[crizza]

Hm, I don't think they phase the Hecates out.
The Titan is something like a strike carrier.
Under normal condition it send her Squadrons, but if the need arises, they will jump and blast the hell out of an enemy.
The Hecate is a dedicated carrier, able to fend of enemy cruisers perhaps and I guess, they are a lot cheaper to build and maintain than Titans.

[The E]

Wrong. The Hecate is a failed design in BP continuity. A dedicated carrier is not a survivable concept, not in BP. Yes, Titans are more expensive. But they are also vastly more capable. The Hecate's many, many drawbacks mean that the class will be retired as soon as the GTVA can afford to do so.

The Hecate is a dedicated carrier, able to fend of enemy cruisers perhaps and I guess, they are a lot cheaper to build and maintain than Titans.

Only if said Cruiser is a) terminally stupid and comes out of subspace in front of the Hecate, b) the Cruiser isn't a Lilith, and c) the Cruiser comes in unsupported. Hecates cannot defend themselves adequately if they get jumped.

[General Battuta]

Crizza's right, though - the Hecate is not going anywhere soon if only because it's a capable fighter platform and the GTVA needs those.

[crizza]

Hm, if the Hecate is a failed design...
Does it have one or two wings of bombers on standby, to buy time as her jump drives charge?

[Deadly in a Shadow]

Hm, if the Hecate is a failed design...
Does it have one or two wings of bombers on standby, to buy time as her jump drives charge?

Well, I wonder if the Phoenicia had some bomber wings while the destroyer was about to get grill'd by the Sathanas...

[LordPomposity]

Hm, if the Hecate is a failed design...
Does it have one or two wings of bombers on standby, to buy time as her jump drives charge?

Well, I wonder if the Phoenicia had some bomber wings while the destroyer was about to get grill'd by the Sathanas...

In Soviet Gamma Draconis, Hecate buys time for YOU!

[Scotty]

Of course the Phoenicia had bomber support.  They had an entire squadron of Sekhmets engaging the Sathanas at the same time.  Granted, that's not the Phoenicia's own complement, but the game had to use the player in that mission somehow.

[General Battuta]

Of course the Phoenicia had bomber support.  They had an entire squadron of Sekhmets engaging the Sathanas at the same time.  Granted, that's not the Phoenicia's own complement, but the game had to use the player in that mission somehow.

There were Sekhmets in that mission?

[Dragon]

A whole wing of Bakhas. 

[Deadly in a Shadow]

Of course the Phoenicia had bomber support.  They had an entire squadron of Sekhmets engaging the Sathanas at the same time.  Granted, that's not the Phoenicia's own complement, but the game had to use the player in that mission somehow.

There were Sekhmets in that mission?

Yes, one of the few (if not the only) mission where you can fly a Sekhmet.

[MatthTheGeek]

How long has it been since you played the retail campaign ?

You never have the opportunity to fly the Sekhmet in retail. Not once. You only fly against it in the first SOC mission, but that's about it. All you fly in Bearbaiting and High Noon are Bakhas.

[Deadly in a Shadow]

How long has it been since you played the retail campaign ?

You never have the opportunity to fly the Sekhmet in retail. Not once. You only fly against it in the first SOC mission, but that's about it. All you fly in Bearbaiting and High Noon are Bakhas.

Damnit.

[Scotty]

Yay I confused my bombers.

I am, however, fairly sure there's more than one wing of bombers in that mission.

[MatthTheGeek]

Two wings IIRC. Doesn't really make a whole squadron, but here you go.

[-Norbert-]

Isn't the 2nd wing only send in to help in the cleanup/blockade once the Sath has jumped out?

[ZeroCooL]

Hm, if the Hecate is a failed design...
Does it have one or two wings of bombers on standby, to buy time as her jump drives charge?

Well, I wonder if the Phoenicia had some bomber wings while the destroyer was about to get grill'd by the Sathanas...

In Soviet Gamma Draconis, Hecate buys time for YOU!

 LOL



Hecate was always a horrible ship is fit for the battle between capital ships, and against the UEF is useless by itself can only launch raids, with their fighters and bombers, while she is waiting for some light years away, talking bombers,

[Astronomiya]

Due to relativistic corrections, E=mv²/2 actually exceeds E=mc² at somewhere around 87% of the speed of light (the full kinetic energy equation for a fast-moving object is E=mv²/[2*SQRT(1-v²/c²)]). The chief disadvantage of particle beams is that they would lose cohesion much more rapidly than lasers and would therefore have a much shorter range. Still, by "short range," we're talking thousands of kilometers versus several light-seconds. Not really enough of a limitation to make trouble for FS2 combat.

No it doesn't.  Relativistic KE pulls away from Newtonian KE pretty quickly as you get close to c.  The actual formula for relativistic KE is T = mc^2/sqrt(1-(v/c)^2) - mc^2, by the way.  Tell Wolfram Alpha to graph x^2/2 and 1/sqrt(1-x^2) - 1 and you'll see what I mean.

And I could have sworn that I flew a Sekhmet in bog standard retail FS2 in Bearbaiting once upon a time.  I do distinctly remember having two banks of Helios for that mission.

[Luis Dias]

T???

[Astronomiya]

T???

Yes, T.  That's honestly pretty standard usage in physics for kinetic energy.  And here's the Wolfram Alpha link for the plot.

[Luis Dias]

Neat