Shield Domes or Sensor Domes

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2003-01-03 05:32pm

Just what are the domes on top of Star Destroyers? Are they shield generators, sensor domes or something else.
Can we please decide on this thing once and for all.

In favour of Shields

Star Wars Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels:
All types os SD's have domes on top of bridge tower labelled as Shield generators. Sensor positions are labelled. ISD has a small dome (simular to ones labelled as shield gen.) labelled as a sensor placement on the back of the bridge tower.

ROTJ:
Domes on top of SSD are destroyed. immeadiatly after bridge crewman is heard saying that they have lost the bridge deflector shields. Coincidence?

Star Wars: X-Wing: Iron Fist:
(Paperback page 292)
She swung towards the Starboard shield projector dome and fired. The dome flew apart in an immpressive display of flaming gas and metal shards; She heard shrapnel bounce off her hull. She rotated and fired again, obliterating the second projector with simular finality.

"Razor's Kiss reports catostrophic failure of topside field generators!"

In Favour of Sensors:

I haven't actually seen any evidence they are sensors although people say that Curtis Saxtons site indicates they are, although we should remeber that just becuse the AOTC:ICS is official doesn't mean his site is official.

Something completely Different

Post your own wild theory.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-01-03 05:42pm

2000AD wrote:Star Wars: X-Wing: Iron Fist:
(Paperback page 292)
She swung towards the Starboard shield projector dome and fired. The dome flew apart in an immpressive display of flaming gas and metal shards; She heard shrapnel bounce off her hull. She rotated and fired again, obliterating the second projector with simular finality.

"Razor's Kiss reports catostrophic failure of topside field generators!"

It should be noted that the X-wing novel series treats game mechanics like canon.

meNNis · Post by **meNNis** » 2003-01-03 05:43pm

havnt you read this site yet?

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2003-01-03 05:43pm

It should also be noted that they're official material themselves.

Excelsior · Post by **Excelsior** » 2003-01-03 05:44pm

They have to have been shield domes, mroons. Otherwise why would the shielkds go out right after one of them blew up?

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2003-01-03 05:46pm

meNNis wrote:havnt you read this site yet?

If you mean SD.Net then yes, several times and i have it saved so it's available offline (those hate mail pages are funny)

If you mean Saxton's site, no

If you mean the boards, yes though not all of the posts.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-01-03 05:56pm

Excelsior wrote:They have to have been shield domes, mroons. Otherwise why would the shielkds go out right after one of them blew up?

Have you considered the fact that if they were shield generators the rebels wouldn't have been able to destroy them until the shields were down anyway? That makes the point moot. Twit.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2003-01-03 05:57pm

Excelsior wrote:They have to have been shield domes, mroons. Otherwise why would the shielkds go out right after one of them blew up?

B/c Ackbar ordered the fleet to concentrate firepower on the ship before the A-Wings blew the dome up.

Cyaround,
Jason

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2003-01-03 06:02pm

Could someone please tell me where the evidence for the sensor dome idea is?

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2003-01-03 06:09pm

Excelsior wrote:They have to have been shield domes, mroons. Otherwise why would the shielkds go out right after one of them blew up?

See the false cause fallacy.

Yet another myth that was refuted long ago.

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2003-01-03 06:09pm

Check Curtis Saxton's site, he mentions it in the Bridge Towers topic. As for the url:

http://www.theforce.net/swtc/

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-01-03 07:07pm

If the domes were shield generators, the shields must have been dropped in order for the A-wings to destroy them. Thus, the bridge officer would have reported that the shields were down regardless of whether or not the domes had been destroyed. Thus the domes could be giant friggin coffee tanks and the bridge officer would still have reported that the shields were down. Therefore, this event is not evidence of the domes function.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-01-03 07:13pm

Howedar wrote:If the domes were shield generators, the shields must have been dropped in order for the A-wings to destroy them. Thus, the bridge officer would have reported that the shields were down regardless of whether or not the domes had been destroyed. Thus the domes could be giant friggin coffee tanks and the bridge officer would still have reported that the shields were down. Therefore, this event is not evidence of the domes function.

Mmmm.....Imperials have the best tech.....giant coffee tanks on thier capital ships.....where do I sign up??

Seriously though, they are far more likely to be sensor does than shields....the X-W series while fun is not the most accurate source of data (Unless you want to conclude that starfighters can survive several full on hits from SD level turbolasers.....)

Keevan.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2003-01-03 07:18pm

The Victory SD's domes are reffered to as sensor domes. The Vic is a predecessor to the Imperator, thusly the design was merely transferred over to the Imp when the Vic's service days were done.

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2003-01-04 02:38am

Why do they have to be one or the other? Why not both? Why do those have to be the ONLY shield generators? According to TT, standard imperial particle shields only have a radius of 200 meters. At the very least, they owuld need far more than 2 generators to shield the ship.)

Jim Raynor · Post by **Jim Raynor** » 2003-01-04 04:13am

They are shield generators. Although them being labeled as such may have been a brain bug/false cause fallacy, the official sources still stand. The ONLY source stating that the domes are sensors are the Mandel blueprints, but these contain quite a few glaring errors. Besides, the blueprints have already been reconciled, with one source stating that the domes are shield generators AND sensors.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2003-01-04 04:17am

Connor MacLeod wrote:Why do they have to be one or the other? Why not both? Why do those have to be the ONLY shield generators? According to TT, standard imperial particle shields only have a radius of 200 meters. At the very least, they owuld need far more than 2 generators to shield the ship.)

Well if they are ONLY sensor domes than it is more than possible that there would be more than two.

Also I do remember some time back reading something, I believe on starwars.com, which said that shields generators only generate the actual shield, but don't "emit" it. Instead the generator sends its shield to eachof these "emiters" to shield the ship. However I in paticular don't like thsi idea anyways.

Mostly Harmless · Post by **Mostly Harmless** » 2003-01-04 04:54am

I have no idea how much canon weight "Star Wars: Behind the magic" has, but it does repeatedly label domes as "shield generators". Curiously enought, it also identifies similar shield generator domes on Nebulon-B and rebel transport.

Lord Edam · Post by **Lord Edam** » 2003-01-04 09:12am

And so the cycle continues...

I've yet to see anyone succesfuly deal with my detailed explanation of why the evidence indicating they are sensor domes isn't particularly convincing.

nightmare made quite a good attempt, but in the end didn't get anywhere.

you have to accept the domes have at least some relevance to shielding. Until Essential Guides, BTM etc. are de-canonised or the Mandel fan-art is made canon there is no way of avoiding this.

I've always liked this image, from the "Behind The Magic" CD-ROM. It shows a photograph from the Lucasfilm archives - surely if anyone knows what the domes are it would be the archives of the people who made the film?

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-01-04 09:29am

Lord Edam wrote:
I've always liked this image, from the "Behind The Magic" CD-ROM. It shows a photograph from the Lucasfilm archives - surely if anyone knows what the domes are it would be the archives of the people who made the film?

Behind the Magic also gives the length of the Executor as 8km and 12km in the same breath. They really didn't use archives for anything apparently.

Nevertheless, I don't really care if those globes ARE related to the shields, because it's obvious that you have to knock down the shields to hit them anyway. So for the versus debate, it's a useless point.

Why people brought it up on PSW however- who the hell cares?

Cpt_Frank · Post by **Cpt_Frank** » 2003-01-04 10:08am

Lord Edam wrote:And so the cycle continues...

I've yet to see anyone succesfuly deal with my detailed explanation of why the evidence indicating they are sensor domes isn't particularly convincing.

nightmare made quite a good attempt, but in the end didn't get anywhere.

you have to accept the domes have at least some relevance to shielding. Until Essential Guides, BTM etc. are de-canonised or the Mandel fan-art is made canon there is no way of avoiding this.

I've always liked this image, from the "Behind The Magic" CD-ROM. It shows a photograph from the Lucasfilm archives - surely if anyone knows what the domes are it would be the archives of the people who made the film?

[img]

Obviously the photograph has been labeled afterwards (by some WEG-influenced hack) not by the guy who made that photo during the construction of the model. Thus, the point stands.

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2003-01-04 12:04pm

Hmmm, this is tough... I voted for shield generators because there are many references indicating they are shield generators for the bridge, at least. But really, they could be anything because the rebels would not have been able to damage them until the bridge shields were down anyway-unless someone wants to argue shield generators can't protect themselves. However, I like the idea of shield generators because it makes a certain sense:
The bridge towers of ISDs and SSDs have seperate shielding- we know this because the SSD's "bridge deflectors" went out in ROTJ and the ion cannon at Hoth struck the closest ISD twice once in the main hull, once on the bridge tower, and each time there was a shield flare before the shot reached the hull, indicating two seperate systems. So, if the bridge tower has seperate shield generators, where do you put them? They are likely large, as they have to generate multi-teraton shielding, and multi-MJ shield generators were not expected on something as small as a destroyer droid. If shields are the main level of protection on an ISD, then you can put the generators anywhere, without fear of sacraficing protection, and outside the hull is a great space saver. Sensor domes need not be so large, after all isn't the Falcon's dish supposed to be nearly as good as Imperial sensors? And if sensor domes need to be as large as that, wouldn't an ISD have a large gap in its sensor field, under the main hull?

Mostly Harmless · Post by **Mostly Harmless** » 2003-01-04 01:00pm

This might sound as a stupid question, but... Can shields in SW, in light what was said about them in ICS, be "brought down"?

IIRC, ICS does not describe shields as having "charge" that must be depleted. Instead, each shield system has a certain dissipation rating (measured in watts). Apply damage below this dissipation rate and nothing happens; you can shoot from now till kingdom come with no effect whatsoever. Apply damage above dissipation rate, and see "surplus" energy hit target ship.

In light of this, shields can be overwhelmed, but cannot be "brought down"... not unless you damage the generators themselves. The situation is quite similar with Honorverse sidewall generators.

This might explain shield dome scene from ROTJ. Rebel starships poured enough fire to match Executor's shield dissipation rate... but not enough to overwhelm it. A stalemate. Then come the fighters, and attack shield generator domes. Since the generators are already strained at peak output, the damage from torpedos/missiles is not dissipated, and generators go kaput. Shield dissipation rate (for bridge area, at least) goes down to zero, and Executor's bridge crew faces the cold, hard truth that next gigaton-level blasts will strike the hull unopposed. Understandably, they panic and soil their pants

.

Lord Edam · Post by **Lord Edam** » 2003-01-04 03:10pm

Mostly Harmless wrote:This might sound as a stupid question, but... Can shields in SW, in light what was said about them in ICS, be "brought down"?

Yes, they can.

Any interpretation of shields from ICS must fit with descriptions of shields from other EU sources - none are more or less admissable than the others.

From the EU novels it is clear shields can be brought down without the generators themselves being destroyed. What probably happens is that every weapon that hits the shields does a little to drop the threshold, even if it isn't enough to get through the shields. For weapons that are above the threshold part of their energy bleeds through causing damage and a greater drop in the threshod.

three quotes courtesy of HDS's database, showing shields are gradually reduced until they are non-existant.:

Pg. 301: "The New Republic ship's starboard batteries targeted Reckoning and peeled away its starboard shield."

(ref: Isard's Revenge)

Pg. 300: The Mon Cal shield sphere slowly shrank as the incoming fire boiled off layers of energy.

(ref: Isard's Revenge)

Pg. 334: More and more Rebel ships poured from hyperspace. Big ships, small ships, snubfighters, freighters, frigates, and corvettes, each of them pulled into line with the heavier ships. The battle cruisers and destroyers formed a central layer, with ships diminishing in size and strength as they stretched out from equator to pole in the northern hemisphere.

Instantly the black void of space came alive with turbolaser and ion-cannon fire. Toward the bottom of the viewport Needa saw a Golan Space Defense station. The lozenge-shaped platform launched spread after spread of proton torpedoes while its turbolaser batteries sprayed green energy projectiles at the invaders. The return fire it took splashed harmlessly against its shields, or so it seemed at first, though Needa noticed the shield sphere slowly shrinking.

(ref: Wedge's Gamble)

Lord Edam · Post by **Lord Edam** » 2003-01-04 03:12pm

Cpt_Frank wrote: Obviously the photograph has been labeled afterwards (by some WEG-influenced hack) not by the guy who made that photo during the construction of the model. Thus, the point stands.

It's only obvious if you accept non-sanctioned Mandel fan-art as evidence. If you don't accept this then the labelling was done by someone who knew what was really being worked on.

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Shield Domes or Sensor Domes

Those domes on top of Star Destroyers are ...

Shield Domes or Sensor Domes

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