[Luis Dias]

They are unrepentant assholes that would wipe us out.  Just now there is something of an apparent reason for that so it seems less bad.

Yeah, but now they are being nice about it. Or something. (I still have to finish the campaign to actually be able to follow the discussion of Tenebra...)

[yomi]

Is it possible to kill Morena MacDuff on Insanity?
If someone did it, could you tell how? No matter what i do, i get smashed before i can do anything

[crazy_dave]

So in conversations from Tenebra:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=83302.0

Are we to take it that Steele actually planned to lose at Neptune? It was also mentioned as a possibility by Laporte and the Fedayeen - or is it just that as the Fedayeen suspect, he simply didn't mind losing at Neptune as it wasn't important to him? And as a bonus he gets two more destroyers from command for the loss of the one. I mean I'm not sure how much hope the victory game the UEF as they know they're still outnumbered, outgunned, and now the GTA has even more destroyers in the system than they did before.

Unless the conversation between Bei and Martin is from before the War God's battle at Saturn? It wouldn't seem so.

[MatthTheGeek]

I do not so much think he planned to loose the Carthage, but I am pretty sure he had prepared contingencies for this eventuality. Contingencies that he then enacted.

[An4ximandros]

Too bad Steele didn't have a contingency for Neptune's scuttle charges being sabotaged, he should have left a remote controlled Meson Bomb with "Don't **** with the Steele" written on it.

Spoiler:

On the subject of Shivans: Act3 does certainly portray the Shivans as far more "benevolent" than the Vishnans, The Shivans, being "mutable" seem to be able to, at least partially, think outside the protocol. The Vishnans appear to be trapped by it.

And one last thing. Where did you guys get those fractals? I can swear I saw at least one as some guy's Avatar on DeviantArt.

[crazy_dave]

I do not so much think he planned to loose the Carthage, but I am pretty sure he had prepared contingencies for this eventuality. Contingencies that he then enacted.

That's how I thought of it, but the conversation would almost indicate a deliberate ploy - which seems a little far fetched in this particular case. Of course the UEF victory changes the strategic situation very little, if anything it's worse for the UEF with the new destroyers being brought in even if they got a morale boost and the GTA took a morale hit and Calder can use Neptune as a base.

[Buckshee Rounds]

Too bad Steele didn't have a contingency for Neptune's scuttle charges being sabotaged, he should have left a remote controlled Meson Bomb with "Don't **** with the Steele" written on it.

Spoiler:

On the subject of Shivans: Act3 does certainly portray the Shivans as far more "benevolent" than the Vishnans, The Shivans, being "mutable" seem to be able to, at least partially, think outside the protocol. The Vishnans appear to be trapped by it.

And one last thing. Where did you guys get those fractals? I can swear I saw at least one as some guy's Avatar on DeviantArt.

Spoiler:

I don't think it's a case that the Vishnans are incapable of thinking outside of the protocol, they just genuinely believe that is the correct course of action and the Shivans are jeapordising whatever balance they have been maintaining all along. I can see why this would motivate them to go to the lenths they have. For them it's business as usual and the Shivans are threatening to upset that. From their point of view the Shivans are behaving irrationally, perhaps because of the taint of assimilating a human mind, i.e. Bosch.

Admittedly it's difficult to describe in human terms what is essentially a feud between almost-demigods. Imagine Ants trying to read Shakespeare; they lack the most basic capacities to do so.

[crizza]

God lord, I knew it is wrong...but I did it anyway, replaced the UEF ships in Delenda Est with their MK2 counterparts, they chewed through the Carthages battlegroup fairly easy...

[Flak]

A Mk2 is tougher than an Orion or Hecate, though slightly less than an Raynor. We haven't seen the first fleet for the entire act 3, so quite possible that Byrne is upgrading the ships that we haven't see. If the Indus survived, then there is a good chance that they are in the middle of upgrading the Indus into a Mk2 as well. Who knows if Calder is also salvaging the debris in Saturn while everyone else is busy.

[General Battuta]

I think it pretty unlikely that a Mk 2 Karuna would be tougher than an Orion or Hecate, and nowhere near a Raynor.

[Mars]

Your tables mean nothing! <DOOM>

In all seriousness though - simply throwing a mark II in there isn't exactly a litmus test of their effectiveness in plot.

[Flak]

There is another thing called 'awesome yet impractical'. The goodness of a mk2 just comes in that it is more heavily armored than its predecessor. It still don't pack the Orion's firepower in that regard. Those Gattler turrets are still hardly a match to the BGreens or Terslash even.

[Gray113]

Is the Sanctus upgrade similar to the Karuna Mk2 in terms of armament? If so will we see more next gen corvettes deployed to counter this threat as the Deimos will be outclassed?

[crizza]

Your tables mean nothing! <DOOM>

In all seriousness though - simply throwing a mark II in there isn't exactly a litmus test of their effectiveness in plot.

True enough, they get wasted like the old Karunas once the Imp jumps in, but they shred the Deimos non the less.
I just wanted to see how they performed in a mission which was carefully freded. I hope it's no insult to Battuta though^^

[Aesaar]

Is the Sanctus upgrade similar to the Karuna Mk2 in terms of armament? If so will we see more next gen corvettes deployed to counter this threat as the Deimos will be outclassed?

IIRC it loses the blob turrets in favor of more Burst Flak, and its Warhammers and Mass Drivers are replaced by Hydras and Gauss Cannons.  A good upgrade, which puts it on more or less the same footing as the stock Deimos.  Hydras are pretty powerful.

Do remember that the Deimos can be upgraded as well.

[Gray113]

Just wanted to see if there will be more action with the next gen corvettes in the next few missions. Somthing more like a pitched battle rather than ambush jumps.

[Flak]

I am not sure how effective it is going to be against other capships that the Sanctus lost the mass drivers in favor of more burst flak and PDS, though it gets 1 more gauss cannon.  Though for sure it  now send the Aeolus a run for their money in term of anti-strikecraft capabilities.

[Aesaar]

It's the Hydras that make the difference.  Those things are much better than Warhammer#Sanctus.

[The E]

The Hydra is a special warhead designed to get through flak defenses by spawning four submunitions, each with about a quarter the yield of a full Apocalypse warhead. The direct damage each submunition causes may be less than what an Apo might do, but because the probability for a warhead to get through is much higher.....

[-Norbert-]

If you compare the Hydra to the Apocalypse sure.
But the old Sanctus variant is carrying Warhammer. Those are also swarm torpedoes, so it's pretty much the same principle as before (overwhelming the point defense), but with improved performance.