[mosshadow]

Replaying the freespace 2 campaign for the second time. So I just wondering from a tactical/lore perspective why is it that the GTVA doesn't do much to blockade or fortify jumpoints and to hold their territory ? For example a few missions ago was where I played a bomber destroying NTF ships trying to reach the nebula there were only a few capitals helping out. Consider how slowly ships move in Freespace why didn't they place something infront of the portal or any of the other jumppoints? For example Mines, an armed space station or maybe a old or damaged ship with all the useful bits ripped out would have slowed anyone down. In addition why is there no one on the other side of the portal to intercept the ships that get through, especially when the Sathanas comes. While the GTVA high command probably wanted Bosch to escape (Convenient colossus sabotage), a few ships behind the Knossos portal could have heavily damaged the Sathanas with beams and bombers(Well technically the bombers would be too slow , but the beams will still work) and then jumpout before it turns around.

[Cyborg17]

1. Rule of cool.  Would it be cool to have it that way?
2. Game creators thinking about the way the world works in a game too much can ruin the fun for players and distract them from other pursuits.
3. The story is served by the simplicity of what happens in the game.

[NGTM-1R]

Remember that by the end of the game the GTVA had a weapon capable of dealing with such blockades: the Meson Bomb. People tend to know of such things a few years in advance and consider how to cope with them; maybe the Meson Bomb's not ready, but an Orion packed full of bombs is and will do just as well.

[Lorric]

1. Rule of cool.  Would it be cool to have it that way?
2. Game creators thinking about the way the world works in a game too much can ruin the fun for players and distract them from other pursuits.
3. The story is served by the simplicity of what happens in the game.

4. They don't need a blockade when they have the overwhelming power and destruction of the larger than life living legend that is Alpha 1.

[headdie]

Kings gambit is a bit of a strange situation.

Firstly the blockaded node is in a system which is historically safe and unimportant, until FS2 it is a dead end system on the node tree which also has no worth.  So no reason to build defenses in the system.
Secondly when there is a need to blockade the node the first line forces are either pursuing the NTF because they were combating them or deployed in the nebula keeping shivans busy meaning first line assets are few and far between

so the defense at gamma draconis is a little makeshift to say the least

[karajorma]

The Sathanas decimated our fleet at the Capella node.

Sounds like they did have a blockade and it didn't do them any good. I suspect the GTVA didn't have any ships on the other side because they put them all on the Gamma Draconis side instead. Can't say I really blame them either.

[Phantom Hoover]

Battuta's solution for this problem in BP was to say that the jump nodes move about too unpredictably to park an asteroid or a minefield in front of them.

[mosshadow]

The Sathanas decimated our fleet at the Capella node.

Sounds like they did have a blockade and it didn't do them any good. I suspect the GTVA didn't have any ships on the other side because they put them all on the Gamma Draconis side instead. Can't say I really blame them either.

Doesnt that still trigger even if you completely disable the Sathana's main guns? The sathanas could still have been killed though if they had bothered to attack it with more than one ship at a time.

[karajorma]

That one is in the briefing for Bearbaiting actually, so it's before the guns can be disabled.