pure craft analysis

[willsgb13]

oh hai there, i didn't see a thread like this on the pure board so since this is something that interests me greatly and this is one of my absolute favourite games in the series, i'm now going to assault your time and brains with one of my favourite pastimes here in the zone; a thread about the ships.

this thread is to examine each and every craft with detailed team, ship, stat and performance analysis - not necessarily by me - this time for the considerable roster which entered the pure FX300 league in 2197. i'll review the 8 original craft who entered the tournament which heralded a return to form for the sport following the corrupt, destruction packed debacle of fusion, the 2 unlockable crafts who split opinion, and the 10 extra teams from various walks of life which the extra packs allowed you to contend with in this year's event. the largest overall lineup of any AG league event to date, and quite an array of names and performers to dual and deal with, some interesting entries, some stereotype-defying battlers and a better sense of balance overall i'd say then in any wipeout before it. i'll even colour code the names for added win/fail!

FEISAR - more speed then before - not the basement value anymore! - great thrust and maximum handling of 5/5; feisar is feisar, always fun, always challenging especially on open, snaking tracks, always dependable and classic.

auricom - they seem almost like qirex should have been, great shield and great speed of 4/5 each, and apparently it goes faster then it should on phantom due to an error in the stats or something; just like those americans to squeeze some extra juice out. looks classic and plays well. not outstanding - haven't tried it much at phantom yet admittedly - but still good.

qirex - medium speed and equally medium handling of 3 each? the shield is high at 4 but it just doesn't feel quite like a qirex. what happened to the lean, fast, heavy, brutal beast of the first, of 2097, of 3? it doesn't really look like one much either. it's a decent, fun ride, but it's not quite qirex.

ag-systems - top thrust and great handling save what is essentially the poorest ag-s since the days of 2097 and the original, IMO - mind you they weren't in fusion so i guess 3 was out of the ordinary with such a good ag-s taking part that year. but they're fun to win with, swift and light, like the piranha of 3; any faster then 2 and it would be difficult to beat. mind you the low shield doesn't allow for many BRs.

piranha - fast and furious. the handling got **** and this new piranha model carried over to pulse but it's still the elite bastard it always was.

assegai - medium shield and medium handling of 3 each? this is a similar story to qirex, it's a good ship, user friendly and certainly better then the pulse iteration, for me, so far, at least, but it doesn't feel quite like an assegai. it should have no shield and supreme handling, IMO.

triakis - brutally awesome. the handling of 2 only makes the speed of 4 -which is exacerbated by some stat thing that makes it gain acceleration slower but also lose it slower apparently - reverse inertia or something IU - more satisfying to own with. and the shield just makes it the new qirex, really. looks the part and it really does shave seconds off times, it's replaced zone as my ship of choice on TT; a behemoth of doom.

harimau - seemed a bit **** at first - but they're one of my favourites now; the speed and thrust of 3 are enough that the handling of 4 makes it competitive and its light shield and blade fish spoon shape and freshwater tropical fish colours and team ethos and background make it supremely likeable

zone - zone are almost perfect with top handling and speed and almost perfect thrust, and yet the paper shield and weight of the craft make it seem jerky and flings it around sometimes. it's a great craft, fun and enjoyable, all the same. great for TT.

medievil - i believe this team is a nod to the game series medievil. it looks fantastic, and is basically zone but with speed and handling not quite top for top thrust. no gimmicks to go with the outlandish team identity, which is a slight shame

icaras - rudeboy. looks great, top speed, good handling of 3 and it's the icaras we know and love, back with a bang. slice through tracks like a bullet. enjoying some TT with this messenger of speed

puma 1 - this ship looks good and plays fantastically. great speed and top handling make for an outstanding combination. it doesn't always excel but it's a great craft to train in and it has no obvious weaknesses. helps that puma did their pack tastefully. some of the hardest tracks on the game came with this and ->

puma 2 - this, a qirex/goteki/triakis style pincer, which plays much like qirex would be thought to, as it did in the old days. it feels lacking slightly, probably due to average handling, not poor, not good. still, puma sponsored and provided 2 strong contenders.

tigron - fantastic ship, looks great, different, almost like a torpedo, but a yellow one, fast, heavy, ploughs rapidly through the field. doesn't have weaknesses. shame tigron didn't continue beyond this year's tournament.

van uber - i love this, it sort of reminds me of the pod racers from the phantom menace, and its centre of gravity seems to fling arse, different from the other ships; great thrust and top handling make the distinctive german model great fun to race with. shame they didn't continue either

klor - one of 4 ships designed by artists i believe, for the weird and wacky omega pack, this is one of 2 streamlined drag type ships, the better of the 2 IMO. speed and thrust of 4 make it a tough contender.

turboweevel - one of 2 harimau type flatfish... well, weevils from the artists, this is fun, not supership but close, can take knocks and has a great thrust to propel the seemingly better then average speed and handling forward.

cardracer - exactly the same as klor, except better handling then thrust instead; not the best fun, not bad either, another artist one

haironaut - this ship's alive; looks great, handles so smoothly, it's a cruiser, like turboweevel but with more va va voom and less bite, i guess.

goteki45 - they're back! still got a tough shield, and now they've got supreme thrust, and they're not bad for speed or handling. different shape too, an interesting, seemingly paperish design that betrays what a tough cookie it is. races for great justice with much more aplomb then the rough and ready, steady but not so outstanding debutant from 3. returns more to that ident in pulse but here we have an excellent ship

a most diverse and interesting spread of teams, IMO, including reference, parody and sponsored entries, and the return of many fondly remembered old names with outstanding crafts to retake their place on the grid and tear up the track with again. pure fun

[XpanDrome2097]

Hey, your analysis is perfect .
I agree with you when you say that Qirex and Assegai are "distorted" models if they are compared with the classic model of the series: Qirex gotta be very fast (top speed 4/5 but turbo 2/5) and must haves great shield parameters (4/5, handling for me gotta have 3/5, if you want the classic 2097's Qirex), and Assegai gotta be fast (top speed: 3/5, accelleration: 4/5), very good handling (5/5) and low shield (2/5).
I LOVE Pure, is one of my favourite WipEout games (is 3rd in my WipEout classification), and the ships presents one of the most cool design in WipEout history (especially Auricom, Harimau and Assegai for example, but for me the most cool ship design in Pure is Icaras ).
But for me Tigron is awful, it looks like a submarine: it presents good racing parameters, but its look destroys all (but it's better than the Fusion model) .
And I am surprised to see so many Harimau lovers, the most hated (why? Bah!) and underrated ship ever! Let's go Harimau !!!!

[willsgb13]

hello venom, thank you! yeah, i did a few tournaments, TTs and single races today and i tried out the various ships, got from feisar to triakis so far, also did icaras because, well, it's awesome, and while qirex and assegai are enjoyable and manageable craft both, they don't feel like the team in question, you know? i think that feisar and ag-systems have totally consumed the top handling niche now, and triakis has taken over the fast, heavy bullyboy mantle of the series, so these two teams have seemingly been deposed of their racing attribute based identities, and as such are forced to even out, balanced out more, as signifiers of the direction the devs have chosen to take the series? i'm all for it, but qirex and assegai do need their defining qualities back IMO, despite being good ships all the same in pure onwards. why not have two bully boy bastards? why not have one more nimble demon? that's how they started out. i doubt the russians will be happy about some oz gun runners brushing them aside, or the africans happy they're not the most agile athletic specimens of the course anymore?

what are your favourite wipeouts? i find i cannot differentiate between them, personally, although the ones that made the most impact on me and that i enjoy the absolute most are probably the first, 3 and pure. 2097 and pulse are amazing wipeouts too though and are better then the others in many aspects, and once i engage them i cannot stop. even fusion has been enjoyable for the small amount of time and effort i have devoted to it so far.

in terms of design of craft in pure, i like most of them; feisar looks great, auricom certainly looks classic, never was particularly fond of the pincer look - although it's certainly a part of anti-grav and can look good - ag-s also looks pretty good, kind of like piranha in 3, but more... japanese? assegai look like they did in 3 too but without the side cockpit, unfortunately. harimau is of course harimou the zone ship looks kind of cool; reminds me a bit of an elongated version of the fighter ships from independance day. medievil looks fantastic, like a jousting axe of doom; icaras look good too; the colours make the ship. puma 1 looks great with the puma design, for some reason; attractive advertising. tigron i like, i love the different style, the menacing torpedo/yellow submarine juxtaposition, i just think it makes for a very interesting feast for the eyes. van uber looks brilliant, and reminds me overwhelmingly of the phantom menace pod racer. the artist entries look ok; the klor shape shared by cardracer is cool, but the turboweevel and haironaut ships look better, mobile little beetle bastards, great colours. goteki45 looks very interesting; kind of like an improvement on the somewhat cumbersome look of the zone model of ship in pulse, IMO.

can't wait to see the fusion tigron, based on what you say

and let's go harimau! favourites so far have to be feisar - love that i can call it a favourite, auricom - growing on me, ag-s - despite the speed stat it's actually pretty fun, gave it a bad rap in my first post, piranha - that speed man, triakis - obvious reasons, harimau - loveable and nimble, zone - obvious reasons, medievil - just looks fantastic, icaras - beautiful bullet, perhaps my overall favourite, puma 1 - it's very good, tigron - powerful beast, vanuber - obvious reasons and goteki - simply for looking great and being the best goteki in any wipeout, a very good ship. ok, so that's half the ships, and i've missed a few out that i don't like especially but don't dislike, such as turboweevel, klor, haironaut, assegai, qirex, etc.

blah blah blah. should apply this level of interest to my career, friends, family, life etc. hey

[XpanDrome2097]

I agree mate !
Qirex is good but don't feel like a real Qirex, and the same can be for Assegai.
For the Medievil team, I don't have tried because after a few time after I've tried Pulse, but I prefer Pure to Pulse.
But do you imagine a WipEout Pure converted into a PS2/PS3 ? Simply I'll gonna never come out from my house !

EDIT: I say this because for personal motivations I can't stand a lot of time on the little screens like PSP.

[willsgb13]

medievil is ok, difficult to survive hectic tournaments on rapier and phantom with the flimsy shield

and they got pulse onto the PS2, not sure if they're planning to do the same with pure

tried a rapier tournament with all 8 of the original starting teams one by one, only triakis and harimau made it to the end without being destroyed and only harimau won it (i tried one after the other after each failure) it's like a completely different game going from flash to rapier

[Task]

it's like a completely different game going from flash to rapier

It really is.
I would highly recommend changing ship every time you change speed class.
At the lower speed classes I really enjoyed Tigron. I was new to the game so their high shield was mandatory. I wasn't used to managing incoming fire, and a heavyweight like Tigron will really mitigate that. Once I hit Flash, the Tigron was giving me problems in the corners and I switched to a lighter and more nimble ship. In Flash I didn't need the shields so much because not much weaponry connected anymore and I was able to really enjoy the Zone. In Rapier I needed a bit more shield and the AG-Sys really showed well. In Phantom all I need is thrust, so the Goteki is the craft of choice.

I would say that overall the craft you fly should be based primarily on what you fly best in that class, and secondarily on what you fly best on that track.

Pure is definitely one of my top favourites.

[q_dmc12]

its always good to be well-rounded too

[Haywire_Guy]

Cool analysis, i agree with most of your viewpoints.

[XpanDrome2097]

assegai - medium shield and medium handling of 3 each? this is a similar story to qirex, it's a good ship, user friendly and certainly better then the pulse iteration, for me, so far, at least, but it doesn't feel quite like an assegai. it should have no shield and supreme handling, IMO.

Mmmmh, Assegai in Pure is better that in Pulse?
I don't agree with this .
Pulse has the the most powerful Assegai ever created, balanced as its best.

[Dan Locke]

Mmmmh, Assegai in Pure is better that in Pulse?
I don't agree with this .
Pulse has the the most powerful Assegai ever created, balanced as its best.

You mean the way that the Auricom is supposed to be?

[XpanDrome2097]

You mean the way that the Auricom is supposed to be?

Dan Locke, i don't really understand your question, sorry , my english totally sucks !
But, honestly, for me the new "Auricom way" is great: a big muscle ship, with poor handling, for me it's its natural evolution.
In the past Auricom was the most balanced ship, but now is the turn of Mirage to be the most balanced one.
In Pure, the old auricom style can be represented by...Qirex?!
Mmmh, the Auricom's rivals...this is absolutely strange !

[Dan Locke]

Dan Locke, i don't really understand your question, sorry , my english totally sucks !

That's OK; it's sort of complicated. In English, and probably many other languages, you can give a statement a different implication if you word it as a question.

Never mind; that's a horrible explanation.

But, honestly, for me the new "Auricom way" is great: a big muscle ship, with poor handling, for me it's its natural evolution.
In the past Auricom was the most balanced ship, but now is the turn of Mirage to be the most balanced one.
In Pure, the old auricom style can be represented by...Qirex?!
Mmmh, the Auricom's rivals...this is absolutely strange !

That's exactly my point. I hate the way that they've shuffled the ships around like that. Why don't they just go all the way and give the Mirage a blue-and-white paint job while they're at it?

[Lance]

Dan Locke and Venom: Please read the WipeoutZone guidelines, especially the part about quotation of posts just before your own.

[Dan Locke]

Ah. So, that's the way that it is here?

OK, then.

[XpanDrome2097]

Oh, sorry Lance, I know that the messages in direct succession can't be marked as quote, but it was night and I was very tired, sorry again !