[JoeLo]

The Promethus R claims to use the some of the Banshee's technology, so what I ask is why not just use a refurbrished Banshee? The refurbrished Promethus S worked fine.

[FireCrack]

Banshees probably need lotsa Argon or somthing.

[JoeLo]

Intresting point, but why not continue production of the Banshee after wards, I have fond memories of that gun.

[Trivial Psychic]

They had this little thing called an economic breakdown.  Add to that the loss of the large industrial cappacities of the Sol system and suddenly you're protecting the scattered remains of an alliance armed with just Avenger cannons.

BTW, where did it say that the PromR uses tech from the Banshee?

[JoeLo]

With the link to Earth severed, the GTVA has been unable to obtain sufficient quantities of Argon, a required element in the Prometheus's power generation module to continue to manufacture the standard Prometheus. GTVA engineers modified the original design to incorporate some of the advanced electromagnetic mechanisms of the Banshee. The technology hasn't been perfected, and the Prometheus R suffers from a long recharge cycle and high energy requirements.

Also why build a Promethus R compared to the Subach HL-7 it was a weak gun.

[Boomer]

No, no, no!  The Banshee did not need Argon!:hopping:

The Banshee fired an extremely power burst of fluctuating EM energy!  It was NOT a Laser!

Hmmmph.  Show some respect to one of the most kickass weapons ever made.

[Admiral LSD]

It would depend on just how much Argon the Prometheus required but I find it hard to believe that Earth/Sol is the only place in the entire galaxy that has a plentiful supply of Argon. It makes up ~0.9% of our atmosphere, ~1.6% that of Mars and is probably present in the atmospheres of some of the gas giants and moons as well.

Now, the GTVA have discovered/colonised a number of different planets, some of which presumably have atmospheres similar to Earth, yet they're trying to say that none of these have enough Argon to make mass production of the original Prometheus feasible? Yet Earth/Sol, with its relatively low volume of Argon (which would have been hammered through the production of other weapons like the ML-16 for 14 years), can?

[kv1at3485]

@Boomer:

It was the Prom S (or the original Prom) that required Argon to operate.

Actually, if you think about it, the Banshee is a laser according to what you just said.  (Then again, the term 'laser' in FS is somewhat misused.)

The problem with the Banshee was that it consumed far too much power during use, and was obviously far more difficult to produce.  Personally, my choice goes to the Prometheus as the better weapon.

[IceFire]

Probably too expensive to maintain.  The Prometheus R probably became the standard "peacetime" weapon of the GTVA forces.  The Subach as you'll note is not available in the COOP campaign dealing with the Hammer of Light and its probably a more recent innovation involving a shield impacting weapon of small power consumption.

An example of this would be just after WWII were thousands of frontline top notch military aircraft were sold for a mere few thousand dollars.  They were vital and necessary during wartime and cost was meaningless...but in peacetime, things change and the priorities change.

[JoeLo]

Good point, but I still hate the Promethus R so much. They should have a stress reliever where you just go destroy Promethus R's. It would be awesome. Actually I am going to make a campaing where you try to pay civilians to take them off your hands. (Runs off to do impossible FREDing job with minimal knowledge of how to work the program)
Then why do they grant you a Promethus R after the Subach

[NGTM-1R]

Still, if it encorporates some of the Banshee's electronics, and the Banshee was the premier FS1 anti-shield weapon, then the Prom-R's feebleness against shields makes little sense...

[Charismatic]

I chose the subach over Promethus. Simply because of the fireing rate. Suback is weak but it shoots constantly, which i like. So many times the enemy is in your sight and you miss it due to a hudge delay by the Promethus. Some times i dubbled up promethus's and did a trick that made them fire constantly, one then the other. Then i kicked ass.

[Admiral LSD]

Originally posted by ngtm1r
Still, if it encorporates some of the Banshee's electronics, and the Banshee was the premier FS1 anti-shield weapon, then the Prom-R's feebleness against shields makes little sense...

The Banshee electronics were most likely incorporated into the Prometheus R as a way to reduce the amount of Argon it consumed keeping the design feasible while sufficient supplies of Argon weren't available. It's still more or less the same basic design as the original and that was designed to take out hulls and not shields so it makes sense the new one has much the same pros and cons.

Just because one design incorporates elements from another doesn't mean it inherits all the features of the other design. Case in point: Modern cars contain computers to regulate fuel injection, ignition etc. These computers contain elements of the same basic architecture as the PC you're most likely reading this on. However, a fuel injection computer is a vastly different animal to a desktop PC.

[Nuclear1]

Originally posted by IceFire
Probably too expensive to maintain.  The Prometheus R probably became the standard "peacetime" weapon of the GTVA forces.  The Subach as you'll note is not available in the COOP campaign dealing with the Hammer of Light and its probably a more recent innovation involving a shield impacting weapon of small power consumption.

That was the general idea of what I was thinking as well. The Banshee, IIRC, used an enormous amount of power out of a ship to fire, and it was very plausible that the GTVA simply discontinued the Banshee after the Great War, since they developed newer and more effective weapons to do the Banshee's job (the Subach, the *ahem* Windshield Blinder--er, Shield Breaker).

The Prometheus R is simply a retrofit of the original Prometheus, which, unlike the Banshee, was much more effective in terms of power reserves and damage, IMO. While they discontinued the Banshee due to power issues or expenses, they decided to continue the Prometheus, though the GTVA had to change its makeup in order to compensate for the lack of Argon.

[Charismatic]

Woo woo. Argon? Iv never heard that name before. Where the hell in FS or FS2 is that ever mentioned? What dark corner did you guys pull That out of?

[Admiral LSD]

The tech database...

weapons.tbl if you want to get technical...

It's mentioned in like the fifth post in this thread which is pretty much a copy 'n' paste from the tech database.

[IceFire]

Originally posted by Charismatic
Woo woo. Argon? Iv never heard that name before. Where the hell in FS or FS2 is that ever mentioned? What dark corner did you guys pull That out of?

Well the tech database, the weapons table (same thing), and the command briefings.

[Nuke]

what confuses me is how they managed to weld their ships together without argon, its a key requirement of plasma welding. they probibly just substituted it with some other inert gas.

[FireCrack]

Or possibly they weld via some other method.

[aldo_14]

For reference;

[q]
GTW ML-16
Argon laser weapon; uses transparent ceramic technology in order to create an optical system that is extremely durable and stable under battle conditions; provides adequate destructive damage to the hull of enemy ships by vaporizing molecular bonds at the target area and destabilizing molecular bonds across the grain of the hull material.


 
GTW-41 DISRUPTOR CANNON
A gas-focused krypton laser; when the ship is in flight, the chamber of the GTW-41 rotates at a constant speed; a small amount of NO2 is injected into the container .05 ms prior to the emission of the laser
light; the rotation of the NO2 in the chamber focuses the laser pulse to a state that is only very slightly (1%) diffused; after the laser pulse is emitted from the chamber into space, the chamber expels the NO2 into space (thus expelling ionized molecules and moisture); the process repeats for each subsequent burst of laser energy; as this laser is very slightly diffused, it is not effective as a destructive weapon, but as a tactical weapon; the Disruptor Cannon is best suited and is used for the permanent disabling of enemy ship subsystems.

 
GTW-15 AVENGER
A rapid-fire, computer-controlled radar and gun system; capable of firing at a rate of more than 4500 rounds per minute; used primarily for close-defense situations; uses closed-loop radar technology to locate,
identify, and direct a stream of highly destructive 45mm projectiles to the target.


 
GTW - 32 FLAIL
A rapid-fire, low energy, ceramic optic focused, krypton laser; used in tactical situations to distract or lead an enemy to their destruction at the hands of other allied fighters; this weapon, if used over an
extended period of in-flight battle, can destroy an enemy fighter, but, as a destructive weapon, should only be used as a last resort.


 
GTW - 5 PROMETHEUS
Named after the Titan who gave fire to humanity, the Prometheus is a laser-based weapon; an advanced radar and X-ray tracking system lock on the target and determine the target’s material structure; argon laser
focused via transparent ceramic optics; uses only slightly more energy than the GTW ML-16; the laser is generated at the destructive frequency (full out-of-phase) for the target’s material structure; emitted no more than .02 ms after targeting and activation by the pilot, the Prometheus stands as one of the GTA’s most effective deterrents to enemy attack, an effective form of defense for GTA pilots, and as a durable, portable, and highly destructive offensive tool.

 
GTW - 7 BANSHEE
An electromagnetic weapon; sends rapid pulses of exceptionally strong electromagnetic energy resulting in a 1.63 x 105 J blast that forces its way through any known shield technology and produces a dramatic shearing effect which quickly destroys the target ship’s materials; named for the fact that in an atmosphere, the pulse creates an atmospheric disturbance similar to a quasi-human scream at 180 dB; uses up a tremendous amount of available ship energy; already, it is has been used by many GTA fighter aces and test pilots as a coup de grace, although such a use for this massively powerful offensive weapon is officially viewed as poor sportsmanship by the GTA.  
[/q]