[Kosh]

From what I recall of the Darkest Hour in my last play through a while back, the Valerie came fairly close to destroying the Indus despite having no support and being pounded by UEF fighters. That makes me wonder, if it was just one on one, can a Diomedes match a Karuna?

[KyadCK]

From what I recall of the Darkest Hour in my last play through a while back, the Valerie came fairly close to destroying the Indus despite having no support and being pounded by UEF fighters. That makes me wonder, if it was just one on one, can a Diomedes match a Karuna?

We've tested this in BPmulti, if the Diomedes can bring all 4 beams to bear (flying under the Karuna), then the karuna can't even put up a fight. If it gets even 2 beams, the Dio will still win. Best bet to to drop it in reverse and let the gauss cannons do their job.

EDIT: I've even flown a Dio right between a Karuna and a Sanctus, it gutted them both in no time flat.

[bigchunk1]

It's a pretty interesting fight actually. I believe the Karuna has a bit of a range advantage on the Diomedes, and can use reverse thrust. The Diomedes has to go broadside to be the most effective and cannot close distance while running perpendicular to the Karuna's flight path. I've seen the fight go both ways.

[Fury]

IIRC Diomedes was pretty late addition to BP2 in its development stage, so it is entirely possible it packs a bit too much punch. Not saying it does or does not, only that it might have needed a bit more tweaking.

[KyadCK]

A Karuna can easily down a Dio if its flown right and plays the the Karuna's advantages (turn speed, narrow, gauss range, faster, etc), its just if you do get in a broad side, or worse, fly over the Dio, You're gone before you can realize your mistake.

[qwadtep]

It really comes down to placement, I think. The Karuna has the speed and range to dance just beyond the Dio's reach while pecking away with torpedoes but a close jump by the Dio will shred the Karuna in no time.

[MatthTheGeek]

I remember when I added a diomedes jumping between the Meridian and the two Karunas in Post Meridian coop. I had to add very strong guardianning logic to make sure the frigates would survive to jump out instead of getting gutted in literally a couple of seconds. Those things are scaring under the right circumstances. And this might be war, but with Steele, the right circumstances can become more likely than you'd think.

[LordPomposity]

I'm not sure if there's any basis for this, but it really seems like the TerSlashBlue spends a lot more time on target than the old green TerSlash does. Certainly contributes to the Diomedes being dangerous.

[crizza]

Would it work if the Dio makes a barrel roll?

[Aardwolf]

Does the campaign Karuna have reverse thrust, or is that just the playable one?

[The E]

It does not, due to the fact that gliding capships are something the AI doesn't really have a handle on.

[Mars]

Diomedes and Karunas are representitive of both factions capabilities. GTVA is close in, quickly deadly, and efficient, UEF is long ranged, disarms more than right out kills, and works close to home.

I'd be willing to bet that the Diomedes has more in terms of long-term endurance, fighter repair facilities, and subspace recharge time while the Karuna has a more powerful air wing, a faster real-space speed, and so on.

[Aardwolf]

It does not, due to the fact that gliding capships are something the AI doesn't really have a handle on.

Does that mean those abilities are canon?

[QuakeIV]

I'd been wondering about that.  If I recall, in Delenda Est a lot less frigates would have died if they used reverse thrust and fired as they retreated.  It seems like a major plot point was hung on bad AI.

[qwadtep]

The Titan's forward beams have better range than anything on a Karuna or Sanctus so reverse thrusting would have been pointless. Since the frigates presumably wouldn't have had enough time to charge their jump drives even if they tried to flee, the best option remaining would have been to try to punch through to the Imperieuse's broadside where they at least stood a chance.

And half the Wargods captains have death wishes and wanted to ram the thing so hey.

[LordPomposity]

The Titan's forward beams have better range than anything on a Karuna or Sanctus so reverse thrusting would have been pointless. Since the frigates presumably wouldn't have had enough time to charge their jump drives even if they tried to flee, the best option remaining would have been to try to punch through to the Imperieuse's broadside where they at least stood a chance.

And half the Wargods captains have death wishes and wanted to ram the thing so hey.

If they were going to try to ram anything, it should have been the Carthage. They were actually close enough for it to work for once.

I take the Katana's capabilities in TBI as non-canon, as:
1) The Katana jams slashing beams in TBI, which we're repeatedly told is impossible over the course of the campaign;
2) Aristeia, which occurs several weeks after the fall of Jupiter, is supposedly the first time the GTVA saw beam-jamming technology;
3) If the Katana can actually jam beams, Captain Gennady ends up looking pretty stupid when his ship gets skewered by the Imperieuse.
4) Ditto for not using afterburners when trying to charge across a ten-kilometer kill zone to ram the Imperieuse.

[-Norbert-]

Good points except for 2).
No GTVA ships warped out to report their findings and in the mission with the Presejet we learned that a Karuna can jam GTVA long range communication (and the Arcadia can probably too). So even if the GTVA got beam-jammed there the for the first time, with no survivers that information died with the present ships.
Serkr and the Hood on the other hand got out of there to tell the tale, which should catapult UEF AWACS right to the top of GTVA target priority lists in WiH2.

[MatthTheGeek]

There is something you're not taking into account : your jamming is only as good as the counter-jamming is bad. We know jamming can be forced through since the Hood will eventually LRBGreen the Sanctuses in Aristeia if you don't take out its frontal beam first.

Beam jamming isn't an all-powerful force. Just like communication jamming, it's electronic warfare, with similar rules on the field. The ships in TBI might have been surprised, the Imperieuse sure wasn't.

[crizza]

Guess the Feds should develop a jump inhibitor or something which prevents the Tevs for plotting escape jumps or not allowing them to jump in too close, so they could pick them of with Narayanas

[pecenipicek]

Guess the Feds should develop a jump inhibitor or something which prevents the Tevs for plotting escape jumps or not allowing them to jump in too close, so they could pick them of with Narayanas

the only way you can inhibit subspace jumps is by manipulating gravity if memory serves.