GTW Prometheus R

The GTW-5a Prometheus (retrofit) Cannon is a retrofitted version of the Great War-era Prometheus cannon (whose modern descendant is designated the GTW Prometheus S). It supposedly maintains the original weapon's high hull damage, and lost the shield-destroying punch, but in reality has failed its predecessor in all fields. It is best used in conjunction with another weapon that does high shield damage, such as the GTW Circe.

Weapons in Descent: FreeSpace

Primaries Secondaries Turrets Weapon Comparison Table, FS1

Weapons in FreeSpace 2

Primaries Secondaries Turrets Weapon Comparison Table, FS2

The GTW-5a Prometheus (retrofit) Cannon

Tech Room Data

The GTW-5a Prometheus R is a modified version of the original Prometheus weapon. With the link to Earth severed, the GTVA had been unable to obtain sufficient quantities of argon (a required element in the Prometheus's power-generation module) to continue to manufacture the standard Prometheus. GTVA engineers modified the original design to incorporate some of the advanced electromagnetic mechanisms of the Banshee. The technology has not been perfected, however, and the Prometheus R suffers from a long recharge cycle and high energy requirements.

Performance

Statistics - Prometheus R

Range	900 m
Rate of Fire	2.22 shots per second
Velocity	450 ms-1
Base Damage	19.8
Armor Damage	Full	19.8
Shield Damage	Good	14.4
Subsystem Damage	Poor	6.3

Notes

Veteran Comments

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Overall the Prometheus R is a difficult weapon to recommend. It has a lethargic rate of fire, and consumes a lot more power than other basic weapons like the GTW Subach HL-7. The Subach seems to make up for its lower damage with greater rate of fire and better energy efficiency. Even the Prometheus R's high compatibility isn't an advantage, since the S variant also has compatibility with most ships.

The bottom line: the Prom-R is a piece of crap firing little green bolts. The Subach outstrips it in all categories save single-hit anti-hull power, thanks to a better refire rate. Curious how it inherited any of the Banshee's technology, though, considering its utter uselessness against shielding.

This gun is statistically inferior to every other Allied weapon in FreeSpace 2, in virtually all categories, causing some to theorize that this weapon is meant to be used by enemy forces, often citing the fact that the Shivan laser weapons have very close damage values to this gun.

Note to the above: I once used TBMs to make the Prometheus R only slightly inferior to the Prometheus S, suffice it to say the NTF missions were much more difficult.

The GTW Subach HL-7 is the way to go. There is virtually no similarity between the GTW Prometheus R and GTW Prometheus S. On the plus side, the NTF uses this weapon a whole lot, making several missions far easier.

Ew. This cannon is terrible. Fires agonizingly slowly and does mediocre damage to shields. The only virtue of this weapon is that it does slightly higher damage against hulls (per single hit anyway) than the Subach, and even then that's minor, considering all its other faults. It does use less energy than the S type, but that is nowhere near enough of a factor to compensate.

Is it me, or do I think that the projectiles it fires travels so slowly that they can be outrun? I would think that the R version was supposed to be the "beginner's version" of the GTW Maxim; note that this weapon only does half the hull damage and is not as long-ranged. I would never use this for any mission unless it's included in the FreeSpace 2 Demo... but that's an entirely different matter.

Be sure to check that you never have this loaded on any craft that you can change. A lot of early missions will throw this in one of the two banks, along with a Subach.