[Solatar]

Just curious, but what kind of technology do you think would be available to the Terrans and Vasudans had the Shivans not appeared? Would the Avenger have been completed and enabled the Terrans to completely own the Vasudans? Would the almost mythical Ross 128 deflector array have produced shielded ships for the GTA? Would we have unshielded Ursas flying around shooting off ML-16's? Would beams or flak cannons be around?

I'm still fooling around with some "what if the Shivans hadn't showed up" stuff - I know it's been done before, it's just for my own amusement though if I make anything nice I'll release it - and I kinda want to know the community's opinion on things before I go pulling stuff too much stuff out my nether regions (I call it...guided rectal extraction).

[Blitzerland]

The Avenger was in development before the Shivans turned up. It was upgraded to work better against shields because of them, though.

The GTA had an experimental sheilding system in Ross 128, if you check the Rockeye tech description.

It stands to reason they would eventually develop beam weapons, as well.

Flak guns were not developed because of Shivans or the alliance with the Vasudans, so they would be still be invented.

We wouldn't have the NTF, though. Terrans and Vasudans only allied for mutual protection against the Shivans. No Shivans, no alliance. No alliance, no NTF. Transitive rule of logic.

[Charismatic]

Originally posted by Solatar
Would the almost mythical Ross 128 deflector array have produced shielded ships for the GTA?

I have not herd of this before..
Interesting.

If the Shivans never came, the 14 year war would trun into the 50 year war, or a never ending war. (Point is: Long long lasting) We were developing new technology but of corce theirs spies, and then traitors, and then those who defect or steal prototypes.
Vasudans woulda came up with something to ballance out the war soon after we unleash terror on them. Come on, 14 years, and the same ballance of power withstood all 14 years of it.

[aldo_14]

Both species would have reached GTVA (i.e. FS2) tech levels about 20-30 years 'late', IMO; I think the alliances was critical in the speed of the advances (shield development, beams, etc; all might require the vasudans more efficient engineering skills - it's interesting to note a Vasudan scientist helped develop the shields system, I think this would imply they had a similar program going for that guy to be valuable).

[Solatar]

I'm also trying to take into account that a lot of technological advances that didn't come from the Shivans may have come from the reconstruction period (flak maybe?).

oh, and:

Suitable for all space battles - defensive and offensive - medium payload (16.5 Kt) - infrared tracking and semi-intelligent targeting - pilot chooses desired target, and the MX-50 tracks the chosen target based off the emission of heat from the - engine, the weapon bays, and the cockpit of the target ship - the MX-50 will always attack a target that is determined to be hostile by the onboard computer of any GTA combat vessel, thus ensuring a higher kill rate, should the pilot find himself in a heated battle situation where precise aiming might be difficult. Early experiments with energy based defenses like the deflector array at Ross 128 have shown that this weapon is exceedingly weak against anything besides steel based targets.

^That's the only mention of it that I know of, however.

[aldo_14]

Flak makes sense to me; it doesn't seem a particularly complex technology anyways.  

Shields are maybe a bit iffy; offhand they needed captured Shivan cargo to develop them, didn't they?  From a gameplay perspective, I think it's more fun without, though.

Beams.... I'm not sure.  They seem to me to be logically based on Shivan tech (not captured but observed).... I'd think any beams wouldn't be like FS2 beams, but maybe more like cutting lasers.

I would suggest, though, that sometimes gameplay>plausibility....

[Solatar]

Well, I doubt I'll put shields into the mix unless it's weak shields on special operations wings or something (If I wanted shielded combat, I'd play regular fs2).

Some sort of mining laser adapted to blow stuff up is plausible I think. I don't need them that much though.

[Charismatic]

Thanks btw.

[Hippo]

I just read that description for the first time earlier today, and wondered if that implied that ships were made of steel, contrary to other ideas we've come up with...

[Solatar]

Vasudan ships made out of steel as well?

[Hippo]

it would seem implied...

[FireCrack]

By the time the war reached 20 years both sides would have internaly collapsed.