[TwentyPercentCooler]

Well the Tevs aren't bad at sentry guns. The Zods themselves let them handle it. It has been said that one of the yet-unseen use for Tev cruisers was as potential minelayers, deploying clusters of sentry guns to defend strategical positions or cover retreats.

Those would be, however, support tools first and foremost. Sentry guns are only efficient in very specific circumstances, and easily destroyed. That holds true for both small sentries like Cerberus guns, and Mjolnirs.

Oh, absolutely. Like I said, it's just to buy time while the warships plot jumps and escape vectors, collect remote targeting data, etc. I get the feeling from canon FS1/FS2 that the sentry guns were always intended to be used in that fashion. They can't guard a depot by themselves, but they can prevent enemy fighters from popping up in the middle of the depot and going to town, maybe buy some time for a response team to launch.

Long-range anti-subsystem cannon turrets, torpedo platforms, Paveway/Stiletto missile launchers, EMP mines...I always felt like those kind of tactics were never adequately explored in the Freespace 'verse. When you're facing an overwhelming force like the Shivans, you've got to get creative. And sneaky. I think some very specific UEF technology could be useful for that sort of thing.

[Aesaar]

It's not as if the GTVA doesn't need logistical support at all. In fact, they're only so dependent on it in the Sol Theatre because they're on the offensive. If they were defending the GTVA systems from a Shivan attack, they'd have the same logistical luxuries that the UEF enjoyed.

Careful with that comparison.  The Tevs in Sol have been going out of their way to avoid damage to logistical infrastructure.  The Shivans would give them no such courtesy.

Even on the defensive, the GTVA would have to worry about logistics far more than the pre-Blitz UEF did.

[redsniper]

Antimatter cored maxim rounds. 

[-Norbert-]

It's not as if the GTVA doesn't need logistical support at all. In fact, they're only so dependent on it in the Sol Theatre because they're on the offensive. If they were defending the GTVA systems from a Shivan attack, they'd have the same logistical luxuries that the UEF enjoyed.

Careful with that comparison.  The Tevs in Sol have been going out of their way to avoid damage to logistical infrastructure.  The Shivans would give them no such courtesy.

Even on the defensive, the GTVA would have to worry about logistics far more than the pre-Blitz UEF did.

In addition to what Aesaar already pointed out, the GTVA has roughly the same industrial base as the UEF, but spread out over several systems, so their transports and freighters might have need to pass through one or several nodes, before they can resupply the front line, even when the GTVA is on the defensive.
And on top of that, the UEF also had the gate network.

[Colonol Dekker]

On the subject of Alliance incorporating Federation technology into the mainstream....

Relaxing Kitty pictures on GTVA Fleet-net during the Capellan evacuation may have saved more lives than the colossus by negating much unecessary panic...

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Antimatter cored maxim rounds. 

Good thing that in Freespace, there is no such thing as overkill
Also, kittens.

[Alex Heartnet]

We have infinite beamz as the GTVA, the only good thing out of the UEF arsenal would be the AM-Missile farms, customized for GTVA missile armaments (something like a Supernova MK2 comes to mind.)

UEF beam jamming tech isn't of any use?  As I stated before, beam 'jamming' technology might be re-purposed to HELP the beamz do stuff rather then hinder the beamz.  Imagine what kinds of exotic weapons the GTVA could come up with if they had the ability to bend beam cannon fire.

[-Norbert-]

Mass Effect does have magic disposal tech, we are never shown it, but the Codex states one thing and they did another in the cutscenes (they never show any radiators or anything get hot on the ships...)

No magic involved there, just something you seem to have overread. In ME the ships "store" the heat in some reservoirs, mostly in the not otherwise used compartments right below the armor of a ship. Only outside of battle do they start to dissipate the heat.
Besides how would you visually show heat in a vaccum? By the time a substance is starting to glow cherry-red from heat, it is also starting to get softer... not something you want for external structure in the middle of a battle.

Besides a lot of the logical stuff that's in the codex didn't make it into the cutscenes... just like the cutscenes of FreeSpace don't match up with techroom and even ingame data on many accounts!

[The E]

Remember the Geth dreadnaught mission in ME3? There are heat stores all over the place, all of them glowing red-hot.

[-Norbert-]

Yes, internal ones.

[An4ximandros]

I personally wonder if the GTVA would make SSMs modified to launch EMPs, that could be an effective response to Shivan attack groups of fighters and cruisers (from what I remember of EMP mechanics on FS2)

Or even better, a wave of EMP missiles followed by AM SSMs, bam! Shiv killer right there.

The E: Ah! I never bothered playing Mass Effect 3, I honestly got bored of the franchise after the second game.

Spoiler:

That and I heard of the endings of the game and how schit they used to be/are, so I didn't bother wasting my money on getting the middle finger after so much time to be put into a game franchise.

[The E]

I personally wonder if the GTVA would make SSMs modified to launch EMPs, that could be an effective response to Shivan attack groups of fighters and cruisers (from what I remember of EMP mechanics on FS2)[/quote]

Not very likely. As shown in WiH, SSMs are a rather complicated piece of weaponry, one that requires active TAGs and on-scene AWACS craft. As such, using them against anything smaller than a frigate is almost certainly not a good use.

Also, killing shivan fighters and bombers is easy. Capella-era craft can do that job perfectly well. It's shivan capital and supercapital ships that are the issue.

[Fury]

Also, killing shivan fighters and bombers is easy. Capella-era craft can do that job perfectly well. It's shivan capital and supercapital ships that are the issue.

Easy until Shivans decide to bring their strike craft capabilities up to their full capabilities. As BP's own fluff states, their weapons operate at reduced efficiency. It might even be true for shields too.

[MatthTheGeek]

The GTVA can only prepares for what they know. Wild guesses aren't very appreciated in the military.

Also, the whole point of the GTVA doctrine is that they can fight the Shivans, at least long enough to run their contingencies. If they start assuming the Shivans are all-powerful and can't be stopped, better just throw yourself through the nearest airlock.

[redsniper]

start assuming the Shivans are all-powerful and can't be stopped, better just throw yourself through the nearest airlock.

And this is how the Shivans win their wars...

[headdie]

start assuming the Shivans are all-powerful and can't be stopped, better just throw yourself through the nearest airlock.

And this is how the Shivans win their wars...

thats how the ancients went out judging from the tone of the last intermission

[NGTM-1R]

Easy until Shivans decide to bring their strike craft capabilities up to their full capabilities. As BP's own fluff states, their weapons operate at reduced efficiency. It might even be true for shields too.

It's not clear they can or would even think to do so. The idea was kicked around several times outside of BP that Shivan fighter weapons, or even their entire fighters, are similar to autonomic processes in the human body and are essentially beyond the conscious control of the Shivans, thus accounting for their relatively poor material performance.

[Klaustrophobia]

wut

[NGTM-1R]

wut

Battuta actually proposed it I think.

Basically Shivan fighters/fighter weapons = white blood cells. You can't improve your white blood cells.

[MatthTheGeek]

There's also that hidden text on nuRayana textures which speaks 'bout it IIRC.