[crizza]

Who knows, maybe the Zod have simply started to develop their own RBCs like the Tevs?
In the end its all about doing as much damage as possible.
Having enough fightercraft to protect the bomber wings so they could defang a Sathanas and you have a realy big piece of armor floating around, same goes for the Ravana.
But if they manage to jump deeper into the system you've got a problem. So it's all about doing as much damage or disabling key weapon systems at the node and hope that dedicated hunter/killer groups can finish them of.
But if a Sathanas desides to do on of its amazing turn abouts after slowing down... as before, it is all about timing...

Subspace inhibitors... same like using ECM regarding TEV beams, who knows if it is possible to scramble shivan beam weaponry and navigational data the same way.

[Rheavatarin]

Trying to scrutinize Shivan strategy and technology is inevitably fraught. However, given that the GTVA has sprint drive capability, we have to assume that it is possible Shivans do as well. A better question might be if either the GTVA or Shivans can make an immediate non-crash jump after transiting an interstellar jump point. If so, then a node-denial strategy is useless. You would be better off dropping enough mines that you could walk across the node and keep your ships available for shock jumps of their own once Shivan targets have been identified.

The Vasudans clearly think that node-denial is viable.  This implies one of several possibilities.
(1) They can deliver sufficient firepower to cripple a juggernaut and its supporting fleet before a sprint drive cycles. And then do it again and again until a meson bomb can destroy the node.
(2) They have a way to stop a sprint drive from cycling.
(3) They believe that calculated jumps with a sprint drive are impossible after a jump through a node.

Possibility (1) would involve incredible amounts of destructive force against unlimited waves of Shivans. Number (2) would be technology that we've been led to believe is non-canonical. Number (3) might be reasonable, but requires us knowing more about fictional physics and intelligence reports than we have access to.

[mr.WHO]

Just throwing it out there: if the Tev doctrine is offensive and focuses on things like shock jumps and subspace mobility, then perhaps the defensive Zod doctrine is working on a means of subspace inhibition?
I could totally see them developing something like a reverse Knossos that causes intense local subspace fluctuations, preventing any ship within the area of effect from being able to calculate a jump solution without the proper compensation algorithm. With invaders unable to jump to an in-system rallying point, the Vasudan fleet would be able to cross the T at the node and hold their position with minimal losses.

I like this idea - this also explains the limited involvement of Vasudans in Sol theater - not lack of politial will (they are obviously interested in ending this war as fast as possible and gaining Sol economy to boost GTVA capabilities), but the actual lack of expeditionary capabilitieas far from home systems.

[-Norbert-]

(2) They have a way to stop a sprint drive from cycling.

Are you thinking of something like an massive size-up of the energy dissipating weapons available for fighters (lamprey and circe), or rather a more specialized version of them that specifically targets the capacitors (or whatever storage device) that charge the jumpdrives?

That's certainly an interesting concept, though probably too overpowered. If they can do that with jumpdrives, it's only a small step to also discharge weapon systems which would make the missions boring.

[Rheavatarin]

Are you thinking of something like an massive size-up of the energy dissipating weapons available for fighters (lamprey and circe), or rather a more specialized version of them that specifically targets the capacitors (or whatever storage device) that charge the jumpdrives?

That's certainly an interesting concept, though probably too overpowered. If they can do that with jumpdrives, it's only a small step to also discharge weapon systems which would make the missions boring.

No, I was thinking something more along the lines of a field generator that prevents a subspace portal from opening. I agree that a massively scaled up version of the Lamprey would be extremely inconvenient for capital ships. But since I can't figure out why it works for fighters, but apparently not for larger ships, I'll just call it what it is. Magic.

[Trivial Psychic]

For unstable nodes, I could see a defense strategy in which capital ships run into a minefield upon entering the system, which is in a spherical shape around the node.  The outermost portions of the sphere would be made up of high-yield Meson warhead mines, designed to proximity-swarm any large vessels that make it that far, destroyer-class or larger.  As you get closer to the center, the minefield increases in density, but the mines reduce in yield.  The center would also be equipped with a number of heavy defense sentries mounting a number of rapid fire pulse weapons and AAA beams.  The outer portions of the minefield would also include a number of self-orienting RBCs.

This defense strategy assumes that unstable nodes would not be used for unannounced, massive incursions.  The first incursions from such a node would likely be in the form of fighter scouts, and perhaps a cruiser, as in the initial Capella incursion.  The heavy anti-fighter emplacements tries to rapidly take out any arrivals before they can move on, and the close-range minefield is tightly packed enough that an arriving cruiser would plow right into it and be destroyed.  Even if they don't get completely destroyed upon arrival, the RBCs would finish the job.  Arriving corvettes would run into the same problem as the cruisers, but they won't be taken out by the lighter mines that take out the cruisers.  As corvettes cover a larger distance upon arriving from subspace, that would put them into the next outer shell of heavier mines that would do the job.  The next outer shell of mines would be enough to inflict similar heavy damage to destroyer class, while the final outer shell would he the meson mines to inflict crippling damage to a Sath.  While this may not be able to stop an entire fleet, it would at least be able to slow one down until mobile forces can be brought in.  This also may not work if a node is continuously moving around.

As for general use nodes, mines would of course be out of the question.  A large scale fleet blockade would be needed, backed up by RBCs, and a form of rapid response firepower team.  In the event of a full-scale invasion however, all of these defenses would be intended to hold the line until a specialized node-collapse ship can be deployed to seal the node.

[AdmiralRalwood]

For unstable nodes, I could see a defense strategy in which capital ships run into a minefield upon entering the system, which is in a spherical shape around the node.  The outermost portions of the sphere would be made up of high-yield Meson warhead mines, designed to proximity-swarm any large vessels that make it that far, destroyer-class or larger.  As you get closer to the center, the minefield increases in density, but the mines reduce in yield.  The center would also be equipped with a number of heavy defense sentries mounting a number of rapid fire pulse weapons and AAA beams.  The outer portions of the minefield would also include a number of self-orienting RBCs.

This defense strategy assumes that unstable nodes would not be used for unannounced, massive incursions.  The first incursions from such a node would likely be in the form of fighter scouts, and perhaps a cruiser, as in the initial Capella incursion.  The heavy anti-fighter emplacements tries to rapidly take out any arrivals before they can move on, and the close-range minefield is tightly packed enough that an arriving cruiser would plow right into it and be destroyed.  Even if they don't get completely destroyed upon arrival, the RBCs would finish the job.  Arriving corvettes would run into the same problem as the cruisers, but they won't be taken out by the lighter mines that take out the cruisers.  As corvettes cover a larger distance upon arriving from subspace, that would put them into the next outer shell of heavier mines that would do the job.  The next outer shell of mines would be enough to inflict similar heavy damage to destroyer class, while the final outer shell would he the meson mines to inflict crippling damage to a Sath.  While this may not be able to stop an entire fleet, it would at least be able to slow one down until mobile forces can be brought in.  This also may not work if a node is continuously moving around.

As for general use nodes, mines would of course be out of the question.  A large scale fleet blockade would be needed, backed up by RBCs, and a form of rapid response firepower team.  In the event of a full-scale invasion however, all of these defenses would be intended to hold the line until a specialized node-collapse ship can be deployed to seal the node.

And then the node moves and your mines are sitting in empty space, accomplishing absolutely nothing.

[Trivial Psychic]

You'll note that I DID include a line concerning moving nodes.  Perhaps moving or "Phasing" nodes, which is the currently fannon term, recur in the same repeating pattern of spots depending on gravitational interactions.  In that case, you could set up a field at each of the repeating zones.

[AdmiralRalwood]

In BP canon (which I can only presume this discussion is happening in, given that this is the BP subforum), all nodes move around, except ones anchored by a device like the Sol gate. It has been stated that this is why installations aren't parked in front of nodes; if they followed a repeating pattern, that wouldn't really be a problem.

[crizza]

How does this factor in then:

Dozens of Mjolnir weapons systems have been manufactured and are kept ready to form node blockades.
Several are already deployed at the site of the collapsed Capella node in Vega.

[AdmiralRalwood]

How does this factor in then:

Dozens of Mjolnir weapons systems have been manufactured and are kept ready to form node blockades.
Several are already deployed at the site of the collapsed Capella node in Vega.

Given that it's a collapsed node, it sounds like a publicity stunt rather than a serious attempt at defending against a third Shivan incursion.

[Aesaar]

There's also the fact that a Mjolnir can be moved by a Triton in minutes.  A minefield can't be moved that easily.

[-Norbert-]

So how do unstable nodes work anyway?

Are they impossible to even enter or can you enter them, but are unlikely to ever make it to the other side or somesuch.

If it's the former unstable nodes are a worse danger to the GTVA than stable ones. Stable ones can be severed with a meson-boat, but if you can't get anything into the a node that the Shivans can traverse, you'll be forced just sit there and destroy everything that comes through... or abandoning the entire system and pull back behind the next stable node.

[Beskargam]

Is there any information on how quickly nodes move? How long they stay in one place and what causes them to move? Is the movement able to be calculated or predicted?

[Aesaar]

My thinking on that matter is that you know when the node will move, but not where, so it takes a little while to reacquire it.  Its future location can be calculated, but not to the point where you can just deploy defenses to it ahead of time.  More like "it'll reappear within a few thousand kilometers of this area" (which, for space, is amazingly precise).  You can figure out where to look for it when it moves, but it'll need to actually move for you to get its exact location.

[AdmiralRalwood]

Is there any information on how quickly nodes move? How long they stay in one place and what causes them to move? Is the movement able to be calculated or predicted?

Well, we know they don't move within the span of a single mission.

For more details, I took a look in my #bp chatlogs and found some helpful exposition from Battuta (from January of 2014), quoted (mostly) unaltered here:

The nodes don't obey conventional orbital mechanics
Rather, they skip around due to changes in the configuration of mass in the system, but the effect of these changes in mass is epiphenomenal and very difficult to calculate
Leading to uncertainty in forecasts
Remember, ~subspace~ is involved
The model isn't mass~gravity~node position, it's mass~gravity~?????SUBSPACE????~node position
That subspace component is a really thorny and turbulent problem
Belong[ing] to some branch of subspace mathematics that is difficult even in bp time