I'd appreciate everyone's opinion on this. The Lightning has very good speed and a combo of missiles and heavy rockets, while the Rapier has more shielding and overall firepower potential.
Of course, It'd help if you said why you think one or the other is better. 
Thoughts?
Good Question!
Lets do a comparison, ok?
The Lightning has top speed of 375, and excellent accelleration/turn rate.
The Rapier has a top speed of 300, and good accelleration/turn rate.
The Lightning has about 108 tons total outfit space.
The Rapier has about 152 (?) tons total outfit space, but that can be upgraded 10 tons with a mass expansion
The Lightning has 5 tons cargo space for plundering pirates.-that sucks
The Rapier has 15 tons of cargo space for missions/plundering.-not as bad
The Lightning can have 5 guns and 0 turrets.
The Rapier can have 4 guns and 1 turret.
The lightning has 25 shields and 5 armor (?).
The Rapier has 30 shields and 20 armor (?).
The shield recharge rates are equal (?).
My conclusion: The lightning would be a nice interceptor when fully upgraded, but it can't do missions that requiire any cargo space, and has only 2/3 of the weapon space, and it can't have any turrets.
The Rapier is better when fully upgraded, despite the fact that it is a little slower than a fully upgraded Lightning. Mainly because it has 50% more weapon space, and with a single cargo pod, it can have enough cargo space to do any missions. It can also have a turret, unlike the Lightning. This comes in handy in a lot of plugs, especially Pale. It's nice to have an Ion Quad on something that maneuverable... AND, Rapiers look cooler.
But, IMHO, both of those ships suck. The Corvette is MUCH better, and just as fast as a Rapier. 
--Yoda
forge wrote:
**Well, this is a toughy: The Rapier is better for brute force attacks (although it's still a fighter) and comes with torpedoes standard (which I prefer over missiles).
The Lightning has far superior speed and agility, although less weaponry.
My opinion: For a fighter, go with the Lightning.**
Ditto.
Yoda wrote:
The Lightning can have 5 guns and 0 turrets.
The Rapier can have 4 guns and 1 turret.
But don't forget that the placement of a turret for the Rapier is in the rear quadrant. Also, it's a moot point for expansion because you can't sell the REAR FIRING laser turret that is already there.
Hence:
The Lightning can have 5 guns and 0 turrets.
The Rapier can have 4 guns and 0 turrets for expansion.
Forge, sorry, but the rear laser turret doesn't take up any space weapon or tonnage wise. So you can have 2 turrets (one is backwarde)
As AI wise, the lightning is a more vicious opponent, and is more likely to lower your sheilds more.
------------------
~(^..^)
Speed really does count lots. I mean, er into a system as say, a Ligh Freighter, and a Prate in a Lightning chop you inte bits before you can stop and get out. Where as the Ray take longer et to you.Those strike attacks that the Fighter AI does are a real chopper, especially if there's two of the little brats.
The great fun is having a particle beam and pushing the mongrels back away from you! heh, heh.
Ace smeg-head Rimmer.
It depends. Do you need the firepower of the Rapier or the speed and
agility of the Lightning. Both have their good points and bad points. Personally I would choose the Lightning, becuase I prefer to be able to outfly anything the opposition can throw at me.
Yoda wrote:
The Lightning can have 5 guns and 0 turrets.
The Rapier can have 4 guns and 1 turret.
The lightning has 25 shields and 5 armor (?).
The Rapier has 30 shields and 20 armor (?).
The shield recharge rates are equal (?).
I'm looking at EV 1.0.5 with resedit now and the lightning can have a turret. Also, the lightning does have 25/5, however the rapier has 35/15.
Nevertheless I go with the lightning because of the recharge 18 vs. 22.
While the cargo of the lightning sucks, if you dump the rockets and missiles to get 5 lasers (superior range to protons), a shield booster (now recharge is 16), a second javelin launcher, and max out on torps, then you will have a mean Monty Python machine.
Well... It depends what you will be using your ship for.
The lightning is extremely fast with mid-high firepower w/ upgrades. I would have to say it is the best ship for assassination missions and dominating planets with weak defence dudes, regardless of the count. Two rockets can kill a defender with ease.
If you prefer to be the bounty hunter type, I'd have to say the rapier.
The rapier has good speed, awsome firepower, and pretty good shields. It is also fairly good at dominating EXCEEDINGLY easy planets, as merely one torpedo will take out a defender.
-Slade_0079
UE Crusader wrote:
**I'd appreciate everyone's opinion on this. The Lightning has very good speed and a combo of missiles and heavy rockets, while the Rapier has more shielding and overall firepower potential.
Of course, It'd help if you said why you think one or the other is better.
Thoughts? **
Well, I like the Rapier better. WHen fully modified, selling some of the weapons and loading with mostly torps and guns, I have been able to take out a Fed Cruiser in it.
-Jericon
WHile I wouldn't normally use either (you've all heard my love for the Corvette) I'd pick the Rapier. Good, solid, performance, acceptable cargo, maneuverable (with a little help from the Port Oread boys) and really mean when needed.
BTW, looks like the Rapier is winning by a landslide...can't say I disagree!
forge wrote:
**Yoda wrote:
The Lightning can have 5 guns and 0 turrets.
The Rapier can have 4 guns and 1 turret.
But don't forget that the placement of a turret for the Rapier is in the rear quadrant. Also, it's a moot point for expansion because you can't sell the REAR FIRING laser turret that is already there.
Hence:
The Lightning can have 5 guns and 0 turrets.
The Rapier can have 4 guns and 0 turrets for expansion.**
In stock ev yes, but in pale and many other plugs, you CAN sell the rear turret.
Thchnically, its not cheating.
--Yoda
IonStorm wrote:
** <font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial" color="808BAD">Yoda wrote:
The Lightning can have 5 guns and 0 turrets.
The Rapier can have 4 guns and 1 turret.
The lightning has 25 shields and 5 armor (?).
The Rapier has 30 shields and 20 armor (?).
The shield recharge rates are equal (?).
</font>
I'm looking at EV 1.0.5 with resedit now and the lightning can have a turret. Also, the lightning does have 25/5, however the rapier has 35/15.
Nevertheless I go with the lightning because of the recharge 18 vs. 22.
While the cargo of the lightning sucks, if you dump the rockets and missiles to get 5 lasers (superior range to protons), a shield booster (now recharge is 16), a second javelin launcher, and max out on torps, then you will have a mean Monty Python machine.**
Umm, I think just MAYBE your copy of ev has been messsed around with in res edit... I just reinstalled ev from a CD and it says lightnings have MaxTurrets=0. Even EV.com says so. Also, Protons have longer range than lasers, in standard ev. Any oldie (like me) knows that...
BTW, a high shield recharge is GOOD. Did you mean that the lightning has 0.22 and the rapier has 0.18? Why don't you put it in order so it makes sense... I doubt it. Besides, a 0.04 u/sec difference in shield recharge won't make much of a difference, compared to an Alien Cruiser with shield recharge of over 7.0u/sec.
--Yoda
I think a Rapier is better cause if the lighting is better wouldent you be able to have that in your fighter bay or lighing bay and of course the lighting does cost lesser so by the judjements of the EV programmers they probally would say the raiper cause if they didi not then we would be able to get them in a freither bay or some thing
Victor
Yoda wrote:
Umm, I think just MAYBE your copy of ev has been messsed around with in res edit... I just reinstalled ev from a CD and it says lightnings have MaxTurrets=0. Even EV.com says so. Also, Protons have longer range than lasers, in standard ev. Any oldie (like me) knows that...
BTW, a high shield recharge is GOOD. Did you mean that the lightning has 0.22 and the rapier has 0.18? Why don't you put it in order so it makes sense... I doubt it. Besides, a 0.04 u/sec difference in shield recharge won't make much of a difference, compared to an Alien Cruiser with shield recharge of over 7.0u/sec.
--Yoda(/B)
Perhaps you are just yanking my chain, but at your suggestion, I trashed my copy of EV and got a fresh one from AmbrosiaSW.com.
According to ResEdit, it turns out that Lightnings DO have a turret space. In addition I checked EV.com, (url="http://"http://www.escape-velocity.com/help/ships.html")http://www.escape-ve...help/ships.html(/url), as you did however it supports my original assertion "Lightning...Turrets: 1 (max)." Perhaps you should check what is on your CD.
I also checked to see if my experiences with primary weapons over the last several years with EV have been wrong. It turns out that lasers do, infact, have a longer range than protons. According to my fresh copy of EV Data and EV.com ( (url="http://"http://www.escape-velocity.com/help/weapons.html")http://www.escape-ve...lp/weapons.html(/url) ) both lasers and protons have a duration of 30, however lasers have speed of 875 versus the slower 850 of protons. More speed over the same time means more distance.
In addition, you seem confused about units on shield recharge. I understand this, I was refering to the recharge rate given by ResEdit. As stated in the EV Bible, "Shield recharge speed, in number of frames per shield percentage point regenerated; bigger numbers here make for slower recharging. 30 1% per second." Lightnings have 18 while Rapiers have 22. EV.com gives the units in units/sec, thus a higher number is better; here lightnings have 0.42u/sec, while Rapiers are only 0.48u/sec.
Yes, I agree that the difference is slight in both cases, but this is the reason it was an interesting question. Clearly neither choice is ideal against an Alien Cruiser, however the edge the superior range of 5 lasers and great speed and turning make it an excellent Monty Python ship. The better recharge allows you to recover faster than your enemy incase of error or a close pass. This is the reason I would rather have a Lightning than a Rapier FOR CERTAIN KINDS OF MISSIONS. Clearly if I need cargo or must fight an opponent like a Cruiser, giver the money, I would pick a different vessel.
Jason
