[Androgeos Exeunt]

Beams are purely for the effect.  Given the military experiments with railgun weaponry now, I would think that by 2355 a railgun launcher for large-scale munitions in space would be a fairly easy proposal.  Think of a Helios warhead sans propulsion accelerated to speeds in excess of 3000 meters per second in total vaccum.

In that case, it's no longer a warhead, it's a gun.

[Nuke]

it would still be a warhead, just a different mode of transportation

[Droid803]

Beams deal more damage relative to their size. A beam turret consists, at most, of a firing mechanism, power supply ( the reactor ), amplifying beams and targeting systems. They also guarantee a hit. Nothing stops a beam save a shield, and no capital ship in FS2 has one. 'Cept the Lucifer. And they can be overcharge to deal more damage.

Since when did shields do anything to stop beams? The AAAfs seem to chew through my fighter just fine with full shields.
I'd assume that they'd go straight through the Lucifer's shield system as well. Helios on the other hand, can explode point blank and my fighter isn't even scratched. Anti-warship torpedos do nothing against shields, which is why they couldn't just bomb out the Lucifer in realspace or even disarm its cannons.

Yes, that may be purely conjecture, however, that is the behavior that is exhibitied if you give the Lucifer "surface shields".
Tempests do more damage than Helios on shields.

[BengalTiger]

Another thing that seems to imply shields don't work against beams is the fact the big 'C' was able to stop a Lucy.

[blowfish]

Helios on the other hand, can explode point blank and my fighter isn't even scratched. Anti-warship torpedos do nothing against shields

Not true.  The Helios has a 0.02 shield factor, times 6800 damage means that it does 136 shield damage.  I have been killed by a Helios that goes off too close to me.  That kind of damage would do nothing to a Lucifer, however.

[Akalabeth Angel]

Helios on the other hand, can explode point blank and my fighter isn't even scratched. Anti-warship torpedos do nothing against shields

Not true.  The Helios has a 0.02 shield factor, times 6800 damage means that it does 136 shield damage.  I have been killed by a Helios that goes off too close to me.  That kind of damage would do nothing to a Lucifer, however.

      Detonate Point Blank? Meh.
      I've been HIT by bombs, and I can tell you it hurts. As in, "REALLY DEAD" hurts.

[Droid803]

Depends on difficulty 
136 damage is nothing if you're flying a Seraphim (or Nephilim) on Very Easy with 6400 shield points.  It doesn't even sting.

It tends to wash over the shields (as in, apply damage too all quadrants), so it won't even kill a player in a Pegasus on Insane if its shields aren't below 50%...

[General Battuta]

Another thing that seems to imply shields don't work against beams is the fact the big 'C' was able to stop a Lucy.

Uh...when? That never happened.

[Retsof]

Another thing that seems to imply shields don't work against beams is the fact the big 'C' was able to stop a Lucy.

Uh...when? That never happened.

Well, it was designed to kill a Lucy, it never actually did.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Another thing that seems to imply shields don't work against beams is the fact the big 'C' was able to stop a Lucy.

Uh...when? That never happened.

Well, it was designed to kill a Lucy, it never actually did.

Agreed. They probably just simulated the Colossus' beams penetrating the Lucifer's shields.

That brings up a new point; beams do pierce shields. Did the Ancients have beam weapons? If they had, maybe they could've prevented their destruction.

[Snail]

That brings up a new point; beams do pierce shields. Did the Ancients have beam weapons? If they had, maybe they could've prevented their destruction.

Shields aren't everything.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Shields aren't everything.

Really? Why not?

[Snail]

Even with beams the GTVA weren't able to defeat the Sathanes, which didn't have shields in the first place.

Assuming the Shivans would have encountered the Ancients again (this time with a larger fleet) they would have been able to crush them regardless of whether or not the Ancients were able to pierce capital ship shielding.

[Droid803]

Shields aren't everything, but they do count for something.

Also, given that 60-90% of a Shivan fighter/bomber's strength lies in its shields (they have pissweak hulls), a shield peircing weapon is much more effective. Think flak vs AAAf. Which one would you rather face? One flak gun, or One AAAf? The AAAf will kill you in one shot. The flak wouldn't do much if you just shunt more power to shields and equalize regularly.

[Snail]

I meant capital ship shielding. I do hope the Ancients were able to kill normal shielding through sheer brute force, or it would just be a turkey shoot.

[Droid803]

If the ancients could stop the Lucifer, they would have collapsed a node.
Then, they would learn how to collapse nodes when they see 80 saths coming.

[haloboy100]

Well, they probably wouldn't know that nodes were collapsible. The Terrans only know of it from the destruction of the sol jump node by the Lucifer.

[foolfromhell]

if I were part of the GTVA leadership, I would keep a couple of meson bombs on standby a few hundred meters from every jump node.

Just in case.

[blowfish]

if I were part of the GTVA leadership, I would keep a couple of meson bombs on standby a few hundred meters from every jump node.

Just in case.

1)  I doubt that they have that many meson bombs just sitting around

2)  It takes more than a couple of meson bombs to collapse a node (the Bastion contained a log, IIRC).

[haloboy100]

Not to mention the accidental explosion of those bombs could collapse the node if you had enough around it.

To me that seems like a rather stupid tactical decision.