KIS Sivar and her technologies.

[Tyrant]

A thing I was wondering the other day was, basically, what were Sivar's objectives, aside from taking out Goddard? (Like anyu long-term goals.)

Here's my problem with the Sivar: It's basically a flying target. As far as I know (I haven't again played SM1 in, well, forever) we don't really know if it has any other weapons, aside from the AA guns. For all I personally know, it's only weapons are it's main gun and the AA (And there isn't any novels that could expand on the ship's capabilities.) My problem is that if it's outflanked by attacking destroyers and/or fighters, it's screwed royally. ANd IIRC we don't see or have any mention of escorts for the thing. All it really seems to be a big colony-destroying gun with nothing else backing it. (Terror weapon possibly?)

ANother problem I have with the Sivar is the technologies. We don't really hear any mention of the Proton Accelerator Cannon, aside from being reverse-engineered into the PTCs on the Confederation and her sister ship, the Concordia. So where did the tech go? Did the Kilrathi decide it was merely wasteful, or could they nor actually reproduce it?

Sorry if I come off as jumbled, but i'm fairly tired.

 

[SabreAce]

The Sivar was actually escorted by a great many ships - all of the capships that you destroy through the course of SM1 are the fleet which was escorting the Sivar. Halcyon even makes mention of this in the final briefing before attacking the Siver in Vigrid:

Halcyon: All through this mission, the Sivar’s been escorted by a substantial fleet. We’ve picked off that fleet, ship by ship. But we can’t be sure we’ve nailed all of them. So be very careful out there.

Not too sure about any other weapons aside from the AA defenses (lasers/IR missiles), but realistically, Sivar is meant to be protected by a fleet. If Confed gets through to the Sivar itself, that's a huge failure on the part of said fleet. It's not as though Sivar was meant to be the Kilrathi version of the Claw, a strike carrier capable of semi-independant operation.

Insofar as the Proton Accelerator Gun not being seen again, there are a few possible explanations. Probably the most likely is the explanation we see in the extra Secret Missions from SWC - finding and destroying the shipyard that built the Sivar. Presumeably, the technology was developed there, and was lost. At that point, Kilrah cuts its losses and focuses on spitting out large numbers of regular ships, rather than a single big gun.

As additional reasons, the aforementioned cost would come into play - even if the PAC was considered useful and the required design info was present, I'd much rather have several standard cruisers and destroyers at that point. Not to mention the various expenses we know the Kilrathi were eventually going to be incurring (Looking at you, Hakagas)

Finally, there's the idea of the technology picking up a stigma. As the Emperor points out to Thrakhath quite awhile after the fact, the attack at Goddard cost an entire strike fleet, and resulted in the execution of Thrakhath's father in disgrace. As a result, most Kilrathi would rather look the other way than involve themselves in something that brought such disgrace once already. Similar, in a way, to some theories relating to why we don't see Dragons flying around Confed too much post-Black Lance.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

First, Space Point and a technicality -- this thread should be named KIS Sivar and *his* technologies - Kilrathi ships use the masculine pronoun.

A thing I was wondering the other day was, basically, what were Sivar's objectives, aside from taking out Goddard? (Like anyu long-term goals.)

Well... what would you aim for if you had the biggest gun in the universe? It's for destroying installations quickly and (more importantly) cleanly - invading a planet takes a *lot* of resources... and previous methods for wiping out entire populations left the real estate damaged goods (radiation, bio-hazards, etc.)

Here's my problem with the Sivar: It's basically a flying target. As far as I know (I haven't again played SM1 in, well, forever) we don't really know if it has any other weapons, aside from the AA guns. For all I personally know, it's only weapons are it's main gun and the AA (And there isn't any novels that could expand on the ship's capabilities.) My problem is that if it's outflanked by attacking destroyers and/or fighters, it's screwed royally. ANd IIRC we don't see or have any mention of escorts for the thing. All it really seems to be a big colony-destroying gun with nothing else backing it. (Terror weapon possibly?)

The whole point of The Secret Missions was to wear down the Sivar's escorts -- *all* the capital ships that you (and the other 103 pilots) take out over the course of the adventure are the makeup of Gilkarg's strike fleet.

ANother problem I have with the Sivar is the technologies. We don't really hear any mention of the Proton Accelerator Cannon, aside from being reverse-engineered into the PTCs on the Confederation and her sister ship, the Concordia. So where did the tech go? Did the Kilrathi decide it was merely wasteful, or could they nor actually reproduce it?

A Confederation covert operation hunted down and destroyed the shipyards which built the Sivar (in Super Wing Commander's 'Secret Missions 1.5')... and the labs which created the technology were destroyed in the first test (when it became clear that they were about to fall into human hands.)

Joan's continued to note through the end of the war that the Kilrathi 'presumably' had more Sivars which simply hadn't been spotted.