Trade Federation at Naboo.

[Murazor]

This is something that has bothered me quite a bit. Although I haven't seen the Phantom Menace for quite some time, I remember that before Amidala's ship crossed the blockade the Trade Federation ships opened fire against the yatch. Several of the bolts missed.
Even considering the fact that Trade Feds guns may not be turbolasers at all and that they wanted Amidala alive, given the state of the art weaponry in the Old Republic I think that the missed bolts would have been multi-MT as a very low end.
Considering that Naboo had no planetary shield and the fact that the missed bolts must have hit the planet: is there any EU source that tells us about the damage Naboo suffered as a consequence of this?

[Lord of the Farce]

Considering that Naboo had no planetary shield

Is there actually any source that specifically declares that Naboo didn't have any planetary shields? If not, then they might have actually had some, though they must have been of lesser quality to have enough "grey" spots to allow spaceships to pretty much fly in and out at will.

[Murazor]

Is there actually any source that specifically declares that Naboo didn't have any planetary shields? If not, then they might have actually had some, though they must have been of lesser quality to have enough "grey" spots to allow spaceships to pretty much fly in and out at will.

Don't know. But the fact that the Trade Federation landed its transports with sheer impunity very strongly suggests that if they did have a shield it was almost as good as a Federation anti-transporter shield. I don't think that a semi-permeable shield as that in the DS1 is likely. And the fact that Naboo seems to have been a nigh-defenseless planet doesn't support the likeability of the shield.

[Lord of the Farce]

Don't know. But the fact that the Trade Federation landed its transports with sheer impunity very strongly suggests that if they did have a shield it was almost as good as a Federation anti-transporter shield. I don't think that a semi-permeable shield as that in the DS1 is likely. And the fact that Naboo seems to have been a nigh-defenseless planet doesn't support the likeability of the shield.

Or the people Naboo simply didn't think that the Trade Federation would truly attempt an invasion, and by the time they realised the truth, (sections of ) the defenses could have been lowered by troops that they have snuck in. *shrug*

[Murazor]

Or the people Naboo simply didn't think that the Trade Federation would truly attempt an invasion, and by the time they realised the truth, (sections of ) the defenses could have been lowered by troops that they have snuck in. *shrug*

My point remains. Even if we suppose that the Naboo were a bunch of assholes that decided to keep their planetary defenses lowered with a fleet of hundreds or thousands of heavily armed warships over their heads, it is for sure that said shield wasn't on either during the landing of the TradeFed transports or when Amidala's yatch crossed the blockade... The bolts that missed must have hit Naboo if we consider that the yatch was moving straight into the blockade from the planetary surface...

P.S. Just a last minute idea I had: Do we know how high over Naboo were the Trade Federation ships? IIRC, planetary shields are at about 1500 km over the planetary surface.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Considering that Naboo had no planetary shield

Is there actually any source that specifically declares that Naboo didn't have any planetary shields? If not, then they might have actually had some, though they must have been of lesser quality to have enough "grey" spots to allow spaceships to pretty much fly in and out at will.

Argument from Ignorance. Not only is there no direct evidence of a shield, but a shield as you are describing would lack virtually all of the appreciable effects a shield should/could have, rendering it effectively irrelevent. Therefore, we should not assume there was a shield.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I don't believe anything like "second-rate" planetary shields exist: a planetary shield is a planetary shield, which are virtually impenetrable.

Since the Trade Federation succeeded in invading the planet, it would be best to assume that Naboo did not have any planetary shielding at all.

But then, why would it have one, anyway? I mean, it's just a run of the mill capitol of an out of the way sector. From what we know, only the big heavies in the Republic/Empire had shields, and even those were concentrated within the Core, IIRC.

[McC]

So a whole lot of megaton-grade turbolaser blasts impacted the surface during the escape?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Since those are beams rather than bombs, the actual damage would be less than you think. Also, the beams might have disapated somewhat before impact due to distance (and possible atmosphere interaction?).

[McC]

Still...they're going to cause at least surface-slagging wherever they hit.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

But not on a very large scale.

Besides, I don't really think MG-scale turbolasers could do much slagging. Heavier GT TLs and TT HTLs, yes, but not those smaller guns.

[McC]

I wasn't talking about large scale. But consider what would happen if they hit water. Massive vaporization, tidal waves, and so on. They could be pretty damn devastating. That's not something to be taken lightly, I don't think...

[Murazor]

Actually, in the Black Fleet Crisis, there was an Imperial gunner jailed in Coruscant because he had suffocated a rebellion by fired turbolasers against the sea, causing a steam cloud.

BTW, I have just read in the website that Amidala's yatch has a shield disipation rate of 2 billion GW. If my piss poor maths don't fail me, we are talking about 2000 petajoules a second (around 500 MT/second). If I remember the film correctly, they ended in Tatooine because they actually suffered damage. While obviously not in the GT range, those bolts must have had low megatonage

[Lord of the Farce]

The Naboo ship was escaping directly away from the planet, and we see what probably would have amounted to at least a dozen shots "down" at it (rather than criss-crossing clearly diagonal in front of the ship's path), before the shield failure. So unless this Naboo ship is vastly inferior to similar ships created in less than 10 years down the track, we have multiple multi-megaton blasts of energy coming down in a rough cone at Naboo.

Given the apparent lack of damage, and the availability of at least half-decent planetary shields to even relatively ragtag organisations (and whose presense are readily dismissed even when they are placed on iceballs like Hoth), why the hell should a relatively important planet have a complete lack of planetary shields?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

But Naboo isn't important.

[Knife]

Alot of those shots, iirc, had the 'flack' effect. So either they were in flack mode or there was some sort of shield system around there some where to produce the 'flack effect'.

[Lord of the Farce]

But Naboo isn't important.

Yet it is the planet that is blockaded in a trade route taxation dispute, which subsequently clogs up the congress of the Republic in endless debates. How does that make Naboo unimportant?

[Knife]

So just watched that part again. There were ~33 shots before shield failure and 6 of those were of the 'flak' variety.

While the shields were down, no SFX shot of 'flak' could be seen.

While the droids were fixing the shields, you could see quite a few laser blasts pass by towards Naboo with no visable shield interaction or any surface interaction.

The shots were pretty rapid fire, it is possible that some of the smaller batteries of the Trade Federation ship were engaging the Yacht.

[Techno_Union]

The only Naboo planetary shield I have heard of is in the ICS2 where they talk about tight security for the Naboo ships. They make reference to a planet wide shield system which combines Gungan shield tech with Naboo power tech creating a version of a planetery shield. Before or during TPM, I have not heard of a shield.

EDITED: to take out "weaker version of a planetary shield" The shield is more then likely on par with the modern shields.

[Lord of the Farce]

The only Naboo planetary shield I have heard of is in the ICS2 where they talk about tight security for the Naboo ships. They make reference to a planet wide shield system which combines Gungan shield tech with Naboo power tech creating a weaker version of a planetery shield. Before or during TPM, I have not heard of a shield.

*Pulls out copy from shelf*

The Trade Federation occupation signifigantly changed Naboo defense policy, with increased harmony between Naboo and Gungans resulting in coordinated action plans to withstand any new siege. Gungan shield expertise was combined with Naboo power generation to form a global shield network that activates in minutes to repel any bombardment or hostile landing. The need for such effective, if discreet, homeworld defenses is popularly defended.

This doesn't state the hybrid shield network being weaker, in fact the use of the words "expertise", "any new siege" and "any bombardment or hostile landing" certainly implies that the global shield network is at the very least on par with galactic standards on full planetary shield networks.
It certainly doesn't rule out lesser shield systems (a chain-link fence, rather than a solid stone wall, if you may) to protect against crashing starships or low-level weapon fire, because AFAIK we don't hear of any problems with stray turbolaser shots plowing holes into Naboo, as per the topic.

[McC]

While the shields were down, no SFX shot of 'flak' could be seen.

That adds some good evidence to the shield-create-flakbursts/flakbursts-are-not-a-property-of-turbolasers argument.

The Trade Federation occupation signifigantly changed Naboo defense policy, with increased harmony between Naboo and Gungans resulting in coordinated action plans to withstand any new siege. Gungan shield expertise was combined with Naboo power generation to form a global shield network that activates in minutes to repel any bombardment or hostile landing. The need for such effective, if discreet, homeworld defenses is popularly defended.

This would tend to suggest that this defense upgrade took place after the invasion. It doesn't suggest that the Naboo shield existed before the invasion.

[Techno_Union]

This doesn't state the hybrid shield network being weaker, in fact the use of the words "expertise", "any new siege" and "any bombardment or hostile landing" certainly implies that the global shield network is at the very least on par with galactic standards on full planetary shield networks.
It certainly doesn't rule out lesser shield systems (a chain-link fence, rather than a solid stone wall, if you may) to protect against crashing starships or low-level weapon fire, because AFAIK we don't hear of any problems with stray turbolaser shots plowing holes into Naboo, as per the topic.

When I posted I was thinking about an Imperial planetary shield compared to Naboo and how it would more then likely be stronger, sorry. I had assumed the shield would be weaker because of the only type of Gungan shields we have seen. Like slow moving abojects being able to enter the theater shield. But it does say that it protects against invasions too so I take back the "weaker" part of my last post.

[nightmare]

Turbolasers can be set to short range (Rogue Planet). This can, among other interpretations, be taken as a high dissipation rate after a set distance.

[Isolder74]

This is something that has bothered me quite a bit. Although I haven't seen the Phantom Menace for quite some time, I remember that before Amidala's ship crossed the blockade the Trade Federation ships opened fire against the yatch. Several of the bolts missed.
Even considering the fact that Trade Feds guns may not be turbolasers at all and that they wanted Amidala alive, given the state of the art weaponry in the Old Republic I think that the missed bolts would have been multi-MT as a very low end.
Considering that Naboo had no planetary shield and the fact that the missed bolts must have hit the planet: is there any EU source that tells us about the damage Naboo suffered as a consequence of this?

If they did then they hit areas unpopulated or wilderness as no visible damage can be seen on the city. The fact of the matter is they had no problem firing the weapons while they still had their own ground forces on planet. Perhapes they were set to disapate before reaching the planet.

[Mange]

People, people. The turbolaser bolts must have dissipated long before ever reaching the atmosphere of Naboo.

I don't find it likely that Naboo would have possessed a planetary shield before the events of TPM, since a planetary shield would be a very effective deterrent of an invasion. On a side note I would like to add that this is why the Death Star was an effective weapon of terror. Imagine a planet like Alderaan, with an effective planetary shield preventing invasions. If such a planet could sustain itself and its population, the Empire most likely couldn't have done a thing about it. The Death Star changed all of this.