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Let's play with numbers
Posted: 2003-04-08 03:39pm
by Grand Admiral Thrawn
Let's take the obselete Acclamator transport. It has 12 quad turrets (48 guns), each at 200 gigatons. For ease, I'll ignore the small guns and missles.
1 SHOT
200 gigatons (several times the yield of the arsenals of the US and USSR)
1 FULL ALPHA STRIKE (all guns firing)
9.6 teratons
1 MINUTE FIRING (assuming 10 second refire rate)
57.6 teratons (over half the K-T extinction asteroid impact and a moderate estimate of the SPK)
10 MINUTE FIRING
576 teratons (near the 650 tt high yield for SPK)
1 HOUR FIRING
3,456 teratons
2 HOUR FIRING
6,912 teratons
10 HOUR FIRING
34,560 teratons
24 HOUR (1 DAY) FIRING
82,944 teratons
ESTIMATED BDZ FIREPOWER: 23,900.57361 teratons
Therefore, a Acclamator can commense a BDZ in 10 hours (less with multiple ships). If a ISD is a order of magnitute stronger, it can commense a BDZ in under an hour.
Posted: 2003-04-09 01:18am
by FettKyle
That does not leave much time to save a planet from an ISD I wonder why the Remnant didn't use BDZ that often
Posted: 2003-04-09 01:26am
by Ghost Rider
Nice...and FettKyle, mostly because FUBARing a world is not in anyone's interest.
I see BDZ as a resort just to punish a world where all else pretty much failed...just shy of the Death Star option should it been sucessfully launched.
Posted: 2003-04-09 01:35am
by Illuminatus Primus
So that would be
ISD I Alpha Strike: 96 Teratons (only possible w/ half guns due to gun arrangement on ISD Mk. I)
ISD I HTL Quantity: 6 turrets, 2 quad batteries (3 turrets and 1 quad usable for BDZ; firing angles prevent more guns)
ISD I HTL Barrels: 20 barrels (10 each side).
ISD I HTL (per barrel) Firepower: 9.6 Teratons
ISD I HTL Turret Firepower: 19.2 Teratons per burst
ISD I HTL Quad Battery: 38.4 Teratons per burst
This means an ISD I can fire 96 Teratons directly starboard and port. It can fire 2 quad batteries and 2 turrets dead forward. That is 12 barrels for 115.2 Teratons in a full forward assault.
Posted: 2003-04-09 02:56am
by Enforcer Talen
which makes an ssd bdz in the 10 minute range?
holy hell.
Posted: 2003-04-09 03:08am
by Illuminatus Primus
SW Technical Commentaries, on Executor-class Weaponry wrote:The largest visible lumps scattered across the dorsal hull are about the same size as the heavy gun turrets of star destroyers (eg. the eight eight-gun turrets of the Avenger). They may be a similar kind of gun, but this identification is unconfirmed. There are at least several hundred of these likely turrets. Images of the Executor's plunge into the surface of the second Death Star provide a conveniently lit top view of the ship that shows at least 126 bumps on part of the starboard side. Extrapolating this density over the entire dorsal hull suggests over 400 emplacements in total, which would imply over three thousand cannons is each battery is the octuple-barrel turrets found on star destroyers.
Lets assume each of those lumps is a ISD Mk. I turret.
ISD I HTL Turret Firepower: 19.2 Teratons per burst
Let's assume only half the Executor's weapons can be aimed on a single target.
Executor-class Alpha Strike: 3840 Teratons
Theoretically an Executor-class could execute a BDZ with six broadsides, assuming they could be adequately distributed over the planetary surface.
Assuming it could orbit a planet and target its guns that fast, and assuming a 10 second refire rate, an Executor-class could execute a BDZ in just over one minute.
Posted: 2003-04-09 05:16am
by His Divine Shadow
Illuminatus Primus wrote:Theoretically an Executor-class could execute a BDZ with six broadsides, assuming they could be adequately distributed over the planetary surface.
Fuck with that kind of firepower it could likely break up the planet.
With repeated volleys ofcourse, say it can do one alpha strike every 60 seconds, in one day it would unleash 2e28joules, thats GOTTA HURT.
Posted: 2003-04-09 05:19am
by vakundok
So, a less than 44 km^3 Executor could destroy the life on a planet in less than ten minutes and a simple ISD I (less than 0.1 km^3) could do it within an hour. (Did you count the three barelled guns for the forward strike of an ISD I?)
Why did the empire build a 2'144'660 km^3 gunstation?
Posted: 2003-04-09 05:21am
by His Divine Shadow
vakundok wrote:So, a less than 44 km^3 Executor could destroy the life on a planet in less than ten minutes and a simple ISD I (less than 0.1 km^3) could do it within an hour. (Did you count the three barelled guns for the forward strike of an ISD I?)
Why did the empire build a 2'144'660 km^3 gunstation?
-Planetary shields
-Terror Weapon
It's also a utterly superior battlestation that the Emperor could retreat to and be relatively safe even if the fleet turned on him(they could not concentrate enough firepower on the DS to hurt it)
Posted: 2003-04-09 05:43am
by vakundok
Terror:
I canot see much difference between the terror caused by a BDZ or a complete destruction.
Planetary shield:
If the Executor and the Death Star have the same density it means that nearly 50.000 Executor could be constructed from the material of the Death Star. Could any defense (planetary shields or defense fleets) hold against only 100 Executors? (Needless to say that 100 Executor can keep 100 "lightly" defended systems in terror simultaneously.)
Last stand:
The firepower of the DS 1 is referred as half of that of the fleet. I think the whole fleet could destroy the DS. Besides, how long do the supplies of a DS hold?
Posted: 2003-04-09 06:58am
by NecronLord
vakundok wrote:Terror:
I canot see much difference between the terror caused by a BDZ or a complete destruction.
Desden
Nagasaki.
Compare.
Posted: 2003-04-09 07:30am
by vakundok
NecronLord wrote:vakundok wrote:Terror:
I canot see much difference between the terror caused by a BDZ or a complete destruction.
Desden
Nagasaki.
Compare.
The radiation caused previously unknown illness and deaths even days (years) after the attack. An unseen enemy (radiation) is the most terrifying, isn't it? So, I think those situations are too different to compare.
"Your world has been destroyed. Millions died. Everything and everyone you know are gone. Only an asteroid field remained."
"Your world has suffered a BDZ. Millions died. Everything and everyone you know are gone. Only the molten surface remained."
Or did I misinterpret the Base Delta Zero?
Posted: 2003-04-09 08:03am
by Grand Admiral Thrawn
Half of the entire Imperial fleet cannot be concentrated at one battle.
Posted: 2003-04-09 08:18am
by Enforcer Talen
course they could.
it would just be a *big* battle.
Posted: 2003-04-09 08:34am
by NecronLord
vakundok wrote:NecronLord wrote:
Desden
Nagasaki.
Compare.
The radiation caused previously unknown illness and deaths even days (years) after the attack. An unseen enemy (radiation) is the most terrifying, isn't it? So, I think those situations are too different to compare.
"Your world has been destroyed. Millions died. Everything and everyone you know are gone. Only an asteroid field remained."
"Your world has suffered a BDZ. Millions died. Everything and everyone you know are gone. Only the molten surface remained."
Or did I misinterpret the Base Delta Zero?
The psycological impact you missed. In WWII the Japanese psyche was able to take the concept of letting squadrons through, city destroyed. One bomb (or in this case shot) one city (planet) is a major jump psychologically.
Don't forget they didn't just build the deathstar for the superlaser, or they could have built darksabres for that. It is also a massive force projection platform. A USN carrier group to the ninth power if you will.
Posted: 2003-04-09 10:07am
by vakundok
NecronLord wrote:The psycological impact you missed. In WWII the Japanese psyche was able to take the concept of letting squadrons through, city destroyed. One bomb (or in this case shot) one city (planet) is a major jump psychologically.
Don't forget they didn't just build the deathstar for the superlaser, or they could have built darksabres for that. It is also a massive force projection platform. A USN carrier group to the ninth power if you will.
Do you think there is a large jump between "a large fleet of huge ships (100 Executors) arrived and leveled the planet with two volleys in ten seconds (or a single volley)" and "an enormous station arrived and destroyed the planet with a single shot"?
Well, the movie suggests that the DS1 was built only for the superlaser and even lacked correct shielding. (In AotC they referred the plans as the ultimate weapon not as the ultimate station with a fair weapon. And the weapon kept the ratio to the whole station.)
Posted: 2003-04-09 06:01pm
by Executor
Illuminatus Primus wrote:SW Technical Commentaries, on Executor-class Weaponry wrote:The largest visible lumps scattered across the dorsal hull are about the same size as the heavy gun turrets of star destroyers (eg. the eight eight-gun turrets of the Avenger). They may be a similar kind of gun, but this identification is unconfirmed. There are at least several hundred of these likely turrets. Images of the Executor's plunge into the surface of the second Death Star provide a conveniently lit top view of the ship that shows at least 126 bumps on part of the starboard side. Extrapolating this density over the entire dorsal hull suggests over 400 emplacements in total, which would imply over three thousand cannons is each battery is the octuple-barrel turrets found on star destroyers.
Lets assume each of those lumps is a ISD Mk. I turret.
ISD I HTL Turret Firepower: 19.2 Teratons per burst
Let's assume only half the Executor's weapons can be aimed on a single target.
Executor-class Alpha Strike: 3840 Teratons
Theoretically an Executor-class could execute a BDZ with six broadsides, assuming they could be adequately distributed over the planetary surface.
Assuming it could orbit a planet and target its guns that fast, and assuming a 10 second refire rate, an Executor-class could execute a BDZ in just over one minute.
The lumps on the hull of the executor are not guns of the kind on the ISD,s there to small.
Posted: 2003-04-09 06:40pm
by Illuminatus Primus
PPOR.
Saxton's seen more of the SSD's photographs to my knowledge than you've demonstrated. I'm inclined to believe him.
Posted: 2003-04-09 06:41pm
by Illuminatus Primus
NecronLord wrote:vakundok wrote:Terror:
I canot see much difference between the terror caused by a BDZ or a complete destruction.
Desden
Nagasaki.
Compare.
Selective American history education.
His Divine Shadow wrote:Illuminatus Primus wrote:Theoretically an Executor-class could execute a BDZ with six broadsides, assuming they could be adequately distributed over the planetary surface.
Fuck with that kind of firepower it could likely break up the planet.
With repeated volleys ofcourse, say it can do one alpha strike every 60 seconds, in one day it would unleash 2e28joules, thats GOTTA HURT.
And if we're going by more likely 10 second bursts, that's six times that in one day.
Posted: 2003-04-09 06:49pm
by seanrobertson
vakundok wrote:Terror:
I canot see much difference between the terror caused by a BDZ or a complete destruction.
In the sense that they're both going to kill you, yes
I understand what you mean.
However, the difference is that, IIRC, someone survived a BDZ in a very deep underground bunker (miles beneath the Camassi surface perhaps?). Though I myself find it VERY unlikely most planets would be able to scramble spacecraft such that people were able to escape, that's still a possibility too.
Moderately defended worlds, such as ones with theatre shielding, could also strike back at an ISD. A giant ion cannon or planetary turbolaser could be very nasty to an ISD about to initiate a BDZ. It's unlikely the defending planet would get anything beyond an alpha strike--once the BDZ truly commenced, the land around the shield would be pounded so hard that everyone underneath the "dome" itself would be killed--but that's still a possibility, right?
Additionally, if yours was a very powerful planet, you might actually have your own defense fleet. Many of the ships might be junk or very old, but they'd still be armed. Lots of such ships could give even a fleet of
Imperators some trouble. If they were only able to slow the Imperials down for a few minutes, that's still time for a planet's dignitaries to make orbit and hyperjump to safety, for instance.
With a Death Star, there are no survivors, even if they were somehow able to hide in the planet's core like Hilary Swank. There is no striking back. It hyperjumps into your system, targets your planet, then blows you to kingdom come. A thousand planetary turbolasers, or a fleet of hundreds of powerful ships, can't even slow it down. It's like a Borg cube rolling over Starfleet ships at Wolf 359, but raised to the 150th power!
Posted: 2003-04-09 07:11pm
by Grand Admiral Thrawn
Enforcer Talen wrote:course they could.
it would just be a *big* battle.
I hope you realize the problem with that.
Posted: 2003-04-09 07:17pm
by Illuminatus Primus
vakundok wrote:NecronLord wrote:The psycological impact you missed. In WWII the Japanese psyche was able to take the concept of letting squadrons through, city destroyed. One bomb (or in this case shot) one city (planet) is a major jump psychologically.
Don't forget they didn't just build the deathstar for the superlaser, or they could have built darksabres for that. It is also a massive force projection platform. A USN carrier group to the ninth power if you will.
Do you think there is a large jump between "a large fleet of huge ships (100 Executors) arrived and leveled the planet with two volleys in ten seconds (or a single volley)" and "an enormous station arrived and destroyed the planet with a single shot"?
Well, the movie suggests that the DS1 was built only for the superlaser and even lacked correct shielding. (In AotC they referred the plans as the ultimate weapon not as the ultimate station with a fair weapon. And the weapon kept the ratio to the whole station.)
What we know it does and what it has is more important than distortions of dialogue to hint that other parts had exaggerated importance. We know what the DS did and what it was designed for by how resources and space was allocated to the volume and power needs of the station.
SSD BDZ
Posted: 2003-04-09 07:31pm
by Grand Admiral Thrawn
Take the bullshit 250 TLs for WEG. Thats 2000 batteries.
Assume each is the power of 200 gigatons.
ALPHA STRIKE
400 teratons.
1 MINUTE FIRING (10 second refire)
2,400 teratons (2/3 of the Acclamator power in 1/60 of the time)
10 MINUTE FIRING
24,000 teratons (BDZ)
1 HOUR FIRING
144 000 teratons
1 DAY FIRING
3,456,000 teratons!
Assuming 1 TL=1 teraton
ALPHA STRIKE
2000 teratons
1 MINUTE FIRING
12,000 teratons
2 MINUTE
24,000 teratons (BDZ in 2 minutes)
10 minutes
120,000 thousand.
1 HOUR
720,000 teratons
24 HOURS
17,280,000 teratons!!!
Posted: 2003-04-09 07:53pm
by Grand Admiral Thrawn
Add missles!
Assuming each missle is 2 orders of magnitute higher then the TLs (1 and the gun alpha strike outguns the missles) There are 4 tubes
1 MISSLE
20 teratons ( 1 missle)
ALPHA STRIKE
80 teratons (4 missles)
1 MINUTE FIRING
480 teratons. (24 missles)
10 MINUTES FIRING
4,800 teratons 240 missles
1 HOUR FIRING
28,800 teratons 1,440 missles
10 HOUR FIRING
288,000 teratons 14,400 missles
24 HOURS
691,200 teratons 34,560 missles
Posted: 2003-04-09 07:59pm
by Grand Admiral Thrawn
COMBINED FIREPOWER
ALPHA STRIKE
89.6 teratons
1 MINUTE FIRING
537.6 teratons
10 MINUTE FIRING
5,376 teratons
30 MINUTES FIRING
16,128 teratons (720 missles)
40 MINUTE FIRING
21,504 teratons (960 missles)
50 MINUTE FIRING
26,880 teratons (BDZ!) (1200 missles)
1 HOUR
32,256 teratons
10 HOUR
320,256 teratons
24 HOUR
774,144 teratons