[Woolie Wool]

Is there any reason why you used all those beautiful reskins of StratComm's fleet ships for Blue Planet but elected to add only two new GTVA fighters, one of which (the Kulas) isn't even a very good model by today's standards (It was good when it was made, but that was a long time ago) and very underpowered compared to the others? There are many much better Terran and Vasudan fighter models that have barely been used and some textures for older models like the Ezechiel and Khepri that really breathe new life into them. I'd really like to see, for instance, a version of Jadehawk's modified Ezechiel with the gun and missile points switched around to yield four guns and two missile banks as a replacement for the Myrmidon or Kulas. It's not fair that the Earthers should hog all the cool new ships.

[General Battuta]

Hey, that's not an awful idea. Darius, while you're on your modpack rampage, you want to take a look at that?

Woolie Wool, as for why it didn't happen back then: remember, AoA was a one-man job and War in Heaven isn't much different. We have to be pretty careful of feature creep or the darn thing will never come out.

[The E]

Besides, if we take FS2 and FS1 as examples, new fighter classes were gradually introduced during the actual campaigns, that is, during a time with ongoing, long term conflicts.
In Blue Planet, the GTVA seemed to have concentrated on the big ships of the fleet (Remember that new capital ship classes were comparatively rare in FS2, great war era ships were pretty much standard except for frontline units), presumably to build a fleet mix capable of defeating a third Shivan incursion. New fighter classes were probably deemed less important, since the ships introduced during the second incursion seemed more than capable of dealing with their Shivan equivalents. New fighter weapons, however, are a different thing (I'm looking at you, Balor!). I would rather see more highly developed weapons than new fighters.

[NGTM-1R]

New fighter classes were probably deemed less important, since the ships introduced during the second incursion seemed more than capable of dealing with their Shivan equivalents. New fighter weapons, however, are a different thing (I'm looking at you, Balor!). I would rather see more highly developed weapons than new fighters.

And thus sanity and storytelling prevail over "Ooooh Shiney".

\o/

[General Battuta]

I still don't think it'd be a bad idea to get a ship like the Ezechiel. More pretty ships to shoot at, at the very least.

Darius' call, though!

[Dragon]

I think that Valkyrie Mk2 would also be an intresting idea for advanced GTVA interceptor.
And maybe Rhea for a light bomber.

[Woolie Wool]

New fighter classes were probably deemed less important, since the ships introduced during the second incursion seemed more than capable of dealing with their Shivan equivalents. New fighter weapons, however, are a different thing (I'm looking at you, Balor!). I would rather see more highly developed weapons than new fighters.

And thus sanity and storytelling prevail over "Ooooh Shiney".

\o/

Huh? You do realize that capital ships are a much larger investment of resources than fighters, and thus are replaced far less often? In the time it takes for a single generation of capital ships (the newer FS2 ships, in this case) to finish their service life, one would expect to see two or three new generations of fighters. It doesn't make sense to overhaul capships while neglecting fighters. Never mind that Terran fighters from FS2 are only capable of dealing with Shivan fighters if Alpha 1 is flying them. So any advancement in capital ship design should be accompanied by an even larger advancement in fighter design (and this is borne out in FS2 itself, where many of the old capital ship designs are still in deployment because you can't just scrap 20 two-kilometer warships every couple decades like you can with old starfighters.

[General Battuta]

Check out the 'media' section under the BP website.

I'd love to see more advanced fighters in Blue Planet but as it stands the relative lack of advancement has some decent explanations.

[NGTM-1R]

Huh? You do realize that capital ships are a much larger investment of resources than fighters, and thus are replaced far less often? In the time it takes for a single generation of capital ships (the newer FS2 ships, in this case) to finish their service life, one would expect to see two or three new generations of fighters. It doesn't make sense to overhaul capships while neglecting fighters. Never mind that Terran fighters from FS2 are only capable of dealing with Shivan fighters if Alpha 1 is flying them. So any advancement in capital ship design should be accompanied by an even larger advancement in fighter design (and this is borne out in FS2 itself, where many of the old capital ship designs are still in deployment because you can't just scrap 20 two-kilometer warships every couple decades like you can with old starfighters.

And yet, this is all terribly wrong apparently. I could make the parallel to reality, where the Tomcat outlived the Kittyhawk class, or other situations like the Crusader outliving the Foch (by far, considering when the Crusader entered service).

Or I could simply point out that you have in no way challenged The E's point or his assertions, since you're blatantly wrong and that's an issue to do with the fact Shivan fighters have artificially inflated AI class over GTVA fighters to let them pose some kind of threat to a player. By specifications the Shivans have fallen far behind in fighter design by FS2. The unsqueaky wheel does not need grease.

[General Battuta]

So, ironically, Shivan pilots are actually better than GTVA pilots in canon? Ha! That's not something that comes up often in fan theories.

Cool.

[eliex]

So hypothetically, if the Shivans had better designed fighters, coupled with their innately better piloting, the GTVA wouldn't stand a chance.

[Darius]

It is as The_E postulates. As presented in FS2, the main problems Galactic Terran forces found and identified during the Second Shivan Incursion was a lack of a counter to Shivan warships and their heavy beams, and heavy losses from pilots who were quickly overwhelmed by swarming tactics. The first problem was addressed by the development of next-generation beam tech, and the construction of high-powered ships to carry these weapons. Of course, these vessels are rare, and the great majority of the fleet still retains their Capella-era assets. The second problem was managed by the prioritising of production of cheaper, medium-performance vessels and the commissioning of older previously-civilian designs to bring up the numbers. Thus (as you'll find out later) the heavy use of the Myrmidon and Kulas by regular GTVA units.

AoA is probably not the best indication of post-Capella GTVA military, since you're part of an elite force who by the nature of their operations are supposed to have the best tech available.

[Sushi]

Plus, there's only so much you can "advance" fighter tech without starting to unbalance the game. Although it may sound fun to have everyone flying 12-gun ships at a cruising speed of 140, the game mechanics would start to break down...

Besides, it's tough to improve on the Perseus.

[Mongoose]

Besides, it's tough to improve on the Perseus.

They did.  It's called the Valkyrie.  But that's an argument for another thread.

[Woolie Wool]

Plus, there's only so much you can "advance" fighter tech without starting to unbalance the game. Although it may sound fun to have everyone flying 12-gun ships at a cruising speed of 140, the game mechanics would start to break down...

Besides, it's tough to improve on the Perseus.

Uh, there's a difference between advancing technology and "GTF Keres". The new fighters could just be a bit tougher, a bit faster, and they certainly don't need 12 gun mounts. If you need that many guns, your guns aren't good enough.

As for game mechanics breaking down, BTRL and my own Starforce mod (especially BTRL) demonstrate that they won't, even at speeds much higher than what I envision for a post-Capella fighter force (60-70 for heavy fighters, 70-80 for medium fighters, 90-100 for interceptors). As technology marches on, the tactics and nature of fighter combat may change, but it has been constantly changing ever since its inception in the 1910s.

By specifications the Shivans have fallen far behind in fighter design by FS2.

Except they haven't. The GTVA has absolutely nothing that rivals the Mara, Dragon, Nahema, or Nephilim. Even the Basilisk is a lot faster and more agile than the Herc II. The problem is their weapons are artificially nerfed to do less damage to the player, much like the Prometheus R, which, if it were as utterly awful as it is in game mechanics, would not be in service because it would simply not be adequate enough. Always prioritize flavor text and fluff over game mechanics. Game mechanics are designed to provide an interesting gameplay experience, not to accurately reflect the universe. Everything in FS2's storyline indicates that the Shivans have much better technology than the GTVA, despite Petrarch's initial overconfidence, which the Ravana quickly corrected by blowing away several warships, including at least one destroyer. Frankly, I think the human race only continues to exist in FreeSpace because the Shivans can't be bothered to try hard enough. Even when they had the Sathanas fleet, their attacks on GTVA assets seemed more about keeping the GTVA away from their juggernauts while they played with the Capella star than any sort of serious assault. They destroyed the Colossus because it had proven itself a danger to their juggernauts, but otherwise their attacks were mostly just harassment.

AoA is probably not the best indication of post-Capella GTVA military, since you're part of an elite force who by the nature of their operations are supposed to have the best tech available.

That will make it more sensible, so it's not like "hey guys we just renovated our whole capital ship fleet...and nothing else!".

Although I still don't get the Kulas. It's not very fast, it's not very agile, it's not very tough, it doesn't have a large missile capacity, and it doesn't have good afterburners. It is bad at everything and good at nothing. Even if they really wanted to go cheap, they could build Ulysses, or Hercs, or some other fighter that is at least decent at something.

[General Battuta]

It'd be awesome if we got the Ezechiel, since it's a beautiful ship. But the post-Capella economic collapse and the Sol gate project (never mind the push for advanced warships with numerous, cheap fighter cover) really have been hard on Terran coffers. Who knows if R&D on such an advanced prototype will pan out? 

[eliex]

No mistake the the Ezechiel is a beautiful ship, it's just that it doesn't really fit the "GTVA look" that Blue Planet portrays with it's colouring. If the Ezechiel gets a re-skin it'd be perfect IMO.

[Woolie Wool]

You were saying?

Jadehawk truly is a god among men.

[General Battuta]

Can we has it?

[eliex]