Hyperion early years as per the series

[Voronesh]

Id put the Early era ends with the EM war.

Then the whole fleets gets a massive overhaul, simply because there are so few ships left over. Giving the hwole thing a VERY clean cut. Instead of the usual huge mix and match normally seen.

But yes MGP has screwed up with the weapons fluff. There is alot of weaponry around where it shouldnt be..... :S

Especially the lasers. We dont see any of them really use during "in the beginning". And fluff also states that laser weaponry was bought form the Narn during that period. So beam ships should only appear on early era refits..

But thats just my 0.02 creds

 

[captainsmirk]

Incidentally, where does the third age start? at 2258, or immediately after the war?

At least as early as 2250, the in service date for the Omega.

Nick

 

[captainsmirk]

Especially the lasers. We dont see any of them really use during "in the beginning". And fluff also states that laser weaponry was bought form the Narn during that period. So beam ships should only appear on early era refits..

A Nova firing lasers in In the Beginning for your persusal sir:

Although this shot also shows several Omegas...

We have lasers now, I find it almost insulting that we need to buy a big simple weapons technology like that off an alien race 200 years into the future.

Nick

 

[Voronesh]

Well yes, a Nova firing lasers. So we have small lasers possibly for EA pre EMwar.

So EA didnt have big laser tech researched before the EM war.

But it might also be a strong targeting laser. And the presence of Omegas is a further screwup from the CGI department, and often these Omegas are done as prototype and accompanying tasting beds.

And if you find it insulting that EA has to buy tech at all. Well EA buys and gets its tech from everywhere but its own departements for its Crusade era ships.......

 

[emperorpenguin]

personally I consider it a screw up that the Clarkstown fires a laser from a pulse turret too

I'd much prefer Hyperions to be solely pulse weapon armed

 

[captainsmirk]

Well it was more the idea that the EA bought laser tech as a whole, rather than just the heavy laser design...

Thats what it was in B5wars, although I still fail to see why they couldn't have worked that one out for themselves. Plus G'Kar said they would sell weapons of Centauri design so as not incriminate themselves. The heavy laser isn't a Centuari weapon, especially if certain other threads are anything to go by...

Nick

 

[Slightly Norse John]

The Nova had Laser/Pulse Arrays from the time it entered service, around 2220, didn't it? The Oracle had medium lasers in a boresight from 2216. EA didn't buy the technology, they bought the impementation.
No question though, there should have been separate stat sheets for the changing loadout on the Hyperion. I thought that was going to be the whole point of splitting the fleet list into eras.
Other notable issues- thirty years before the Dilgar War, the Olympus has pulse cannon. Hmmm.
Trying to put some sort of shape to this,
Missiles are available from 2165.
Particle beams and particle guns are more or less galactic common property.
First contact- 2150?- introduced Earth to what was available to the Centauri at the time, but they don't seem to have done much about copying it- unless that is where the particle guns come from.
Railguns are available from 2190 at the latest.
Plasma cannon are also early weapons, light lasers perhaps the early 23rd century.
So we have very early earth ships with light all round particle guns and missiles for the heavy weapon, then plasma weapons start to replace the particle beams, carrying more hitting power.
Heavy plasma cannon are probably Earth's first double damage weapon, but are gradually replaced, first on smaller ships then spreading up the scale, by railguns.
Lasers begin to supplement missiles as main weapons early in the 2200s, the first ship with a mainly laser armament probably is the Nova.
Pulse cannon are an acquisition of the Dilgar War, neater, more efficient and easier to mount in numbers; larger, nastier versions appear as main weapons on some ships. Bolter research proves largely abortive- the ravages of the Earth-Minbari war don't help. During that war, in an attempt to stave off the far superior Minbari, Earth buys in heavier laser weapons from the Narn; they replace heavy pulse cannon and light and medium lasers, in the aftermath of the war.
What a shame Mongoose chose not to take the time and effort to set up a genuine progression.

 

[captainsmirk]

The Nova had Laser/Pulse Arrays from the time it entered service, around 2220, didn't it?

Well that depends on whether you take the ACTA or B5wars stats. In B5wars prior to 2240 something it had Med lasers only.

Nick

 

[blackphoenix]

And the early Olympus had plasma instead of pulse cannons.

 

[Slightly Norse John]

The ACtA version doesn't, though;
replace the pulse cannon with
Plasma Cannon, range 8, AP twin linked; 4AD each F, P, S?
My B5W is far too far under the bed to be worth digging out to check, I'm going by ACtA stat, and it's rightness or wrongness is sort of the point at issue, really.
LPA's must be post Dilgar war; but given the medium laser's stats in ACtA, this change makes little or no sense. The fluff text says 2240, the stats say 2220- so we need accurate stats for the pre-2240 Nova.

 

[Iain McGhee]

I've seen stats for the pre-2240 Nova (B5 tech, various PC versions) where it is armed with heavy Plasma Cannons, which seems reasonable to me given the older EA ships reliance on them. Don't know if that's accurate or not since I've never seen one fire a shot on the show.