[Andreas]

Post-Capella, shouldn't the GTVA replace their destroyed Colossus ( ) with a sort of an inter-rim design, the GTD Hades. An excellent compromise between firepower and...um, firepower? After all, they must cost a lot less than a Colossus (obviously), and not much more then a Hecate or two, not to mention how much more effective a Hades is then a Hecate. And the GTVA's aging Orions must be replaced in near future. Your opinions?

[Taristin]

They need to steal more Shivan technology to make another hades.

[pecenipicek]

how did they make teh original one?

[Andreas]

Not necessarily. After all, with 30 years of technological advances, you would believe the GTVA could churn out another Hades.

[Andreas]

Originally posted by pecenipicek
how did they make teh original one?

For the sake of national security, that information is classified at the highest level.

[MatthewPapa]

Too bad the GTI had to go bad.... The GTVA could have really learned a lot from the GTI.

[Knight Templar]

... why... would they make another one? The Hades was supposed to be a super-weapon of doom.

[Andreas]

Umm...against the Shivans, maybe?

[chris_2xtreme]

I don't think rebuilding the military is pretty high on their list at that point in time, quite frankly the GTVA may be pretty much bankrupt from relief for the Capellan refugees the cost of the colossus and the Knossos gate to Sol

Funds and Acquiring enough Shivan technology will be the main problems.

[Eishtmo]

Being bankrupt never stopped nations from building massive militaries before.

With a renewed Shivan threat, and a greater one at that, shoveling another trillion dollars (or whatever) into a new class of ships is not out of the question.  What kind of ship, however, is the question.

Probably an improved version of the Colossus, as well as a general upgrade to the fleet (especially new weapons).  After that, who knows?

[NGTM-1R]

My personal guess is that the GTVA will happily pour money into their military...because that will help the economy via military contracts.

On the other hand, following experiences in the Nebular Campaign and the Battle of Capella, I think the Hecate-class is going to be one of those "This didn't work the way it was supposed to" things. It fends off multiple wings of hostile fightercraft pretty well, but the Hecate lacks the beam firepower to deal with corvette-sized targets (nevermind destroyers) quickly and decisively.

Either they'll turn to a new destroyer design, or they'll upgrade the Orion. I favor the second option at least for the first decade or two. The Orion is already pretty tough; replace the armor with collapsed-core molybendum, tinker with the turret armament, possibly add two or three more small turrets, and you have yourself a pretty good destroyer.

The Hades...the GTVA does have a copy of the technical specifications, minus the sheathe-shielding data, lying around somewhere. (Reference the last Silent Threat CB ani.) They might go for a slightly re-designed version of the Hades that uses mostly or wholly Terran technology. The basic design is certainly sound and can be copied with current GTVA technology.

On the other hand, I think the GTVA will also make an effort to copy the Iceni, which makes a nice substitute for a destroyer if you're not worried about carrying fighters.

[Unknown Target]

The GTVA built the Iceni...it's mentioned somewhere that the Iceni was stolen from the Polaris shipyards or something.

[NGTM-1R]

It was built there by Bosch.

Of course, I have my theory that the Iceni (based on its decidely FS1 anti-fighter armament) was actually a discarded design idea from the Great War.

[IceFire]

I'd figure they wouldn't revive the Hades but they may draw a few technical inspirations from it.

The Hades as a design sort of sucks when you compair it to the Orion.  Sure its bigger and meaner but its got of dead areas and weak spots.  Less coverage of beam cannons too.  Even the Hecate has some better elements.

I figure the Hecate was never designed to be the upfront battleship the Orions turned into.  I wonder if they (in-game theoretically) spent more time making it the information/fighter/bomber hub of the fleet with the corvettes duking it out.  The Hecat IS supposed to have a much larger fighter/bomber group...and fighters and bombers did determine most of The Great War battles.

[aldo_14]

Hmmm.....

methinks the thing they'd want from the Hades would be super-lasers.

[Andreas]

Hades has a lot of blind spots on it's beam cannon coverage, but if you add a couple of beams into right places, it can take out a Demon and a Ravana quite easily without fighters or bombers (that is, if no enemy fighters/bombers are present either). And they carry a LOT of fighters (according to ST, they propably have an assembly line on that ship ).

I never really understood the purpose of Hecates. If these ships are/were supposed to replace the Orions, then GTVA is/would have been royally screwed. You don't never see Hecates duking it out with...um about anything. Sure it might have more fighters then an Orion, but dear god, help if even a corvette engages it... Besides the Hecates are rather ugly. And propably made in Vasuda

[FireCrack]

After the great war it was a time of experimentation with new technologies, many things came and went. Looks like the hecate was the latter.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Ai No Koriida
Hades has a lot of blind spots on it's beam cannon coverage, but if you add a couple of beams into right places, it can take out a Demon and a Ravana quite easily without fighters or bombers (that is, if no enemy fighters/bombers are present either). And they carry a LOT of fighters (according to ST, they propably have an assembly line on that ship ).

If you could add beams into those places, then they already would have

Originally posted by Ai No Koriida
I never really understood the purpose of Hecates. If these ships are/were supposed to replace the Orions, then GTVA is/would have been royally screwed. You don't never see Hecates duking it out with...um about anything. Sure it might have more fighters then an Orion, but dear god, help if even a corvette engages it... Besides the Hecates are rather ugly. And propably made in Vasuda

I agree with Icefire; I think the Hecate is a carrier and rear-of-line C&C rather than a ship-to-ship fighter.  The Deimos - or rather strike groups of them - is probably aimed at harrying enemy capships along with bomber and fighter cover from said Hecate.

Offhand, how many missions were there with the Aquitane alongside the player?  And how many of those were intentional?  (i.e. not protecting a retreat or whatnot where the Aq. didn't have a choice whether to fight or not)

My objection to the Hecate simply rests on its hiedous ugliness.......

[chris_2xtreme]

Hecate's are rubbish at Anti-Capship attacks, play the mission when the Pegasus fighter is being tested when that Moloch jumps in Aquatine barely does any damage to it. slash beams were a rubbish idea (they have Stilettos). They should learn from the Shivans and use BGreens and SGreens more often.

Hades class ships would be rare there would probably like the Shadow Enhanced Omegas from B5

[Pnakotus]

Given the abject failure of the 'destroyer' concept since the development of uber-bombs and bombers, I agree with those who suggest a division between powerful combatants like the Cvs and escort carriers that stay at a distance and sub in fighters.  The Deimos has (ridiculously) 80% the hp of destroyer-class vessels, so they are a complete waste of time, money and lives.  Hecate is just too awful for words.

They need to move towards a less-complex design, like the famously successful 'flattened arrowhead' layout, to increase weapon flexibility, and create a class of smaller-than-cruiser ships for picket work with flak and AAA beams.  Convert an Ursa to have a flak turret, perhaps?  Strip off the bombs for more speed, and it'd make an excellent augment to a capships defence vs bombs.

Everyone SHOULD have learnt from horrible designs like Colin.  A fleet of 3-4 Cvs protected by several 'gunships' for point defence would last much longer in combat vs both bombs and beams, and still have less than the volume of a single destroyer.