Firstly, I greatly appreciate any answers/responses.
I'll start with the main question, and then present a few others after it:
No Shivan Beam Cannons in FS1?
Even their otherwise identical FS2 counterparts had plenty of beam cannons; the Lilith in FS1 had none, but has several in FS2, and so on.
Yes, I know, the Lucifer is the one exception. But it's irrelevant; why was it the only one?
Is there some kind of explanation beyond just the limitations of story-telling and game design (i.e., Volition had no idea that there'd even be a FS2, let alone that beam cannons would be prominent and standard)?
Subspace node confusion
The tech room in FS1 states that only ships outfitted with the most powerful of reactors could open an intersystem subspace portal (like an Orion destroyer). By "opening the portal", does it mean that the Orion-like ship is needed to open a new intersystem node for general use (as a one-time activation), or that only a ship with an Orion's power output could actually make an intersystem jump?
And did any of that change, and if so, when? Sorry for the complexity here; I'm just really confused on this one.
Why did the GTA and PVN adapt/advance so little during the 14-year war?
Even in the war's final days, both sides only employed a single laser weapon, which was very weak (its power draw was so low that you could shunt 90% of your reactor output into your engines and still fire indefinitely) even against the cheap hulls of Anubis fighters (and vice-versa for the PVN). Aside from basic dumbfire rockets, only basic, very low-yield heat-seaking missiles existed on either side.
Perhaps most jarring, however, and hardest to explain away, is how neither Terran nor Vasudan ships wielded weaponry more powerful than a blob turret. No mass drivers or gauss cannons, no nuclear torpedoes, just 1-3 dozen blob turrets. While pretty decent against unshielded fighters (wielding ML-16 lasers that were like peashooters, no less), they didn't do much against capital ships. As soon as fighters gain shield technology, capital ships become liabilities in most cases, not assets.
It's odd, really; it's a 14-year interstellar war. In all of the rest of FS canon, Terrans and Vasudans alike adapt and advance rapidly; in the T-V war, things were relatively static.
Why did the T-V war last so long in the first place?
Given that it was started by mistranslation/communication errors, that neither side committed heinous acts against the other (no orbital bombardment of cities, no massacring of civilians, no brutal crackdowns/oppression of conquered territory, at least as far as I'm aware), and that the war was often stalemated and costly, why didn't they reach some kind of peace settlement? They had adequate translation technology, better cultural understanding, and there was a distinct lack of hatred or vitriol on either side (Terrans and Vasudans also work together quite well, on an interpersonal level, almost immediately after the Great War starts).
Yeah, I get the whole Scary Dogmatic Aliens concept--but the Vasudans aren't like that, in practice or in culture. The only real danger is the threat of future conflict due almost entirely to mistrust and irrational fear that the other side's intentions are hostile. FS1 seemed to avert the notion that that was how each side felt about the other--it was not a war for survival, and victory meant ending the threat the other side posed so that you could build up a coexisting/cooperative relationship (ala the Allied occupation of Japan after WW2).
It's not like there was any meaningful territory dispute, either; there was plenty of room as it was, abundant resources all over the place, and then there's the fact that more populated colonies are more productive, efficient, and faster-growing than a bunch of tiny settlements.