[aldo_14]

Right, and you think the NTF wouldn't also be inclined to destroy anything they couldn't hold?  (likewise GTVA; I mean, you'd like to capture installations, but if you can't, then first order of business is to deny them to the enemy)

Where would they get infinite military rations from?  I mean, I doubt the GTVa has a few hundred million packs lying about on the offchance of a supernova.

And it's all very nice the military taking on xxx thousand people but a) that's not going to go anywhere near solving the problem b) they need ships and training locations to be replaced, both of which take time and money and c) they also have an existing recruitment to consider anyways

Oh, and d) there's an issue of budgeting for new people.  They might not be paying the dead - assuming there's no combat insurance - but they still need to replace everything lost with them by way of supplies.

[AlphaOne]

Agreed. But I never said it would solve the problem I just wanted to point out at a posible mean to ease up a little the situation. Also there wasnt any data regarding the desetruction of the shipyards in the NTF controlled sistems or facilities. Also I don think those are the only facilities available to the GTVA.

Also I never said they had infinite number of rations on hand I just said they coul posibli use some of the existing stock. Also if the need for food rationing rises they can do just that ration the food.

[Fragrag]

Convoys are the most likely to suck up warship resources; they require powerful close escort, because they may not last long enough for reinforcements to arrive if they don't have such escort. FS' approach seems to be to provide a powerful enough escort that reinforcement will likely be unnecessary.

But, why do we actually have convoys, don't transports have jumpdrives so they could just jump to their destination? And if they don't have any jumpdrives, why not install them? Fighters are much smaller and have at least intrasystem jumpdrives.

[AlphaOne]

Well some of the jumpnodes are just hard to acces. And there you have convoys that travel through normal space for hours perhaps even days. These convoys are very vulnerable to attacks.

[Shade]

Convoys generally do jump for most of their journey. But they need to travel in realspace for the final approaches to their destination, when they aren't sure of the precise location they are heading to (such as resupplying a fleet that's on the move... you jump into the general vicinity and then meet up with them on normal drives, or when it's hard to navigate such as in a nebula), or when there's a navigational hazard such as asteroid fields that it would be really unwise to jump into.

And of course, some transports in fact don't have jump drives, such as seen in the first FS2 main campaign mission. I'd assume that they were originally used only for planetary/orbital operations, and as such never needed them until need pressed them into service as makeshift evacuation vessels.

[NGTM-1R]

Convoys are the most likely to suck up warship resources; they require powerful close escort, because they may not last long enough for reinforcements to arrive if they don't have such escort. FS' approach seems to be to provide a powerful enough escort that reinforcement will likely be unnecessary.

But, why do we actually have convoys, don't transports have jumpdrives so they could just jump to their destination? And if they don't have any jumpdrives, why not install them? Fighters are much smaller and have at least intrasystem jumpdrives.

They're still vunerable at either end of their transit; and for some odd reason, they, like most other FS ships, end up in the middle of nowhere a lot.

There's got to be some kind of restrictions on subspace drives we're not being told about, but what they are is impossible to say.

[Mars]

My guess is that there are no-go areas where they don't work, maybe they need to be in the vicinity of a nearby source of gravity, like a planet, or a near sun.

[Sarafan]

My guess is that since a system is a really big place you would need to make several jumps (2 or 3) to reach your destination (planet, base, etc) and the ships would have limits to how many jumps they can make due to power supply, to not stress the subspace drive and due to the technology not being that advanced to support multiple jumps.

[Fergus]

I believe that the population of the GTVA is actualy in the realm of at least 10 bilion citizens.

I hate to be a pain, but I was curious as to what you are basing this claim on?

[Mars]

AlphaOne, tell me you were kidding.

[aldo_14]

I have to admit i would have went for something like that a while back, but based on the Capella population, 10bn strikes me as rather unlikely.

[Mars]

I would've to, but especially after reading some of the extremely logical arguments here, it just doesn't seem possible

[aldo_14]

10bn seems fine when you consider the likely population increase of Earth.  But then you have to factor in that there's only been colonisation for about, what, 60 years?  And then that for most of the years Sol was connected to the rest of the GTA, they were at war with the Vasudans, which can't be positive for migration outwards....

To be fair, you do have the Vasudans own colonies, but that's also minus 4bn and minus whatever the NTF killed as well.

[Mars]

Oh.. nevermind, it's just me being special again- I thought he said "cruisers"

[aldo_14]

The biggest number I would guess would be 1000, the most likely, 100-200, less likely but still in realm of reason: 250-500

What, million?  Nah, I'd say more than that.  Not 10bn, maybe... 5bn?  Not sure.  But if Capella was 250m, then I'd expect some systems to have higher pops (namely BA and Aldebaran).

[Mars]

Oh God, sorry, I just now realized that I am a moron.  (see above)

No, I imagine that there are at least 6bn people in the GTVA, when you add in Sol the population doubles (assuming Mars can sustain a significant number.

[aldo_14]

Oh God, sorry, I just now realized that I am a moron.  (see above)

No, I imagine that there are at least 6bn people in the GTVA, when you add in Sol the population doubles (assuming Mars can sustain a significant number.

I think Sol would be bloody gargantuan, actually - at least 10bn or so.  I'm pretty sure that's a conservative estimate at current growth rates, too, and it might even be one that requires some rather large natural disasters to accomplish.

[Mars]

Earth can't sustain that many people, Mars can sustain less, lets not forget Europa, which can probably barely handle 1bn

[aldo_14]

Earth can't sustain that many people, Mars can sustain less, lets not forget Europa, which can probably barely handle 1bn

Hmm.... I'm thinking orbital hydroponics as one thing.  Mars... it's a bit contingent on terraforming Mars or (less likely) Venus, I guess.  I'm envisaging a 'die-off' at some point in the 22nd or so C, followed by some form of agricultural revolution and grown from, I dunno,  3 or so bn over 200 years?

Ignoring the resources, incidentally, at current fertility rates the predicted 2100 population of Earth would be 40bn.  Which would definately lead to famine.

EDIT; the UN predicts a drop in growth rates and a pop of 10bn in 2100.

[Mars]

Okay, makes sense

I think the largest Terran population outside of Sol is Delta Serpentis, it's right next to Sol, and was the capital of the GTA after the Sol node colapsed.