The Lucifer invincibility misconception - Revision history

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A common misconception among FreeSpace fans is that the [[SD Lucifer]], the [[Shivan]] command ship leading the fleets that invaded [[GTA]] and [[PVE]] space during the [[Great War]], is virtually invincible in all combat environments except for [[subspace]], where its shields are not operational and subspace tracking technology obtained from research on [[Ancient]] artifacts effectively allowed a few Terran and Vasudan wings to bring this vessel down. Said misconception has sparked many ideas among the fans and consolidated over time, but claims from some of the game creators have provided new clues on the actual invincibility of this vessel.

In fact, old posts on the [[Volition]] Watch website clarified that the Lucifer was indeed impervious to [[FS1]] era weaponry, but more powerful weaponry (and by this Volition didn't necessarily imply beam weapons) [[SD_Lucifer#Developer_Notes|would have been able to penetrate its shields]] and therefore make the destruction of the vessel possible in environments other than subspace, where shields don't work. The Volition Watch website is no longer browsable but key posts from veteran community members who participated to these discussions can still be found on the Hard-Light Productions forums (''e.g.'', [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=26456.msg531216#msg531216 1], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=28173.msg585518#msg585518 2], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=35609.msg737690#msg737690 3]) and provide several details on how the information was given, as well as its implications.

Due to this concept being provided by FS1 game developers after the release of the game, and no requirement for it to be used in any tangible way in [[FS2]], the concept itself remained stagnant even if it has all grounds to be considered [[canon]] for the FreeSpace universe. This has contributed to to consolidate the misconception by which the Lucifer would be truly invincible in all environments except for subspace, with some major implications on the FreeSpace plot itself and major influence on many fanmade campaigns.

===Lucifers in FS2 environment===

===The Lucifer and the Ancients===
One of the main consequences of this invincibility misconception is the assumption by which the Lucifer pretty much single handedly vanquished the Ancient empire and bombarded planets such as the Ancients' homeworld with minimal resistance during [[Ancient-Shivan War (FS1)|the war between the Ancients and the Shivans]] that occurred eight millennia prior to FreeSpace. No details on the matter are known, but considering that canonically speaking, Ancient technology was more advanced than that of the Terrans and Vasudans at the time of FS1, especially in the field of subspace, Ancient weaponry would have likely met the "strong enough to penetrate the Lucifer's shields" status. The Ancients' fear of shielding technology was likely a reference to the general characteristic of shield-equipped Shivan craft, and not a precise reference to the Lucifer's shields.

===The [[Deneb III (campaign)|Deneb III campaign]]===
At least one fanmade campaign has

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Beam weapons and shields==
-TBFIL
+One of the main reasons, if not the main reason, by which the Lucifer invincibility misconception is so common may be due to the common belief according to which its shields would be easily penetrated and voided by [[beam weapon|beam weaponry]]. Therefore, community members may simply believe that FS2 era warships could outperform a Lucifer via beams, and damage its reactors directly, and as direct consequence, the notion by which conventional - and strong enough - weaponry could damage the Lucifer's hull is less common as it should. While beams are known for piercing through shields, it's worth noting that this is a bug in FreeSpace that the developers did not fix prior to release due to time constraints. It's possible that, [[canon|canonically]] speaking, beams may be capable of piercing shields, but this has never been confirmed by [[Volition]].
 =Fanmade plots based on Volition information=

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 ==[[Deneb III (campaign)|Deneb III]]==
-Released in 2017 as a satellite project to [[Silent Threat: Reborn]], the main fundament behind this campaign's concept was the notion by which some weapons, under the right circumstances, may have eventually damaged the Lucifer's hull in critical engagements that occurred during the Great War was . Deneb III is a minicampaign that focuses on a desperate attempt by joint GTA and PVN forces to pass through the Lucifer's shields to inflict direct damage on its hull via a powerful bombing run, but the operation ultimately failed and the Lucifer proceeded its relentless run to key planets across GTA and PVE space.
+Released in 2017 as a satellite project to [[Silent Threat: Reborn]], the main fundament behind this campaign's concept was the notion by which some weapons, under the right circumstances, may have eventually damaged the Lucifer's hull in critical engagements that occurred during the Great War. Deneb III is a minicampaign that focuses on a desperate attempt by joint GTA and PVN forces to pass through the Lucifer's shields to inflict direct damage on its hull via a powerful bombing run, but the operation ultimately failed and the Lucifer proceeded its relentless run to key planets across GTA and PVE space.
 [[Category: FreeSpace Universe]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 A common misconception among FreeSpace fans is that the [[SD Lucifer]], the [[Shivan]] command ship leading the fleets that invaded [[GTA]] and [[PVE]] space during the [[Great War]], is virtually invincible in all combat environments except for [[subspace]], where its shields are not operational and subspace tracking technology obtained from research on [[Ancient]] artifacts effectively allowed a few Terran and Vasudan wings to bring this vessel down. Said misconception has sparked many ideas among the fans and consolidated over time, but claims from some of the game creators have provided new clues on the actual "invincibility" of this vessel.
-In fact, old posts on the [[Volition]] Watch website clarified that the Lucifer was indeed impervious to [[FS1]] era weaponry, but more powerful weaponry (and by this Volition didn't necessarily imply beam weapons) would have been able to [[SD_Lucifer#Developer_Notes| penetrate its shields]] and therefore make the destruction of the vessel possible in environments other than subspace, where shields don't work. The Volition Watch website is no longer browsable but key posts from veteran community members who participated to these discussions can still be found on the Hard-Light Productions forums (''e.g.'', [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=26456.msg531216#msg531216 1], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=28173.msg585518#msg585518 2], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=35609.msg737690#msg737690 3]) and provide several details on how the information was given, as well as its implications.
+In fact, old posts on the [[Volition]] Watch website clarified that the Lucifer was indeed impervious to [[FS1]] era weaponry, but more powerful weaponry (and by this Volition didn't necessarily imply beam weapons) would have been able to [[SD_Lucifer#Developer_Notes| penetrate its shields]] and therefore make the destruction of the vessel possible in environments other than subspace, where shields don't work. The Volition Watch website is no longer browsable but key posts from veteran community members who participated to these discussions can still be found on the Hard-Light Productions forums (''e.g.'', [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=26456.msg531216#msg531216 1], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=28173.msg585518#msg585518 2], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=35609.msg737690#msg737690 3], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=2jogojsjcqa53dhbch30sl1s43&topic=30916.msg643404#msg643404 4]) and provide several details on how the information was given, as well as its implications.
 Due to this concept being provided by FS1 game developers after the release of the game, and no requirement for it to be used in any tangible way in [[FS2]] as the [[Sathanas]] juggernaut took the Lucifer's role as premiere Shivan threat, the concept itself remained stagnant even if it has all grounds to be considered [[canon]] for the FreeSpace universe. The fact that this notion was not widely used over time has contributed to consolidating the misconception by which the Lucifer would be truly invincible in all environments except for subspace, with some major implications on the FreeSpace plot itself and major influences on a multitude of fanmade campaigns.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-A common misconception among FreeSpace fans is that the [[SD Lucifer]], the [[Shivan]] command ship leading the fleets that invaded [[GTA]] and [[PVE]] space during the [[Great War]], is virtually invincible in all combat environments except for [[subspace]], where its shields are not operational and subspace tracking technology obtained from research on [[Ancient]] artifacts effectively allowed a few Terran and Vasudan wings to bring this vessel down. Said misconception has sparked many ideas among the fans and consolidated over time, but claims from some of the game creators have provided new clues on the actual invincibility of this vessel.
+A common misconception among FreeSpace fans is that the [[SD Lucifer]], the [[Shivan]] command ship leading the fleets that invaded [[GTA]] and [[PVE]] space during the [[Great War]], is virtually invincible in all combat environments except for [[subspace]], where its shields are not operational and subspace tracking technology obtained from research on [[Ancient]] artifacts effectively allowed a few Terran and Vasudan wings to bring this vessel down. Said misconception has sparked many ideas among the fans and consolidated over time, but claims from some of the game creators have provided new clues on the actual "invincibility" of this vessel.
-In fact, old posts on the [[Volition]] Watch website clarified that the Lucifer was indeed impervious to [[FS1]] era weaponry, but more powerful weaponry (and by this Volition didn't necessarily imply beam weapons) [[SD_Lucifer#Developer_Notes|would have been able to penetrate its shields]] and therefore make the destruction of the vessel possible in environments other than subspace, where shields don't work. The Volition Watch website is no longer browsable but key posts from veteran community members who participated to these discussions can still be found on the Hard-Light Productions forums (''e.g.'', [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=26456.msg531216#msg531216 1], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=28173.msg585518#msg585518 2], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=35609.msg737690#msg737690 3]) and provide several details on how the information was given, as well as its implications.
+In fact, old posts on the [[Volition]] Watch website clarified that the Lucifer was indeed impervious to [[FS1]] era weaponry, but more powerful weaponry (and by this Volition didn't necessarily imply beam weapons) would have been able to [[SD_Lucifer#Developer_Notes| penetrate its shields]] and therefore make the destruction of the vessel possible in environments other than subspace, where shields don't work. The Volition Watch website is no longer browsable but key posts from veteran community members who participated to these discussions can still be found on the Hard-Light Productions forums (''e.g.'', [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=26456.msg531216#msg531216 1], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=28173.msg585518#msg585518 2], [https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=35609.msg737690#msg737690 3]) and provide several details on how the information was given, as well as its implications.
-Due to this concept being provided by FS1 game developers after the release of the game, and no requirement for it to be used in any tangible way in [[FS2]], the concept itself remained stagnant even if it has all grounds to be considered [[canon]] for the FreeSpace universe. This has contributed to to consolidate the misconception by which the Lucifer would be truly invincible in all environments except for subspace, with some major implications on the FreeSpace plot itself and major influence on many fanmade campaigns.
+Due to this concept being provided by FS1 game developers after the release of the game, and no requirement for it to be used in any tangible way in [[FS2]] as the [[Sathanas]] juggernaut took the Lucifer's role as premiere Shivan threat, the concept itself remained stagnant even if it has all grounds to be considered [[canon]] for the FreeSpace universe. The fact that this notion was not widely used over time has contributed to consolidating the misconception by which the Lucifer would be truly invincible in all environments except for subspace, with some major implications on the FreeSpace plot itself and major influences on a multitude of fanmade campaigns.
-===Lucifers in FS2 environment===
+=Historical misconceptions=
-===The Lucifer and the Ancients===
+==Beam weapons and shields==
-One of the main consequences of this invincibility misconception is the assumption by which the Lucifer pretty much single handedly vanquished the Ancient empire and bombarded planets such as the Ancients' homeworld with minimal resistance during [[Ancient-Shivan War (FS1)|the war between the Ancients and the Shivans]] that occurred eight millennia prior to FreeSpace. No details on the matter are known, but considering that canonically speaking, Ancient technology was more advanced than that of the Terrans and Vasudans at the time of FS1, especially in the field of subspace, Ancient weaponry would have likely met the "strong enough to penetrate the Lucifer's shields" status. The Ancients' fear of shielding technology was likely a reference to the general characteristic of shield-equipped Shivan craft, and not a precise reference to the Lucifer's shields.
+TBFIL
-===The [[Deneb III (campaign)|Deneb III campaign]]===
+=Fanmade plots based on Volition information=
-At least one fanmade campaign has
+Despite the fact that misconceptions on the Lucifer's supposed total invulnerability from conventional non beam weaponry are very common, and campaign developers have had all the right to stick to that for their own storytelling purposes, it's worth noting that at least one fanmade campaign (the list is being updated) grounded its plot on the information provided by Volition on Lucifer shielding.