Originally posted by Pnakotus
Actually, the smaller ships will have MASSIVELY MORE hitpoints than single large ship, since Deimos has a ridiculously high amount of hp.
But individually they will be weaker, so a large capship like a Ravana, or even a Sath, can concentrate its fire on a single one. Divide & conquer, after all; whilst a group has the advantage of being able to maneuver and flank, they are individually weaker and susciptible to problems if a single ship is disabled, disarmed or simply unable to communicate and co-ordinate.
Originally posted by Pnakotus
[BHowever, I at no point suggest a lack of fighters. I simply point out that destroyers are a total waste of time and are far to easily destroyed. If you lose a GTD, you lose it all; if you lose a Cv, who cares, you've got more. Who CARES what the chances of losing a single element of the fleet is; the point is that if you had one ship it'd ALL be gone, but with a diverse fleet, you've still got 80% left. The current CV + fighters fleet is utterly unrealistic, and you should know that since you're talking about realistic carrier battlegroups. [/B]
You can't fight the Shivans in a war of attrition;and you don't have an infinite amount of corvettes, or an infinite amount of repair & resupply depots for them either.
Yes, if you had 1 ship losing it would be a bigger loss than part of a corvette battlegroup; but you'd be operating at a reduced risk of losing that ship, because it is individually stronger (ignoring the relative fighter complements that a destroyer has and a light carrier might have).
And destroyers don't necesarrily operate at the front lines in FS anyways; they're carriers, they provide fighter coverage for a wide region. When I'm talking about realistic carrier battlegroups, I'm talking about a carrier relying upon other ships for ship-to-ship combat, and using its fighters and bombers for support of the fleet and its own defense; that's exactly how I think it works in FS2.
Originally posted by Pnakotus
[B I guess the USN doesn't know as much about building a single huge ship instead of a fleet as you, eh?[/B]
I was thinking of the aircraft carriers' role in the Falklands War, primarily; the Harriers air superiority was key in that operation, and the defense against Argentine exocets was key.
You may note i never suggested removing small ship classes, but simply
not removing destroyers.
Originally posted by Pnakotus
[BI wasn't aware that flakkers were ammo based, or that trebs don't get intercepted. I know Stilletos do; are you sure trebs don't?
[/B]
I'm
assuming[/b] flak is ammo-based because it looks like some form of fired explosive charge; there's a precedent for this in capships use of missiles.
Not all trebs would be intercepted; and you could use maxims to disarm a ship if push came to shove - flak simply isn't that useful. I think you'd need the less powerful long range flak
Originally posted by Pnakotus
[BThe 'huge bomb' in FS has done to FS fleets what aircraft did to REAL fleets; they've made single huge warships an enourmous liability. The USN can afford to defend a supercarrier with a fleet larger than most other countries navies, because that's what they need to protect their investment. With subspace the carrier can be kept away from the scene of the battle.[/B]
A destroyer
is a carrier. It's just a carrier which is equipped to fight as well, because space is a more mobile battlefield. IIRC, it's very rare a (Terran) destroyer will voluntarily go into combat in FS2.
Originally posted by Pnakotus
[BAgain, however, you've totally ignored the point that I was suggesting an improvement in the GTVAs derisory vs cap abilities. You can't say an Aoulus near a capital ship doesn't expand its survivability vs bombers and distract the enemy. [/B]
No, but that applies to any ship posing a distraction anyways; transports, cruisers, corvettes, fighters, etc. I don't think that replacing capital ships with small fleets of specialised vessels will offer any actual improvement to the effectiveness of an entire fleet; for all the Hecates physical weaknesses, think of how many ships its fighter & bomber wings took out on the other side, and protected on the GTVA side.