FreeSpace Wiki - User contributions [en]

Typical FREDding mistakes

2009-04-27T21:14:48Z

LuaPineapple: Edited ship names so it's clearer that Suck My Balls is a shipname and not a command. :P

:('''Written by:''' Karajorma. Taken from the original source with the following alterations: spellchecking, Wikifying)
----

In the last few months of working on the FRED Academy I've tested a whole load of missions by very new FREDders and I've noticed that often it's the same mistakes that come up time and time again. Rather than continually repeating myself I figured it might be an idea to have a little list of some of the more common FREDding mistakes I've seen.
 
13) Poor spelling and grammar 
I've not been that hard on this one while playtesting cause

a) I'm not that observent and 
b) Spellchecking is something I feel should be done last of all 
c) I understand that many people here are not native English speakers.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to correct those things as you go along. When a mission is complete, this leaps from being a low-grade annoyance to a very big one. Completed missions should never ship with obvious spelling errors in them. If English isn't your first language, ask for some help.
 
12) No use of the Y-axis 
Ever seen ''Star Trek II : Wrath of Khan''? Ever got the feeling that the captains of all the ships in a mission haven't? They're all arranged on the XZ plane. No ships diving in from above or nipping in from below. While it's believable that a small convoy of ships might arrange themselves this way so as to spread their flak above and below them effectively it's harder to believe that enemy ships jumping in would somehow know what plane they were on and leap in on it.
 
11) Poorly chained directives 
This is quite a common one. If you forget to chain your Return to Base Objective it will appear at the start of the mission. FreeSpace is clever enough to avoid putting up a directive to kill Cancer wing if they aren't present yet but it doesn't do that for every directive. Unless you sure you don't need to you'll have to chain the directive to the event which triggers it.
 
10) Magically completed mission objectives 
A close relative of the above error. Quite often a FREDder will put in a mission objective but forget to actually put in the trigger because he means to go back and put it in later. Nothing screams out "I haven't tested this mission" quite as loud as this cause unlike the above one this one has music to draw the playtester to the fact that you've screwed up.
 
9) No use of the escort list 
All major capships and anything which is mission critical should appear on the escort list. Making a ship appear there is very simple. Just go to the ships editor>>misc. Tick the escort ship box and assign a priority. All caps should be given a priority. Don't make the mistake of only giving them to the 3 most important ships in the game. If one of them is blown up the next most important ship should then appear on the list.
 
8) Poorly chosen event and message names 
This one won't affect people playing the mission but it's just plain common sense. While you might think you'll remember the arcane naming system you've chosen to use you almost certainly won't if something makes you come back to the mission in a years time to fix a bug. In addition to making your life easier, it makes life easier for playtesters as they can give you the name of a faulty event/message for you to fix. Finally when you look over your mission and see an is-event-true-delay SEXP how on Earth can you tell what other event it refers to if all of them are called "Event name"?
 
7) Only one RTB directive 
Some missions only need to use Return to Base Directive. What some FREDders like to do is have an event that gathers up all the possible events that can end the mission and chain the RTB to that. However, amongst new FREDders only one RTB is generally more indicative of a poorly thought out mission. Basically the designer thinks "Hmmm, Alpha will fight this cruiser, kill the fighters and then escape with the convoy". No thought is given to what happens if something goes wrong. When this happens the mission basically continues forever because no thought was given to this possiblity.
 
6) The everlasting mission 
A more insidious relative of the mission with only one RTB is the everlasting mission. Unlike the previous one there are RTBs in the mission but the player can do something that causes it to never appear (for instance disabling the wrong ship in the final FS2 mission can prevent Capella from going nova). Unlike the above error this isn't a newbie mistake as quite often even the professionals have failed to think of something the player might try. It is seen fairly commonly in newbie missions though so I mentioned it here. As a mission designer you must actively think of ways that a player could screw up your mission and prevent them. If an enemy ship must survive the mission you must have a plan for what to do should the player disable it.
 
5) Only one debriefing 
A close relative of the the only 1 RTB error is the only one debriefing error. Basically the same logic is at work here and the mission only has a debriefing for a successfully completed mission. If anything else happens you'll only see "No debriefing for mission: xxxx".
 
4) Odd naming conventions 
FreeSpace has certain naming conventions that should be used in any mission set in the FS2 universe unless you have a damn good reason for changing it. GTVA wings are always named after letters of the Greek alphabet. Enemy fighter wings are named after signs of the zodiac. Although there is more leeway in the names of capships expecting anyone to take the GTD Suck My Balls seriously is frowned upon.
Worse than poorly thought out names is the appearance of GTC Fenris 37 as this shows that you've put no thought into the names of your ships. All capships must have a unique name. You might be able to get away with giving a Poseidon or Isis a number but that is less forgivable in a Triton or Argo.
 
3) No delay between waves 
Even in the most intense of battle there should be a few seconds delay between the death of the last ship in one wave and the next wave arriving. Otherwise it looks like the ships were lurking in subspace waiting for the death of their teammates. If you really have to avoid giving the player a breather for some reason you should still use a delay but increase the threshold for the wave so that the player is too busy with the current wave to notice the appearance of the next one.
 
2) Poorly thought out team loadouts 
This one is a biggie. The biggest mistake is the use of the D variant weapons in singleplayer. These weapons are for use in multiplayer and thus are completely useless in the singleplayer game. 
The other big mistake is having too few or too many weapons available. What's the point in 700 Helios bombs available if there are no bombers in the mission? Hell what's the point in having 700 Helios bombs available period. Similarly there's no point in making Tempests available if you only give out 10 of them. 
A minor mistake is having a loadout consisting only of 5 Myrmidons when everyone is already in Myrmidons. Why bother putting anything in the ship loadout in that case? 
(The last two will become somewhat moot once the SCP introduce a resource tracking element to campaigns but if you're not using that they are still worth mentioning).
 
''1) And the biggest/most common mistake of all is.....''

No AWOL Debriefing*

This is the debriefing that appears if you leave the battle when you weren't told to do so. A lot of newbies think that this one is added automatically so they don't put it in. But if you think about it, how does FS2 know whether you were supposed to leave them mission or not? A good AWOL debriefing should check if any of the conditions allowing you to leave have come true. In addition the other debriefing sections should check and *not* be played if the AWOL one was (Why would Commmand applaud you for protecting a ship if they are about to take you out and shoot you!) Basically this is an offshoot of the only one debriefing error but it's so common even in people who've got several debriefing stages that it was worthy of special mention.

==See also==
[http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29567 Original Source]

[[Category:FRED Mistakes]]

GTVA Colossus

2008-12-01T13:48:35Z

LuaPineapple: /* Veteran Comments */

{{shipimage|image=[[Image:colossus320x240.jpg]]|caption=The GTVA Colossus}}

The largest space-faring warship ever constructed by the [[Terrans]] or [[Vasudans]], the '''GTVA ''Colossus''''' was the result of twenty years of joint effort from dozens of contractors from across the [[Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance]]. Logging in with a length of six kilometers, this behemoth was equipped with over eighty weapon turrets, in addition to over 240 combat spacecraft.

With the offensive power that exceeded most [[GTVA]] battlegroups, the ''Colossus'' was designed to combat the [[Shivans]] upon their return to Allied territory. The prospective target was one or more [[SD Lucifer|''Lucifer'']]-class super-destroyers, and it was deemed that the ''Colossus'' would not only have the firepower not only to destroy such a foe, but also to survive multiple hits from a ''Lucifer'''s primary weapon system.

==History==
The first combat deployment of the ''Colossus'' was against the [[Neo-Terran Front]]. NTF forces proved to be no match for the ''Colossus'' and her battlegroup, and the rebels made every effort to avoid direct combat with the warship. It can be truthfully said that it was the ''Colossus'' that was the ultimate factor in the NTF's collapse. With his fleet shattered, and the remnants being actively pursued and destroyed by the ''Colossus'', [[Famous Persons|Admiral Aken Bosch]] gave the order to flee GTVA space to the relative safety of the nebula beyond [[Gamma Draconis]].

With the NTF defeated, the ''Colossus'' was finally to fulfill the role her designers had envisioned for her: the defeat of a second Shivan incursion. However, as it turned out, the challenge was not to be [[SD Lucifer|SD ''Lucifer'']]-class superdestroyers, but rather a [[SJ Sathanas|SJ ''Sathanas'']]-class juggernaut. Twenty years of constant struggle finally culminated with the ''Colossus'''s destruction of the [[SJ Sathanas|''Sathanas'']], all at the cost of moderate damage to the ''Colossus''.

All would have been well was it not for the [[Shivans]] possessing multiple juggernauts. In the closing stages of the Battle of [[Capella]], the ''Colossus'' was deployed to interdict Shivan traffic at the [[Gamma Draconis]] jump node in [[Capella]] to divert enemy forces and attention away from the [[GTD Bastion|''Bastion'']], which was en route to collapse the jump corridor to [[Epsilon Pegasi]]. The ploy succeeded, as the [[Shivans]] first deployed a [[SD Ravana]], then a [[SJ Sathanas|SJ ''Sathanas'']] to engage the ''Colossus''. In her weakened state, it was obvious that the ''Colossus'' would not survive an engagement with another ''Sathanas''-class juggernaut, and Allied Command ordered the ''Colossus'' to withdraw.

However, with the success of the ''Bastion'''s critical mission in doubt, the ''Colossus'' disobeyed the direct order from Allied Command, and refused to disengage. Subsequently, the ''Colossus'' was destroyed with the loss of all hands. The thirty-thousand officers and crew of the ''Colossus'' willingly sacrificed themselves to ensure the continued survival of the billions of individuals making up the Terran and Vasudan species, and ultimately, the [[Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance]].

==Known victims of the ''Colossus''==
*NTCv ''Hawkwood'' (Destroyed at Enif Station)
*NTD ''Repulse'' (Admiral Koth's flagship. Kamikaze attacked the Colossus)
*NTD ''Andronicus'' (Reported destroyed in Command Briefing)
*NTC ''Camisard'' (Reported destroyed in Command Briefing)
*NTC ''Vanguard'' (''Reported destroyed in Endgame'')
*NTCv ''Congreve'' (''Implied destroyed in Endgame'')
*NTCv ''Danton'' (''Endgame'')
*SJ ''Sathanas'' (First, High Noon mission)
*SD ''Beast'' (Destroyed shortly before the second Shivan juggernaut destroyed the Colossus)

==Quotes==
"This is the GTVA ''Colossus''. Fighters, stand clear of hostile warships. All batteries, fire at will!"

"This is the GTVA ''Colossus''. Admiral Koth, you are ordered to power down your engines immediately and surrender. The Polaris jump node is blockaded, there is no escape."

"You are sacrificing thousands of lives for nothing!"

"If only Koth had surrendered rather than playing Martyr, his crew would still be alive"

"A Shivan juggernaut has jumped within range. What's the status of the [[GTD Bastion|''Bastion'']]?"

"We'll hold them back here. Just get the [[GTD Bastion|''Bastion'']] through!"

==Colossus cutscene==
'''Narrator:''' ''The following is classified level Rho. Unauthorized access is punishable under the GTVA security act, Deneb convention, section 21.3.5. We vanquished the Shivans in the Great War but the hard questions remained. How would we confront the threat of future invasion? The Shivans might return at any time, any place, without warning. How would we fight the next threat to the very existence of our species? In 2345, on the tenth anniversary of the Shivan attack on Ross 128, the Vasudan emperor Khonsu II addressed the newly-formed GTVA General Assembly. The emperor inaugurated an ambitious and unprecedented joint endeavor: The GTVA ''Colossus''.''

'''Khonsu II:''' ''Together we built a civilization on the ruins of the [[Great War]], and now we stand on the threshold of a new era of prosperity and harmony. With Project Colossus, the Vasudan people celebrate our shared covenant of peaceful co-existence and mutual defense of our Terran allies.''

'''Narrator:''' ''The ''Colossus'' is the most powerful space faring warship ever constructed. Spanning six kilometers from bow to stern, the ''Colossus'' has taken over twenty years to complete. Twelve ''Lucifer''-class destroyers can fit within its massive hull. Its state-of-the-art weaponry includes forty-five laser turrets, fifteen flak guns, twelve missile batteries, and twelve beam cannons. The ''Colossus'' wields more firepower than five ''Orion''-class destroyers combined. Sixty fighter and bomber wings are housed in its vast hangar and its crew numbers over thirty thousand. Among its major contractors are industry giants Triton Dynamics, Subach-Innes, and the Akheton Corporation. The alliance now wages war on multiple fronts: in Deneb, Alpha Centuri, Epsilon Pegasi, and the [[Nebula System|mysterious nebula]] beyond Gamma Draconis. Once deployed the ''Colossus'' will end these conflicts swiftly and decisively. If ever the Shivans return to threaten our worlds we will be ready to face the challenge, securing peace for today and for generations to come.''

----

{{FS12_Ships}}

==Description:==

===FS2 Tech Room Description===
The GTVA ''Colossus'' resulted from an endeavor unprecedented in Terran or Vasudan history. This 6-kilometer-long behemoth is the result of 20 years of joint effort from dozens of contractors of both races. The ''Colossus'' is the most powerful space-faring warship ever made, bristling with over 80 weapon turrets. It also houses 60 fighter and bomber wings and requires a crew of over 30,000. The firepower of the ''Colossus'' is greater than that of most GTVA battle groups.

===Developer Notes===
None

===Name origin===
In Latin, ''colossus'' meant "large statue". Nowadays in English, a ''colossus'' (lower case, as this is a common name) may refer to anything of giant sizes. ''Colossal'' is a related word.

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was the Colossus of Rhodes, a giant bronze statue that was constructed over the entrance of the harbour to the city of Rhodes.

==Performance:==
===Statistics===
{{Ship Stats|Unspecified Super Capital Ship|[[Colossus manufacturers]]|N/A|25.0|N/A|N/A|1 000 000|N/A|6166}}{|-
| style="width:200px"|'''[[Technical_Terms_and_Definitions#Fighter Complement|Fighter Complement]]'''
| style="width:200px"|240 fightercraft (organized as 60 wings or 20 squads)
|}

===Armaments===

*'''[[Technical_Terms_and_Definitions#Turrets|Turrets]]'''
{| border=1 cellpadding=4 style="border-collapse: collapse"
|- align="center"
| colspan=2 style="background:#300505;"| '''Freespace 2'''
|- align="center"
| style="width:120px" |Turret Type
| style="width:60px" |Amount
|- align="center"
| [[Terran Turret]]
| 8
|- align="center"
| [[Terran Huge Turret]]
| 10
|- align="center"
| [[Standard Flak]]
| 12
|- align="center"
| [[MX-52]]
| 8
|- align="center"
| [[GTM Piranha|Piranha]]
| 2
|- align="center"
| [[AAAf|Anti-Fighter Beam]]
| 10
|- align="center"
| [[TerSlash|Terran Slashing Beam]]
| 7
|- align="center"
| [[BGreen|Big Green Beam]]
| 6
|}

==Veteran Comments==
{{Comment|
The GTVA Colossus was an excellent warship, equipped perfectly for the job it was designed for. While engaging the NTF hordes, we always knew the battle was over when the Colossus entered the fray. The Colossus' demise was one of the bravest sacrifices ever made by a ship in the GTVA. It remained in front of a Sathanas juggernaut, even though it had no chance of surviving, so that the Bastion might reach the Epsilon Pegasi node.''

The Colossus is really out of its league against the Sathanas, but it was never designed for killing juggernauts. The Colossus' proper role is hunting and killing destroyers, a task at which it excels. It would take a very large number of smaller ships to threaten the Colossus; witness its single-handed destruction of the NTF.''

The GTVA Colossus is not that great at killing ships of equal size to it as the above veterans have said. The placement of its main beam turrets are all over the ship, meaning that maximum firepower cannot be directed against heavier ships. However, this does also have its advantages. It means that no capital ship can be in a safe spot from it. It is also loaded with massive amounts of anti-fighter and bomber weaponry, making it a nightmare to attack. These anti-fighter weapons are also located around the main beams of the warship, making it more difficult to disable.''

The GTVA Colossus...just saying that makes you get shivers down your spine. When you are fighting out on the "field" and you see the 6-kilometre behemoth, you can't help but to stop and stare at it. The Colossus in my terms means blond and majestic.''

The Colossus is a superb ship in my opinion. Its weapon placement ensures no capship or fighter can attack it and stay safe. While not designed to confront ships like the Sathanas, if properly positioned it can take them on and emerge victorious. Its real strength lies in its anti-fighter weaponry and is a killer machine when confronting smaller warships.''

It seems odd that it is the largest endeavour in Terran-Vasudan history with so many contractors, and with construction beginning well before the NTF Rebellion, and apparently the NTF and/or the average GTVA pilots didn't recognize or know about it. I don't buy it.''

According to FRED-made simulations, it takes approximately 25 Nephilims to kill this thing, multiply that by two or three if you involve fighters escorting both the bombers and the Colossus. The Colossus better hope that it can make use of its 200+ plus fighters, because if not, this thing can get owned by bomber attack; most destroyers carry at least 40 fighters and bombers. Only an idiot would attack the Colossus with another capital ship, however; in general, it takes at least 6 destroyers to defeat one Colly.''

The Colossus is to destroyers what a corvette is to a cruiser, bigger and armed well enough to make mince meat out of them, though well positioned destroyers can inflict notable damage to it they will die in the end. For example, if you do nothing to the NTF cruisers in [[Feint! Parry! Riposte!]], they will maneuver into the Collosus' upper-rear blindspot and will beam the Colossus to death over the course of an hour while she is unable to return fire, as all of her beams are mounted on the front or sides.''

I think that the weak spots of the Colossus are it's rear and top although its rear is defended by four [[TerSlash]]es and its top is defended by two. In a custom-made mission, I made the Colossus travel 10 clicks, while being attacked on all sides by destroyers of different variations. I placed a [[GTD Hecate|Hecate]] on the left side, and it was the first to be destroyed. The last warship that got destroyed was the Demon, which I placed in front of and somewhat above it. The only two surviving warships (which took down the Colossus) were the [[GTD Hades|Hades]] and [[GVD Hatshepsut|Hatshepsut]], both of which I had placed at the rear-left and rear-right of the juggernaut respectively.

The Colly model is infamous for its low moment-of-inertia value, which causes it to swing around like a baseball bat during tight turns. Humans at the far end of the Colossus would experience over 20 G's during one of these swings. It's possible that the crew is kept close to the center-of-mass of the ship to ease this problem. Considering that the Colossus is stated to have a crew of 30,000 while an American supercarrier has less than 1/20th the volume of the juggernaut and has a crew of 5,000, it's possible that crew quarters are relatively small and are only found near the center of mass.

Regarding the previous comment, it is likely that the GTVA possesses refined inertial damping technology, as well as the Shivans. Otherwise, the g-forces experience by fighter pilots due to the rather large accelerations would crush them.

This thing needs more firepower to justify its size. A lot more. The "more firepower than 5 Orions" boast from the cutscene would mean 15 [[BGreen]]s and 5 [[TerSlash]]es. Replace all the BGreens with [[BFGreen]]s and the TerSlashes with BGreens and maybe it will be adequately armed. More fighters too--at least 1,000. This thing is bigger than 10 Orions, for God's sake.

Unfortunately, the GTVA Colossus is completely useless in anti-juggernaut warfare, namely in combat with an SJ Sathanas. If the Colossus attacks from behind the Sathanas, which is the Sathanas' blind spot, seeing how all four of its main beam cannons are positioned at the front, the Colossus will have an advantage. But in a frontal engagement, however, with neither ship being weakened beforehand the Sathanas will win easily, no matter if the Colossus comes in above it, below it, to the left, to the right, faces it front on, backward, top, bottom, or broadside.

While doing some FRED sims with the modifications suggested two comments above ([[BGreen]]s -> [[BFGreen]]s and TerSlash]]es -> [[BGreen]]s) I've found this thing to be a tank. I spread a dozen destroyers in a circular arrangement and cranked up the timescale. 35 seconds later, the battlefield was littered with corpses of Shivan, Vasudian, and Terran destroyers. I also did a test with a juggernaut and found that if you place it just behind the juggernaut it'll take it down without any problems. Then again, the single rear beam cannon protection issue of the Sathanas has been documented already...}}

[[Category:Unique ships|Colossus, GTVA]]
[[Category:Ship]]

GTVA Colossus

2008-12-01T13:46:54Z

LuaPineapple: /* Veteran Comments */

SF Mara (Terrans)

2008-12-01T13:27:48Z

LuaPineapple: Changed 'Level Psi' -> 'Level Phi', whoever did this typo aught to be smacked across the head.

{{FS12_Ships}}
{{shipimage|image=[[Image:Mara320x240.jpg]]|caption=The SF Mara (Terrans)}}

The '''SF ''Mara''''' was an advanced starfighter used by the [[Shivans]] during their [[Second Shivan Incursion|incursion]] into the galaxy in 2367. It is known that the SF ''Mara'' was one of the first fighter classes that were spotted and designated after the destruction of the GTC ''Vigilant''. Terran operatives acquired four of these fighters and retrofitted them to Terran standards. Then, [[Special Operations Command]] launched a mission beyond the second [[Knossos]] device to reconnoiter the area.

==Description:==

===FS2 Tech Room Description===
The SF Mara class of Shivan fighters was first encountered by the GTC Vigilant while patrolling the Gamma Draconis jump node in the Capella system. All other information concerning the Mara is classified level Phi.

===Developer Notes===
None

==Performance:==
===Statistics===
{{Ship Stats|Advanced Space Superiority|Triton Dynamics|Excellent|75.0 - N/A|135.0|Very Heavy|475|700|17.8}}

===Armaments===

*'''[[Technical_Terms_and_Definitions#Gun Mounts|Gun Mounts]]'''
{| border=1 cellpadding=4 style="border-collapse: collapse"
|- align="center"
| colspan=3 style="background:#351515;"| '''Freespace 2'''
|- align="center"
| style="width:40px" |Bank
| style="width:60px" |Guns
| style="width:160px" |Standard Loadout
|- align="center"
| 1st
| 2
| [[GTW UD-8 Kayser|UD-8 Kayser]]
|- align="center"
| 2nd
| 2
| [[GTW UD-8 Kayser|UD-8 Kayser]]
|}
*'''[[Technical_Terms_and_Definitions#Missile Banks|Missile Banks]]'''
{| border=1 cellpadding=4 style="border-collapse: collapse"
|- align="center"
| colspan=3 style="background:#351515;"| '''Freespace 2'''
|- align="center"
| style="width:40px" |Bank
| style="width:60px" |Capacity
| style="width:160px" |Standard Loadout
|- align="center"
| 1st
| 105
| [[GTM Tempest|Tempest]]
|- align="center"
| 2nd
| 105
| [[GTM Tempest|Tempest]]
|}

==Veteran Comments==
{{Comment|
Easily one of the best fighters, if not the best. A simple joy to fly. Only weak point is the 4 gun mounts, but even then the other stats are so ridiculous you can wreak havoc.

''Superior to the Shivan original [[SF Mara|Mara]] just like Snipes says.''

''As odd as it sounds, [[Into the Lion's Den]] is actually somewhat unkind to the Terran Mara, as you spend most of your time scrambling between widely spaced targets and don't really get the chance to stop and dogfight it much. Still, as can be seen from the above commentary, even a tiny taste of the SF Mara (Terrans) capablities is enough to make most people fall in love.''

''Best. Damn. Ship. Ever. Too bad Volition didn't make a mission where you could exploit it to its fullest extent.''

My favorite fighter in the game. Sure, you could say the Erinyes has 8 gun banks to the Mara's 4, but the Mara has nearly twice the missile capacity and is significantly faster and more maneuverable.

A dream to fly. It's beyond a doubt the best fighter you can get your hands on. The only downside, as stated before, is four primary mounts and that the single mission doesn't really give you many chances to dogfight with it.

The Mara is a dream come true for any GTVA pilot. Not only is it very agile, it has a large afterburner capacity and cavernous missile banks. This, coupled with a massive reactor core that recharges enough power to fire [[GTW UD-8 Kayser|Kaysers]] like [[GTW Subach HL-7|Subachs]], makes the Mara superior to any other GTVA fighter in almost every, if not every, respect. To get an idea of how big the Mara's banks are, here are some statistics: it can hold 42 [[GTM Harpoon|Harpoon]]s in '''each''' of its two missile banks. That equates to 84 [[GTM Tornado|Tornado]]s per bank. Not even the [[GVF Tauret]] can compare to that.

Some credit the Mara with an ultra-powerful reactor because of its ability to shoot twin Kaysers with minimal energy drain, but before one uses that point, one must bear in mind that it only has four gun mounts. A Perseus can do the same thing. Even so, the speed and maneuverability of the Mara allow it get right up close to enemies, so often times primary firepower isn't really a problem.

How the hell does SOC fit so many missiles into this thing?! It's smaller than the Ares, yet it has even larger missile banks! And the armor isn't that thin, the Comm Nodes just explode VERY violently (antimatter, perhaps?). In any case, this is the uber-fighter. No serious weaknesses, and thick enough shields to take the brunt of any standard fighter weapon, including the UD-8 Kayser. If the GTVA could mass-produce these...

The Terran Mara is far more powerful than any canon Terran, Vasudan, or Shivan fighter. It has the missile capacity of the Ares and Tauret, somewhat better armor than the Ares, the shielding of a medium bomber, and the speed and maneuverability of a space superiority fighter. It doesn't even suffer from the usual weakness of Shivan fighters, namely a weak hull. The only real downside to this awesome fighter is that it has four gun mounts - average for a space superiority fighter, but not really consistent with the otherwise grossly overpowered theme of this craft.}}
[[Category:Ship]]