[CT27]

What if the Colossus had managed to jump out just before the Sathanas had destroyed it?  (and also assume that FS2 proceeded normally after that).

After Capella's sealed up and (I would assume) the Colossus gets repaired, what would the GTVA do with that vessel with no major wars to fight?

[mjn.mixael]

Terrans seize control of it and finally blast those ugly zods to ends of the galaxy.

[Mongoose]

Dekker, quit stealing other people's accounts.

[headdie]

The colossus would be maintained as a big stick to ensure peace in GTVA space (especially in the more fractious terran regions) but I don't think any more would be build as the class/concept is scary expensive and proven ineffective as a fix to the Shivan problem, the super cap concept is based around going toe-to-toe with the Shivans which would be better dealt with from a "safe" distance either with a cannon tech that out ranges beams (BP's Rail cannons would fit the bill nicely) or subspace missiles (again BP has a good use of this) mounted on a highly mobile platform (BP sprint drives any one?) to avoid it getting cornered by counter strikes.

edit

As for the threat of shielded capships like the lucy well a standard destroyer and it's fighter wing proved effective at the end of the day and now that the GTVA is on the brink of technologies to repair jump nodes it probably would not be much of an issue to have a few spare gates to hand in key systems to put together and re-establish the nodes once they collapse, which would then provide a means of regulating traffic through the node hampering future invasions into GTVA space..

[CT27]

Maybe the GTVA should make long-range destroyers like the Golgotha (BWO) or Apothess (Inferno)?

[Colonol Dekker]

Terrans seize control of it and finally blast those ugly zods to ends of the galaxy.

I wish i'd said that D:

[MatthTheGeek]

What if the Colossus had managed to jump out just before the Sathanas had destroyed it?

The Shivans would have jumped another Sath on top of wherever the Colie ended up jumping to. Colossus gets blasted anyway. End of story.

If I ever get to make that FS2 coop remake I plan to, this is how I planned Their Finest Hour to end anyway.

[headdie]

What if the Colossus had managed to jump out just before the Sathanas had destroyed it?

The Shivans would have jumped another Sath on top of wherever the Colie ended up jumping to. Colossus gets blasted anyway. End of story.

If I ever get to make that FS2 coop remake I plan to, this is how I planned Their Finest Hour to end anyway.

i'm not sure.  from the briefings i get the impression that the only reason the colly was hit so hard was because it was making a nuisance of itself hindering shivan transit from GD to Capella otherwise the shivans are only seen to be attacking in a harassing manner towards locations where GTVA ships are concentrated and rarely do they seem to press their advantage, lets face it with a 80 strong sath fleet in the area how many escort ships do they have?

 - In their finest hour the shivs throw a Ravana at the colly just to soften it up a little, 

- If they threw a second moloch at the civy escort at the start of that mission set instead of the cruisers the player would have been seriously screwed. 

- 3rd fleet HQ was attacked so slowly that the GTVA managed to evac the station in it's entirety and perform a controlled demolition, one of those saths would have killed it before they had the chance to react.

I dont think a critically damaged colly would have posed a threat and any follow up action after it jumped away from the node would have been harassing actions to tie up additional GTVA forces, killing it would have been a bonus to them, the primary concern to them was to super nova the star, the puny grey and brown ships could wait their turn.

[-Norbert-]

Unless the Colly managed to make a precision jump, very close to an outbound node, I doubt she ever would have been able to leave the system before it went nova, due to how slow she is in first place and due to the heavy damage she took from the Shivans.

[General Battuta]

You know, that would've been a decent addition to the FS2 ending, which is, thematically, about humanity's insignificance: escorting the crippled Colossus out of the system, inching towards the node...

...and then losing the Colossus when Capella went supernova because **** you

[headdie]

Unless the Colly managed to make a precision jump, very close to an outbound node, I doubt she ever would have been able to leave the system before it went nova, due to how slow she is in first place and due to the heavy damage she took from the Shivans.

hand waved because it depends on how fast the colly can recharge her jump drive, which is vague concept in FS only mentioned and loosely employed in kings gambit, but I would be extremely surprised if it was more than a few minutes per jump, more than enough time to make a crude escape jump away from the GD node, calculate a precise jump to its evac position, before escaping the system.  Given the ships size, importance, crew size and damage level, perhaps even loaded with wounded between jumps to help with the evac, it will probably be given priority departure at the node.

Note in the time between the colly's destruction and the sun going nova Alpha jumps back to the Aquitane, lands, climbs out of their fighters, briefed on the Bastion situation, climb into fresh fighters which have to be armed between the briefing and their scramble because the player can determine their loadout before the mission start, scramble, jump to the Bastion, deal with that drawn out ordeal before jumping to the Vega node and spend ages there fending off over excited shivan fighters, bombers and cruisers.

You know, that would've been a decent addition to the FS2 ending, which is, thematically, about humanity's insignificance: escorting the crippled Colossus out of the system, inching towards the node...

...and then losing the Colossus when Capella went supernova because **** you

an interesting perspective, i like where that is heading.

[Rodo]

Colly surviving?, mmmm..


Hey the Colly has a meson reactor or a regular one?

[General Battuta]

I don't think meson reactors exist in canon FS2 but I could be wrong

[headdie]

I am pretty sure it's hinted at that the colly uses fusion reactors or some other power source that uses deuterium, perhaps that mission where you are escorting the supply convoy through the NTF booby trapped asteroid field

[Rodo]

Na I think you are right, my brains just flipped there.

[headdie]

well we are exploring Colossus what ifs so brain flips welcome

[el_magnifico]

What if the Colossus had managed to jump out just before the Sathanas had destroyed it?

The Shivans would have jumped another Sath on top of wherever the Colie ended up jumping to. Colossus gets blasted anyway. End of story.

If I ever get to make that FS2 coop remake I plan to, this is how I planned Their Finest Hour to end anyway.

Why? She poses no threat to the Shivans while fleeing. The Alliance is already running away, so diverting more resources from whatever the Sath fleet was doing to Capella, which seems to be critical considering all the hassle the Shivans went through to get 80+ Juggernauts there, doesn't seems strategically sound to me.

Unless the Colly managed to make a precision jump, very close to an outbound node, I doubt she ever would have been able to leave the system before it went nova, due to how slow she is in first place and due to the heavy damage she took from the Shivans.

I thought the Colossus was actually faster than every destroyer in the game.

I am pretty sure it's hinted at that the colly uses fusion reactors or some other power source that uses deuterium, perhaps that mission where you are escorting the supply convoy through the NTF booby trapped asteroid field

In that mission, the Colossus jumped very close to a node in order to blockade it. It was calculated. It seems to me that she has the capability to perform very precise jumps (which makes sense considering the importance and economical cost of that ship).

So an escape from the system seems quite possible to me.

[BengalTiger]

The Colossus surviving FreeSpace 2 would have been similar to the Yamato defeating the big @$$ US Navy air strike that was meant to sink it and surviving WW II.

This would mean that battleships would still be seen serving alongside aircraft carriers.

The fact the Big C survived in this alternative history would pretty much prove supercaps are the way to go, being the only ship that blew up a Sathanas and managed to get away with it.
The real problem would be that there is only a single one of them, and that it barely made it out alive...

I would expect FS 3 to have a fleet of several SuperColossus class ships, complete with heat sinks designed to handle overpowered beams, the ability to fire at even longer ranges, and with the beams placed in a way to allow the use of all the "main gun" ones in a broadside (or head on), as well as giving wide fields of fire in case the Shivans managed to get better firing positions.
These superjuggernauts would also need some big hangars and lots of Flak guns, as it was proven in FS 2 that the Shivans have endless supplies of fighters and bombers.

The original Colossus might even be retired as soon as the first GTVA superjug entered service, or be used for propaganda while the new ones are stored in some far away world, waiting for the next Shivan invasion.

How this method would work against 80 SSJ Dante class ships (or whatever the Shivans come up with next) is anyone's guess.

[MatthTheGeek]

That is based on the assumption that a post-Capella GTVA would had the resources to mass-produce ships even larger and more advanced than the ship that took them two decades to build. Then again, the economic state of the post-FS2 GTVA is anyone's guess.

[Polpolion]

The Colossus surviving FreeSpace 2 would have been similar to the Yamato defeating the big @$$ US Navy air strike that was meant to sink it and surviving WW II.

This would mean that battleships would still be seen serving alongside aircraft carriers.

The fact the Big C survived in this alternative history would pretty much prove supercaps are the way to go, being the only ship that blew up a Sathanas and managed to get away with it.
The real problem would be that there is only a single one of them, and that it barely made it out alive...

I would expect FS 3 to have a fleet of several SuperColossus class ships, complete with heat sinks designed to handle overpowered beams, the ability to fire at even longer ranges, and with the beams placed in a way to allow the use of all the "main gun" ones in a broadside (or head on), as well as giving wide fields of fire in case the Shivans managed to get better firing positions.
These superjuggernauts would also need some big hangars and lots of Flak guns, as it was proven in FS 2 that the Shivans have endless supplies of fighters and bombers.

The original Colossus might even be retired as soon as the first GTVA superjug entered service, or be used for propaganda while the new ones are stored in some far away world, waiting for the next Shivan invasion.

How this method would work against 80 SSJ Dante class ships (or whatever the Shivans come up with next) is anyone's guess.

it was a sath (another juggernaut) that killed the collie. maybe if 90 Iowas ( ) had killed the yamato your parallel would be relevant but even then it wouldn't prove the point you're making.

you seem to be confusing fs1 themes with fs2 things, it seems like. in fs1 you saw the rise of the fighter as a viable platform with things like shields and huge bombs. They go from pitiful little deathtraps to neigh invulnerable ships against capships. In fs2 capships can stave off defeat a bit longer with AAA beams and flak, but the message is the same as at the end of fs1.