Gladiator Mk II

The Gladiator we have today is sadly not the one in the brochure:

"Gladiators have been used in: Strategic Space-to-Ground bombing runs, Capital ship torpedo strikes, Supply drops through enemy-controlled territory, Blockade running, Law enforcement high value target interception" - The Brochure

"The Civilian model allows pilots to choose between an extra cargo hold or a bomb bay." - The RSI website to this day

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/k9o0qbp9vvu1tr/source/Gladiator-Brochure-V4.pdf

The brochure mentions "capital-killer" torpedoes. Capships have millions of health, but the Gladiator can only inflict 68,366 total damage. The Eclipse can do a whopping 1,186,860 damage with S9 torpedoes. An Eclipse is equal to seventeen Gladiators. It can also fit in the Idris, has excellent stealth and longer range, making it a better bomber in nearly every way. There are plenty of fighters, I would rather see the ship be a better carrier-based bomber that can actually threaten a capital ship.

So why rebuild the ship from the gear up? In order to get bigger torpedoes and a decent amount of cargo, it needed a bigger fuselage. Additionally with all due respect to the talented artist David Hobbins, wingtip landing gear did not work out as wings are often the first thing to go in combat. I reused what I could and tried to improve on an already great looking ship. Additionally this new model does have space for components already allocated.

Now the weapons are probably now overpowered with those torps. Most folks want pilot control of the turret when they can't find a second person. If you remove the second capacitor and make the turret remote, the turret is now far less enticing to a copilot. Superhornets have a similar camera setup, and people rarely use that second seat. So I shifted DPS dramatically to the turret. Going from an four s3 to s1 for the pilot and s4 for the gunner. Another option I tried was no pilot-exclusive guns, and the remote turret is quad s2. I am very open to suggestion here.

Also if this video upsets Eclipse, Harbinger, Tali, or A1 pilots, your ships should have ordnance options too. Bombs should not be hull limited.