StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Construction on the first of these great command ships, custom-designed for Emperor Palpatine, commenced before the Battle of Endor but further progress was hampered by the unexpected and calamitous collapse of Palpatine's regime. Eclipse was finally completed for the use of the Emperor's mad clones at Byss six years after Endor. The two ships of this class were the most massive known warships, even though the Executor-class vessels are somewhat longer. Reports of Eclipse's exact length vary: STAR WARS Encyclopaedia says 16.0km, which is closer to the definition ten miles than the 17.5km figure given in Dark Empire Sourcebook. It is possible that sixteen kilometres was the original intended length but makeshift design changes during the post-Endor phases of construction caused a nett extension to the gnarly prototype. [Michael Allen Horne, who wrote the Dark Empire Sourcebook, says that they did indeed just added a few hundred more metres to suggest the special customisation of the Emperor's personal Eclipse-class ship. Later ships in this series presumably would have been 16.0km long.]

Compared to the Executor, the Eclipse is less dedicated to the support of starfighters and other carried vessels. Docking facilities are much smaller and therefore the Eclipse's hangar compliment must be much less in proportion to the ship's mass. Docking bays and hangars are comparatively small, able to hold a Victory-class star destroyer but not quite cavernous enough to engulf a larger destroyer or cruiser as Lord Vader's flagship could.

The first Eclipse exhibits what may be scars of its prolonged and spasmodic construction: many sections of the vessel depart from the aesthetically-pleasing bilateral symmetry of warships which are built to a constant and standardised design. During this project, plans and techniques probably changed noticeably while the superstructure was being assembled. The most peculiar and obvious instances of structural asymmetry are seen in the region of the command towers. Eclipse II lacks most of these imperfections.

The weaponry of the Eclipse incorporates several technological innovations which appeared too late for incorporation into the Executor, such as gravity-well generators for hyperspace interdiction, and a miniaturised superlaser mounted in the principal axis of the ship.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: The Eclipse is slightly shorter than the Executor. The primary evidence for the Executor is in the films, which show a length of about eleven miles. The primary evidence for the Eclipse is the text of the Dark Empire comic, which states a length of about ten miles. Some secondary and derivative books have wrongly stated that the Eclipse is twice the length of Executor. Such statements were based on a false understanding of the Executor's length. The primary evidence still stands: although the Eclipse is much fatter and wider, and therefore has a greater total tonnage, it is definitely shorter.

consequences wrote:technological innovations my ass, they had scaled down superlaser technology 30 years before Endor. EU has a hard-on for technological innovation, when they should just say "spent more money on it."

Vympel wrote:

consequences wrote:technological innovations my ass, they had scaled down superlaser technology 30 years before Endor. EU has a hard-on for technological innovation, when they should just say "spent more money on it."

Depends on how you define superlaser. I define it by power, rather than by the ability of a bunch of beams to meet up and blow shit up ala LAAT.

But yes it's not like it's a technological innovation- it's just a new application of existing technology.

consequences wrote:technological innovations my ass, they had scaled down superlaser technology 30 years before Endor. EU has a hard-on for technological innovation, when they should just say "spent more money on it."

Illuminatus Primus wrote:I think the last big boom in technological development before general technological stasis was sometime after the Great Hyperspace War.

The Republic was downright tiny at that period, occupying only the Core Worlds on one side of the Core with a few colonies spreading toward the Inner Rim at best.

The Sith Empire which occupied Outer Rim territory on the opposite side of the hyperspace-impassable galactic Deep Core managed to survive unmolested and generally unknown/out-of-contact with the Republic for twenty thousand years (though it is unknown when a number of the Dark Jedi outcasts on the fringe managed to find a subjugate the Sith; it is possible they were wanderers for millenia before finding the Sith). It appears hyperdrive might be very inefficient and slow at this time period and the only affective means of hyperdrive navigation across previously untraveled routes is with Force-instinct/sense. Perhaps the hyperdrives of the first twenty thousand years of the Republic's history were fantastically primitive compared to what the New Galactic Republic considers a hyperdrive. The hyperdrives of this era may not even operate on similar principles and be hyperdrives in name only.

But there certainly has been little to no technological development from the time of the Sith War (four thousand years before the Battle of Yavin) until the time of the Galactic Civil War and the Yuuzhan Vong War.

So we had active technological advancement confirmed in the pre-Republic era, leading to the superceeding of whatever hyperdrive technology was invented at the time over more primitive FTL tech (warp perhaps?) and resulting in the founding of the Republic. We don't see much confirmed advancement from the Republic's birth for twenty thousand years until the Great Hyperspace War (enhanced exotic metal blades being replaced with primitive lightsabres and slightly better FTL tech). Then, another tech boom raises technology to more or less modern SW levels within the next thousand years.

Illuminatus Primus wrote:B.B.Y. = Before Battle of Yavin for reference

Circa 25,000 B.B.Y. - Hyperdrive invented which superceeds earlier FTL space travel. Bendu Monks/early Jedi suffer schism along Light/Dark line. Century-long war between Jedi factions. Republic founded. "Dark Side" Jedi faction exiled from newborn Republic.

Sometime between 25,000 and 5,000 B.B.Y. - Group of Exiles discover the space-traveling civilization of the Sith species. (I believe that the Sith Empire was located in the Outer Rim on the opposite side of the Deep Core from Coruscant, Alderaan, etc because there were no known hyperroutes through the Deep Core and I don't see where else a culture could've survived undetected by the Republic). The Exiles subjugate the Sith and combine Sith religious and "magic" with their knowledge of the Dark Side. These Exiles become the Lords of the Sith. The Sith Empire begins expansion. (Note: the Sith Empire is a feudal kingdom, with the knights being composed of the Sith Warriors, the local Lords being the Sith Lords, and the monarch is the "Dark Lord of the Sith." Centered around the capital of Ziost)

5,000 B.B.Y. - Great Hyperspace War. The Republic has still not known of the Sith Empire and appears limited mostly to a region of the galaxy. Affective hyperroute navigation is done by Force-sensitives. Apparently a brother and sister pair happen upon the Sith burial planet of Korriban. The Sith War fleet under de facto Dark Lord Naga Sadow and spearheaded by thousands of heavy Sith Battleships readies for war. Coruscant is assaulted by the Sith are defeated and the Republic annhiliates the Sith warfleet and scatters the Sith followers. It is unknown how far the Jedi and Republic took the war...but in the "modern" SW era it appears the Sith are extinct (Jedi and Republic genocide?). Naga Sadow escapes aboard his Battleship which he crash-lands and entombs on Yavin IV. He also places himself in suspended animation.

4,000 B.B.Y. - Sith War period. Republic has spread throughout the galactic disk and it appears the hyperdrive is at Imperial-equivalent levels by this point.

Illuminatus Primus wrote:Well, before 25,000 years they had no hyperdrive and no unified government, ie. the Republic. But they did have Xim the Despot and the Hutts who had interstellar dominions...so they had to have some FTL tech. Han Solo refers to the use of subspace technology in this era in one of the books. Also before this FTL there was some sublight expansion--how else do you get the near-humans and humans everywhere? Plus the Nemoidians are Duros who were marooned on Nemodia for millenia after cruising for a long time in sublight craft.

The SWU is older than you think, buildings survive on coruscant that are over 90.000 years old, like this bar, which had apparently been in bussiness for almost as long, whee!

Illuminatus Primus wrote:Sadow's Sith Battleship was more-or-less completely spaceworthy and operational one thousand years after being entumbed on a humid jungle planet after crash-landing.