Here we go, the TIE Defender - an absolute bruiser of a craft. Not a huge amount has actually changed with this craft except to make it even more powerful. The most notable thing is not being able to link lasers/ions together. This is a deliberate choice because of how powerful the Defenders guns are, its TOO overpowered when linked but I want some tactical choice in which weapon system you will use due to range and power of both systems. The last training mission of course is the Missile Boat, but I've not yet really built this mission, so you'll have to wait a couple more weeks for that one, but rest assured its coming! One final note, the map briefing and win debriefing dialogue audio was recorded today when I have a nasty cold, so if I sound a bit weirder than normal, its because I'm all bunged up! This is just placeholder audio, it will be re-recorded when my voice is back to normal. The inflight audio was recorded a week or so ago, so unaffected.
I love the quip about just turning on the tractor beam and letting the A-Wings hit your shields... it's exactly what I have often done in the original TIE Fighter :-D
Appreciate how you changed the IFF of rogue imperial forces to yellow. Was very confusing to be playing through Empire vs Empire missions where everything was just red.
@@ange1uk Imperial credits are the most valuable currency in the galaxy, of course! Highly inflation-resistant thanks to the Empire's fascistic command economy.
@@brygrant472 Just remembered that line in A New Hope when Han tells Ben and Luke his price for transport which was 10,000 credits to which Luke says you could almost buy your own ship for that. So clearly its very high value currency.
There was a bug in TF where if you had a fighter locked in the tractor beam when the beam power ran out, it would continue on indefinitely as if it was still in the beam. Could end up so far away it took ages to catch up with.
Looking back through the vid, I was interested to see just what effect the T/A's had on the T/D with time to study and not react to immediate threats. I think out of all the things that ended up shooting at you, the T/A ended up doing some of the highest damage. At 17:40 you can see me take 4 direct quad burst hits, I went from 115% shields to 48% shields! Nearly a 70% drop in the space of just over a second or so maybe. Really shows the T/A's new glass cannon status 😀
Brilliant work as usual! Didn't notice your voice sounding any different tbh. Always preferred the Advanced myself, but what a monster the Defender is! It can even cope with a collision from an A-wing better than a Super Star Destroyer 🤣
Not being able to link the ions with the lasers always annoyed me (BW? YW for sure). I kind of understand the reasoning, as the TD is pretty OP. Once warheads were depleted, I used to always hold the W key down as I fired, to effectively link ions with lasers.
This will actually somewhat work against you if you spam W key, because of the notably different rate of fire between lasers and ions. The RoF cooldown of the Ions will apply to the Lasers if you switch immediately. I encountered this problem when I tried my initial rebalance idea for the T/D and it didn't work. Another idea I had was to give the Defender just 6 lasers and no ions, but a dual warhead system so it could always carry ion pulse torpedoes which are ion cannons in warhead form and much more powerful.
Ahh yes the TIE "Defender", much like the Defiant is just an "escort" vessel! :D I can see already with this revised version of the craft how you'll be able to make Delta 1 a one fighter wrecking machine in the campaign when it's mostly just you flying solo, without needing to cheese it.
Holy crap - that head on attack against a corvette was impressive! Could the T/D be a Lancer-killer? I envision a mission where the player has to take care of 4-5 Lancer class frigates protecting a Golans or a couple of ISDs so a fighter-heavy, capship-weak strike force can hyperspace in using Escort Carriers to make torpedo or bomb runs on the main target. I was kind of hoping you'd go with Space Bombs when you rearmed the craft - would love to see how hard those would hit with the T/D's full speed! Is the cruiser only launching it's starfighters in waves? Seems like if they had some kind of military protocols, they would have had a couple of X-wings on CAP already launched and another 2-4 at the ready. I can just imagine the scene inside the CRL, assuming they're carrying a full squadron of 12 X-wings, and two half-squadrons of A-Wings and B-Wings. I would assume a CRL could launch three craft at a time (two if B-Wings) at a cycle of about 30 seconds per launch. (maybe make it 15 for gameplay, IDK?) This seems to match pretty much what we see in the video, I guess. I just wonder if the T/Ds hypered in further out if we could get them fighting at more of a disadvantage. "Captain, CIC. Sensors just detected six bandits dropping out of hyperspace. It's some unknown type of starfighter." "Only six? Lets be careful, vector the CAP and launch the Alert-5. I'm on my way down." (when the captain gets to the CIC) "Situation update: the enemy fighters are definitely getting the upper hand on Red Squadron." "Launch the A-Wings and get the rest of Red and Green squadrons to their craft." And then they all die in T/D laser fire. Finally, seeing you die to the T/As twice really emphasized how good the T/As are compared to everything else. Anyway, this has been my overthinking for this video.
I think the T/D is capable of engaging small-medium sized capitals fairly successfully even solo. The larger ships it might not be able to break past their higher shield regen to win, but I'm sure a persistant pilot could still solo an ISD if they really try :D I did briefly think about it, but then the battle would be over. Two bombs will destroy the cruiser :D The cruiser has 4 ships on CAP when you arrive (2 X-Wings, 2 A-Wings), it will then start launching more as you arrive. The T/A's are basically glass cannons yes, and the AI behaves a bit differently to the player version because the AI doesn't ever run out of laser energy, making the rapid quad fire too OP for the AI. So I halved their fire rate and increased damage per bolt (and speed damage bonus) accordingly. So they'll still roughly put out the same amount of damage and so can hurt you quite a bit without being OP.
"Beast of a heavy fighter." That description checks out, and it's a shame Disney Star Wars didn't do proper justice with that idea in the Rebels TV series and Squadrons video game. 7:45: Some foolhardy pilot, they are. Did not expect T/As to be part of your objectives. 17:53: ...Wakarimasu. (I understand.)
This is currently capped by the engine, we are currently looking into breaking past this, so at the moment while I can give more hitpoints to the SYS stat, what affect the ions do is out of my control right now.
If only it were possible to program a way to use the tractor beam to either slingshot you around a cap ship or do that heading lock rotation Freespace 2 had…
So it looks like we've got: Interceptor wings Octagonal front viewport Standard TIE engine exhaust design And peripheral vision completely cut off from the pilot seat. The gameplay might be shaping up great- but tragically this mod has made every design error possible for the TIE Defender. Why not stay true to the proper design from the original TIE Fighter?
@@_Braised hello, we did not design or create this ourselves rather this is from XWAU as all graphical upgrades and visuals come from them and is the foundation for TFTC, if you wish to criticise the design, I'd recommend either joining our discord or the XWAU forums and then posting there about it. I personally have no issues with the design and most people seem happy with it too but to each their own :)
Here we go, the TIE Defender - an absolute bruiser of a craft. Not a huge amount has actually changed with this craft except to make it even more powerful. The most notable thing is not being able to link lasers/ions together. This is a deliberate choice because of how powerful the Defenders guns are, its TOO overpowered when linked but I want some tactical choice in which weapon system you will use due to range and power of both systems.
The last training mission of course is the Missile Boat, but I've not yet really built this mission, so you'll have to wait a couple more weeks for that one, but rest assured its coming!
One final note, the map briefing and win debriefing dialogue audio was recorded today when I have a nasty cold, so if I sound a bit weirder than normal, its because I'm all bunged up! This is just placeholder audio, it will be re-recorded when my voice is back to normal. The inflight audio was recorded a week or so ago, so unaffected.
The TIE Defender is sheer perfection. The greatest Starfighter in the galaxy.
A good phrase about the cost of the Defender, made me very happy and amused
I love the quip about just turning on the tractor beam and letting the A-Wings hit your shields... it's exactly what I have often done in the original TIE Fighter :-D
I always loved jamming the enemy's rudder when they were commencing a strafing run on a capital ship
Appreciate how you changed the IFF of rogue imperial forces to yellow. Was very confusing to be playing through Empire vs Empire missions where everything was just red.
I took a snap poll on Discord the other day, it was 97% in favour of switching to IFF Yellow :D
Love the line that triggers when you’re shot down.
$300k sounds like a steal compared to the cost of an F-22 😅😅
@@brygrant472 I thought so too, but if you do some googling this is what they apparently cost 😅
Remember that a whole ship didn't cost much more than $10k per Luke in Ep 4@@brygrant472
@@ange1uk Imperial credits are the most valuable currency in the galaxy, of course! Highly inflation-resistant thanks to the Empire's fascistic command economy.
@@brygrant472 Just remembered that line in A New Hope when Han tells Ben and Luke his price for transport which was 10,000 credits to which Luke says you could almost buy your own ship for that. So clearly its very high value currency.
There was a bug in TF where if you had a fighter locked in the tractor beam when the beam power ran out, it would continue on indefinitely as if it was still in the beam. Could end up so far away it took ages to catch up with.
Very interesting seeing them vs the 'glass cannon' Tie Advanced at the end there
Looking back through the vid, I was interested to see just what effect the T/A's had on the T/D with time to study and not react to immediate threats. I think out of all the things that ended up shooting at you, the T/A ended up doing some of the highest damage. At 17:40 you can see me take 4 direct quad burst hits, I went from 115% shields to 48% shields! Nearly a 70% drop in the space of just over a second or so maybe. Really shows the T/A's new glass cannon status 😀
Damn, I will now play tractor chicken with every A-wing I find.
The work you are doing is admirable Mr. Angel. Appreciation to you and the team.
Brilliant work as usual! Didn't notice your voice sounding any different tbh.
Always preferred the Advanced myself, but what a monster the Defender is! It can even cope with a collision from an A-wing better than a Super Star Destroyer 🤣
Very cool concept to make the ion cannons have such a higher range than the laser cannons. I like that it's less agile than the Advanced as well.
miss being able to link ion and lasers, but I also appreciate the idea of giving it some balance.
Not being able to link the ions with the lasers always annoyed me (BW? YW for sure). I kind of understand the reasoning, as the TD is pretty OP. Once warheads were depleted, I used to always hold the W key down as I fired, to effectively link ions with lasers.
This will actually somewhat work against you if you spam W key, because of the notably different rate of fire between lasers and ions. The RoF cooldown of the Ions will apply to the Lasers if you switch immediately. I encountered this problem when I tried my initial rebalance idea for the T/D and it didn't work. Another idea I had was to give the Defender just 6 lasers and no ions, but a dual warhead system so it could always carry ion pulse torpedoes which are ion cannons in warhead form and much more powerful.
Love everything you've with this mod. Recommended it to all my TieFighter old heads.
Outstanding work!
Ahh yes the TIE "Defender", much like the Defiant is just an "escort" vessel! :D I can see already with this revised version of the craft how you'll be able to make Delta 1 a one fighter wrecking machine in the campaign when it's mostly just you flying solo, without needing to cheese it.
I love that suggestion for locking an a wing in the beam and wrecking them on the shields 😂😂
Holy crap - that head on attack against a corvette was impressive! Could the T/D be a Lancer-killer? I envision a mission where the player has to take care of 4-5 Lancer class frigates protecting a Golans or a couple of ISDs so a fighter-heavy, capship-weak strike force can hyperspace in using Escort Carriers to make torpedo or bomb runs on the main target.
I was kind of hoping you'd go with Space Bombs when you rearmed the craft - would love to see how hard those would hit with the T/D's full speed!
Is the cruiser only launching it's starfighters in waves? Seems like if they had some kind of military protocols, they would have had a couple of X-wings on CAP already launched and another 2-4 at the ready. I can just imagine the scene inside the CRL, assuming they're carrying a full squadron of 12 X-wings, and two half-squadrons of A-Wings and B-Wings. I would assume a CRL could launch three craft at a time (two if B-Wings) at a cycle of about 30 seconds per launch. (maybe make it 15 for gameplay, IDK?) This seems to match pretty much what we see in the video, I guess. I just wonder if the T/Ds hypered in further out if we could get them fighting at more of a disadvantage.
"Captain, CIC. Sensors just detected six bandits dropping out of hyperspace. It's some unknown type of starfighter."
"Only six? Lets be careful, vector the CAP and launch the Alert-5. I'm on my way down."
(when the captain gets to the CIC)
"Situation update: the enemy fighters are definitely getting the upper hand on Red Squadron."
"Launch the A-Wings and get the rest of Red and Green squadrons to their craft."
And then they all die in T/D laser fire.
Finally, seeing you die to the T/As twice really emphasized how good the T/As are compared to everything else.
Anyway, this has been my overthinking for this video.
I think the T/D is capable of engaging small-medium sized capitals fairly successfully even solo. The larger ships it might not be able to break past their higher shield regen to win, but I'm sure a persistant pilot could still solo an ISD if they really try :D
I did briefly think about it, but then the battle would be over. Two bombs will destroy the cruiser :D
The cruiser has 4 ships on CAP when you arrive (2 X-Wings, 2 A-Wings), it will then start launching more as you arrive.
The T/A's are basically glass cannons yes, and the AI behaves a bit differently to the player version because the AI doesn't ever run out of laser energy, making the rapid quad fire too OP for the AI. So I halved their fire rate and increased damage per bolt (and speed damage bonus) accordingly. So they'll still roughly put out the same amount of damage and so can hurt you quite a bit without being OP.
"Beast of a heavy fighter." That description checks out, and it's a shame Disney Star Wars didn't do proper justice with that idea in the Rebels TV series and Squadrons video game.
7:45: Some foolhardy pilot, they are.
Did not expect T/As to be part of your objectives.
17:53: ...Wakarimasu. (I understand.)
I think Rebels did an ok job with it. They clearly showed how tanky the Defender was in that one.
Did you adjust how quickly ion will disable capital class ships? seems like the light cruiser was more resistant to ion than default.
This is currently capped by the engine, we are currently looking into breaking past this, so at the moment while I can give more hitpoints to the SYS stat, what affect the ions do is out of my control right now.
If only it were possible to program a way to use the tractor beam to either slingshot you around a cap ship or do that heading lock rotation Freespace 2 had…
So it looks like we've got:
Interceptor wings
Octagonal front viewport
Standard TIE engine exhaust design
And peripheral vision completely cut off from the pilot seat.
The gameplay might be shaping up great- but tragically this mod has made every design error possible for the TIE Defender. Why not stay true to the proper design from the original TIE Fighter?
@@_Braised hello, we did not design or create this ourselves rather this is from XWAU as all graphical upgrades and visuals come from them and is the foundation for TFTC, if you wish to criticise the design, I'd recommend either joining our discord or the XWAU forums and then posting there about it. I personally have no issues with the design and most people seem happy with it too but to each their own :)