Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Hollewanderer on August 24, 2004, 04:41:41 pm
-
Let's give you a possible situation here - I am curious just how it will be resolved:
Assume that one person wants to ask a small, simple story-based FS question to :V:. Who should he contact? And how? [because :V: website is a little out of date and the "webmaster" is very vague in it's meaning] How should he word his e-mail? Will :V: even reply to such question?
Yes, I have a small question to Volition, and want to ask it. However, I want to know how should I do it and is there even a point. [it would be my first e-mail to any company at all, so I am a bit cautious about it]
-
I would really doubt V would answer any storyline question that hasn't already been asked.... and if they have answered it, it's likely that one of the oldies from the days of the VBB would have seen it asked before and would know any answer given (if any) by V
-
Ok, then I ask the question here in the faint hope that I will get my answer:
Was Lucifer's shield really invincible, or could it be breached by enough firepower or beams [as beams apparently can penetrate fighter shields]?
It just irritates me, in both general FS and campaign discussion, as no answer seems to be present, and it is really something very, very simple to answer.
-
I'd say
1) No shield is invincible, but the Lucifer's was pretty much invincible in FS1 - didn't it destroy something like five destroyers at Tombaugh?
2) Yes, or else the GTVA would've invested in fast subspace-attack ships instead of the Colossus.
But really I think that :V: left it open-ended on purpose, so they wouldn't restrict their storyline possibilities.
-
The Lucifer's shields can be breached by beams as it is refered to in FS2's Colossus cutscene
If the Colossus was designed to obliderate the Lucifer then it is supposed to breach it's shields.
-
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
The GTVA probably made technological advances which led to the development of Lucifer-damaging weapons..... at the time of the Great War, no GTVA weapon could pierce the shields. After the Great War...who can say?
-
I believe the basic answer from the Volition people after FS1's release was that the GTA just never had the firepower available to sufficiently impact on the Lucifers shield enough to make it go down.
No ship is invincible. It has the appearance of being invincible but it is truly not.
Indeed the Colossus was designed to be so much bigger and more powerful than the Lucifer. The GTVA no doubt took into account the kind of protection afforded by the Lucifer and ensured that their firepower was enough to match.
You can also see how five destroyers would have crumbled at Tombaugh. Without heavy armament, they had less offensive firepower than their bomber squadrons and the bombers were either wiped out by fighters or never had a chance to inflict enough damage at one time to disrupt the shield in any meaningful way.
-
Well, thanks for the replies.:)
-
also, in the tech description for the banshee, it says it can penetrate any known shielding system.
-
Adding to what Icefire said, there is no way that the bombers in FS1 could have even dented the Lucifer's shields, no matter what the circumstances. The shockwaves (by FS canon) wash over them almost harmlessly. And since bombs were the only way to do significant damage to a destroyer-sized vessel, the GTA/PVN were essentially helpless.
-
The thing is, the GTVA can only guess that the Colossus beams would be able to defeat the Lucifer's shielding... The only remains, if any, of that ship were in Sol, after all.
-
Actually, FS gameplay is downgraded for playability in this case - both Harbinger and Tsunami are stated to be able to destroy fighters in proximity of the explosion. [shielded ones, obviously] Intensity is important, too - Lucifer is hit with as much energy as any other destroyer, while a fighter is hit with only a fraction of energy [still enough to kill it in many cases].
-
Originally posted by Styxx
The thing is, the GTVA can only guess that the Colossus beams would be able to defeat the Lucifer's shielding... The only remains, if any, of that ship were in Sol, after all.
Unless they had intel from the Ancients dig site in Altair(?). After all, if the ancients discovered the Lucifer shields would not work in subspace, they had to have some sort of understanding of the technology.
-
there's also the scans from playing judas. unless I'm completely mistaken?
-
Originally posted by Hollewanderer
Actually, FS gameplay is downgraded for playability in this case - both Harbinger and Tsunami are stated to be able to destroy fighters in proximity of the explosion. [shielded ones, obviously] Intensity is important, too - Lucifer is hit with as much energy as any other destroyer, while a fighter is hit with only a fraction of energy [still enough to kill it in many cases].
Except that neither of those munitions were developed in an environment in which shielding tech was available to anyone. They killed fighters precisely because they weren't shielded.
-
Originally posted by Carl
also, in the tech description for the banshee, it says it can penetrate any known shielding system.
That doesn't add up, if that was true then the GTA would just send in loads of fighters with banshee, which would have temporarily broken the shield, then send in hundreds of bombers to take it down.
-
known shielding system.
The Lucifer shield tech was unknown.
-
bomb/missile shockwaves can, and do damage shields in fs2 -- sometimes enough to destroy the fighter, or damage it significantly
-
Originally posted by StratComm
Except that neither of those munitions were developed in an environment in which shielding tech was available to anyone. They killed fighters precisely because they weren't shielded.
No, Harbinger [and maybe Tsunami too, I do not remember] appeared in FS1 campaign along with their tech entries after the shield technology. And yet they were stated to be able to destroy fighters in proximity of the explosions. [not only those hit by the bombs, as those are sure kills] Unshielded fighters can be taken out by wings with a single, well-placed bomb.
-
Actually if you think about the timing they were developed without shields. Harbringers were planetary bombardment weapons, so they'd been around before the Shivans showed up, and the Tsunami's came online shortly after shielding was deployed in its prototype stages (indicating significant R&D time in the no-shields era). It doesn't matter much, but when they appeared in the campaign and when they were developed don't necessarily coincide. The shockwave damage is not nearly as strong as the explosion of the bomb against a hull, and shields do a fairly good job of holding it out. I know it does some damage, just not nearly as much as it would without shields.
-
However, the tech descriptions appeared after the shield development - and so shielded fighters and the threat that bombs pose to them would be included in them.
As I said, it is mostly a matter of game balance and intensity - there is nothing special about bombs that differs them from missles, they are just big, BIG explosives, and blowing up when a bomb explodes thirty meters away would suck.
-
The bombs wreak havok on the hulls of destroyers because that's what they do. However, I'd guess that they weren't strong enough to punch a hole through the Lucy's massive shields in any one spot, and if they were, well, the GTA / PVN fighters probably wouldn't have had a chance to get close enough or organised enough to launch a concentrated enugh assault.