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In researching through Wookiepedia for ship ideas (thanks to the input I got in an earlier thread), I came across a few heavy weapons used on certain capital ships. Little specific information on the weapons were given, so I'm positing these here to gain an idea of perspective, to incorporate on a possible new ship I'd be featuring in a new SW fic, if it seems to gain flight.

The Superlaser
Info: As illustrated in Wookiepedia, this is one "proton beam" (in the case of the Eclipse-class Star Dreadnaught), or more refocused into one beam (eight "tributary proton beams" in the first Death Star, nine in the Death Star Mk. II).

Relative firepower: Only given as an estimated figure for the first Death Star's superlaser, rated at 2.4*10^32 watts, with an optimum range of 380,000 km and a working range of 420,000 km. The single beam on the Eclipse-class is purportedly able to crack a planet's crust or give a capital ship a very bad evening.

Use: As a ship-mounted weapon, given the large size of the Eclipse, I would say it would be feasable to put one, perhaps two of the superlasers on a ship as it's primary weapon. Of course, this would be by necessity a capital ship.

The Plasma Cannon
Info: Displayed prominently alongside a fire control-linked heavy ion cannon, the Plasma Cannon was shown as the primary weapon of the Aggressor-class Destroyer.

Relative Firepower: Not given.

Use: Likely to be one (or more) main guns on a capital ship, depending on the working range.

The Mass Driver
Ah, the slugthrower. In this case, it's a very large railgun, but the basic idea is to still hit the target with matter flung at very high speeds. It was used as the primary weapon on the Keldabe-class Battleship.

Relative Firepower: Not given, but was noted as having the advantage of shooting right through most deflector shields.

Use: Depending on just how good a system for a mass driver could be implemented, a supplemental or main gun onboard a frigate-class or larger ship.

These above are the ones I found while looking through Wookiepedia and asking a few people their opinions. I would appreciate any and all feedback on this. Thank you in advance.

EDIT: Content and clarity of such.

Unless your ship is a Star Dreadnaught a superlaser is too large and inefficient to be very useful. The Eclipse's was mainly for planetary bombardment. It would be better to arm a ship with huge TLs like those on Munificent Star Frigates.

Mass drivers are seen in the Clone Wars and seem to be as effective as Blasters. Also, the mass drivers mounted on the Invisible Hand might have been used to fire flak bursts. While a mass driver could be used to get past ray shields, a ship's particle shields should be able to block mass driver projectiles, within reason. It should be noted that the Executor withstood being rammed by 3 ISDs at near lightspeed when the ISDs came out of hyperspace too close. Also, a mass driver has to worry about ammunition, and running out.

Turbolasers are by far the most versatile and efficient weapon in SW, hence the ubiquity with which they're used. Missiles can allow a smaller ship to threaten a larger ship, but they have to get fairly close to guarantee hits with ECM and point-defense protecting ships from missiles. Also, missiles have to worry about ammo as well.

Ion cannons allow a small ship to threaten a larger ship, and a large enough ion cannon can disable a large warship. However, unless your ship is planning on trying to capture ships intact turbolasers are better because they can actually destroy a ship rather render it temporarily helpless.

Mass drivers are seen in the Clone Wars and seem to be as effective as Blasters. Also, the mass drivers mounted on the Invisible Hand might have been used to fire flak bursts. While a mass driver could be used to get past ray shields, a ship's particle shields should be able to block mass driver projectiles, within reason. It should be noted that the Executor withstood being rammed by 3 ISDs at near lightspeed when the ISDs came out of hyperspace too close. Also, a mass driver has to worry about ammunition, and running out.

I haven't read whatever reference that is (the Executor being rammed), but AFAIK ships don't come out of hyperspace at anything near c.

It's from one of the Marvel comics. Also, if you look at what is termed pseudomotion in the films the ships are traveling at relativistic velocities as they're decelerating.

Edit: Here is Saxton's commentary on it, and a picture from his site. http://www.theforce.net/swtc/ssd.html#shields

I bet mass drivers are simply more frustrating to use to a large, far-flung Empire. You can stick a ship with turbolasers out in the middle of nowhere and it really doesn't need ammunition resupplies very often. A ship that uses mass drives is much more at risk of supply shortages. Given the amount of TL's used to make one ISD, and the amount of ISD's out there, I bet that's a lot of ammo they didn't need to make.

as it has already been said there's a reason why Eclipse was a SSD/Star Dreanaught and that reason is power requiverment of it's main weapon (the Superlaser), The Eclipse-class could carry just one Superlaser and even that was said to be less powerfull then one mounted on the Deathstar (or DS2), while smaller weapons working on the same princible are not unheard of they're also less powerfull.

Lord Revan wrote:as it has already been said there's a reason why Eclipse was a SSD/Star Dreanaught and that reason is power requiverment of it's main weapon (the Superlaser), The Eclipse-class could carry just one Superlaser and even that was said to be less powerfull then one mounted on the Deathstar (or DS2), while smaller weapons working on the same princible are not unheard of they're also less powerfull.

This was later pointed out to me by someone else, so I thank you for your post - this was something I overlooked when I originally was making this list.

However, I haven't seen much about the efficacy of the plasma cannon onboard the Aggressor, above. Does anyone have any opinions as to the effectiveness of plasma cannons as ship weaponry in Star Wars?

As that weapon comes from a game and thus is about the lowest canon you can get, probably not. I can't recall any mention of plasma cannon in the EU and there wasn't any mention of them in the movies.

Batman wrote:As that weapon comes from a game and thus is about the lowest canon you can get, probably not. I can't recall any mention of plasma cannon in the EU and there wasn't any mention of them in the movies.

Well, this is leading me toward a choice unlisted in my original post: lots and lots of turbolasers.

Which brings me to a correlative question: are devices that act as capacitors for turbolasers used to allow a particular turbolaser battery to charge up for a more powerful volley? If this is done as a standard practice, which I have heard mentioned from some in the unofficial chat, then to what extent has this idea been used in canon?

Lots and lots of TLs is always a good choice, if it's good enough for the foremost Galactic Power it should be good enough for everyone else.

Considering that Munificents and Recusants don't have the reactor power to use their weapons to their full potential, it looks like they use capacitors to store energy to fire their heavy guns at full power. This means that a ship with a small reactor if it has its TL capacitors fully charged can take on a ship with a larger reactor, by using guns far larger than it could otherwise support for short periods. While the ship with the larger reactor has the advantage in the long run, if the ship with a small reactor has guns and capacitors that allow it to quickly take out the larger-reactor ship it can win a quick fight.

Capacitors also allow a warship to fire salvoes more powerful than its reactor would otherwise allow by charging for a few seconds firing a salvo then recharging for a few seconds before firing another salvo, making it more likely that the ship can overwhelm its opponent's shields. The time spent charging would also allow the guns more time to cool than constant firing would allow, at least helping to offset the greater waste heat generated by more powerful salvoes.

Absolutely perfect, NRS Guardian. Thank you for elaborating on that - this will help me immensely in seeing what I can do for armament.

Kuciwalker wrote:I haven't read whatever reference that is (the Executor being rammed), but AFAIK ships don't come out of hyperspace at anything near c.

Don't forget, Kuciwalker, an ISD also masses a lot more than the average mass driver slug!

Nevertheless, the point being made is that mass driver slugs are affected by the particle shielding component of deflector shields. They don't get a free ticket to pass straight through.

I'm guessing mass drivers are used for ground vehicles (like AT-TE cannons) because you get to perform indirect fire, and also variable payloads that let you flak burst around enemy starfighters (like the guns on Providence-class ships). For sheer capship stopping power, though, DEW seems to be the way to go.