- RKOSNAKE
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- Exalted Legendary Member
"I may not be perfect, but always been true."
Posted by: StealthSlasher2
Posted by: Cmdr DaeFaron
Yes, they can turn and face toward the planet, however the super mac rounds impacting the planet would cause MAJOR damage to the planet. Not something you'd use to swat a Corvette out of the sky.
Or is a MAC in general necessary to swat a Corvette down and keep it down for good.
Out of curiosity for anyone that knows and can clarify this for me. Has there been any precedence for a MAC cannon (from ship or station) being fired at a lower charge to reduce power either in the books or games?
I ask because now that I've mentioned the Spirit of Fire I now begin to question just how MACs in general rate in for orbital strikes. I'm no expert when it comes to the science of how the guns function and the force they exert like some other members here. From what is seen from cinematics from the Halo games it is still implied or outright stated that MACs in general in game can still cause severe devastation to some degree as the books portray.
Halo Wars: Cutter mentions that a direct MAC blast of the shield in Arcadia could destroy whatever is underneath.
Halo 2: Johnson states that a MAC gun can tear a hole "clean" through a capital ship easy.
Reach: Due to the "sensitive nature" of Sword Base MAC rounds were prohibited from being used on the Corvette. However, I feel that this dialogue could go two ways. Either the Corvette is too close to Sword Base that a shot would level a decent chunk of the base, or if it's possible that Dot's dialogue about Sword Base being "sensitive" could be interpreted as its location being a secret to general forces of the UNSC and thus ONI doesn't want its coordinates revealed if it does not have to. Thus they would merely not have authorization to use them.
Yet in all three instances there's contradictions to the power being shown.
Halo Wars: The shield gets dropped, then suddenly we're granted free reign to rain MAC rounds without prejudice on the exposed Covie base with no fear of damaging whatever was impeding them from using MACs in the first place. Does the force of the MAC spread out in a wider area when it hits a shield? Also it's quite possible that the Spirit's MAC is in reality just a re-purposed Mass Driver possessing the same amount of strength as one, yet if that were the case it would be referred as such much like the Mass Driver in Reach and Harvest.
Halo 2: By technicality it seems that the Orbital MACs are inaccurate or simply not as effective on shields as both Carriers are able to slip past the orbital cluster. Given that an AI, Cortana no less, was in charge of aiming the MAC and tasked with concentrating fire on those carriers I'm surprised both slipped through unscathed with only their shields being down.
Reach: This shot used to destroy the Corvette came from an orbital MAC station. If used at full force it would cause some severe planetary damage based on what is said of it in the books, Halo 2, and to a deeper degree from the members of this community who can get it down to a science. So is there a way for them to have toned down the shot? Do factors exist like the Corvette being over water that could reduce impact? Was there actually severe (though not catastrophic) planetary damage actually done under the water that is merely unseen by us? And if so could it be the reason why command was hesitant on using MAC rounds when it was closer to Sword Base? Could there be a fear of damaging the Sword Base artifact or the access route leading to it if the MAC round impacted on the ground closer to the base? Given that Kat (unaware of the artifact and underground tunnel leading to it) questions why the MACs aren't taking shots at the Corvette when it's really close to the base and practically overhead it would be assumed that she does not consider the blast to be a danger to those within the base...
The books paint a far more deadly force behind both ship and orbital based MAC guns, so the existence of the Spirit's, Earth's, and Reach's MACs combat effectiveness in game is rather puzzling...
Off-topic within this thread of Corvette functions I know, but given that the only Corvette seen to have been destroyed was due to a MAC round it would be a sort of baseline to determine its durability. A barrage of missiles near the bridge is enough to make one turn tail and retreat, the presence of Longswords is enough to make them break off from an attack and retreat (though other factors like the loss of ground forces may contribute to this), but....whatever constituted the FPF barrages in Exodus was completely ineffective and didn't even graze them. Based on audio cues it almost sounds like the UNSC forces in NA were using Mass Drivers, though there is nothing present to confirm what they were using to strike out at the Corvettes prior to the missile batteries.
So really the defensive strength of the Corvette is quite hard to place when the power of the MAC guns and any variation they could or could not possess cannot be placed properly. It's a hell of an inconsistency that has bugged me mainly for my assumption that the UNSC forces in NA did try using Mass Drivers against the Corvettes which did nothing when a seemingly less powerful missile barrage can effectively damage it enough to make one pull out of the fight for a while.
I can answer the Halo Wars thing.
The MAC cannon on Halo Wars is a toned down version of the real MACs, it's done like that for gameplay reasons. I mean, every played Skirmish? it takes up to two MAC strikes to kill a Prophet, a Prophet, the single most frail species of the Covenant, resisting two direct shots.
And I do believe that the MAC blast shown on ONI Sword Base could have potentially harmed the base (more than it already was) If you see it, the Corvette alone was able to punch a hole on top of the base, now imagine something strong enough to completely pass through said ship with ease and in an instant. I'd think the sheer force would have made the building collapse and kill everybody inside and perhaps even ruin the underground facilities like the rail and elevator, effectively destroying any way to get to Halsey and Cortana for that matter.