To be honest I don't understand why certain people think of destroyers as oversized corvettes intended to jump in, destroy a target and then jump out. That's not what destroyers are supposed to do. They're the center of a battlegroup and their launch/recovery capabilities are not to be wasted.
Obviously, in case of attack, destroyers should have enough weaponry to disencourage corvette sized warships and below...yet still, it doesn't mean the "typical" scenario involving a destroyer is a capship versus capship battle.
For the SD Ravana, it would. Sure, its got launch and recovery capabilities as well, but if its not attacking something, chances are its dead. On the offensive, it can bring its four main beams against a single target, vaporize it in seconds, then leave. However, if it were to just sit back and launch fighters, it would be over if it got attacked by a Sobek and a few bomber wings, as illustrated by the FS2 campaign. The Ravana took out the majority of a battlegroup in a surprise offensive, but fell to a single corvette and a bomber wing when itself was attacked.
Yes, I do know that this is an extreme case, and that the Ravana is only suited to Shivan strategies of using their warships as overwhelming anti-warship on the offensive. Additionally, a battle involving a Ravana attacking anything can hardly be regarded as a 'balanced' battle unless Alpha One is there to take out the main beams.
Indeed the GTVA would probably refrain from committing destroyers to combat other destroyers unless absolutely necessary, or unless there is a good chance of coming out on top with minimal damage.
Then FreeSpace has no true front-line warship.
There's the Colossus, but oh wait, it was destroyed.
Neither does real life.
Well, there was up until WW2. Before, there were Battleships which were meant to be able to take down essentially anything that tried to attack them.
The advent of the carrier changed all that, with most Battleships being sunk before they were in range to even fire off a shot.
Well, this is also true in Freespace, how ships can be completely neutered by a bomber wing long before they come into beam range - even a subspace jump away, in the case of the first SJ Sathanas.
So yeah, I guess that the Hecate's superior anti-fighter power would make it superior to the Orion, as fighters and bombers are the real things that do damage. In the 'battlegroup' system, the Hecate (Navy carrier equivalent) would optimally have the escort of Corvettes and cruisers (Navy destroyer equivalent) to fend off enemy attacks. An attack by another destroyer would just be handled by its bomber wings. The fire support is largely unnecessary when you have a wing of Ursas loaded with Helios that can destroy the entirety of the opposing warship's armament and proceed to level it in less time than it would take for return fire to do the same thing.
