If s-foils have some bearing on agility or speed, then yes, have them manual. Otherwise, make them automatic like the landing gear. The effect should be greater in atmosphere than in space. In fact, I don't see a reason why it should have much effect in space at all.
Maybe it would be possible just to simplify the S-Foil concept and tie an animation of them closing to the 'sprint' (shift) key. You hit sprint in an X-Wing and your S-foils close, the lasers are disabled and you get a speed boost.
I never liked that in RS. In order to go faster, you for some reason had to close your s-foils - in the middle of battle. Not even while in the trench did they close their s-foils. They obviously have nothing to do with speed.
As for ships not being able to fire their weapon systems while s-foils are closed… there hasn’t been any real official material that confirms this. It’s illogical that this would truly be the case as the weapon systems would have to be armed first and opening the s-foils only increases the firing radius for the cannons. Even if it’s true, the craft could be modified to fire when s-foils are closed.
Seeing that s-foils are only open during combat, it'd make sense that weapons were also set to safety when the s-foils were closed.
Modifying them to fire with s-foils closed makes about as much sense as modifying an F-16 so it could fire with weapons set to safety.
Even if it's not on the record, RS was made by Lucas Arts...
No, it was published by LucasArts. It was made by a bunch of people who'd not bothered to do a minute of SW research.
Just that LA developed or published something, doesn't mean it's accurate. Heck, EaW was published by LA, for crying out loud.
"One of the bitches actually gave birth while she was attacking, and her puppies joined in on the carnage."
--the awesomeness that is Boatmurdered.
Closed Alpha Test & Deth..
