[Penfold]

I just wanted to say; I fnished...it was not easy at all...and it is definitely kick-ass+++...and it left me in greatest anticipation for Acts 4 and 5.
I had no glitches or hang-ups at all. All Hail the BP Team!!!

[SF-Junky]

I think the Narayana MD's are just placeholders.

I strongly hope so.

I think we are going to see a MassDriver#Solaris in he next release...Those are going to make you wish you were never born! 

You mean they are going to make the Tevs wish they were never born.

[AtomicCuttlefish]

I think the Narayana MD's are just placeholders.

I strongly hope so.

I think we are going to see a MassDriver#Solaris in he next release...Those are going to make you wish you were never born! 

You mean they are going to make the Tevs wish they were never born.

My guess is that they'll be primarily long range, as that seems to be how Tev capital weapons work best, far out of beam range and such. Maybe they'll accelerate the projectiles to near c or something, that'd be quite cool.

[Commander Zane]

I think the Narayana MD's are just placeholders.

I strongly hope so.

I think we are going to see a MassDriver#Solaris in he next release...Those are going to make you wish you were never born! 

You mean they are going to make the Tevs wish they were never born.

I can't see it being different. The model is close, if not exactly the same as the Mass Drivers on the Narayana.

[SF-Junky]

I can't see it being different. The model is close, if not exactly the same as the Mass Drivers on the Narayana.

That does not necessarily mean anything in my opinion. There must be something special about these guns. I mean, come on. Two mere mass drivers? That is nothing, great firing range or not. Any corvette could easily withstand fire from two mass drivers for long enough to come into beam range. Not to speak of destroyers. Plus: They're obviously directed straight ahead and only straight ahead. What if the enemy comes in from another direction.

I just can't see any tactical advantage here. These are defenitely placeholders.

[Commander Zane]

Two mere mass drivers? They're obviously directed straight ahead and only straight ahead.

Two forward-facing Mass Drivers, the Karuna and Narayana are no different in this regard.

Any corvette could easily withstand fire from two mass drivers for long enough to come into beam range.

Because a Solaris is going to be fighting other ships on its own.

What if the enemy comes in from another direction.

Again, the Karuna and Narayana are no different in this regard.

[Aesaar]

I think people underestimate the firepower of the Narayana's mass drivers.  They're not beam cannons, but they're still pretty powerful.

Also, dat range.

[An4ximandros]

Maek Tri-Barrled chaingun Solaris mezz dverz plz, kthxby.

 On a more serious note, you guys seem to underestimate the Narayana mass drivers, they are both powerful and out-range beam weaponry by several Kms. Allowing a Solaris to fight at least two targets (One at Missile and the other at Artillery ranges) at the same time efficiently, giving it a greater threat level on the "field".

[Buckshee Rounds]

Not sure how much of this should be in spoiler tags so I'm going to put the lot in:

Spoiler:

Something I've been trying to wrap my head around that is bugging me is Ken's contradicting motivations. For instance, it was Ken himself who informs you in Act 3 that the GTVA are essentially trying to eliminate Vishnan-influenced elements in Sol (or at least that's how I interpreted it). But this is a good thing. This should play right into his hands, or the Shivan's hands I should say. It might not be clear what Ken's end-goal is, but one thing that seems to be pretty clear is that he is thouroughly anti-Vishnan. (I say 'he', 'it' would probably be a better descriptor).

So why then does Ken directly instruct you in part 1 to "destroy the GTVA"? I found it really weird when he says this, not least because as a Shivan metamind the success or failure of one trivial human faction in a trivial war seems completely inconsequential (relative to him). Asides from that, assuming he actually gives a crap he should want the GTVA to win and steer Sol and the rest of humanity away from Vishnan influence (if that's even possible).

One thought I had was that the element of Ken that is Aken Bosch is still prejudiced against the GTVA and wants to destroy it, but that seems far too narrow-minded and pointless. It got me thinking though, how exactly does a Human-Shivan metamind work? Is it possible it can suffer from split personalities, each with different goals that can potentially conflict with one another? Perhaps the fragility of a human consciousness can cause the metamind to hiccup every once in a while. I'm sure we'll see in the end that Ken ultimately has a goal and a plan to achieve it, but I kind of like the idea that a Shivan can be made susceptible to human error.

I was sure from the beginning that the GTVA had much stronger motives for going to war than just for the lulz and Act 3 pretty much confirmed it for me. It's sad because the UEF is obviously the much more stable, evolved society, but that its

Spoiler:

Vishnan infection

has pretty much tainted it.

[SF-Junky]

Two forward-facing Mass Drivers, the Karuna and Narayana are no different in this regard.

Both the Karuna and the Narayana have six mass drivers respectively gauss cannons. Also, Frigates are a lot more maneuverable than destroyers are. They can turn around quite easily when something tries to outflank them. A Solaris cannot do so.

Because a Solaris is going to be fighting other ships on its own.

No, when a Solaris is in the field, there will be a lot of firepower be deployed already. That is why two additional mass drivers are surely better than nothing, but not so impressive that you would need to be that excited about.

Allowing a Solaris to fight at least two targets (One at Missile and the other at Artillery ranges) at the same time efficiently, giving it a greater threat level on the "field".

I'm sure we all agree that a Solaris is capable of fighting numerous targets at a time even without two mass drivers.

[Commander Zane]

Both the Karuna and the Narayana have six mass drivers respectively gauss cannons. Also, Frigates are a lot more maneuverable than destroyers are. They can turn around quite easily when something tries to outflank them. A Solaris cannot do so.

Two Mass Drivers are two Mass Drivers. I wouldn't necessarily count the four Gauss Cannons both ships have because of their different role in combat, that being of removing subsystems rather than dealing raw hull damage, of which they have 1/4th the damage per shot.

[MatthTheGeek]

And Solarises have 12 Gattler turrets for anti-subsystem duties.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

I'm currently reading about the weapons of BP.
To make it short: I have read it on this board several time that the Tevs are better with beam weapons, but the Zods are the reactor experts.
Taken this for granted, how came this along?
During the second incursion, the Zod beams where discribed as outperforming their terran counterparts by a fair margin?
Or are the Tevs just better with beams, because we haven't seen any new Zod weapons?

Just going back to this for one post: table-wise, the zod S-type and Slash-type beams still outperform their next-gen terran counterpart.

Regarding the Toutatis' mass drivers: it essentially gives Calder a Destroyer-sized artillery, which is much more difficult to deal with than a Narayana. While I don't think they are a major game changer, it gives Calder another tactical option.

[Mars]

I'm currently reading about the weapons of BP.
To make it short: I have read it on this board several time that the Tevs are better with beam weapons, but the Zods are the reactor experts.
Taken this for granted, how came this along?
During the second incursion, the Zod beams where discribed as outperforming their terran counterparts by a fair margin?
Or are the Tevs just better with beams, because we haven't seen any new Zod weapons?

Just going back to this for one post: table-wise, the zod S-type and Slash-type beams still outperform their next-gen terran counterpart.

Regarding the Toutatis' mass drivers: it essentially gives Calder a Destroyer-sized artillery, which is much more difficult to deal with than a Narayana. While I don't think they are a major game changer, it gives Calder another tactical option.

The Tevs use paired s and slash beams - the Hyperion carries two sblues, the Diomedes 4 bull frosts, while the Mentu only (from what we've seen) carries one svas and the Sobek two vslash

[crizza]

I'm currently reading about the weapons of BP.
To make it short: I have read it on this board several time that the Tevs are better with beam weapons, but the Zods are the reactor experts.
Taken this for granted, how came this along?
During the second incursion, the Zod beams where discribed as outperforming their terran counterparts by a fair margin?
Or are the Tevs just better with beams, because we haven't seen any new Zod weapons?

Just going back to this for one post: table-wise, the zod S-type and Slash-type beams still outperform their next-gen terran counterpart.

Regarding the Toutatis' mass drivers: it essentially gives Calder a Destroyer-sized artillery, which is much more difficult to deal with than a Narayana. While I don't think they are a major game changer, it gives Calder another tactical option.

The Tevs use paired s and slash beams - the Hyperion carries two sblues, the Diomedes 4 bull frosts, while the Mentu only (from what we've seen) carries one svas and the Sobek two vslash

A Mentu with a SVas is a beast. And keep in mind, that the Mentu and Sobek are Capellaships, sadly, we know nothing about new Zods ships in BP.
Only time will tell.

[MatthTheGeek]

The Mentu featured in Nothing is True doesn't have any capship beam.

[crizza]

The Mentu featured in Nothing is True doesn't have any capship beam.

I never said that.
I once replaced the Mentu in Rebels&Renegades with a Mentu with beams...goodbye Hinton^^

[QuakeIV]

If I had to guess I'd say they don't have beams because their power systems cant support Vasudan designs.

[MatthTheGeek]

That was an answer to Mars, who said

while the Mentu only (from what we've seen) carries one svas

[Flak]

You can see capship beam armed Mentus in Pandora's Box, armed with a pair of SVas, and in Vassago's Dirge armed with a single VSlash.

And for the Karuna gauss cannons, while the tech shows 5 gauss cannons, 1 is on the tail, so only 4 are facing forward, which means the forward facing ones deals about the same damage as one more mass driver.