[Eishtmo]

The reason they never gave up capital ships is because while they did have intersystem jump drives that fit on fighters after the Great War, they were FRIGHTFULLY expensive.  I remember it saying so somewhere in the tech room or something like that.  Probably cost far more than the fighter itself.  Thus, the Destroyers stuck around.

Also consider that the Tsunami bomb was a brand new tech, not even finished when FS1 started.  For the first time, fighters and bombers were capable of actually killing destroyer class vessels, where before the best they had were Stilletos.  Bombers like the Athena were probably meant to disarm and disable Typhons so the Orions and smaller ships could engage them at point blank range, not to destroy them alone.  They probably tried this against the Shivans and got eaten alive, which likely led to the high losses of capital ships at the onset of the Great War.  Hell, the Harbinger was originally designed for planetary bombardment, and only in desperation did they fight it with an engine and send it into the fight.  Obviously before this point, they didn't consider it necessary for bombers to be able to kill destroyers by themselves.

The Fenris is horrible because even by FS1 it was an OLD ship.  It was serving very early on in the 14 Year War, as early as from day one.  The Leviathan was an uparmored version to make up for the fact that the Fenris was generally outclassed in a lot of fire fights.  I'm betting they kept using them because they made a ton of them.

[CaptJosh]

I would note that even now, a single navy vessel, even one as large as a fleet carrier, with all its fighter wings, is highly vulnerable to a few squadrons of fighter/bombers or cruise missiles. In order for capital ships to be truly effective, you need a proper task force or battle group.

[Galemp]

I'd say that facing a Fenris in an unshielded Anubis is suicide.

[CaptJosh]

In one of them, yes. Several squadrons and the Fenris is the ship in trouble, even if the Anubis wings suffer heavy casualties.

[Flipside]

As has been pointed out a couple of times, the Fenris is probably the worst example to use with for fighter/capship comparisons. It was old at the start of Freespace 1.

Try going nose-nose with an Aeolus or Leviathan using anti-Fenris tactics and you'll be walking home.

[Solatar]

You can't sleep in a fighter wing. You can't move large amounts of ammunition and supplies. You can't carry thousands of troops for an invasion. You can't have your occupying force all sitting still in single seat fightercraft. They need to sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, etc. You just can't occupy space with fighters alone.

The relationship between fighters and capital ships is constantly changing and evolving. Before shields capital ships had the edge on fighters. Once shields were developed and more powerful weapons came with them fighters gained an edge. As FS2 comes along, cruisers and corvettes develop better anti-fighter weapons (flak and AAA beams). While the player can easily take down a capital ship by himself, it's a lot harder than in the end of FS1.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

[Tantalus53]

I remember command stating that inter-system subspace drives were very expensive. Outfitting thousands of fighters with them, as well as constructing more with each passing day as more fighters are coming out of mass production, the drain on money would be practically overwhelming. Stocking up a few squadrons of ships into a destroyer and sending that instead of individual fighters loaded with verry expensive drives would probably be more economical in the long run.

[Jeff Vader]

I remember command stating that inter-system subspace drives were very expensive. Outfitting thousands of fighters with them, as well as constructing more with each passing day as more fighters are coming out of mass production, the drain on money would be practically overwhelming.

In FS1, when the dilemma of inter-system subspace drives for fighters was solved, they did start fitting them on all fighters. But that was most likely due to desperation caused by the Shivans and the Lucy in particular. In FS2 it was indeed stated that those drives are ****ing expensive and therefore reserved only for 1337 squadrons.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Or they were most easily manufactured in Sol, like the Prometheus.

[Jeff Vader]

That is also a valid option.

[admiral_wolf]

During my tennancy of the GTD Galatea, it has been my point of view that we are used to help DEFEND positions, rather than ATTACK new ones.  If I need to attack something, then I will send more agile fighters and/or bombers to dispose of any threat posed.  After all, an Orion is a an expensive assest for the GTA to risk, as the wages of the combined 10,000 crew for 3 years will pay for one Orion.

[BengalTiger]

During my tennancy of the GTD Galatea, it has been my point of view that we are used to help DEFEND positions, rather than ATTACK new ones.  If I need to attack something, then I will send more agile fighters and/or bombers to dispose of any threat posed.  After all, an Orion is a an expensive assest for the GTA to risk, as the wages of the combined 10,000 crew for 3 years will pay for one Orion.

In other words:
The FS1 GTD Orion is an ammo shack, a pimped up one, but still an ammo shack, where bombers and fighters can resupply.
In FS 2 however...

[Droid803]

More accurately, an Orion is an moving ammo shack/barracks in FS1. Its more like a mobile base than a warship.

[Demetrious]

The Fenris is horrible because even by FS1 it was an OLD ship.  It was serving very early on in the 14 Year War, as early as from day one.  The Leviathan was an uparmored version to make up for the fact that the Fenris was generally outclassed in a lot of fire fights.  I'm betting they kept using them because they made a ton of them.

I think the FS1 Tech room description of the Fenris is revealing of the intended (story) nature of FS1 Capital ship combat: "The Fenris was designed as a strike cruiser, hence the decent speed and decent turning radius," or something to that effect, which implies that manuvering is important when you're fighting with blob turrets. Cruisers are small enough that they can slip in underneath a destroyers blind spots; areas where the cruiser would have greater firepower concentration against the destroyer then the destroyer would have against it. Also, though it isn't as blatantly apparent as it is with the hard-to-miss beam cannons of FS2, FS1 ships do indeed have "primary" batteries- the "Main Turret" of the Cain, the "Large Turrets" of the Orion, and the Fenris has it's fusion mortar. Being able to swiftly bring your primary weapons to bear while avoiding the enemies main batteries is vitally important.

That sounded more insightful and interesting when I though of it a few minutes ago.

As has been said elsewhere, the in-game weakness of capital ships is because of gameplay balance issues. Hornets are so devastating against naked hulls because they were balanced to be used against shielded fighters.

[Mars]

The Fenris does kick cruiser ass in FS1, pit it against an Aten or even a Cain, for it's armor it does a whole lot of damage.

It'll even kill a wing of unshielded Seths

[Polpolion]

Ships like the orion carry the fighters around, ships like the Aeolus escort those destroyers, ships like the deimos destroy those escort cruisers like the Aeolus, and ships like the orion kill the ships like the deimos and carry around fighters which are killed by the aeolus.

You see, it's all a huge, complex, dynamic game of rock-paper-scissors where people can add things like "a-bombs" and "armor piercing 30mm bullets" into the game.

[Phoenova]

Is there any way to make blob turrets better?  Id love to have what they fire move at about 3x the speed that they do now, firing faster as well.  I think it would be cool to see a Typhon vs Orion battle in terms of what capships are supposed to be able to do, not ones that are slowed down for the sake of the player 

[jr2]

OK, hold off and think for a second.  Grab an Apollo or a Valkyrie fighter.  And some ML-16s.  And some Tempests or Rockeyes.  Shut down your shields.  Now try it. 

[ShadowGorrath]

Is there any way to make blob turrets better?  Id love to have what they fire move at about 3x the speed that they do now, firing faster as well.  I think it would be cool to see a Typhon vs Orion battle in terms of what capships are supposed to be able to do, not ones that are slowed down for the sake of the player 

Mod the weapons.tbl a bit and you'll have that effect. Also, add more damage to those weapons. Plus, in the ships.tbl trible the capital ship HP. Then have fun trying to survive the crossfire.