[Snail]

The GTVA Colossus was originally created to repulse a second Shivan invasion comparable to the first Shivan attack during the Great War. However, it turned out it did a great job handling the Neo Terran Front. However, when the Shivans attacked it was pushed back by the Sathanas, which may be seen as a failure.

The Colossus has many 'variants', as the default loadout for the Colossus concists of TerSlashes and BGreens, while the Colossus during High Noon is armed with LRBGreens and BFGreens (well sort of).

However, it should be noted that the Colossus was never made to battle ships of its own size, it was only designed to battle superdestroyer scale ships. It was seemingly capable of destroying smaller ships such as destroyers easily, which was what it was made for.

It could be said it also failed at fighting destroyers, evidenced by its battle against the SD Beast in Their Finest Hour, a mission which made many people doubt the Colossus. In that mission, it was disabled and damaged, meaning it was quite obviously at a disadvantage.

So, the Colossus, Terran juggernaut, hit or miss??

[Polpolion]

It was constructed with the sole purpose of elimentating destroyers and SDs. It worked very well on that matter. Looking at the reactor capacities, it appears that it wasn't designed for prolonged battles, or maybe it was and did suck at it.

[Mars]

The Colossus was okay, it served its purpose, but that purpose could have been fulfilled equally well by, say more destroyers / corvettes.

[Dylnuge]

The Good: Power of Five Orions
The Bad: Why not just use Five Orions?
The Ugly: Took 20 years and millions of dollers to build. While it is assumable that five orions would be the same:
A. More shipyards could assist. The Colossus Was Top-Secret
B. Newer Destroyers could be developed. A replacement to Orions? Slow, but steady. A replacment for the Colossus? Not even possible.
C. In a battle vs. Sahathans, 4 Orions go down. Last one escapes. 4/5 of the cost of the Colossus.

[Dark Hunter]

C. In a battle vs. Sathanas, 4 Orions go down. Last one escapes. 4/5 of the cost of the Colossus.

Have you actaully tested that theory?

More Orions would escape if they attacked from the Sathanas's rear section, only one beam gun back there.

IMO, the Collossus would do MUCH better if the GTVA would wise up to the fact that it is very stupid to attack a Sathanas from the front, where 95% of its firepower is located!

[BS403]

The collosus destroyed one sathanas and many ntf forces. Thats seems like a success to me. The only reason it was destroyed is because it diobeyed orders.

[ShivanSpS]

nah, who want that ship at 5% Hull... at that position it should be declared unrepairable and retired from service

[BS403]

It was at about 65% iirc

[Goober5000]

The Colossus was created specifically to destroy the Lucifer, a task at which it excels.  Load up High Noon in FRED and replace the Sathanas with a Lucifer, then fire up FreeSpace, and you'll see.  Whoever wrote that Derelict command briefing didn't know what he was talking about -- the Colossus easily pwns the Lucifer.

[Mefustae]

Whoever wrote that Derelict command briefing didn't know what he was talking about -- the Colossus easily pwns the Lucifer.

I think that was more for atmosphere, like implying that the Sathanas would reap havoc on GTVA systems even though she had been neutered of most of her weapons in Gamma Drac.
 
Back OT: It's important to remember that the Colossus was more than just a warship, it was a symbol of Terran and Vasudan teamwork and the very values behind the GTVA itself. From what we can gather from the campaign, morale throughout all corners of GTVA space would have been vastly improved at the first deployment of the Big C, and relations between the two species would have undoubtedly been vastly improved through the cooperation of creating the great warship.

[NGTM-1R]

The Colossus did what it was designed to do, and did it very well. In the end it was lost because it was asked to do something it wasn't equipped for. It succeeded. The failure if there was one lay somewhere back at the drawing board, or inside the rather dense head of GTVA Command.

[Mars]

Whoever wrote that Derelict command briefing didn't know what he was talking about -- the Colossus easily pwns the Lucifer.

I think that was more for atmosphere, like implying that the Sathanas would reap havoc on GTVA systems even though she had been neutered of most of her weapons in Gamma Drac.
 
Back OT: It's important to remember that the Colossus was more than just a warship, it was a symbol of Terran and Vasudan teamwork and the very values behind the GTVA itself. From what we can gather from the campaign, morale throughout all corners of GTVA space would have been vastly improved at the first deployment of the Big C, and relations between the two species would have undoubtedly been vastly improved through the cooperation of creating the great warship.

Yeah, I noticed in Derelict that all of the Shivan capital ships were presented as much more powerful than they really were. In the mission where you gaurd the Cipher 100 kilometers away from a BOE type battle for instance, the Shivans not only pawn everyone, they pawn everyone in 5 seconds, and in the mission where you take down the three cruisers, the Lilith stands a good chance of taking out a Hecate. (I know the Hecate isn't that good, but it's better than that usually)

[S-99]

OK. For clarity, yes the colossus did what it was designed to do very good. Except for something that was not great at all. The colossus was meant to take on shivan ships that the gtva has already encountered. That means demons, liliths, cains, lucifers. Pretty much any ship that was encountered during the tv war only. Of course the colossus more than fares well against molochs and demons, and would fare great against a lucifer. But yes, the damn thing was sure not anywhere in hell meant to take out a sathanas, or a ravana for that matter. Those are the shivans pinnacles of technology right there. The demon isn't a very good destroyer need i mention, or at least someone should fred a mission showing off the demons potential. The ravana on the other hand has something very much in common with a sathanas, which is those forward firing arms. After that, well the ravana is just damn powerful, and pretty huge also. A ravana was still pretty big even when sitting next to the colossus. So keep in mind, the gtva didn't do a good job of possibly expecting new shivan vessels. They were ready for lucifers and demons when they built the colossus, not ravanas and sathani.

So, in my head the colossus was a bullseye. It worked great against any ships the shivans had to offer that were encountered in the end of the tv war, and only a couple of new ships which are the shivan vessels that are all smaller than destroyers. So yes, the colossus was a bullseye there, but not for the new big shivan ****

[aldo_14]

C. In a battle vs. Sathanas, 4 Orions go down. Last one escapes. 4/5 of the cost of the Colossus.

Have you actaully tested that theory?

More Orions would escape if they attacked from the Sathanas's rear section, only one beam gun back there.

IMO, the Collossus would do MUCH better if the GTVA would wise up to the fact that it is very stupid to attack a Sathanas from the front, where 95% of its firepower is located!

I hate that reasoning; do you really think the Shivans aren't aware of that achilles heel in their design, and are incapable of using tactics to overcome it?

[Scooby_Doo]

Well who knows what mindset the Shivans have, perhaps they designed it to utterly punch through the front lines with escorts following it.  A job it's great at, but caught off guard or push too far ahead it puts itself in a bad situation.

[aldo_14]

Well who knows what mindset the Shivans have, perhaps they designed it to utterly punch through the front lines with escorts following it.  A job it's great at, but caught off guard or push too far ahead it puts itself in a bad situation.

I'd actually anticipate the Shivans tasking other ships to support it and cover that blind spot, anyways; I always found the notion of the first Sath being deliberated sacrificied to draw out the GTVAs best weapons (and tactics against it) to be quite an interesting one - particularly as any race able to use a vessel that size, in that way, would naturally be seen as incredibly powerful.

[Jeb Hoge]

Well who knows what mindset the Shivans have, perhaps they designed it to utterly punch through the front lines with escorts following it.  A job it's great at, but caught off guard or push too far ahead it puts itself in a bad situation.

I think that's the Shivan approach overall, though...attack with overwhelming force and no consideration to the attack not succeeding. I think most of their ships are designed to that philosophy.

[Centrixo]

shivans are created on the sole purpose for absoutle genocide. thier cataprace and the very thick armour of the sj proves that, more over thier beams were designed with the intention of killing everything, im sure they know thier weak points, im certain that their are of shivans in the galaxy; so even the shivans on one sj thats about 5 shivans, due to their multiple eyes and arms for weapons and ship control plus 30 shivans for military purposes.

back ot: the collossus is a miss for me. it s got some major drawbacks i mean even lilith destroyed this ship! albeit over 40 minutes. this ship cant stand up to too many ships; example i started a grudge match 16 aeolus cruisers vs 1 collossus (not edited) and 13 aeolus survived and the collossus died within 15 minutes.

if it cant handle that then its a piss poor SCap ship imho.

[Shade]

Next time, try to beam-free the Colossus when you run that last scenario. Oh, and it sucks because a Lilith can kill it in 40 minutes? I guess every ship in the game sucks then, as the only one that is as durable is the Sathanas.

[Cobra]

shivans are created on the sole purpose for absoutle genocide. thier cataprace and the very thick armour of the sj proves that, more over thier beams were designed with the intention of killing everything, im sure they know thier weak points, im certain that their are of shivans in the galaxy; so even the shivans on one sj thats about 5 shivans, due to their multiple eyes and arms for weapons and ship control plus 30 shivans for military purposes.

back ot: the collossus is a miss for me. it s got some major drawbacks i mean even lilith destroyed this ship! albeit over 40 minutes. this ship cant stand up to too many ships; example i started a grudge match 16 aeolus cruisers vs 1 collossus (not edited) and 13 aeolus survived and the collossus died within 15 minutes.

if it cant handle that then its a piss poor SCap ship imho.

I don't see how a ****ing juggernaut can be destroyed by a cruiser with one high powered beam cannon. With TWELVE beam cannons, the Colossus has a near 360 degree field of fire. And your mission with the 16 Aeolus class cruisers is absurd. 16 Aeolus-class cruisers is total overkill, and you seem to have failed to realized that an Aeolus has VERY powerful beams. Factor in 16, and you have a moot point. (Can someone give him the think then post title? )

The Colossus' hull integrity in High Noon went down to 85 (if you were an idiot and couldn't destroy the forward cannons) is due to the fact that the Colossus seems to be able to fire two beams at a time, while the Sathanas could fire four cannons for at least 5 seconds, and the BFGreen has a very long fire rate.

Bullseye for me.

Next time try to beam-free the Colossus when you run that scenario.

Busted.