[Agent_Koopa]

Having 100 Juggernauts doesn't impress me all that much.  The Shivans have been trolling around space for thousands of years.  THOUSANDS.  Humans have been puttering around for 300 years or so.  From what we've seen, the Shivans won simply because they've been cruising out in outer space for long enough to have had time to build up a sizeable fleet.  I'm not sure where you're getting that they "mass-produced Juggernauts" when it's just as likely they've been adding slowly to their fleet over hundreds or thousands of years. 

You're assuming they only have 100 juggernauts and no more or no larger.  A bit like the same mistake made with the Ravana......

Or with the Sathanas. 

[Agentbolt]

If you guys just want to take it as a given that the Shivans can crap out a new Sathanas every day, that's fine, it's certainly possible.  The title of the thread was asking for a plausible post-capella campaign, and I think my idea is quite plausible. 

[TrashMan]

You're assuming the GTVA could identify all the nodes the Shivans could use, that the GTVA can easily mass-produce meson bombs, that the Shivans wouldn't be better prepared to destroy the collapser ship, that the GTVA has enough spare destroyers following Capella to use them in this way whilst avoiding a rout, and that the Shivans can't repair nodes.

GTVA tech and knowledge continues to increase. They made enough meson bombs to fill more than 2 destroyers. I think it's safe to assume that in 10-20 years they can produce enough to collapse at least a dozen nodes, and that should be enough to stop any shivan invasion..

Unless you say, the shivans have some jump-gates or can recreate nodes - but if they can do that then you can't make a campaign that ends with a GTVA victory (of any kind). They can't seal themselves and they can't the shivans head-on.
Maby if they found a shivan main hive or something and blew that up...maby... but otherwise...

[aldo_14]

You're assuming the GTVA could identify all the nodes the Shivans could use, that the GTVA can easily mass-produce meson bombs, that the Shivans wouldn't be better prepared to destroy the collapser ship, that the GTVA has enough spare destroyers following Capella to use them in this way whilst avoiding a rout, and that the Shivans can't repair nodes.

GTVA tech and knowledge continues to increase. They made enough meson bombs to fill more than 2 destroyers. I think it's safe to assume that in 10-20 years they can produce enough to collapse at least a dozen nodes, and that should be enough to stop any shivan invasion..

Unless you say, the shivans have some jump-gates or can recreate nodes - but if they can do that then you can't make a campaign that ends with a GTVA victory (of any kind). They can't seal themselves and they can't the shivans head-on.
Maby if they found a shivan main hive or something and blew that up...maby... but otherwise...

Well, on the subject of nodes - the GTVA can only destroy nodes they can send a ship through, so (to expand) any campaign with the Shivans traversing from an unstable node/s would negate the meson bomb issue.  In any case, the notion that destroying the nodes using meson bombs is sufficient to stop any 'conventional' invasion is pretty wrong IMO (even from the sense of cutting off captured systems - what if said system has billions of people, or the Shivans invade multiple systems ala FS1, or even if said system has the meson bomb stockpile).

On the subject of defeating the Shivans, it largely depends what motives & tactics you ascribe to them; of course, that's assuming you allow the Shivans to lose - I'd say FS2 was very much a Shivan victory, yet the story worked because the Shivans had a purpose to their actions that allowed the player to lose the war and yet survive.  Sometimes survival is enough of a story in its own right.  There are plenty of ways to do a Shivan-invasion campaign that allows a plausible victory, of course; that's the beauty of science fiction, you can invent 'magic' and it's still plausible (well, to a degree).

[Mehrpack]

GTVA tech and knowledge continues to increase. They made enough meson bombs to fill more than 2 destroyers. I think it's safe to assume that in 10-20 years they can produce enough to collapse at least a dozen nodes, and that should be enough to stop any shivan invasion..

Unless you say, the shivans have some jump-gates or can recreate nodes - but if they can do that then you can't make a campaign that ends with a GTVA victory (of any kind). They can't seal themselves and they can't the shivans head-on.
Maby if they found a shivan main hive or something and blew that up...maby... but otherwise...

hi,
i dont think that they need a knossos portal or so.
the universes is like an organisms and i think every day will anywhere in the galaxy born or die sub-nodes and the shivans do have a greater comprehension of sub space as human, and they have more time, imho.
so i think to close all nodes cant give you a really victory, because you want to plug a brocken dam.

but ok these minds are not so helpful for a campaine.

another idea: nobody know if there any other negativ effects off blowing up jump node.
maybe that end on the jump node thats blowing up, will have negativ effects of subspace in the near space.
we dont know if any negativ effects there, because we doesnt have contact to earth and Freespace2 ends short time after the nova.

other thing is: i dont believe that GTVA really want to cutting off the rest of the galaxy, there are so many resources and so many secrets.
so i believe, they see that more as a joker, not as a regularly tactic.
like atombombs, they not really normal weapons, they are the last weapon.

Mehrpack

[Ace]

Keep in mind the name of the series is 'FreeSpace' which is the other term for 'subspace.'

Shivans go after subpace activity. The solutions would be to either isolate GTVA space, or develop a new form of FTL. (likely isolating subspace connections in the process)

At the end of FS1 it is ominously stated that the Shivans can rebuild nodes. Destroying stars such as Capella could be a part of that. So pure isolation may not be a maintainable strategy.

As for plausible sequel, let's go with some of the early things mentioned about FS2: using the node map of the ancients to explore systems and all ships returned but one.

Then let's go with the whole "think of interacting with planet-sized ships" hints.

So somehow the GTVA most likely has to overcome incredible odds against one last Shivan incursion before isolating itself... or discovering an entirely new way to travel the stars and coming to an "understanding" with the preservers.

[BlackDove]

Bull****.

THE ANCIENTS COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111oneoeneoeneoeneeeeeeeeeeeee