Preface:Again, if you'd like me to stop posting these at all, please don't hesitate to say so. I greatly respect and admire the incredible work done by the BP team, and I have faith in their direction and continued work. This is just a bunch of ideas, questions, and thoughts about (potentially) various aspects of the BP 'vese, including gameplay.
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Now, this batch will be a lot more concise than last time, and it won't include everything I've got up to this point, just a selection of some of my (hopefully) more relevant and thought-out ideas/questions.
1) UEF SSM's:
I feel like this is the UEF's best shot at fending off the GTVA while preserving as many of its remaining ships as possible and not putting a significant strain on the remaining production/logistical capability.
It's right up the UEF's alley. They've got massive stockpiles of powerful anti-matter torpedoes, and those torpedoes (in their various forms) are practically ubiquitous in the UEF's forces. In this case, they need to merely modify existing torpedoes (or just keep the warheads and replace the engine/booster section) with a one-time-use intrasystem jump drive. The harder task would probably be developing a TAG-C equivalent missile, but it wouldn't have to be as good--so long as it's adequate, it's effective overall.
This way, heavy anti-ship firepower can be readily brought to bear without deploying capital ships straight into battle. Like with existing SSM's, it's not at all as good as having the actual capital ship in the fight, but it's a significant threat under many circumstances, and can provide the heavy blows against ships that have already been softened up by fighters.
As for justifying it from a lore perspective:
A) Defection of several advanced GTVA ships at the very beginning of the war, including one of the GTL's--meaning several working examples of TAG-C's (or at least TAG-B's) and Eos/SSM torpedoes, as well as a number of people who are at least somewhat knowledgeable about them.
B) They should have the expertise and experience to develop SSM's within an 18-month time frame. Their network of intrasystem jump gates is a testament to their experience and skill in unconventional application of intrasystem jumping capability.
C) It is logistically and financially efficient.
D) It is strategically valuable as both a weapon and a deterrent, even at the beginning of the war.
E) The UEF has extensive experience with making many different variants of anti-matter bombs and torpedoes, if the Warhammer cluster bombs, the long-range Narayana torpedoes, spammable heavy antimater Solaris torpedoes, and standard Karuna Apocalypse torpedoes are any indication.
F) Building up a supply of them could be done in a somewhat subtle, decentralized process.
G) It is very helpful in preserving existing ships and heavy bombers.
2) The Raynor:
It's something of a glass cannon designed as a front-line battleship, and as a result it doesn't really work efficiently or effectively in the roles it is used in.
It's got a mere 140,000 hull points, which is 40K less than a Solaris and only 5K more than a Titan. However, its armament, shape, and turret configuration is clearly designed for slugging it out on the front lines against multiple ships at once (from different directions). Its forward firing power is much less than that of the Titan's, and its heavy direct-beam cannons are configured in such a way that they can't all be brought to bear on the same target from
any angle (IIRC), and yet they only cover a relatively narrow field of fire anyway. It has quite a few blue slash beams, I know, but against ships that aren't directly in front or in front and somewhat above the Raynor, those are the
only beams that can be brought to bear.
Its one HBlue is rather underwhelming for its implied drawbacks over the BBlue.
Its fighterbay is relatively small for a destroyer.
It is pretty vulnerable from a large area to the rear of the ship. And its somewhat small numbers of launched torpedoes can be intercepted relatively easily.
The only way it would defeat a Titan in a duel is if it started behind the Titan in ideal firing position.
It's like a scaled-down Colossus in terms of armament and layout (relatively speaking), but it lacks the durability to act in the same role.
I think it needs a small change in its turret layout and armament--the HBlue could remain the same, but perhaps it should have four BBlue's mounted around each of the sides of the sloped "triangle", with a few MBlue's mounted at the sides and rear area of the ship (or maybe on the underside of its "fins", which would give them a great field of fire).
Additionally--though perhaps it would be imbalanced to go all the way on both of these areas--it should be made more durable; if it is designed and deployed as a frontline-combatant that can slug it out with multiple ships at once, then it should have a lot more durability than a significantly smaller fleet carrier (that boasts much heavier forward firepower). I mean, the FS1 Orion destroyers had 2/3rds of the Raynor's durability, and those destroyers (and their designs) were over fifty years old and lacked any Shivan tech to reverse-engineer or Vasudan experts to collaborate with. It's very underwhelming; had the Atreus not been able to quickly jump away in "Darkest Hour", I doubt it would have lasted very long at all.
3) Where is the Hyperion class?
It's odd; we see all of the most modern GTVA ships at various points in WiH...except for the Hyperion. The only terran cruisers seen or mentioned are the quite-outdated Leviathan and Aeolus classes, even though the Hyperion was designed to replace all of them (and fill each of their roles well). Given the range of their two (direct fire!) SBlue's, good point defenses, and excellent subspace maneuverability, it would be a great asset to use against Sanctus's and Karunas (only when supported, obviously).
...and they're really cool ships. And I'm very tired of of the Fenris and Leviathan classes...
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Once more, I don't mean to presume or give any impression of self-importance here; my hope is that I can help (or amuse positively) in some way whilst putting these random thoughts/ideas to rest (or feedback/criticism, as the case might be).
Thank you
