[Qwer]

Topic copied directly from freespace.pl . It's mainly for your visions of GTVA's future in fleets, technologies and so on (also discussions about them). Feel free to discuss, I'll write what we came to on polish forum when I'll have more free time.

[Taristin]

One fleet. Hybridized between the species.

[Roanoke]

Fighters no longer being restricted to inter-system jumps (ie without being specially retrofitted at much cost).

Meson based Anti-Cap weapons

[Taristin]

M.A.D. - Mutually Assured Destruction

[Mars]

The Second Great War demonstrated the importance of fighters, and conversly anti-fighter point defenses. It also demonstrated that bigger ships aren't always better, I think the fleets will be comprised more of smaller vessels, and I think the fleets will be far more integrated with each other, if not combined.

[Snail]

I believe it should include more, smaller yet more powerful 'tactical' weapons, such as the Golgotha or Apothess, rather than putting all your trust into one super-powerful GTVSJ Terra or anything like that. Trying new weapons would be a good idea. And integrate Shivan technology into new ships, like the Hades. Most of the old specimens using Shivan technology turned out very good. VT relations must be maintained to keep the fleet good. A separated fleet reduces morale and sharing technology is always a good idea.

[wtf_cl0vvn]

definitely meld VT technology...capture more shivan ships and get their techs. The sekhmet and hades were the results of shivan RE-ing, right? and those did turn out well, as snail pointed out.

probably have your fleets/battle groups centered around one or two destroyers with beams in a forward array (much like the shivan destroyers) flanked/rearguarded by corvettes optimized for antifighter with enough  firepower to hold off flanking capships.

spread the fighters/bombers around the battlegroup, so that if one ships fighterbays get incapacitated the battlegroup doesnt become completely defenseless.



this for large battles against enemy capships. for scouting/striking, some corvettes could be independent from the main group, seeing as how they have their own fighterbay, and they could go on search and destroy missions.

and definitely redundant engine subsystems on your ships, so theyre that much harder to disable.

[NGTM-1R]

Dealing with juggernauts is going to be high on the list of things they need. I suspect the first "wave" of post-Capella new ship designs will be geared towards that function, though how is open to debate. I've postulated things ranging from monitor-style flying-beam-cannon cruisers to Helios-barrage-of-doom corvettes to AWACs ships able to direct a planetary-launched missile strike.

A proper replacement for the Thoth. (Like the Shu.) Using the Serapis as a space superiority fighter occassioned huge casualities, so the Vasudans need one. The Boanerges and Hecate are likely to be the Terran victims of "Lessons Learned".

More integrated fleets, but not quite so far as Raa thinks. At least for the next fifty years. Rather you'll start to see groups built of mixed Vasudan and Terran ships rather than seperate fleets. I suspect a gradual process with the old fleets remaining as organizations; the new integrated units would be over and above existing fleet units. They may experiment with integrated crews for awhile but I think in the end they'll go against it, as the physical differences between the two species would make that difficult to manage.

An overall trend to being able to do more with less. Modular ship designs are one possiblity. Funding will not be lacking I imagine, nothing like 80 star-killing monsterships to get the government to open its purse, so more battlefield-effective and less cost-effective is another likely trend.

At least a temporary resurgence of the cruiser, because cruisers require less crew and can therefore be gotten into service faster.

[Mars]

I think the Hecate actually functioned fairly well, but didn't really demonstrate superiority over the Orion.

[Taristin]

I never thought of the Hecate as a destroyer, really. More like a light carrier, IMO.

[asyikarea51]

More combined-arms wings involving cruisers and corvettes, supported by a command frigate (e.g. Iceni)?

The cruisers help to fend off fighters, the corvettes support the frigate against enemy destroyers, and have few ASA (anti-spacecraft artillery ) turrets for defence. Frigates should have the most hull strength and cap weapons on at least two flanks... mounted on turrets with maybe 190-degree FOV, and ASA turrets on all six ends methinks. (Top, bottom, left, right, front, back)

Drawback to this is fighterbays - fighter wings will have to come from elsewhere. Iceni no got fighterbay and neither does a cruiser or a corvette.

If the GTVA Terran side sees the Hecate's failure in anti-cap firepower... maybe that'll be their temporary solution until a next-gen Orion (say Sirona for example) came into service? But I can't imagine them taking down the Hecate that early in its life though - seems pretty good as a mobile headquarters for plenty of fighters... (I feel tempted to bring INF's Warlock into the sentence, but nevermind.)

[Mathwiz6]

Shivans may have 100 Juggernauts, 10 SSJ, a planet size ship but GTVA have a weapon of mass destruction... Alpha 1.
Enough said.

Nice signature, seems appropriate here...

[achtung]

More Deimos like corvettes and the use of gunships being greatly increased.

I would see maneuverability being more important than armor, so yeah.

[Taristin]

I prefer Sobeks, personally, but thats a given.

[Aardwolf]

Well, if this were real life, which it isn't, the weapons would become so powerful that you would have mutually assured destruction. Especially since it seems the GTVA's motive is to defend itself against the Shivans at all costs, and the Shivans seem to plan to destroy the Terrans and Vasudans at all costs. That Meson bomb would've made a much larger explosion and done a huge amount more damage than it does in the game if it had the payload it says it does. Imagine more powerful weapons than that and you've got both sides being wiped out instantly.

[BS403]

I prefer Sobeks, personally, but thats a given.

Definetly and you need corvettes with fighterbays, like the udjat. by the way Taristin what ship is this?

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Taristin]

An unreleased sistership to this unreleased ship

Never really got around to finishing the turrets on them.

Looking at it now, the lights are all off on scale...

You can see them both in http://game-warden.com/raa/assets/Fleet.jpg

[Blue Haired Maniac]

In the post-Capella world, the GTVA would face som serious issues. The economy would likely tank and I think they would find it hard to replace their losses (especially if they decide to pour resources into a Knossos Project). You would probably see efforts for smaller ship designs (more corvettes and cruisers) and moving the destroyers even more toward carrier status to keep the odds of losing them down. The Hecate class, while a poor anti-cap ship, would make a great strike carrier, and I think that's where destroyer design would head as far as the GTVA is concerned. Also, the GTVA found a great weapon in the Meson Bomb, so they would look at the technology and try to find more practical uses for it (IE: Anti-cap beam weaponry).

[Qwer]

As others said GTVA's main firepower should be light ships, not super-uber gigants like Colossus that costs huge amounts of cash, requires 20 years to be built and can fall in one coordinated attack (even NTF could've bring him down if Bosh hadn't order forces to make run to Gamma Draconis). Shivan tech REing is quite troubleing, Sekhmet, GTVA beams and Kayser uses only small part of Shivan tech combined with GTVA one, Hades is another case, it's filled with Shivan electronic systems and must've cost a lot (remember that building it started during T-V War, prehaps GTVA has got one Hades under construction that would be released few years after Capella's destruction). Hecate was one of the largest Command's mistakes. It was supposed to be carrier and fleets' flagship, it is crap and unnessesery battle carrier with too weak AC weaponary to fight with Shivan destroyers and too small fighter capibility to be large threat for Shivans. Shortly - warship for everything, but for nothing. It can serve during next few years when the only threat are pirates with old fighters, bombers and modified freighters, but after that they must be either modified, scrapped or loaded with meson bombs.

One thing about GTVA's developement - GTVA must give itself at least 20 years to rebuild and modernize economy, research into new technologies and so on before building dream fleet. Also after some discussion we on freespace.pl realised that the only effective fleets to battle with Shivans are ones based on light forces (Guerrilla Fleet, two driffent fleets developed by c914 and me) or based on light forces supported by large capships (Battle-Guerrilla Fleet, developed by Mekton). I'll write more about them when I'll have more time.

[asyikarea51]

light forces supported by large capships

Think my idea should be similar to this... you have all classes, Fenris, Leviathan, Aeolus and Deimos all under the control of one or two Icenis, with maybe a Hecate camping behind for fighter support (along with some light anti-cap firepower in case Hecate gets attacked from rear flank)...

Against a Sath, they might probably do something similar to the Circle of Death like in MW4? And throw in several Artemis wings loaded with Stilettos to make the job less painful? Cut out the engine so they can't run, then bombard every last turret...? Maybe throw some bombers into the fray too...

I'm still a fan of "super-uber gigants" though. Like those battleships with the 3-barrel siege guns... BAMBAMBAM!!! Next salvo! BAMBAMBAM!!!