maybe they've looked at our own past and seen that battleships are obsolete........they should have done a few of the big carriers with cruiser/battleship support like sl had....im with you on the torp thing though hell i remember the kamov seemed to recoil when you launched the torps it seems almost like a bit of reverse egineering has gone on

If you remember, there are no battleships in SL, just carriers and cruisers. And all of them carry torps and have hangar bays, which made them more than up-to-date.

However, I'm suspecting that with the introduction of Warp tech(fitted to your fighters later on in the SL campaign), Jumpates, and Trade Lanes, Large capital ships began to lose much of their role. Where they once served as mobile bases to ferry short-range craft to and from hotspots; now the fighters can make that trip themselves.

Instead, the current generation of capital ships are much smaller than previous ones(I remember actually losing my bearings flying over the surfaces of some of the SL heavies), to save valuble resources. They are instead sent out and "stationed" in an area as a base with engines that rarely moves, until a more permanent installation can be set up, or until their presence is no longer required. Or, in some rare cases, as the commans ship spearheading an offensive deep into a contested area so that lighter ships will have a place to re-supply.

I propose this reason why capitals no longer carry torpedoes: A large capital ship is no longer as likely to encounter another one in actual combat. Cruisers are more mobile(and the liberty one has some very juicy firepower on its business end; probably better than any torpedo), as are gunboats, so they are used more often, but still almost never engage each other.

Reaper: $200,000,000.
Rockets: $100,000
The look on that pilot's face when you launch a full pod of screamers up his tailpipe: priceless

Officer: "Freelancer, what happened to the transport you were escorting?"
Me: "He told me my ship looked wierd...I invited him to have intimate relations with my SunSlayer"

Hmm, in Freelancer or Starlancer has their ever been a case of orbital bombardment in an attempt to eradicate multiple structures indiscrimatly on a planets surface. That would be a job for capital ships no?

well small fighters can carry weapons of that payload...just depends on the technology

Then the sheep said...

I don't want to spoil anything major, but mid to late in the FL campaign there's a little orbital bombardment. No matter who's doing it, though, it would be more logical to use energy weapons because if a planet's atmosphere can shred your fighter into tin foil, it'll have no problem making short work of a puny little torpedo.

I guess I have to go with NukeIt and the others on this one, there's just no point for capital ships to have torpedoes anymore.

"If I wanted your damned opinion, I'da beaten it out of you."

There's also a small cap-ship dual near the end of the game, but I was to busy fleeing for my life to see very much of it.

Why didn't I register the day after?