I am not happy with any fighter that doesn't sport S4 guns, but if you are going to do without, having 6 S3s is not especially terrible. I think a Sabre or Hornet would eat this for lunch tough. Crappy shields, big target hull, low speed and maneuverability, no missiles, and a mass so low it cannot have much armor. Red lights ablaze. . .buy UEE!
If you don't want to fly weapons on gimbal, this is not a great choice, IMHO.
It actually only has 4 S3 gun mounts, and 2 S3 Missile mounts, the S3 gun mounts will come stock equipped with S2 Guns on S3 Gimbals, and the Missiles will have 2 S3 Double racks sporting 4 S2 Missiles most likely, just like pretty much all the fighters, even the hornet has S3 missile mounts, but they only mount the racks, so its an S3 rack that can carry 2 S2 missiles. they way they do the stats pages makes it really hard to properly understand what the ship will have.
But, based on the 3d Model, and the brochure, the defender will have what i stated above, now, it does have a crappy view, thats my #1 dislike, and im hoping it gets resolved, my #2 dislike is the Gimbals, for a 2 seater ship with a DEDICATED GUNNER SEAT! why why why would you put the gimbals INSIDE the ship, it severely limits the amount of movement they can achieve and in doing so limits the Gunners ability to do his job. #3 the view again, not only is it horrible from because of how the nacelles are straight and close in, but combining that with a Side-by-side cockpit config where the 2 seats are separated by 3-5 meters, and with no way to even see to the other side of the ship due to the big useless piece of metal that is the same height as the cockpits, it severely offsets and blocks the view for both positions, and i can see that causing problems also.
Overall, I think the Designers on this one did a terrible job on principle by not considering some of the most important points that this ship is supposed to be able to do based on how they described its role. Don't get me wrong, I love the look, and the idea of it, but there are Major flaws in the design that i cant justify getting rid of a ship i currently have let alone adding new funds just to "maybe" have it fixed in the future.
This guy explains everything really well, and even shows how bad this ship's view currently is, and suggests ways to fix it:
P.S. - I need more alcohol this was one long post.
