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a (trade federation) Battledroid question
Posted: 2008-09-11 11:00am
by Lord Revan
ok we know that at least some models of the TradeFed battledroids don't act like the "dumb terminal" they're suppose to be and I was looking at something else in the Wookieepedia and they list the pilot, guard and officer models as different models as the standard B-1s.
so my question is, that is this something they made up (wikipedias are know to contain speculations as facts) or official?
Posted: 2008-09-11 11:28am
by Darth Ruinus
Well, wouldn't it make sense for them to be different models? They would have different programming or computers which allow for a different range of abilities and knowledge.
Posted: 2008-09-11 11:56am
by Lord Revan
Darth Ruinus wrote:Well, wouldn't it make sense for them to be different models? They would have different programming or computers which allow for a different range of abilities and knowledge.
it would but that wasn't the question, was it.
Posted: 2008-09-11 12:44pm
by Count Chocula
"Where are you going?"
"We're ambassadors to the Supreme Chancellor. We're going to Coruscant."
"Coruscant? Uhhh...that does not compute. Uhhh...wait....you're under arrest!"
- Trade Fed B1 Battle Droid (Officer Model)
"Roger, Roger"
- Trade Fed B1 Battle Droid (Cannon Fodder Model)
Canon shows that B1 battle droids acting in different capacities have different abilities. It may be a matter of available command links, or the expense of making droids with superior information processing and reasoning ability, or reluctance to have billions of droids capable of some independent thought - they may turn on their creators, dont'cha know.
B2 Super Battle Droids have demonstrably more initiative and damage-control capability than B1 droids. At the First Battle of Geonosis in AoTC, we see B2 droids pushing B1s aside, fighting on with missing limbs, and holding fire when Dooku simply raises his hand.
Droidekas seem to have a limited set of options - more so than B1 battle droids, even. Their AI seems limited to "Roll Around, Roll Around, Unroll, Kill Kill Kill." with the exception of Anakin's and Obi-Wan's capture on the Invisible Hand.
In the films, there is no doubt that different battle droids have different abilities. It seems logical to deduce, even if it's not stated in the film, that B1 'noncom' droids and B1 'officer' droids are different models. Since we don't see 'pilot' or 'guard' models (IIRC, the droids piloting the TradeFed ship and those guarding Amidala's party looked identical to the standard B1), I'm going to call 'Wank!" on Wiki.
Posted: 2008-09-11 02:29pm
by Lord Revan
For the love of God!
I KNOW! they act differently, what I was asking has official info started treating them as seperate models (or seperate sub-models at least) as the wiki says or does it still claim there's only 1 type of battledroids who are all just dumb terminals
and btw we do see all 4 models in TPM officers and guard being the first we see (the backpackless with yellow (officers) or red ("guard") shoulders) and we see the pilot version at the bridge (agains without the backpack and with blue shoulders), in case you're wondering the "trooper" version is the one with colored shoulders and with a backpck transmiter)
Posted: 2008-09-11 02:40pm
by Darth Raptor
They essentially all have autonomous programming, except for the assault infantry that engaged the GGA (the ones with the backpack receiver/transmitters). The rest were centrally controlled, but not directly; by that I mean they were programmed to shut down upon losing the master control signal (a sensible security measure), but they all had their own CPUs.
Posted: 2008-09-11 03:01pm
by Count Chocula
OK, fine. Jesus Christ on a sidecar, I thought I was doing OK. The films call them battle droids - no characters distinguish among the types of standard battle droid.
That said, here's a url for the B1 Battle Droid from the SW Games wiki.
http://swgames.wikia.com/wiki/B1_battle_droid. And here's an excerpt from the article:
In Star Wars: Battlefront the standard B1 appears in several cut scenes but is only playable in the first Clone Wars Historical Campaign mission on Naboo: Plains. Several other versions of the B1 droid are also playable in the game, these are the droid pilot, Assault droid and Assassin droid.
In Star Wars: Battlefront II the B1 battle droid appears in the same way as it did in the first Battlefront game except the standard B1 is not playable and the color schemes of each of the classes of droids have changed. The pilot droid has also changed to the Engineer droid.
In Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron the B1 battle droid is a personalization option. There are several different head types that can be used for the B1, two of which were created for the game.
It looks like the different battle droid types came from the games. According to the ImperialWiki, 'select video games' are C-Canon. So, the various types of droid have been canon since the release of Star Wars: Battlefront.
Posted: 2008-09-11 04:42pm
by AK_Jedi
The first I ever saw of this was in the TPM visual dictionary. It referred to the different sub-models as pilot (blue), officer (yellow), security (maroon), and soldier (no color). That book came out around the same time as the movie, and is (I think) official.
Posted: 2008-09-11 04:46pm
by Anguirus
^ Bob Brown came to precisely the same conclusions. It's really pretty straightforward. The maroon security troops and blue pilots recur in RotS, as well as the soldiers of course.
Re: a (trade federation) Battledroid question
Posted: 2008-09-11 05:27pm
by Ender
Lord Revan wrote:ok we know that at least some models of the TradeFed battledroids don't act like the "dumb terminal" they're suppose to be and I was looking at something else in the Wookieepedia and they list the pilot, guard and officer models as different models as the standard B-1s.
so my question is, that is this something they made up (wikipedias are know to contain speculations as facts) or official?
Official, it goes back to the TPM Visual dictionary. Though the question is are they B1 variants or OOM variants.
Posted: 2008-09-16 12:15pm
by Lord Revan
btw I know this threads has been dead for quite a while, but as this is somewhat related I'll post it here rather then making a new topic.
is there any indication just how durable the Trade Fed battledroids (excluding the fighters ofc) are?
what I'm mainly after is impact durability not blaster durability.
Posted: 2008-09-16 01:46pm
by Anguirus
^ Didn't one box a Gungan? And Gungans might be pretty strong thanks to insane jumping ability?
They seem to get destroyed by Force pushes that only shove or stun humanoids, though.
Posted: 2008-09-16 01:47pm
by Crazedwraith
Anguirus wrote:^ Didn't one box a Gungan? And Gungans might be pretty strong thanks to insane jumping ability?
They seem to get destroyed by Force pushes that only shove or stun humanoids, though.
Because all force pushes are equal, am I right?
Posted: 2008-09-16 02:02pm
by Ender
Lord Revan wrote:btw I know this threads has been dead for quite a while, but as this is somewhat related I'll post it here rather then making a new topic.
is there any indication just how durable the Trade Fed battledroids (excluding the fighters ofc) are?
what I'm mainly after is impact durability not blaster durability.
We haven't been able to hash out a mass yet so it is a bit of an open question, but they were able to close and engage the clone army in a few minutes. That means they have to be able to move pretty fast, which in turn tells us about stress and durability.
That said, they are built to come apart - their joints are held together via electromagnets. In theory one could repair itself on the battlefield - we see other droids collecting parts for reuse in TPM when they are capturing the gungans.
Posted: 2008-09-18 05:39pm
by FOG3
Lord Revan wrote:btw I know this threads has been dead for quite a while, but as this is somewhat related I'll post it here rather then making a new topic.
is there any indication just how durable the Trade Fed battledroids (excluding the fighters ofc) are?
what I'm mainly after is impact durability not blaster durability.
Well the metal of that chassis isn't that thin so probably at least able to put up with small arms fire even without invoking unobtanium. 3" armor on the Matlilda II was basically invulnerable at the beginning of WW2 for reference, although I seriously doubt the armor is that thick.
The joints are not going to be that tolerant of brute force momentum given the nature of the modular attachment used. On the other hand said modular attachment is designed to allow for quick and easy repair, so it's not like the limb being ripped off necessarily would keep them out of the fight for a meaningful length of time.
Honestly I'd say the B-1s get a bad rap in many regards. Lucas basically had to make them act like conscripts and dumb them down. Otherwise they're as well protected as stormtroopers, should have roughly equivalent detection systems, and protection while presenting a smaller profile and being a inherently more stable firing platform. Before you even get into the ability to easily carry and deploy massive numbers of the things, they should have the advantage in any fire fight due to not having a reason to hesitate when engaging the enemy, presenting a smaller and thus harder to hit target, and a more stable platform.
Add a good networking system which would be inherent in the system as described, and they should have basically been a complete overmatch at the infantry level for anyone without a very well trained and equipped Army. Albeit troops more vulnerable to ECM in the case of the models without their own complete droid brain.