[NGTM-1R]

The caliburs have gotten bigger, though, judging by Hallfight. Somewhere around 80mm, maybe larger. The guns used made relatively little noise, a sort of humming, and had obvious power cables. They were firing subsonic projectiles, otherwise they would have been considerably louder. That partly explains the large calibur, since you need a bigger projectile to do more damage at a slower velocity.

The evidence points to some kind of magnetically propelled projectile. On the other hand, they produced a considerable amount muzzle flash as well, which is something a coilgun, railgun, or Gauss rifle would not do.

Note that the marine squad commander in Hallfight commented on the lack of gravity; they expected gravity when they went aboard and found none, so those weapons were perfectly usable in standard gravity, or even in higher then standard gravity (they couldn't know if the Shivans were used to higher-gee environments then Terrans and Vasudans). I suspect a simple form of powered exoskeleton is built into those suits. As I stated before, the only reasons they might have restricted their choice of weaponry (especially since they had no clue what they were up against) would be for fear of causing severe damage to the ship's internal systems, punching holes in the hull and causing an explosive decompression, or possibly the fear that the Shivans evolved in a higher-gee environment and standard weaponry would be too heavy.

Also, noting the Vasudan battle gear seen in FS1, I suspect they actually had better, more advanced technology for their ground troops: the Vasudans appear to wear a form of powered armor. It has power cables sticking out, so... It also appears to cover more of the body and be somewhat thicker then the Terran armor. This might also mean that Vasudan boarding teams (I think there's an Isis transport stuck on the front end of the Azreal you seen in the opening shot of Hallfight, but the picture is too dark to be sure.) would have done considerably better then the hapless Terran squad we saw in Hallfight.

Presumably, by the time of FS2, Terran troopers now benefit from Vasudan-type power armor as well.

[WeatherOp]

I would also go with ballistics. Since most pilots don't live past their first few fights, the guns would be easier to use. Since lasers would be to compicated for dumb people.

[Carl]

Originally posted by pyro-manic
It all depends on the technology of the shield, I suppose. It could be some sort of EM field, as you suggest, or it could be a layer of charged particles suspended in a field, or it could be something else entirely.

They have something to do with subspace, we know that, so... layers of subspace or something?

anyway, a soldier could wear a shield generator on his back like a back pack. he couldn't have it be an all encompassing shield though, cause then he couldn't walk cause he'd be walking on shield

[FireCrack]

Originally posted by ngtm1r

Note that the marine squad commander in Hallfight commented on the lack of gravity;

Nothing of the sort ever happens, furthermore there is no resemblence of an isis on the azriel. Are you watching the same hallfight as me?

[Charismatic]

Ok well. For shields, possibly the hand held frontal shield in the battle of Jar Jar binks, in star wars; But that would be too big. So maby sort of a small single shot reflecter, seen in Farscape, i beleive episode "Kings loss" or "Thrown for a king" (Man i spelled that wrong).
So they could still fire their bigger guns and have a small shield. But in Farscape they had some sort of drug or adrenalin that worked in their body, that boosted and  amplified the drugs power effects, and ability to control it.
As for weapons:
Probably bigger and more dangerous weapons, like plazma and lazer. Heloids, a few times, which always ended up in a big loss, due to the creater they made.
Command. In 2381? when fs2 and fs1 was about, how did command think? All the FS people thought differently then we did now. They fought over deneb, they made secert agreements with the enemy, allowing bosch to escape, peace talks truned bad. Command were IDIOTS. God how many times they sent you on accident into death-traps, and forgot about reinforcements, or stalled them, for amusement. Command would have allowed dangerous weapons cause they didnt care and didnt think well. The good smart thinkers would be under a dumbasses command and his voice would not be herd. Um.. right?

[NGTM-1R]

Originally posted by FireCrack


Nothing of the sort ever happens, furthermore there is no resemblence of an isis on the azriel. Are you watching the same hallfight as me?

I am. Funny about the gravity comment...I remember it quite clearly, but it doesn't appear to be there.

As for the Isis, there is something that was attached to the front end of the Azrael: it detaches. The shape is roughly that of an Isis, but the shadows are too deep to see detail.

Of course, Vasudan battle gear is seen in the Command Briefing cutscene, so the presence or absence of the Isis is immaterial.

[FireCrack]

Umm, a peice of debris?

Other than that debris the only other ships (not that debris is a ship) are the azriel, an orion, an elysium, a medusa and 2 ulysees.

[NGTM-1R]

There are some Apollos that fly by; the Ulysess and the Medusa haven't been introduced to the player at that point in the game. Seems kinda odd the debris would just choose to pop off at that moment, especially since they seemed to have moved the ship to there; there's a bit of an Orion in the lower left corner, and I don't imagine they sent the destroyer to the site.

[FireCrack]

Watch it again, i watched the first part atleast 30 times so far. At the start coming from directly aboe the screen is a medusa wich turns left and forms up with 2 Ulysees' an orion turns during the animation so at the start you see a bit in the bottom left, and at the end see a bit in the bottom right. The debris does not pop off at that moment, it is flying by the ship. There is no evidence to suggest it even came from the ship.

There are no apollos whatsoever in that scene.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by ngtm1r

Also, noting the Vasudan battle gear seen in FS1, I suspect they actually had better, more advanced technology for their ground troops: the Vasudans appear to wear a form of powered armor. It has power cables sticking out, so... It also appears to cover more of the body and be somewhat thicker then the Terran armor. This might also mean that Vasudan boarding teams (I think there's an Isis transport stuck on the front end of the Azreal you seen in the opening shot of Hallfight, but the picture is too dark to be sure.) would have done considerably better then the hapless Terran squad we saw in Hallfight.
 

Vasudan weapons tech isn't as good as Terran, though - says so in the FSRefBible IIRC.

[FireCrack]

Hence why the vasudans only had terran turrets (wtf?) and no terran huge turrets.

[willy_principal]

hey....i just noticed that in FS2...everyone are using terran missiles......even the shivans!!! WTF?...why are there any vasudan design missile...or something,,,
also, there are no "vasudan turrets" just terran turrets...

[Charismatic]

Interesting. But there are shivan weapons that they use and we dont. Some red lazers, not sure on the name, but they use it and we dont. If you play single with cheets you can find it.
Thats a really good catch Firecrack and Willy.

[Akalabeth Angel]

That's something I never particularly liked about FS1&2, is that except for primary weapons, each race used the same weaponry. Like Shivans using Terran missiles, or Vasudans using terran turrets + so forth. I believe they're supposed to just be the equivelant . . . like the Terrans have the basic anti-ship turret and the vasudans have one too which is different, but is more/less the same.

   That's one thing good about Inferno, each group has different weapons.

[Charismatic]

Maby il try Inferno some time.

[NGTM-1R]

The debris either emerged from behind the ship or was on the front; it wasn't in front of it.

Aldo: Perhaps, but since FS is concerned with space-based weapons only...perhaps the Vasudans fare poorly in space but do much better on the ground? That would explain the use of Harbingers rather then invading and doing ground fighting. FS1-era ships can't conduct orbital bombardment.

[TrashMan]

Originally posted by aldo_14


I'm not aware of any FS1 animation that shows the Ursa even flying, let alone in atmosphere.

EDIT; cb_fury has a small inlay animation of an Ursa firing missiles, but it's clearly against a nebula background.

Really? It looks liek surface to me....

[Flaser]

Hmm...

Shields are probably unusable by troopers, reasons:

They are subspace based, probably a different application of a subspace drive. As far as we know that's still a huge thing - not something a human can haul around.
They would also need a reactor of similar potential to power the thing.

Some battletanks and bombers (airplanes) couls use them though, especially since the presnesce of a strong gravity field makes it easier to acces subspace.

Plasma weaponry is stupid - use flamethrowers they're the same. The only true application in Freespace is beams - they take the plasma directly out of the ship's reactor and then accelerate it in a particle accelerator. Proof "commnad we've initiated plasma core insertion".

....however said application could be more accuratly called a particle weapon then. They use protons and neutrons - neutral plasma - and accelerate them.

....now I hope you don't expect the happles marine to haul around a  particle accelerator and a reactor? In atmosphere they are even more useless than in space.

Laser weaponry is also pretty useless since it wastes most of its energy ionising the atmosphere. However this effect can make for a good shockgun - ionize the air and use it as a conduct.
This would be short range and it would take at least a tank to haul around the reactor or the gamma-isotope source to power the thing.

Powered armor is probably possible with small-scale gamma-isotope sources + MHD generator or a pure high powered beta-isotope source.

Railguns are also possible using strong-beta sources, but they are relativly slow - subsonic as in hallfight or a couple of thousand of kmph. The isotope source is probably integrated into the clip.

....railguns do make muzzle flash - though you use an electro magnetic field to accelerat the projectile it still travels in a barrel, at these speeds the shell of the projectile will vaporise and ionize resulting in a plasma coating.

Of course you can use convetional barreless railguns, but they will be bigger.

The reason why the plasma coating is desired is cause it reduces friction in the air and stabilizes the projectile.

....and I have to agree that on most colonies only a couple of millions of people live.

....especially since the TV-War was the greatest masacre we can imagine. They used orbital thermo-nuclear weapons for heaven's sake! Can you go any further?

[NGTM-1R]

Originally posted by Flaser
....railguns do make muzzle flash - though you use an electro magnetic field to accelerat the projectile it still travels in a barrel, at these speeds the shell of the projectile will vaporise and ionize resulting in a plasma coating.

Not at subsonic velocities like in Hallfight it won't.

[willy_principal]

What?!?!!?...
Thermo Nuclear bombs launched from space...where did you read that?

That's what i call, a MASSACRE!!!

a dozen of them could easily render a planet useless...
(except if those where the new 'clean' bombs....fission-fussion, 95% less radiation than normal fission-only nuclear bombs )