Trek Ground combat - phasers

[Doomriser]

In SW, there is no real technological advancement anymore.
Everything is invented, the only thing you need to do is have designers combine the stuff in a manner which fits the purpose.
The VicStar is smaller and features less powerful armament than an ISD, but it can enter planetary atmosphere to land and support ground troops while still being a decent ship for space combat.
The ISD I, with its super heavy guns, is a capship killer and nothing else.
The ISD II features more anti-starfighter weaponry to counter the snubfighter thread.
So, none of these ships is actually 'better' than the other, they just fullfill different duties.

Er...IIRC an ISD II has a stronger hull, stronger shields, and about 3 times the firepower, all in the same sized-package without losing any carrying capability.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Regarding hand phasers, Starfleet should have at least stuck with the Type 2 from 2287 (Star Trek VI, and yes I know that that wouldn't have worked out IRL since TNG was started running years before ST6 was made, but just ignore that.) It had a power pack that loads into the grip like a modern handgun. Plus there's the bonus that it looks like an actual gun (like the rest of the TOS era phasers) and not some damned dust-buster.

[Darth Yoshi]

They needed ISD's to deal with Corvette's??

Why not? The Emperor likes overkill. Otherwise the Battles of Yavin and Endor would never have happened.

[Cpt_Frank]

Er...IIRC an ISD II has a stronger hull, stronger shields, and about 3 times the firepower, all in the same sized-package without losing any carrying capability.

Right, I forgot to mention the 'what you pay for is what you get' policy.
I'm pretty sure an ISD II costs more than an ISD I.

[Mr Bean]

Right, I forgot to mention the 'what you pay for is what you get' policy.
I'm pretty sure an ISD II costs more than an ISD I.

And since when does Mr kill everyone who says no realy care about that?

I don't think The Emeperer or Vadar are accountants


The ISD I was the best they could do at the time, They came up with alot of nifty new space saving Gagets and designed the ISD II in the same size but with more stuff in the same areas because fo technoloical advnacedments let them do this

[Doomriser]

A couple of points:

-IIRC the TOS Movie era phasers were too nasty for TNG. I think the script for that TNG episode with the old admiral who takes an alien drug to grow young had prop directions for "nasty-looking" weapons on display behind a character. One of those "nasty-looking" weapons was a black TOS Movie-era phaser. I think I read that in the Canon Database.

-What's with this whole "you don't need an ISD to deal with a Corvette" thing? There was huge real and potential opposition to Imperial power and only increasingly large vessels could act as a deterrent

Exhibit A - the Trade Federation had 2 km battleships. Presumably, other organizations could yield similar vessels. Howabout the Hapes Consortium, which has frigates and destroyer-sized vessels (with more primitive turbolasers, though, showing that technological advancement for ISDs was necessary and did happen)
Exhibit B - corporations such as KDY had their own battlecruisers
Exhibit C - even early on, the Mon Calamari had destroyer and cruiser-sized vessels
Exhibit D - planetary and system militias had starships as large as Rendili Dreadnoughts
Exhibit E - Pirates, criminals, and mercenaries did not have the largest vessels, but they did have sizeable fleets. In one EU novel, IIRC, a mercenary fleet was able to pull off a BDZ. Moreover, an ISD is stated to be able to take on entire fleets on its own. This capability is necessary when pirates have, for example, 2 Marauder Corvettes, 3 Corellian Corvettes, 2 Corellian Gunships, an old Dreadnought, and a Nebulon-B Frigate

Therefore, in order to maintain dominance, it was necessary for the GE to build vessels at least the size of ISDs.