[FreeSpaceFreak]

What if the Sathanases were not warships, but merely some kind of armed transport? They could be designed to do three things:
1. Gather lots of Shivans ('civilian' Shivans?) inside their massive hulls.
2. Build a supernode and go through it (probably 'home', as Petrarch speculates).
3. Mow through any node blockades on the way.

I don't like the supernode theory, but I must admit that it's the most probable one. Petrarch speculates about it, and if I were , I would love it to put some hints to the solution of the mystery into the games (after all, the Shivans still are a mystery to us) . After playing the whole -intended- trilogy, the player would get the feeling of 'Hell, why didn't I see this before?'

But wherever the Saths were going, I don't think they would be going there to wage a war. Even a Sath can't operate without support for too long. So what were they going to do? The Terrans and the Vasudans - even before they met each other - have two kinds of ships: warships and transport ships. Therefore, this is probably the same for all species in FreeSpace. Now if the Sathanases weren't going to wage a war there (= wherever they were going), they're probably not warships. What's left? Transport vessels. The Saths would be the Shivan equivalent of our GTM Hippocrates.

[Gamma_Draconis]

Man, something about the GTVA's most powerful warship, the Colossus, losing to an armed transport doesn't sound right.

[Snail]

I do like the Supernode theory.

So I think the Sathanes were designed to make Supernodes, so they needed a powerful reactor. However, a benefit of having this powerful reactor (or Shivan power source, etc.) is that the Sathanas' four Supernode "conductors" are able to fire big beams. Yes.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Man, something about the GTVA's most powerful warship, the Colossus, losing to an armed transport doesn't sound right.

  True, but remember what said about the Shivan warships we would encounter in [the F-word] ? Indeed - think bigger. If you take that in mind, it's not too difficult to imagine the Sathanas as 'just a transport ship' with huge reactors powering its subspace stuff and - in between - its beam weapons.

[Admiral_Stones]

Hmm, where the **** is the 'Welcome to HLPBB!'-Beam?!
Anyways, plural of Sathanas = Sathanai.

Transport sounds right, so they can pick up enough BBQ sausag...
Damn, my fantasy!

[Snail]

Actually the plural of Sathanas is either Sathanai or Sathanes. If you're an American asshat who likes to spell colour without the u in it then you can call the Sathanases.

I think the Sathanas was still important to the Shivans despite them having so-called "planet-sized" Shivan ships.

[TrashMan]

I wonder how much of that "think bigger" was just developer musings and planing.

IMHO, a lot of things that are planned get dropped during the making of a game.
Heck, just talking to D.Graider (Bioware) over the last few years made it apparent that they went trough a a lot of concepts, and he himself has said that until the game actually comes out that we (community) shouldn't take nothing any dev said as granted.

[Snail]

Yeah, I don't consider it canon either.

[colecampbell666]

I tend to think that the Sath is, dare I say it, a Shivan cruiser, or even a fighter. THey have so many of them, and it is speculated that they have much bigger ships, that the Sath is small in comparison. Therefore, a light cruiser of sorts, a heavy transport if you will, designed to get the Shivans home.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

I tend to think that the Sath is, dare I say it, a Shivan cruiser, or even a fighter. THey have so many of them, and it is speculated that they have much bigger ships, that the Sath is small in comparison. Therefore, a light cruiser of sorts, a heavy transport if you will, designed to get the Shivans home.

A very heavy transport indeed.
But because of the size of jump nodes, ships like the Sath can only grow longer, and I don't think they would grow longer than 25 km. Bigger ships would take ages to design, and they would start to look ridiculous. Imagine a Shivan juggernaut jumping in...


and jumping in...



and jumping in...



and still jumping in...



Scary thought isn't it? Invasion of the Shivan Caterpillars...

[Snail]

You can create that illusion with the SCa Shiamak in Inferno by setting its warp in speed to something small (like 50 m/s).

[colecampbell666]

Ships of any size can apparently fit through a node, maybe you're thinking about the Melia in INFR1?

[Snail]

No, I meant that making it seem as if the thing warping in was really long and would never stop warping in.

The Icanus can't fit through the Knossos

[colecampbell666]

Yes, but natural nodes has a speculatively unlimited size, fly to the edge of one, will you?

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Yes, but natural nodes has a speculatively unlimited size, fly to the edge of one, will you?

Um... If natural nodes have an unlimited size, then what are those green lines on your HUD

[Snail]

Um... If natural nodes have an unlimited size, then what are those green lines on your HUD

Estimates at which points the node is still usable?

[Hades]

Um... If natural nodes have an unlimited size, then what are those green lines on your HUD

Estimates at which points the node is still usable?

There are probably Holographic markers to show where nodes are usably.

[Snail]

They're not physical holograms, if that's what you mean, they're just info on your hud.

[Hades]

They're not physical holograms, if that's what you mean, they're just info on your hud.

I mean Holograms in your hud.

[karajorma]

Given that the Sathanas is over a km taller and wider than the jump node as well as 4km longer why is anyone assuming that there is a natural limit on the size of jump nodes?

As far as I can see the centre of the warpin or warpout hole must be somewhere within the node. Beyond that I can't see that any limits were ever set.