Questions about the Empire

[Luzifer's right hand]

I saw only the SW movies and I would like to ask some questions about the Empire.

1: I read in a thread that ships and planets must open holes in the shield when they fire with a weapon. Is this true?

2: How many ships can the empire gather in a single system in 2-3 days?And can the Empire use all ships it possess, or are parts of the Imperial Navy unavailable because they are used as occupation troops and so on?

3: How many ships were used in the largest known fleet vs. fleet battle and how much time was required to assemble said fleet?

4: Do SW ships use the hyperspace-drive when they are already in weapon range(to evade hits or to evade the escorts of a critical target and jump next to it)?

5: What is the effective range of turbo-lasers against a moving target?

6: Are the weapon systems controlled by sentient beings or by computers?

7: Do shields protect against the force?

[Techno_Union]

1. SW ships only have to open their shields to launch ships or torps (only opening particle shields though).

2. Well the Empire's ships can travel the galaxy in a couple days so you can gather a couple thousand ships in a system in 2-3 days. Ships can be pulled away from their duties as long as a ship can take its place, whether it is same class or a lesser class.

3. Not sure about that, but there have been battles including hundreds of ships.

4. Using a hyperdirve to evade a hit would be a terrible way to use the hyperdrive, unless it is a huge volley that would damage your vessel a lot, then it could be helpful but you would probably be running from the battle at that point. They sometimes jump to the back of the enemy fleet to give their enemy a surprise, but you could use it to jump close, but the long range of SW weapons can eliminate this meneuver.

5. Not sure.

6. Can be controlled by a person or computer. Some of the Death Star gunners were human, the Falcan's blaster in ESB was computer controlled. All depends on the weapon.

7. Shields do not protect against the force. The force is in everything so you techniaclly could not protect yourself from it, unless you have a yslamari (spelling may be off).

[PainRack]

2: How many ships can the empire gather in a single system in 2-3 days?And can the Empire use all ships it possess, or are parts of the Imperial Navy unavailable because they are used as occupation troops and so on?

Going by Endor and the radio drama, the Empire can mobilise at least 17 Imperial Star Destroyers from the local sector group to reinforce any impending battle at any time and day.
Parts of the Imperial navy will always be unavailable. Like any other navy, they should follow the 1/3 rule of thumb, as in, only 1/3 of the navy ships are on station, the remainder are working up to join station or is being refitted.

3: How many ships were used in the largest known fleet vs. fleet battle and how much time was required to assemble said fleet?

Empire vs Rebel or otherwise?
If it is the Empire vs the Rebels, the numbers are forced to be less than hundred, if Leia quote in Before the Storm was accurate. She claimed the Republic could call upon more ships than fought in the largest fleet battle between the Empire and the Rebels on both sides. Considering that the largest fleet deployment scale seen in that point of time was the Fifth Fleet 170+ warships battle against the Yevetha, that would suggest that the concentrated armadas of the Empire never fought a full scale battle against the Rebellion.

4: Do SW ships use the hyperspace-drive when they are already in weapon range(to evade hits or to evade the escorts of a critical target and jump next to it)?

No.

5: What is the effective range of turbo-lasers against a moving target?

Give me the size of the target first.

6: Are the weapon systems controlled by sentient beings or by computers?

Both. Darth Vader targeting computer appeared to have done virtually all the hard work of aiming and tracking an entire volley of shots for him. Similarly, there were "targeting coordinators"(sentient beings, not droids) on board the Death Star. The ICS also shows dedicated fire-control sections on an ISD bridge.

[Luzifer's right hand]

Give me the size of the target first.

Let's say size <10 km/speed 0,35 c(edit: not a straight line)

and thanks Techno_Union and PainRack

[CaptainChewbacca]

I think the largest number of ships ever brought together in one place was either the Battle of Bothaui during the Cammass crisis, or the Battle of Ebaq 9. At Ebaq 9, there were 5 or 6 YV fleets against most of the FFA fleet.

Anyone got battle stats for Ebaq 9? It must have been in the thousands.

[PainRack]

Assuming that each of the Republic squadrons were equivalent to General Farlander squadron(40 capital ships), the Battle at Ebaq 9 consisted of approximately 200 Yuzhan Vong warships and 320 Republic warships.

[Mad]

4: Do SW ships use the hyperspace-drive when they are already in weapon range(to evade hits or to evade the escorts of a critical target and jump next to it)?

No, microjumps at that weapons firing ranges are pretty much impossible. Even microjumps outside of weapons range is dangerous enough. (I'd have to check Heir to the Empire again to see if I can find out what the minimum range of a microjump is.)

5: What is the effective range of turbo-lasers against a moving target?

Depends on the size of the target, the target's relative velocity, the amount of ECM in use by the target, the target's maneuverability, the weapon being employed, the ECCM of the ship firing the weapon, and probably a number of other factors as well.

A turbolaser can engage an ISD or Mon Cal starcruiser at a much further range than it can against an X-wing or TIE fighter.

6: Are the weapon systems controlled by sentient beings or by computers?

Combination of both.

7: Do shields protect against the force?

No.

[Luzifer's right hand]

No, microjumps at that weapons firing ranges are pretty much impossible. Even microjumps outside of weapons range is dangerous enough. (I'd have to check Heir to the Empire again to see if I can find out what the minimum range of a microjump is.)

Depends on the size of the target, the target's relative velocity, the amount of ECM in use by the target, the target's maneuverability, the weapon being employed, the ECCM of the ship firing the weapon, and probably a number of other factors as well.

A turbolaser can engage an ISD or Mon Cal starcruiser at a much further range than it can against an X-wing or TIE fighter.

Another question about hyper-drives:
How close to a planet can ships enter real-space?

Maybe I should ask a different question:
What is the usual distance in a capital ship vs. capital ship fight?

[Mr Bean]

How close to a planet can ships enter real-space?

Close as they want to risk it, they could techincaly re-emerge out of hyperspace through just letting the gravity rip them out of hyperspace achiving prehaps upper atomspheric entrance except for the fact the violence of this would likely rip the ship to its indivudual atoms

Likley is a goodly distance away both for safety reasons and because of any orbiting moon that planet might posses(Say twice the distance the moon is from Earth would be relativly safe but not for any planet so quadriple or in more than that)

Dispite the distance they would emerge from hyperspace they can cover the distance from that to high orbit( Somewhere between the moon and us to give you a reference) and decerlerate into a stable orbit)

Maybe I should ask a different question:
What is the usual distance in a capital ship vs. capital ship fight?

Its never realy been nailed down, we have seen fights ranging from hundreds of thousands of km's to a bare dozen

The real problem in nailing down distances is the fact that ships can cover many many hundreds of kms during your avarage battle, nevermind the speed of each ship relative to each other as they do their best to get themselves in the best position position to hammer on the enemy

If you want a fair guess I'll say anything under fifty thousand km's lets your SoL weapons still hit pretty much were your aiming at and any sort of missile weapon has a good shot of crossing the distance

So say medium distance of 100-5,000 Km's, the great range is due to the ability of each ship to cross the distance realtivly quickly

[FTeik]

According to the ANH-novel the MF left hyperspace one planetary diameter away from Alderaans supposed position.

[Luzifer's right hand]

1. SW ships only have to open their shields to launch ships or torps (only opening particle shields though).

To sum up:
SW ships use two shield-types, a particle shield and a shield for energy weapons.
The particle shield works two-way, the energy weapon shield one-way.
Correct?

[GySgt. Hartman]

I heard that energy shields have to be opened in a small spot for a split-second if you want to fire through them.

[Techno_Union]

I heard that energy shields have to be opened in a small spot for a split-second if you want to fire through them.

Never heard that before. All things I have heard about shields is that particle shields have to opened for ship and torps.

[PainRack]

To sum up:
SW ships use two shield-types, a particle shield and a shield for energy weapons.
The particle shield works two-way, the energy weapon shield one-way.
Correct?

No.

I suggest you drop the question, because its unanswerable. We know from TPM that the plasma based shield prevented water molecules from entering the Gungan city, while allowing for two Jedi and a Gungan to enter. Similarly, the Droid Destroyers shields also allowed their blasters to penetrate, thus suggesting that energy shields can block outgoing too.

And so on and forth. Shield mechanics is the most unresolvable issue about SW at the moment.

[GySgt. Hartman]

I think we can try to establish a working model of shields. There is no reason why there can be only one type of particle shield; maybe the Gungans developed a shield that fits their own needs. Or maybe particle shields let slow-moving large things pass through.
We don't have to develop a theory of shields here, we only need to describe their behaviour.

Similarly, the Droid Destroyers shields also allowed their blasters to penetrate, thus suggesting that energy shields can block outgoing too.

You probably meant "don't block outgoing shits", which is fine with me. Is that contradicted anywhere?

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

No, microjumps at that weapons firing ranges are pretty much impossible. Even microjumps outside of weapons range is dangerous enough. (I'd have to check Heir to the Empire again to see if I can find out what the minimum range of a microjump is.)

It only mentions that microjumps are dangerous, not any kind of minimum range beyond which it becomes impossible. AFAIK, the closest distance microjump ever done was Han's in The Hutt Gambit. It was supposed to be only two seconds long. My suspicion is that they didn't even enter hyperspace (exceed 1C,) for IIRC it takes longer than two seconds to run up to beyond lightspeed, but rather just took advantage of the 'super-acceleration' that's used in hyperjump runups to move around quickly.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

Never heard that before. All things I have heard about shields is that particle shields have to opened for ship and torps.

It is Mike Wong's theory. Basically, shields must have some kind of opening if you want your weapons and other stuff to go out. Either they can oscillate, and your weapon's modulated to shoot when the shield's down (like a WWI MG shooting through the propellers while a blade's not quite in front.) That's the ST shield model. Or they can open tiny holes just big enough to allow the weapons through. Or they can shut down entirely every time a bolt passes - like the Hoth shield.

One-way walls sound cool, but they seem a little hard to make in reality.

With matter, it might be possible to create some kind of shield with characteristics like water, so a slow moving object might force its way out, but to a fast object it might as well be concrete.

[Illuminatus Primus]

What about the hyperjump in Dark Empire--the Falcon was still inside Byss' shields, no?

[Tribun]

What about the hyperjump in Dark Empire--the Falcon was still inside Byss' shields, no?

No. It just jumped out a millisecond before the shield closed. They had problems with jumping earlier because of the gravity well.

[PainRack]

I think we can try to establish a working model of shields. There is no reason why there can be only one type of particle shield; maybe the Gungans developed a shield that fits their own needs. Or maybe particle shields let slow-moving large things pass through.
We don't have to develop a theory of shields here, we only need to describe their behaviour.

That's the problem. If we do assume that shielding is relatively uniform, as per WEG, then, shield vector mechanics become impossible to describe.

I used to maintain that SW shield generators actually are of multiple physical types, and that a shield rating describe a single shield type ability to protect against energy and particle, hence, the term energy shield and particle shield.

It doesn't make inherent sense though. Remember, the MF deflector shields can be angled for "maximum deflection", meaning, the angle of incidence is a factor. What is this angle? Normal? Acute? Was the Fed ship shielded when Anakin spinning fighter entered? Why would the ship shields "select" anakin fighter to penetrate? What about the Death Star shields, which allowed relatively slow snubfighters to penetrate, but kept out planetary debris?

The only way out is to say, shields block against everything as set in its operational parameter. But how do the shields select what to enter?

[Ghost Rider]

What about the hyperjump in Dark Empire--the Falcon was still inside Byss' shields, no?

No. It just jumped out a millisecond before the shield closed. They had problems with jumping earlier because of the gravity well.

No it didn't.

The exact quote is

"Risking a high atmosphere burn up, Solo throws the Falcon into Lightdrive just in time to avoid collision with the planet's shield perimeter---"

Indicating he was within the Byss' shield, since nowhere before did they indicate that the shield went down as the Falcon was leaving.

[Luzifer's right hand]

Assuming that each of the Republic squadrons were equivalent to General Farlander squadron(40 capital ships), the Battle at Ebaq 9 consisted of approximately 200 Yuzhan Vong warships and 320 Republic warships.

First: I'm sorry for the thread necromancy

Someone on another forum told me that the battle of Ebaq 9 consisted of over 20.000 Yuzhan Vong warships and thousands of New Repuplic ships.

What is the truth?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Indicating he was within the Byss' shield, since nowhere before did they indicate that the shield went down as the Falcon was leaving.

Couldn't that also be read as Han jumping just before the shield went up?

EDIT: Fuck, nevermind. Didn't see that this was a necroed thread...

[Ghost Rider]

Assuming that each of the Republic squadrons were equivalent to General Farlander squadron(40 capital ships), the Battle at Ebaq 9 consisted of approximately 200 Yuzhan Vong warships and 320 Republic warships.

First: I'm sorry for the thread necromancy

Someone on another forum told me that the battle of Ebaq 9 consisted of over 20.000 Yuzhan Vong warships and thousands of New Repuplic ships.

What is the truth?

Probably the lower of the two...since I believe that's the numbers from the book, seriously the best way to resolve is to ask where he got the numbers by essentially asking page number.

Also the Byss shield never goes down, it's up unless said otherwise...which is why the Galaxy Gun missile was the only way to penetrate into the planet below.

And yes Spanky I know it's necroed...so I'll just answer yours and his question.

If anymore...PM me...thread locked.