[hxazgalor]

Just finished FSPort again today, and now I have a few questions I need to ask.

1. So Sol actually had three subspace jump nodes from three different systems (one being Delta Serpentis). How did the Lucifer's destruction bring about the collapse of not just the Sol-Delta Serpentis node, but all of them? Or was this later changed for FS2?

2. How was intersystem communications possible in both FS1 & 2? Did they need stations like the Aquilae Comms station to relay messages between systems? How could they not be able to try reestablishing comms with Sol?

3. Where IS Command? Because it was never really stated where Command is located; or perhaps Command is merely the Bridge of whichever ship you're stationed on at the time (in the case of FS1, but not FS2). Is that so?

Thanks guys.

[Kie99]

1) Never really confirmed, jump node placing is pretty inconsistent between FS1 and FS2.  The implication of FS1 is that the Lucifer going up destroyed all jump nodes from Sol, but that doesn't seem to be a concern in FS2 with the Bastion/Nereid plan

2) Subspace communication, which is why there was minimal contact with Sol post FS1.  If I remember rightly there was something in the tech room about declassified transmissions immediately after the Lucifer went up indicating that the mission had been successful.

2) I think in both games you can actually see the Command guy in the main hall of the ship you're on.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

I think in FS2 Command is actually located in 3rd Fleet HQ, I seem to remember his messages coming from there in Dunkerque. (Not 100% sure though, it could just be a memory fart on my part.)

[AdmiralRalwood]

The Sol-Deneb jump node is only ever seen in one CBAnim, and the same CBAnim and one other are the only ones that show the Sol-Beta Aquilae jump node. Given the general inconsistencies, they're not normally considered canon.

[Rheyah]

Command is all seeing.  Command is all knowing.

Command is EVERYWHERE.

Pilot.

[Goober5000]

Mad Bomber proposed the concept of phasing jump nodes, which are nodes that go through regular periods of stability and instability.  Silent Threat: Reborn uses this concept, and added the idea (which was also independently conceived by Snail) that phasing nodes are dependent on perpetually stable nodes.  Thus the collapse of the only stable jump node in Sol caused the phasing nodes to also collapse.  This idea is given very tenuous support by the cutscene narration in FreeSpace that says, "All the jump points from Earth are gone."

The canonical Silent Threat, as well as FreeSpace 2, just retcon the situation to say that there was only ever one single jump node in Sol.

[Mongoose]

Regarding #2, there's been a lot of fan speculation over the years as to why the GTVA didn't use simple light-based transmissions (radio, laser, whatever) with Sol, especially given that it'd be "only" a three-year trip one-way from Alpha Centauri.  Some of the possibilities raised have been that there's some sort of phenomenon in-between them that renders signals impossible to send...or more ominously, that the GTVA actually did contact Sol, but classified the results.

[qwadtep]

Or the technology never existed, as the discovery of subspace which presented the need for communication over such distances also provided the solution that rendered subluminal transmissions obsolete. The gap between FS1 and FS2 may simply have been too short for both sides to engineer a means of communication and establish a dialogue.

[hxazgalor]

That's quite a lot of theories/possibilities. Thanks!

But the bit about the GTVA not trying to reestablish contact with Sol bugs me. It IS their homeworld, so why not engineer some means of communications. Of course, we do need to consider that the gap between FS1 and FS2 isn't particularly big. But still, with technological progresses being made rapidly even in this day and age...

...one can only wonder.

And, IMHO, if the GTVA decide to classify all attempts to make contact with Sol, I suppose that could fit in well with the BP universe.

[mjn.mixael]

I always intended to explore that Sol communication thing by way of a reconstruction era story. Maybe in a BtA sequel... Dunno if I have another campaign in me though.

[NGTM-1R]

3. Where IS Command? Because it was never really stated where Command is located; or perhaps Command is merely the Bridge of whichever ship you're stationed on at the time (in the case of FS1, but not FS2). Is that so?

Command is presumably a fighter-direction officer somewhere; probably aboard your mothership, but not necessarily.

[headdie]

3. Where IS Command? Because it was never really stated where Command is located; or perhaps Command is merely the Bridge of whichever ship you're stationed on at the time (in the case of FS1, but not FS2). Is that so?

Command is presumably a fighter-direction officer somewhere; probably aboard your mothership, but not necessarily.

This would be my assumption as well, most likely in the ship's equivalent of a CIC so the face of "command" normally would be a Junior to mid ranking officer, capable of making some decisions for themselves but expected to enact the overall battle plan and relay changes in strategy from more senior officers.

[mjn.mixael]

That's exactly what I went with in BtA... sort of. I considered it a long-range command only. So if the player's command ship is in the field, it gives all orders. If this is an 'away mission' the player talks to Command instead. Not that it really makes a big difference to the game, but that's the interpretation I went with this time.

[Trivial Psychic]

I'm pretty sure that Command is NOT based on the Aquitaine, as evidenced by the 2 missions where you have to protect the destroyer in the nebula.  Command gives the Aquitaine orders, as opposed to the ship simply running things.  Based on "Dunkerque", one could assume that Command is based out of 3rd-fleet HQ, but Command is still the same guy no matter what system you're fighting in.  Based on the fact that "Command" is the same guy no matter what time of the day it is, I'm assuming that what you're seeing and hearing is in fact something like a holographic overlay, so that in whatever system, at whatever time of day, you always hear and see the same guy, but its actually someone else disguised by the holo-overlay.

[hxazgalor]

Those are some interesting theories, particularly the one where Command's image is just a hologram.

[headdie]

I'm pretty sure that Command is NOT based on the Aquitaine, as evidenced by the 2 missions where you have to protect the destroyer in the nebula.  Command gives the Aquitaine orders, as opposed to the ship simply running things.  Based on "Dunkerque", one could assume that Command is based out of 3rd-fleet HQ, but Command is still the same guy no matter what system you're fighting in.  Based on the fact that "Command" is the same guy no matter what time of the day it is, I'm assuming that what you're seeing and hearing is in fact something like a holographic overlay, so that in whatever system, at whatever time of day, you always hear and see the same guy, but its actually someone else disguised by the holo-overlay.

to extrapolate slightly, given the presumable state of computing at the time setting of FS, "Command" could be the front end of a battlespace management program/AI similar to EVA in the Command & Conquer Tiberium story arc?

[Megawolf492]

Regarding #2, there's been a lot of fan speculation over the years as to why the GTVA didn't use simple light-based transmissions (radio, laser, whatever) with Sol, especially given that it'd be "only" a three-year trip one-way from Alpha Centauri.  Some of the possibilities raised have been that there's some sort of phenomenon in-between them that renders signals impossible to send...or more ominously, that the GTVA actually did contact Sol, but classified the results.

Or maybe the GT(V)A did send communications, but never got any message back. So either Sol is now an anarchy (or at least was during the time that the communications would have been received) or whoever is in control doesn't want to talk to the outside for some reason.

Based on the fact that "Command" is the same guy no matter what time of the day it is.......

Maybe they are clones

[NGTM-1R]

So are your wingmen. You see the same faces and same voices even if they die.

[Mars]

Maybe command is some type of merged mind?

[hxazgalor]

The thought of Command and the pilots being clones is.... disturbing.