Ep 3 official tech discussion thread

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-05-20 01:29pm

At such short ranges, directed energy weapons would likely burn through deep into the hull before detonating anyway. So long as your shields held off any debris from the blast, you'd be fine.

Haminal10 · Post by **Haminal10** » 2005-05-20 01:31pm

irishmick79 wrote:I would guess if Yoda threw the saber hard enough, the hilt would get lodged in somewhere, and prevent the blade from being able to move.

After watching the movie a second time, and paying close attention to this scene, I saw that the clonetrooper caught the saber by the hilt. Unfortunately for him, it had already impaled him. So I think that this proves that sabers cannot get lodged into a person, or at the very least it makes it ambiguous.

Darth Mortis · Post by **Darth Mortis** » 2005-05-20 01:32pm

As far as I've seen, this Galaxy prefer's short quick and dirty combat, so that makes nukes useless, unless of course, you're willing to damage your own navy.

JointStrikeFighter · Post by **JointStrikeFighter** » 2005-05-21 04:19am

MrAnderson wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:
A nuclear weapon would be far more destructive than a bunch of buzzdroids no matter how industrious they are. Those things make the most sense if you assume they were designed for capturing enemy fighter pilots alive by disabling their ships.

Buzzdroids can be used at much closer ranges and in much tighter fights without worrying about collateral damage. If those two missles had been nukes then you would have wiped out lots of droid fighters and depending on how close they are a great deal of damage could have been done to the Invisible Hand or another cap ship.

Capships aren't supposed to fight at super-close ranges. That's highly abnormal and would only happen in exceptional circumstances. Besides, you could simply dial down the yield if you're worried about collateral damage; an explosive device is still going to do much more damage to the ship it hits than one which is a kilometre away.

The strength of the Buzz Driod lies in its ability to penetrate sheilds [ROTS: ICS, ROTS: VD]. Basicly you can start inflicting damage in enemey capships long before their sheilds are brought down. Also they'd make a nice gueriila weapon; sow some on a ship and whilst their distracted do something else

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2005-05-21 09:35am

Unless I read the ICS wrongly, the Jedi starfighters do not have shields, so the buzzdroids' ability to penetrate shields is a moot point.

Winston Blake · Post by **Winston Blake** » 2005-05-21 10:08am

kheegan wrote:Unless I read the ICS wrongly, the Jedi starfighters do not have shields, so the buzzdroids' ability to penetrate shields is a moot point.

But then Jedi are where their ability to disable and capture becomes important.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2005-05-21 10:32am

How is it buzzdroids are penetrating shields when warheads don't?

The buzzdroids would be a bit more potent if they burrowed into enemy ships and detonated like protorps...

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2005-05-21 11:13am

Buzzdroids would make sense as police weapons, to disable and capture small vessels. From the EU, we know ion cannons can fry the nervous system of pilots (Mara Jade had to have her nerves rebuilt after a stray ion cannon blast caught her ejection seat). Also, they'd be quite useful for industrial sabotage (not necessarily delivered on missiles, though) where you don't want to blast a competing factory to tiny pieces and kill all the workers.

Using them in battle makes little sense. Obi-Wan would be dead meat if that missile contained a nuke, Jedi skills or no Jedi skills.

The Original Nex · Post by **The Original Nex** » 2005-05-21 12:14pm

Sorry if tis has been brought up already, but I noticed that in the space battle backdrop during the Dooku duel, we see a Venator high above a Munifiscent Frigate raining fire down on it. Now, IIRC the VenStar has no large batteries on the ventral surface (excepting the SPHA-T cannon which these bolts clearly weren't). The bolts certainly didn't look like small Point-Defence bolts either. So where was all this fire coming from?

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2005-05-21 06:04pm

The Original Nex wrote:Sorry if tis has been brought up already, but I noticed that in the space battle backdrop during the Dooku duel, we see a Venator high above a Munifiscent Frigate raining fire down on it. Now, IIRC the VenStar has no large batteries on the ventral surface (excepting the SPHA-T cannon which these bolts clearly weren't). The bolts certainly didn't look like small Point-Defence bolts either. So where was all this fire coming from?

The two MTL's may be mounted on the trench, but they're long enough that if the mounts can depress that far down, they'd be able to fire in that arc.

The Original Nex · Post by **The Original Nex** » 2005-05-21 06:18pm

I'll have to look closer when I see it again, but it seemed like the bolts were coming from more than just two locations, and the angle seemed too steep for the trench MTLs.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2005-05-21 06:24pm

The Original Nex wrote:I'll have to look closer when I see it again, but it seemed like the bolts were coming from more than just two locations, and the angle seemed too steep for the trench MTLs.

Well, the ICS say's there are 52 PDG's and I count 18 on the side so 36 for both trenches. That leaves a couple for the dorsal and ventral sides.

I would imagine a couple of those would be on the ventral side, protecting the docking bay/launch bay.

Firefox · Post by **Firefox** » 2005-05-21 06:30pm

Where did you spot all 18? I've seen only 14 turrets (six forward of the MTL turret), five aft, plus three in the big notch. Assuming it's referring to turrets and not individual guns, that'd be only 28 for the brim trench on both sides. Where are the remaining 24?

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2005-05-21 06:36pm

They come in groups of three, I counted five groups (15) and reasoned that there are another 3 guns on the other side of the notch we can't see.

Firefox · Post by **Firefox** » 2005-05-21 06:37pm

There could be some on the aft-facing edge of the notch, but the two sitting alone on the other side seem to deviate from that. There may be one at the crease in the page, but it's hard to see.

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2005-05-21 07:00pm

What the fuck happened to the Tantive IV? It looked... weird.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2005-05-21 07:11pm

Warspite wrote:What the fuck happened to the Tantive IV? It looked... weird.

it's probaly the WEG design instead of the ANH Design and as for hangar it seem to that it was for cargo unloading (by freighters or by loadlifters)

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2005-05-21 07:27pm

Lord Revan wrote:it's probaly the WEG design instead of the ANH Design and as for hangar it seem to that it was for cargo unloading (by freighters or by loadlifters)

I don't have a problem with the hangar, it could have had a refit between ROTS and ANH that eliminated the hangar, my problem is, no one on the art department went "What the hell is that?".

Is there any mention of the name other than the VD?

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2005-05-21 07:54pm

So what are the new ships in Episode III called? I know the Invisible Hand is a Providence-class, and the Venators obviously, but what about the wierd spindly one, or the ship with row upon row of windows?

Information about the pre-TIE seen at the end would also be greatly appreciated.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-05-21 07:59pm

Damn it, you couldn't be less vague, could you?

YT300000 wrote:but what about the wierd spindly one,

Commerce Guild Recusant-class support destroyer.

or the ship with row upon row of windows?

Banking Clan Munificent-class frigate.

At least I think.

Information about the pre-TIE seen at the end would also be greatly appreciated.

Those are V-wing starfighters.

Want more? Go buy the RotS ICS.

Macross · Post by **Macross** » 2005-05-21 08:10pm

Warspite wrote:What the fuck happened to the Tantive IV? It looked... weird.

Two possibilities
1) It will undergo a major refit sometime in the next 20 years.
2) Bail Organa really likes the name Tantive IV and names all his ships that.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2005-05-21 08:18pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Damn it, you couldn't be less vague, could you?

Oh, I think I could.

Though I'm mostly asking this as an interim measure before the SWTC update about the new ships.

Information about the pre-TIE seen at the end would also be greatly appreciated.
Those are V-wing starfighters.

What? But there already IS a V-Wing, seen in Dark Empire and Rogue Squadron:

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2005-05-21 08:20pm

Macross wrote:
Warspite wrote:What the fuck happened to the Tantive IV? It looked... weird.
Two possibilities
1) It will undergo a major refit sometime in the next 20 years.
2) Bail Organa really likes the name Tantive IV and names all his ships that.

Does it say anywhere that its the Tantive IV? It could be an earlier number, using an earlier model.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-05-21 08:20pm

That's a V-wing airspeeder, first seen in Dark Empire. What's seen in RotS is a completely unrelated V-wing starfighter.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-05-21 08:21pm

YT300000 wrote:
Macross wrote:
Warspite wrote:What the fuck happened to the Tantive IV? It looked... weird.
Two possibilities
1) It will undergo a major refit sometime in the next 20 years.
2) Bail Organa really likes the name Tantive IV and names all his ships that.
Does it say anywhere that its the Tantive IV? It could be an earlier number, using an earlier model.

Virtually every source that mentions it says that it's the same ship seen in Episode IV.