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Dec 27, 2009, 9:32pm

Force Storm :: Expanded Universe :: Discussions :: Technical Issues Discussion

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Topic: Technical Issues Discussion (Read 254 times)

dkx92
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Technical Issues Discussion
« Thread Started on Dec 1, 2007, 3:45pm »

Okay, this is basically a thread for the discussion of various technical issues. It's basically here because a lot of the material on such issues is EU material, and not all of it is all that good. The impression I've gotten form the administrator who approved this topic is that she's not exactly ready to just toss all that material out, but she is willing to open the subject to debate. (Which is what this topic is about.)

So basically, this topic is to discuss issues with technical material and propose possible solutions (which might or might not be used).

Since there are a lot of these issues, I'm not going to post all of them right off the bat. Some of them would be affected by the answers to other issues anyway.

So, here are a few of the early issues, which are largely starfighter related:

Tie Fighters and Shields:

According to many sources, most TIEs don't have them. Other people argue that some of the visual effects on film suggest otherwise. Personally, I'm actually kind of for TIEs having some kind of very minimal shielding just due to the capabilities of some of the other fighters have. TIEs are supposed to rely a lot on their agility for effectiveness, but I think it's also important that they not be total pushovers in a head on pass, because a head on pass is a fairly likely scenario in a starfighter duel. It's more or less been shown that a single direct hit to a TIE fighter's cockpit ball will destroy the craft, so in order to prevent opposing fighters from just unleashing a fusilade of cannon fire as an almost sure kill tactic, I think it's important that TIEs have some sort of minimal shielding so that they at least have a chance of getting through the initial pass and using their maneuverability to good effect.

TIE Fighter Laser Cannons

Some of you may notice that the TIE Fighters in A New Hope had the capability to shoot at targets that weren't dead centre in front of them (as it their guns had some capability to shift their fire to the sides a bit). I think this capability should be made note of.

TIE Interceptor Laser Cannons

Okay, this one may be a touch controversial. Basically, the four laser cannon thing just doesn't match that well with the actual model and on screen evidence. There's apparently visual evidence from ROTJ of the cockpit lasers firing, so Interceptors should probably be listed as having at least six laser cannons, and I might even go further, because I don't thin those cannon looking things in the centre of the wings are targetting sensors. That would up the total to ten cannons. I personally like the idea of the Interceptor as a fragile but extremely powerful ship that can more or less have you for lunch if you let it get you under it's guns for even a few seconds.
Of course, I do realise ten cannons may seem a bit overkill for such a tiny craft, so I'm not exactly adverse to saying that perhaps they can't fire all ten of them simultaneously for long durations due to power consumption and/or heat buildup.

B-Wing Armament

Taking a look at the B-Wing model... the thing is pretty clearly meant to have more cannons then just six. Looking at the model, I'd say something like five laser cannons and four ion cannons would be fairly reasonable. Given the size of the ship and it's slow speed, I don't think this is altogether unreasonable.

X-Wing Laser Cannons

I don't really think all laser cannons are supposed to be created equal. Personally, I think the X-Wing's guns are heavy suckers with some real long range hitting power. Just look at the size of them compared to other starfighters. (I think too that giving the X-Wing a heavy punch would be pretty important if the TIE Interceptor gets it).

Torpedo loads

It would be good to establish some guidelines on this one. Question is, is the X-Wing's six torps a medium load by fighter standards or a light one? Supposedly the Naboo fighter from Episode ! had a load of like ten of the things and it's not that big. But if that's the case, shouldn't the Y-Wing -which is kind of a bomber type -have more then eight, given it's role? (Worse, why does the enormous ARC-170 only mount six, like an X-Wing?) Or should bombers like the Y-Wing actually have a significantly heavier warhead load then space superiority and interceptor types?

Speed

Okay, some of the speed stuff for Star Wars ships has probably been influenced by gameplay in computer games and stuff. ILM's Return of the Jedi speed chart (used to give people an idea of how fast and maneuverable different ships should be on screen) paints a quite different picture.

A-Wing: 150 MGLT
TIE Interceptor: 125 MGLT
TIE Fighter: 100 MGLT
X-Wing: 100 MGLT
Y-Wing: 100 MGLT
B-Wing: 75 MGLT
Millenium Falcon: 75 MGLT

Personally, I don't think this chart should be used directly, it's too rigid (I think there should be a bit more variation between Y's, X's, and Tie Fighters, for instance. But I actually think it's a good guideline. Although perhaps that's because the Y-Wing's slow speed in many sources bugs me so much. Okay, fine, it's supposed to be kind of long in the tooth, but the engines on those things make up a huge percentage amount of their overall size. They're enormous! Yes, they may be old, but is their power to size ratio really that pathetic? If anything, I'd be tempted to give the Y-Wing a slight edge over the X-Wing in speed (I kind of view the Y-Wing as a speed attack bomber, while the X-Wing is a better dogfighter.)

There's plenty more issues, but this can maybe be a start. What are your opinions on these matters?

Edit: Okay, I'll throw in just a couple more. I'm remembering now that the Board Admin wanted to make an argument regarding who built the A-Wings.

Personally, I think the A-Wing is a production fighter from some company and that the Alliance just obtained large numbers of them. Some rebel groups may have the capability to build small numbers of fighters, but I think being able to turn out large numbers of a high performance product with a consistent set of parts would be kind of difficult. Just imagine how hard it would be for the alliance to get a hold of the engines needed to build all those A-Wings?

If the Alliance has built their own fighters, they probably vary considerably due to the fact that different groups likely have differences in the availability of different types of parts.

« Last Edit: Dec 1, 2007, 4:19pm by dkx92 »

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