[Pegasus V]

In real life, the largest ships on the sea are cargo vessels and tankers.


I think it would be much better that if anyone was going to make any transport models for Freespace, they should be really big (in the order of 1-2km's). The more stuff you can carry per trip, the more economical it is, that's why it takes place today. In space, the economical aspect will be enhanced, so we really need large transports. The largest transport in FS2 is the Triton at about 300m.



What are your opinions? Is bigger better?

[vadar_1]

okok uh

The bigger a ship is in space, the easier it is to detect, the slower it goes, therefor, the more suseptable to attack and raid it is. Therefor, a faster, more manuverable ship can evade such threats. Additionally, cargo depots are different then they are today. They are tightly packed groups of containers that only smaller ships can pick up.

[Pegasus V]

Perhaps, behind enemy lines, the civilian transport/cargo ships could be like this.

Plus, 600,000 ground troops were deployed on Cygnus Prime to retake the planet from NTF occupation. That would take about 1100 Argos or that poor ole Argo would have to make plenty of trips. Alternatively, the troops could have been deployed from an Orion. Let's say that this Orion could hold 5,000 ground troops, you'd still need 120 destroyers! I don't think the GTVA has that many destroyers... We need some big transports meezathinks.

[vadar_1]

Sure now youd need 600,000 troops with our primitive weapons, but they could probably liberate a planet with maybe 200 or so. Maybe 100 per argo, 1 argo devoted to equipment, thats 3 transports. Maybe throw in some decoys, send them on seperate vectors of attack. Hell, they could destroy all the enemy troops with orbital bombardments, then send down a colony ship.

[Megadude]

vadar, that number is ridiculous.  No way 200 troops would work..maybe if they were fighting primitive people.  Rememvber tech works both way.  when the offense goes up so does defense.

[Megadude]

IMO transports are absolutely necessary.  This problem willl be taken care of soon. (as in a new model..as long as someone is willing to texture it)

[Pegasus V]

Originally posted by vadar_1
Sure now youd need 600,000 troops with our primitive weapons, but they could probably liberate a planet with maybe 200 or so. Maybe 100 per argo, 1 argo devoted to equipment, thats 3 transports. Maybe throw in some decoys, send them on seperate vectors of attack. Hell, they could destroy all the enemy troops with orbital bombardments, then send down a colony ship.

I don't quite understand what your saying, but the 600,000 troop figure is canon. It happened in the first mission of the FS2 campaign.

Originally posted by Megadude
...(as in a new model..as long as someone is willing to texture it)

Cool! Can we see some screenshots of it? (even if it's untextured)

[ShadowWolf_IH]

i don't think they used transports at all....i think it was magic.  

ok now we shut that voice up and never let it type again.

I have to agree with pegasus and mega, although i can't see a ship that large actually making planetfall, it is a sound idea for civilian use.  For heavy combat areas, such as securing a planet, i can see it launching many smaller transports.  Kind of like the normandy invasion.  It serves two purposes.  

1.  it will land,
and
2.  if small ships get destroyed you have only lost part of the landing force.  

However, i doubt that a convoy of argo's and Elysiums were used to move everyone through space.  I think that they may have been brought in on a few destroyers, and on some of the larger transports.  I realize that this is contradictory.  But really......the transport waits in a neighboring system, the argo's depart and make planetfall, the surviving argo's go back for another load.  

This makes sense, it keeps the large transport out of harms way, yet gets the maximum troops delivered.  I think the reasoning is sound.

[Hawkeye]

I must agree with ShadowWolf, i don´t think they use huge transport due to the posibility of the lost of all the troops if they receive only one heavy attack. So definitevely many samaller ships are better.

But, i also believe that infantry engagements are suppose to be rare, I believe the attacks might be focused on fighter or bomber rounds, until the resistance is eliminated.

[Megadude]

Cool! Can we see some screenshots of it?

Well...i just thought about doing such a ship only after i saw this thread.  So that means it's just an idea in my head.

I agree that shouldn't be a gigantic ship, but it should be a chunky blocky ship about the size of a corvette.  A fleet of these with good protection would work.  These should be heavily armored and have mediocre firepower.

But, i also believe that infantry engagements are suppose to be rare, I believe the attacks might be focused on fighter or bomber rounds, until the resistance is eliminated.

We're talking about more than just infantry.  What about armor and mechs (they're sure to have them)?  Besides, bombers and fighters can only do so much; don't forget about intelligent airspace defense.  I honestly think the air is more protected than the ground in freespace.


Agree or disagree

[Pegasus V]

I think big ships are essential. I'd say 2-3km long troop ships each carrying 100,000 ground troops and the essential tools (mechs, tanks, etc). These ships wouldn't need many defenses as they're only deployed when an area/system is secure.

There are a couple of ways to transport the troops to the surface that I've thought up:

• Individual Orbital Sky Dive . This is probably the best, cheapest method of transporting troops to a planet's surface on mass. If you've never heard of orbital sky diving, I suggest you investigate on the net
  
• Drop Ships . Many drop ships would need to be deployed from the capital ship to deliver the troops. It would have to be done in waves though, which would be time consuming.
  
• Segmental Planetary Ascent/Landing . The mothership would separate into several small pieces, which are all designed to land on the surface to deliver the troops to the ground. This ship would of course be very expensive to manufacture.
  
• Capital Ship Landing . This is certainly the optimal method. However, it would be more expensive to create a ship of this size that could land on a habitable planet's surface than the previous suggestion.
  

[Megadude]

These ships wouldn't need many defenses as they're only deployed when an area/system is secure.

Good point.  

People should comment more ont his topic

[vadar_1]

Originally posted by Pegasus V
Capital Ship Landing . This is certainly the optimal method. However, it would be more expensive to create a ship of this size that could land on a habitable planet's surface than the previous suggestion.
 

IIRC, the Victory-class star destroyer can land on planets (at least hold a low orbit, allowing smaller veichles to quickly drop out of the hanger, a drop maybe a hundred feet or so), and the empire has tons of those things. Maybe your frying pans cant handle atmospheric flight, but you never know if current fs2 ships can.

[Pegasus V]

Originally posted by vadar_1
IIRC, the Victory-class star destroyer can land on planets (at least hold a low orbit, allowing smaller veichles to quickly drop out of the hanger, a drop maybe a hundred feet or so), and the empire has tons of those things. Maybe your frying pans cant handle atmospheric flight, but you never know if current fs2 ships can.

In Star Wars, they've been roaming the galaxy for millenia (8,000 years meezathinks), so they've had plenty and I mean plenty of time to perfect their technology. Terrans have only just flirted with interstellar space for about 100 years, so I would imagine, they have a long way to go before landing a 2km long vessel on a terrestrial world.

[karajorma]

I wouldn`t be so certain of that. I`m guessing that FS2 ships use some sort of gravitational principle to move. If that is the case then probably all the FS2 ships can manouver in an atmosphere. We don`t see them do it in FS2 cause of engine limitations and cause there was no good reason for any of them to do it

[ShadowWolf_IH]

I think that the entire idea is a novel concept and one worth pursuing.  One large transport which brings the smaller ships to the combat area, then launches them into it.   of possibilities here, especially when we consider the size of such ships.

[karajorma]

You would either need a very large hanger or fixed source code that allows multiple ships to be docked though.

[LtNarol]

Orbital sky diving? How would the soldiers survive reintry? Theres a reason why smaller asteriods never hit the surface of the earth.

What you will see in my campaign is the use of assault shuttles, dropships with containers that are dumped upon contact, and your favorite drop pods which will be deployed from destroyers and carriers in orbit.

[Nico]

I just read the 2 or 3 first posts so if someone already said that, well... I don't care in fact, so anyway:
ok, a transport is a civilian ship, who cares if it can be detected, can't maneuver or anything. Last time I've checked, you don't use a supertanker for war, it's for commercial purposes. Is there only military life in FS2, or have I missed something?
Pegasus V is right, if you want to move a lot of goods, you need a big ship, or you'll waste a lot of money, period.

[Solatar]

In case you haven't noticed all of the freighters (Almost) in fs2 are of Civilian origin. And they get attacked on all the time. If a huge oil tanker gets destroyed, then thats a lot of money lost.