Info Here.
(take this with a grain of salt; it's not official)
CLASS:
FRIGATE
HEALTH: 10,000
Weapons:
ENERGY, Medium (2): 40 damage ea.
Special: Swarming Ability
RU
Cost: 575
Mass: 9900
Firepower: 1400
Armor: 3800
Coverage: 12%
Maneuverability: medium
Max. Velocity: 390 m/s
Special Action: Swarm
During the Homeworld wars, the
Puppeteer class drone frigate was an excellent idea that arrived ahead
of its time. While the Puppeteer could surround itself in a sphere of
remote turrets, the drones lacked maneuverability, and once they were
destroyed, the unarmed Puppeteer either retreated or was destroyed as
well. This lack of adaptability quickly relegated the Puppeteer to light
anti-strike craft roles and rear area guard duty, where its weakness
would not prove quite so deadly.
Seeing potential in a design that
other Kiith were quickly abandoning, Somtaaw engineers went back to the
drawing board both with the frigate itself and the drones. The major
breakthrough in drone design came from studying the attack swarms used
by the protectors of Khadesh. Using that technology as a baseline,
engineers were able to design and build their own Swarmer drone fighter,
which retained the firepower of the old static drone but combined it
with full maneuverability and a combat AI. Now that the drones were able
to control themselves, the space aboard the command frigate that was
being used for drone techs and their equipment could be utilized for
weaponry.
The result of all this design work
is the Hive class ADF, a heavily armored frigate armed with twin medium
mass drivers in a fixed forward mount and having the capacity to launch
and maintain six Swarmer class attack drones. The Hive's mass drivers
are not powerful enough to handle another capital ship all by
themselves, but are very effective in supplying heavy fire support for
the Swarmer wing. While the Hive is a much more rounded combat craft
than the Puppeteer, it is still vulnerable to massed strike craft
attacks if its compliment of Swarmers is destroyed. Hive squadrons will
often enter combat first and use their drones to draw fire away from
more valuable manned strike craft, and then retire for a few minutes to
rebuild their Swarmer compliment before returning to battle.
| Required
Tech |
- |
FRIGATE
DRIVE
MICRO SHIP CONSTRUCTION |
| Upgrade
Tech |
- |
ENERGY
CANNON
REPAIR BOTS
ADVANCED FRIGATE DRIVE
ARMOR LEVEL 2
ARMOR LEVEL 3 |
" …Hive Frigates release clouds of nasty Swarmer
drones. An upgraded Hive Frigate will release hordes of these pesky (and destructive)
Swarmers, and still be able to deploy its primary weapon." - Robert
Coffey, CGW
"...the
number of swarmers has been reduced over the months to 6. Again it is
a simple matter of math using an 8 player game as your worst case
scenario. A swarmer is a mini-fighter not just a drone turret. In a
big game you can easily have 20 hive frigates fughting on various
sides...120 extra fighters on the map is easier to process than 200."
- Marcus Skyler, Barking Dog
"We have no plans to make players use the [Hive]
Frigate. There are some very good uses for it and it's entirely up to
the player if they want to use them that way. Simply from a build and
research stand point, if you're gunning for micro-ship technologies,
like Sentinels and Leeches, it is much quicker to build Hive Frigates
than Multi Beam Frigates. That alone makes it more useful that an MBF in
some instances." - Chris Stewart, Barking Dog
"A single hive frigate's compliment of swarmers stand a
fairly good chance against a wing of fighters. Swarmers, unlike drones,
are very fast moving and pull quick turns. Plus a Hive frigate has a
pair of energy cannons to bring to the battle. Who would win is hard to
say, especially if either side is upgraded, but I wouldn't say that
swarmers have nothing to contribute to a fight against fast or slow
moving targets. Multibeam frigates however might pose a problem." - Chris Stewart, Barking Dog
"The Hive Frigate is a medium-sized
vessel that acts as a mobile home for a fleet of light fighters known as Swarmers. It's
similar to the Drone Frigate, except the Swarmers have a greater range, plus the Hive
Frigate has a few guns to wreak havoc on its own." - Tal Blevins,
IGN PC
"Hive frigates are similar to drone
frigates except that yes, they have forward mounted guns. The guns can be used in a
separate attack; pound one ship with guns, buzz another with the swarmers. The swarmers do
move around on attack runs." - Chris Stewart, Barking Dog
The Hive Frigate is sort of the next step
of a Drone Frigate design, with the Swarmers being controlled by the ship instead of
directly by the player (like the Protoss carrier in StarCraft). The Swarmers launch from
the top of the frigate, where two panels spread open like the wing-cases of a beetle.
Although 10 Swarmers have been counted in previous screenshots, the
number has reportedly been reduced to 6. The swarmers are
automatically manufactured by the frigate. In addition, the Hive Frigate
sports a pair of guns.
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