design right here.
The Rapier and the Sabre were legendary in their own right, but the Excalibur was on another level. The ultimate sword name for the ultimate ship.
That tachyon cannon and speed and roll rate, made it like like the the shining sword needed in combat...
True, but the cats had two respectable fighters: The Gotri, which was a heavy fighter, but could dance, and the Hriss (WC1 SMII) which had a fearsome punch with 4 mass cannons and 2 neutron cannons. I would have loved to drive it.
Wing Commander 3/4 was just the right mix of everything to make you feel like you were there.
At the beginning of the first mission on the way to blow up Kilrah I always have all my wingman retreat back home to make sure none of them die. What a challenge! I really enjoyed it!
Same, I used to do that was younger. I always felt guilty for killing off Vagabond. Not so much Maniac because he was sort of a dick at times, and Flint since I always went for Rachel. Lol.
@@MacsLore Ah yes! The ladies. Always a tough choice!
Man I never wanted Vegabond and Maniac to die. I did the same though.
This came out my Jr year in Highschool! that late 90s graphics lol ,there was nothing like it. The movie interaction made you get close to each character...and that plot twist with Hobbs, damn! Memories
Rip Hobbs
I would have loved to go full grandpa-mode and flew the Excalibur against the Nephilim - even if it's hopelessly obsolete at that point
Damn right. It might be ineffective, but with an Excalibur even the bugs would be forced to say "Wow, they died so cool."
@@MacsLore In high school, I found a utility that you could modify everything in Prophecy, i.e., change ships, loadouts, and values.
I legit played through Prophecy in a "Chris Blair Custom". Got all the values the same as WC3, and tweaked the Ions to fire much faster (Also turned down the power required and damage per shot.)
It was a blast.
The Excalibur was the BEST Confed fighter ever built! (Even in later eras afaic!) Its autotracking guns cut any fighter to ribbons! & The cloak just handed the cats their own arses back to them!
100% Agree! Let's look at the runners-up one at a time:
Anything from the WCI / II era has far lower defensive stats (usually single or low double digits). The thing that comes closest is the _Centurion_ of Privateer when equipped with (see a pattern there?) two pairs of tachyon guns and a jump drive. Still slower than Excalibur on afterburner (but doesn't use fuel).
_Thunderbolt_ (WCIII model): similar defenses, but much slower and less agile. The meson guns are almost on par with the reapers, the plasma cannon are a poor man's tachyons, but the pair of photon cannon is among the crappiest weapons ever: mediocre firepower and an energy consumption almost as high as plasma that's sustainable only due to its low rate of fire. It does carry a torpedo in its default config, but the Excalibur could do the same (since it could carry a T bomb in the final mission), so that's a tie.
The WCIV era offers some runners-up, but none of those compares to the Excalibur in the space superiority rôle. Like all Border Worlds craft, the _Vindicator_ is equipped with a pair of Leech guns. Conventional armament consists of a pair of Stormfire autocannon, tachyon guns, lasers (both fairly energy-efficient), six missiles and three torpedoes. Its superior defense comes at a price of low speed and agility, making it an excellent strike craft but a poor dogfighter against anything but bombers.
The _Bearcat_ comes with two pairs of tachyon guns, but those are a scaled down type approximately equal to three standard issue weapons with a slightly improved range. It's faster, but otherwise fairly unremarkable, and since the guns are so far apart, hitting a fighter with all four shots is impossible from some angles. IMO, that's the ship that comes closest to an Excalibur, even more so than the next one.
Finally, the _Dragon_ features two pairs of truly heavy guns, but since two of them are plasma, its firepower isn't that much better than that of the Bearcat, and range, rate of fire, and energy efficiency are much worse. It comes with a cloak and a pair of fission weapons, but those are highly situational. For example, the fission weapon has enough recoil to throw the entire fighter backwards, and since it lacks the Stormfire's rate of fire, the lack of a lead estimator really hurts accuracy. It doesn't feel like a successor to the Excalibur, but like a "budget Excalibur" intended for covert strikes without a missile loadout to match.
The _Vampire_ of the Prophecy era seems to get most things right, if not for a fatal flaw: any fighter with multiple guns of a type (e.g. four tachyon guns) has to charge those one at a time rather than simultaneously, which gives the Vampire a crippling 2-second delay between tachyon bursts. Its secondary armament resembles the Excalibur's: a pair of efficient but less damaging cannon, but even those suffer from low rate of fire, so they can't compare to the Reapers either. With a 20-missile complement and improved defenses, the Vampire can last longer in battle, but it's still a far cry from the Excalibur. The biggest merit of the Vampire is that it was designed after a discontinued fighter project IRL, the VJ-101.
Even worse, few ships share the excellent quality-of-life features of the Excalibur: lead estimator (available on most ships mentioned, but not for the Leech, Stormfire, or fission weapons), glide mode (which allows you to turn sideways or even back to fire at pursuers - only the _Arrow_ can do that), and auto-aim guns (which track the current target, taking lead into account - the Bearcat and Dragon do that, but again only with most conventional guns, and in easy mode, all WCIII and WCIV can do this to a tiny extent, roughly the width of the crosshairs).
@@achtsekundenfurz7876 W0W!!
I came at Flash in simulation guns blazing and not flinching. He got destroyed and admitted defeat.
I always just barraged-fired my missiles while running at him head on. It ended his hotshot attitude in a matter of seconds.
@@MacsLore sounds pretty similar :)
After WCS: At the Moment you get the Excalibur the War is over
“We need all the fire-power we can get colonel.”
behold, Blair did the same with the deathstar... the cats should have known, the force was with him
I wonder if the development of the Excalibur was a continuation of the Morningstar fighter project. It also was a fighter with a jump drive and it was equipped with the heavy ordinance of the mace missile. The two fighters also have a somewhat similar shape.
Man now I want to see a lore video on the sabre lol
Yeeep, both WC 3 and Saga got sooo much easier when you finally got to pilot this baby.
Excals were a dream to fly in WC. No other ship in any game captured the feel of you flying such a truly powerful and state of the art fighter, even the Dragon. The fighter that won the war. I can close my eyes and still recall the feel of ripping cats apart with those tracking tachyons. Magnificent.
Back in the day my copy of WC3 had a weird bug while flying during any mission. All the other ships around me, including enemies, would move at normal speed while my own fighter would turn so slowly that ONLY the Arrow because of its maneuverability, or Excalibur because of its automatically aiming guns could be used. Any other fighters were utterly useless. Even so, the Arrow turned and handled like a Thunderbolt was supposed to but without the armor. If you had to fly in a Hellcat or Thunderbolt it was impossible to dogfight and the only option was to launch and immediately eject. It was quite the challenge beating the game like that but it could be done.
I think I kinda had this same problem before when I was using the keyboard. Somehow holding down shift and using the arrow keys allowed for quicker turns. it was a thing I believe in the first 3 games, although I might be (Heavily) misremembering.
Bruv That Ship Spec thing I discovered by accident, decades back. My response would be the damn same!
I like how specs in the game I close the company who Made it too.
Great video... I owned Wing Commander 3 long before I had the means to actually play it. My Dad, did however, have a capable PC and when I came to visit every other weekend, I would play until the wee hours of the morning. Such great memories. Then my Sophomore year in high school, circa 1997, I got my own PC for Christmas; used of course but the only things I cared about were:
Can it handle Wing Commander 3? Yes.
Can it handle Wing Commander 4? Yes.
Can it handle Command & Conquer? Yes.
Can it handle Star Craft? Yes.
Then I don't care how old or used it is 😆
Actually the name itself is fitting to one weapon used by Artoria Pendragon when used even once, vanished.
what makes me facepalm was that Flash refused to scramble to help defend the Victory because it was 'beneath him' and that he was following his orders to the letter. So if the attack had succeeded, he'd be dead and the fighter destroyed. He'd have been drummed out of the service after.
I'm going to need one of these and a Dragon in Star Citizen.
Wartime Excalibur carried 12 missiles. 6 FF 6 IRR. while the downgrade to 8 hurts it's not as having 6. I wanna see a MK II or III excalibur.
FFS, I just went back and realized my goof now in the in the WC4 part. I'm not sure why I said sixteen there.
@@MacsLore Probably you were thinking about the Vampire. I mean they do have similar armerment. Quad tachyons and FF and IR missiles it's just the Vampire has 8FF and 8IR. I was kinda bummed that I couldn't fly the Excalibur in Prophecy just because she's a little old doesn't mean she's useless. an armor refit would solve her problems. I would take an Excalibur over the Panther.
Were the Excaliburs ever modified to be 'strike fighters' IE: carrying a anti shipping torp or two?
@@nickmitsialis She didn't need it her quad tachyons could make mincemeat out of most ships.
@@michaelkenny7314 Indeed that's how it worked in 'Saga' but having a couple of torps might have made things easier against Fralthis and the odd Bantakara carrier.
The Excalibur is such a beast, it had to be downgraded to make 4's super fighter seem all that much better.
Also had the glide ability like the arrow
could you go over the hellcat 5?
Or in more basic term just think of them making a F-15 or a F-22 and the other guys are using MiG-25, that is how out class the other guys was when that fighter hit the space and rekt everything in it path
Find something new every day....
Thanks!
No, Thank *you*, for the Super Thanks.
Reminds me of the hellcat from World War II
alt s love it !
Lmfao
Thank you. Been dying for some WC content.
Yeah, Wing Commander definitely needs some more love out here on TH-cam.
all those innocent lives war crime blowing up an entire planet. war crimmmme.
#AngryCatLivesMatter!!!