So I've been thinking about making a campaign, and I'm thinking I kind of want to do a "single stranded capital ship + fighters" type thing. It's normally done with a corvette, but I'd rather use a destroyer, largely because AFAIK only destroyers have fighter bays, and the plot would require the fighters to be able to land and launch periodically.
The other element I'm considering is essentially gear progression. For whatever reason, I'm fond of that little burst of excitement when you get access to a new weapon or fighter, and I liked the occasional scavenging elements in Homesick, so why not make that a central mechanic?
So, there's the basic plot. You're a Hammer of Light destroyer, marooned in Shivan space for some reason, and in order to survive, you have to scavenge and develop new tech. By the end, you have your destroyer decked out with Shivan beams, a functioning shield system, torpedo launchers, and Maxim turrets, and you're flying stripped-down Shivan fighters.
Admittedly I might run into some lore problems with the HoL being willing to not only fight the Shivans, but also steal their technology. I think I can probably justify it though. Really, it could even be a boon -- they semi-worship the Shivans, after all. It wouldn't be a stretch for them to try grafting "divine" technology onto their own ships.
The reasons I want to use the Hammer of Light rather than a random GTVA ship, the NTF, or something, are that I'd prefer to use Vasudans, and also it's come to my attention that at least in the few campaigns I've played, the player never has a chance to assault an Arcadia installation. So I'm thinking that's the first mission. Also, my plan was to use a Typhon, and they're not really used much by the GTVA by the time of the Second Incursion, but I'm having second thoughts -- more on that later.
You're some post-Capella neo-HoL fanatics who have a destroyer for some reason, and you're attacking a GTVA station. The player flies a bomber, and you're only armed with rudimentary weapons. (I actually have a basic, horribly-balanced version of this mission up and running, and I was thinking of only allowing the player Prometheus Rs as standard damage-dealing primaries, but you'll be flying an Osiris, and they suck anyway, so pairing that with the worst gun in the game quickly proved to be a bad idea.)
You succeed. The installation is destroyed, along with its defenses, but reinforcements soon arrive. Some type of experimental GTVA capital ship -- probably a Hades destroyer -- jumps in, and as the HoL destroyer flees, the GTVA fire a massive torpedo into subspace after you. The next mission is just thirty seconds of futilely trying to intercept a meson warhead as it approaches the destroyer. Then it hits, big explosion, and you get sent halfway across the galaxy with a crippled Vasudan capital ship. You spend a few missions figuring out how to fix it, and the rest is history.
Now, I'm not sure if I want to use a Typhon or a Hatshepsut. The Typhon is cool, and underexposed, but it also has all of fifteen weapons emplacements. And since a major part of the campaign is giving the destroyer weapons that it isn't supposed to have, that doesn't leave me with a lot of wiggle room. However, the Hatshepsut, while it looks amazing, is just very...polished. And I feel like the Typhon would be a better fit for something that's going to be cobbled together with duct tape and Shivan spit by the end of the campaign. Of course, a Hecate would probably work best -- they're carrier-focused, after all, and their shape sort of downplays just how big they are.
Yeah, so that's the trouble with using a destroyer -- it kind of messes up the...intimacy? The atmosphere that being stranded in space creates. I mean, sure, you're cut off from support, but there are ten thousand people with you. You literally have enough people to create a genetically stable population. (I think.) Just to put it in perspective, not that that would be a better option than going home. Of course, there are a ton of people on a corvette, too, but it doesn't feel like it, because size feels off in FS. I mean, a Fenris-class cruiser is freaking huge, but you wouldn't know it until you stop and park up next to it, and compare your cockpit to the windows in third person. But destroyers are big enough that you sort of start to realize that holy crap, this thing is the size of a small city. I mean, the amount of interior space there must be in an Orion. Good grief.
But, I want to use Vasudans, so no Hecate for me. Basically, this is a really long-winded way of asking whether you guys think I should use a Hatshepsut or a Typhon for Star Trek Voyager, but IN FREESPACE! And hopefully not crap.
