[Dragon]

Good Point. Though when I first saw it I thought those two auxiliary bays on either side of the main one were stupidly huge railguns.

Funny thing you noticed that, since they were supposed to be giant cannons on the original design, but they got changed into fighterbays in the BP version.
IIRC, Earth Defense is using another variant, upside-down and with cannons operational.

[General Battuta]

Spinal cannons on destroyers are really annoying because it is much harder to get destroyers to simultaneously do all three of the following when compared to corvettes:

1) point at targets in a smooth, not-stupid-looking fashion
2) follow waypoint paths
3) exhibit tactics that are not 'jump in and fly directly at the target'

[PsychoLandlord]

IIRC, Earth Defense is using another variant, upside-down and with cannons operational.

Big Guns = Awesome.

Upside Down = 

And if the cannons remain railgun style and use solid rounds, and assuming said rounds are roughly the size of the barrel, Ammo Logistics = 

[Dragon]

I don't know what ED mounted there, but they might as well be plasma cannons. Also, keep in mind that FS doesn't really care about ammo logistics on big ships.
As for being upside down, it's the Solaris that's been flipped (I prefered the original position, but I was outvoted).

[NGTM-1R]

Upside Down = 

IIRC it's BP's Solaris that is actually upside down; they thought the model looked better inverted. I am not inclined to disagree.

[General Battuta]

The idea with the inversion was to have a big manly jutting chin instead of a Pinocchio nose.

[Rodo]

a good call.

[Snail]

Just about the Uriel's size, yes it's big and blocky but it's absolutely not defenseless. That turret is the most infuriatingly annoying thing to get shot with during a dogfight.

[General Battuta]

Yeah the Uriel is actually really ****ing annoying to dogfight against. Jesus, that turret.

[Mars]

Just about the Uriel's size, yes it's big and blocky but it's absolutely not defenseless. That turret is the most infuriatingly annoying thing to get shot with during a dogfight.

Yeah, it's pretty damn hard - maneuverable enough to keep the turret on you pretty effectively as well.

[Jellyfish]

Spinal cannons on destroyers are really annoying because it is much harder to get destroyers to simultaneously do all three of the following when compared to corvettes:

1) point at targets in a smooth, not-stupid-looking fashion
2) follow waypoint paths
3) exhibit tactics that are not 'jump in and fly directly at the target'

I say it's much better than mounting everything on the sides and going back to the Age of Sail tactic of doing the T

[General Battuta]

Spinal cannons on destroyers are really annoying because it is much harder to get destroyers to simultaneously do all three of the following when compared to corvettes:

1) point at targets in a smooth, not-stupid-looking fashion
2) follow waypoint paths
3) exhibit tactics that are not 'jump in and fly directly at the target'

I say it's much better than mounting everything on the sides and going back to the Age of Sail tactic of doing the T

Age of Sail tactics are much easier to FRED, though.

[Buckshee Rounds]

The difference in size between UEF frigates and GTVA destroyers makes a lot of sense to me. The GTVA needs a vessel which can operate as a de-facto headquarters. When sent into a far-away system it doubles as a base of operations, when there's no Arcadia station nearby. It probably houses a lot of crew and various stations and may have even served as a semi-logistical vessel for it's escorts during the second Shivan war, until later the dedicated logistical vessels of the 2380's were put into production. The UEF however only had to deal with handling problems within one solar system, where a few jumps brings you right back home (an emergency jump sent the Indus from Neptune all the way to Sol, the sun). Those frigates thus needed no great amount of crew or stations to operate and in turn were designed to be more maneuverable (and more importantly, to be less expansive on resources!). So in that context, it makes sense as well that the Solaris-class destroyer was a blasphemy. There was absolutely no need for such a large vessel in the eyes of the people and military experts, unless like the Ubuntu council you have the knowledge that such ships would in the long run become necessary for the problems which were to come. You don't give the lone sheriff of a calm backwater town a battle-tank to do his patrols with, unless you have intel that the town is in imminent, hidden danger.

Aside from the hidden motives of Byrne/the Elders I'm sure the Buntu PR machine would have passed it off as an anti-Shivan asset, in the unlikely event they would ever make it into Sol. Key word being unlikely...

[Mars]

Destroyers and common escorts. The Solaris is apparently about a Karuna longer than the Orion.

There's a definite size progression by time as well -  all three of the newer destroyers are significantly bigger than the Orion or Hecate.

[Buckshee Rounds]

Stick the Solaris next to the Hades for comparison. If it had an uber weapon it'd easily be a super destroyer.

[Hades]

 

[Snail]

The Hades looks cool.

[Mars]

I'm quite excited about the updated Narayana and Karuna.

[Hades]

The new texture job isn't far off, the new model I'll be doing will be.

[Mars]

I just wish Stratcomm's ships didn't look so dated - I tried to fix up the Bellerophon, but I fail at texturing and modeling XD