GTD Hecate

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The GTD Hecate is an Allied Terran-designed destroyer, brought into service prior to the start of the Second Shivan Incursion to complement and ultimately replace the Orion line of destroyers. While the Hecate lacks the sheer anti-warship armaments of the Orion, it has a larger fighterbay and much better anti-fighter and bomber defenses. The Hecate's numerous engine subsystems also makes it harder to disable than an Orion.

One of the most famous Hecate-class destroyers was the GTD Aquitaine, flagship of the GTVA 3rd Fleet. The Aquitaine was the first Allied warship to enter the nebula beyond Gamma Draconis and played a major role during the NTF Rebellion as well as the Second Shivan Incursion.

Description:

The GTD Hecate

FS2 Tech Room Description

The new GTD Hecate class of destroyers is replacing the Orion class as the flagship of Terran battle groups. More heavily armed than the Orion, the Hecate also carries over 150 combat spacecraft and a crew of 10,000. The GTD Aquitaine is a superb example of this new ship class, serving as the flagship of the Capella-based 3rd Fleet.

Developer Notes

None

Name origin

At a certain stage in Greek mythology, Hecate was the goddess of hunting and wilderness, much like Artemis. Later she was seen as the goddess of witchcraft.

Performance:

Statistics

Type	Destroyer
Manufacturer	Unknown
Maneuverability	N/A
Yaw, Pitch, Roll	150.0, 150.0, 150.0 s
Max Velocity	15.0 ms-1
Max Afterburner Velocity	N/A ms-1
Armor	N/A
Hitpoints	100 000
Shields	N/A
Length	2174 m

Fighter Complement

150+ fightercraft

Armaments

• Turrets

FreeSpace 2
Turret Type	Amount
Terran Turret	5
Terran Huge Turret	1
Standard Flak	6
Long Range Flak	2
Heavy Flak	2
AAAf	6
TerSlash	4
BGreen	1

Modding Resources

The GTD Hecate in the latest MVP

Retail:

$POF File: capital2T-01.pof

Textures: capital3( /c), capital4( /b/c), capital6( /c), capital7( /b/c), lights( /c), tbodyA, tbody2, ctile1, ctile2, ctile3, ctile4A, ctile5, SoupTurrets, damage

MediaVP 3.6.10:

$POF File: capital2T-01.pof

Textures: capital3, capital4, capital6, capital7, TSoupTile01, lights, tbody, nameplate, SoupTurrets1, doctile6

History
First WIP Post: Raven2001 on 07/08/2005

MediaVP 4.1.X:

$POF File: Hecate.pof

Textures: HecateMain01, HecateMain02, HecateMain03, HecateDet01, damage, nameplate, GTVATTurr, HecateDead01, HecateDead02m, HecateDead03

History
Model: Hades. Nyctaeus
Textures: Nyctaeus

• 

  An older MVP version of the GTD Hecate.

• 

  New MVP Hecate.

Veteran Comments

Please read the Veteran Comments policy before editing this section.

The Hecate is admirably armed for killing fighters and deals with fightercraft threats far, far better than an Orion. However, if you need to form a battle line and handle big targets, the Hecate is not the ship you want. It is also a nightmare to fly escort for, having considerably more surface area and a huge nonsensical shape that restricts easy transits to defend both sides of the ship.

My best guesses as to why the Hecate would, or could replace the Orion is that it costs much less, and that it holds an extra four and a half squadrons (there are twelve combat-craft in a squadron). Also I suppose in an optimal battle scenario (if there is such a thing) the Hecate would be escorted by corvettes and cruisers.

It does work well in a surgical strike role, hitting smaller warships with its considerable forward firepower before they have much chance to fight back. But if attacked by a warship from any direction but the front, it's in real trouble and needs to either leave fast or rely on bomber wings to take care of the threat.

I wouldn't criticize it for its armament so much as the placement of its armament. While the Hecate is well-armed, and can generally pepper targets approaching it from a range, it has several blind spots. Any fighter or bomber approaching from the front will face minimal anti-fighter fire and can hide in the shadow of the frontal fins and blast away, to name the most significant. The rear TerSlash is useless, because it has a very limited field of fire, and is as a weapon especially useless in the rear. In addition, the Hecate is as slow as the Orion, and has no more armour than the Orion. The forward BGreen and TerSlash, while making the destroyer relatively powerful if aimed properly, is outdone by other destroyers. I guess that the fighter bay has got to count for something but overall the Hecate is ruined potential. It could use a serious armament revision, and some of the turrets could be moved to different spots on the hull.

The massive turrets on top carry only Heavy Flak. This leaves them rather unfulfilling, and their size means they're easily taken out, leaving the top part of the ship more or less open to bomber attack.

Perhaps the best way to think of this vessel would be as a carrier, rather than as a combat destroyer. This parallels the change in focus from battleships (i.e. the Orion) to carriers between World Wars I and II, and the similar growth of importance of small fighter craft. While capable of defending itself against fighter and bomber threats, it is really out of its league fighting other warships. The Hecate's real strength is in its much larger complement of fighters and bombers, which give it a far greater theoretical striking power than the Orion does; like the carrier though, if this ship is caught at close range, it's toast.

The Hecate is the only canon ship that mounts a combination of all flak guns in the game as its standard armament. In theory, the traits of these weapons can be exploited by a Hecate's escorts to great effect—the Long Range Flak helps to spot incoming warheads long before they enter a range where friendly escorts must risk planting a few shots into the Hecate's hull in order to intercept them, while the Standard and Heavy Flak can be fired into dogfights nearby, giving friendly escorts an extra kick against hostile vessels. Sub-par turret placement and size ruins this in practice, though.