Hard Light Productions Forums

General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: an0n on November 17, 2004, 08:27:34 am

Title: Quick Question
Post by: an0n on November 17, 2004, 08:27:34 am
What was the date of the destruction of the Lucifer?
Title: Quick Question
Post by: aldo_14 on November 17, 2004, 08:36:35 am
March 29 2335
( http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/fsdoc/index.php?pagename=The%20Great%20War  )
Title: Quick Question
Post by: an0n on November 17, 2004, 08:42:47 am
So the Great War lasted all of 3 months?
Title: Quick Question
Post by: aldo_14 on November 17, 2004, 08:44:01 am
Yup.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Flaser on November 17, 2004, 09:09:51 am
Plus 14 years...though the later is also refered to as the T-V War.

Simply put the arrival of the Shivans spelled the end of the Great War between the two empires.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: aldo_14 on November 17, 2004, 09:25:02 am
The Great War is the war to survive the Shivans.  The TV war is known as both that and the 14-year-war.  Although longer, neither side faced total annihilation from the other side during the TV war; hence it is not included as part of the Great War.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Fergus on November 17, 2004, 10:13:21 am
So it was all over before Christmas?
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Liberator on November 17, 2004, 10:27:33 am
Why are you surprised?  The Second Incursion lasted even less time.

We are less of a thorn in their side than a bug on their windshield.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Taristin on November 17, 2004, 10:49:16 am
Amazing what can be done when people (and Vasudans) work together, eh?
Title: Quick Question
Post by: aldo_14 on November 17, 2004, 11:15:40 am
'cept the Vasudans got nuked first time round.....
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Taristin on November 17, 2004, 02:22:34 pm
That's because the Terrans f*cked us over.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Roanoke on November 17, 2004, 03:45:06 pm
you deserved it.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Carl on November 17, 2004, 03:56:00 pm
and it wasn't that great of a place to begin with.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Eishtmo on November 17, 2004, 07:26:31 pm
Quote
Originally posted by an0n
So the Great War lasted all of 3 months?


FS1 lasted 3 months, the war itself was probably a bit longer.  It was still going on after the Lucifer was destroyed, and especially during Silent Threat.  It is likely, however, that the war was over before the end of the year.

Quote
Originally posted by Liberator
The Second Incursion lasted even less time.


At a minimum, all of FS2 could be fit into about 2 weeks if you go by the cycles of the clocks.  That said, it likely took at least as long as FS1, so about 75 days or so (FS1 starts Jan 15th).  Makes all the changes in squads just insane though, the amount of paperwork to transfer Alpha One must have been nuts.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Liberator on November 17, 2004, 07:33:36 pm
It's Alpha 1 though, besides beauracracies loves the paperworks!:D
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Kosh on November 17, 2004, 07:42:08 pm
Quote
FS1 lasted 3 months, the war itself was probably a bit longer. It was still going on after the Lucifer was destroyed, and especially during Silent Threat. It is likely, however, that the war was over before the end of the year.



Wow, that was pretty quick. Why was it so short?
Title: Quick Question
Post by: karajorma on November 18, 2004, 08:15:32 am
Cause with subsystem nodes interstellar battles don't have to be as slow as in other Sci-fi shows. In fact I'd probably say that 3 months was too long. The Lucifer could have rampaged its way through the entire terran fleet in about a week.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Taristin on November 18, 2004, 12:36:25 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Roanoke
you deserved it.


Screw you :p

Quote
Originally posted by Carl
and it wasn't that great of a place to begin with.


Bah, like you ugly bugs don't have a sentimental home somewhere...
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Marauder on November 18, 2004, 01:51:09 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Raa


Screw you :p



Bah, like you ugly bugs don't have a sentimental home somewhere...


:lol:
Title: Quick Question
Post by: TrashMan on November 18, 2004, 04:52:23 pm
Looks like the Alliance is about to break.:D
I better get my Vasudan pacifier and the Terran Tranqulator.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: Eishtmo on November 18, 2004, 07:33:21 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Kosh
Wow, that was pretty quick. Why was it so short?


Probably due to the nature of the war the Shivans were fighting.  They sweep in, destroy anything that flies, move on to the next target.  They weren't trying to take planets (until later at least) or any other major resource points, just kill every ship they come across.  The Lucifer then entered and went straight for Vasuda, a kind of cut off the head maneuver, then for Earth for the same reason.  Very rapid, very devestating.  

The fact that the Terrans and Vasudans managed to stop fighting each other, upgrade their tech, and find a way to stop the Lucifer in such a short amount of time is pretty amazing though.  Gotta give them the credit.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: TopAce on November 19, 2004, 09:01:37 am
I only thing I am against is that there are too many new technologies in such a short amount of time.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: aldo_14 on November 19, 2004, 09:18:27 am
Quote
Originally posted by TopAce
I only thing I am against is that there are too many new technologies in such a short amount of time.


Not too surprising IMO; there's already the arms race of the 14 year war, the sudden co-operation of the 2 species (and this includes scientific co-operation as in the shield development cutscene), and also what they were able to learn from the Shivans.  Also a lot of the tech was in-development; deflector shielding was being tested in Ross 128 (IIRC from the MX-50 tech description), fighter-based jump drives would be a key target technology for the TV war (help break down blockades - may also have been detailed in the ancient ruins), and much of the weaponry probably isn't so much 'new' as made newly available.

The main problem could be the quickness of manufacturing these technologies; especially the likes of the Ulysses.  But, then again, Sol is an indistrial super-hub.

'sides which, it was a gameplay necessity.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: TopAce on November 19, 2004, 09:33:22 am
Look at what technology the GTA and the PVN had BEFORE the Shivans' appearance and the end of the Great War. This is simply unrealistic, the co-operation could be any strong, this is simply impossible to produce and develop so quickly.
Title: Quick Question
Post by: aldo_14 on November 19, 2004, 09:42:26 am
Quote
Originally posted by TopAce
Look at what technology the GTA and the PVN had BEFORE the Shivans' appearance and the end of the Great War. This is simply unrealistic, the co-operation could be any strong, this is simply impossible to produce and develop so quickly.


No it's not.  The Terrans and Vasudans could have have seperate pieces of the same jigsaw, given that the 2 key developments; shields and fighter-based drives; would have been war-winning developments in the TV War.

Also, production is entirely possible.   Earth is an industrial super hub (ut's in the ref bible, BTW) - it could easily have a massive manufacturing capability, never mind what the Vasudans had.  The TV-War would require a constant stream of ships anyway (war of attrition), so the bulk of the Terran and Vasudan empires would be set up to manufacture at this level.

You're assuming that development was taking place using 'traditional' methods, too; who's to say there wasn't a super-AI (or even just an advanced expert system) which was tasked with developing new technologies?  Not to mention advances in simulation technology, of course.

It's an entirely plausible situation that the GTVA (as it became) was able to design and develop significant amounts of new technology during the Great War.  It;s equally as plausible that the financial and material strain of this caused the post-War deconstruction and eventually the formation of the GTVA proper.