Canon Database being revised soon

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-08-27 12:42pm

I just completed some major improvements to the back-end software behind the Canon Database on the main "I Want YOU for the Galactic Empire" website. It now accepts rudimentary BBcodes (like [B], [U], [I], [IMG], [LIST], and [URL=]) and interprets line-breaks in input fields instead of requiring HTML-coded input for database entries (this makes no difference to you, but it will make it easier for me to add new entries in a text window).

It also (finally) has a Boolean AND keyword search in addition to the existing exact-phrase search, and it highlights search terms in orange when it displays search results. I'll try to start adding more entries when I next get time to work on the site.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-08-27 12:52pm

Excellent, and thank you.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2004-08-27 08:06pm

Glad to hear it. That database has proven most useful.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-08-28 12:40pm

Yeah, it's great. Are you going to be adding new Star Wars material to it anytime soon? Or you're just improving the search capabilities...

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-08-31 12:56am

Kurgan wrote:Yeah, it's great. Are you going to be adding new Star Wars material to it anytime soon? Or you're just improving the search capabilities...

I'm working on it when I have time. If you check it for DS9 and ROTJ entries, you'll find that they're slowly being added.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-08-31 01:26am

Damn, I must've forgotten to add the page referneces for the Ewok battle scenes, here you go Mike:

First entry: p 151

Second entry: pp 160-161

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-08-31 11:31am

Nice, Mike. Please keep working on the database, since I find it one of the most useful parts of your site.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2004-08-31 05:52pm

ROTJ novelization wrote:At the center of the briefing room was a large, circular light-table, projected above which a holographic image of the unfinished Imperial Death Star hovered beside the Moon of Endor, whose scintilating protective deflector shield encompassed them both.

How can certain Rabid Stupid Assholes think the novelization doesn't support the idea of a globe encircling shield.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-08-31 10:23pm

Just gave it a read-through. Looks good, although it could use a run through a spell-checker.

Also, of course it would be nice to view the entire Wars database, as you can the Trek database (obviously you haven't had time to update the Trek complete database yet).

Some errors also appear when searching for example the word "ASS" appears in every entry when I look up stuff in the Star Wars section. While amusing, I'm sure this was uintentional... ; )

Good luck! The database is always a fun read, as well as useful. Are you going to include the official SW screenplays as well as the novelisations? And how will you differentiate the two?

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2004-08-31 10:26pm

Darth Servo wrote:How can certain Rabid Stupid Assholes think the novelization doesn't support the idea of a globe encircling shield?

Paranoid schizophrenia, amongst other things...

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-01 01:38am

Kurgan wrote:Just gave it a read-through. Looks good, although it could use a run through a spell-checker.

If you spot spelling errors or formatting anomalies, let me know where they are.

Also, of course it would be nice to view the entire Wars database, as you can the Trek database (obviously you haven't had time to update the Trek complete database yet).

Actually, you can always view the complete Trek database by just hitting "submit" with empty fields. It doesn't show up as a single giant page, but it works.

Some errors also appear when searching for example the word "ASS" appears in every entry when I look up stuff in the Star Wars section. While amusing, I'm sure this was uintentional... ; )

Whoops, that was because I overlooked the possibility of someone entering the word "CLASS" (or elements thereof) in the highlighting code, so the regexp is performed too early in the process. I modified the code to fix this bug.

Good luck! The database is always a fun read, as well as useful. Are you going to include the official SW screenplays as well as the novelisations? And how will you differentiate the two?

The source is indicated, eg- ANH novelization p.79. When I'm adding entries from the screenplay or movie, it will say ANH screenplay or movie.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-01 02:37am

Misspelled words are in bold...

DS9 Season 1, Ep# 1: "Emissary"

SISKO: Sir, Admiral Hanson has deployed the Gage, the Kyushu and the Melbourne...

CAPTAIN: Move us to position alpha, Ensign...

CON OFFICER: Aye, sir...

CAPTAIN: Load all torpedo bays... ready phasers...

EXT. SPACE - THE SARATOGA (OPTICAL): fires phasers and photons as the Borg ship sends out a cutting beam at the Melbourne... when the Melbourne's shields fail, there is a massive explosion. The Borg ship mmediately turns its attention to the Saratoga... sending out another tractor beam...

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-01 02:38am

Also, in keeping with the the tone of the rest of the database, perhaps instead of "Trekkies" you should use "Federation Cultists" or something like that? Just a suggestion. ; )

Will post more as I find them...

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-01 02:55am

Source: ROTJ novelization p.003

Only now, the security web was beginning to seperate, to retract and form a clear channel- a channel through which the dot that was the Imperial shuttle ailed, unimpeded, toward the massive space station.
Shields and Forcefields: They are apparently able to open "channels" in their shields rather than being limited to raising or lowering them.

Contributed by Vympel

Source: ROTJ novelization p.071

In a remote and midnight vacuum beyond the edge of the galaxy, the vast Rebel fleet stretched, from its vanguard to its rear echelon, past the range of human vision. Corellian battle ships, cruisers, destroyers, carriers, bmombers, Sullustan cargo freighters, Calamarian tankers, Alderaanian gunships, Kesselian blockade runners, Bestinian skyhoppers, X-wing, Y-wing, and A-wing fighters, suttles, transport vehicles, manowars. Every Reel in the galaxy, soldier and civilian alike, waited tensely in these ships for instructions. They were led by the largest of the Rebel Star Cruisers, the Headquarters Frigate.
Size and Scope: The scale of the Rebel fleet is described. It is stated quite clearly that the number of ships exceeded what you could see onscreen in the movie, since the fleet was said to stretch beyond the limits of human vision.

Contributed by Vympel

Also manowars might be "man-o-war's" though I could be wrong on the proper presentation...

Source: ROTJ novelization p.071

At the center of the briefing room was a large, circular light-table, projected above which a holographic image of the unfinished Imperial Death Star hovered beside the Moon of Endor, whose scintilating protective deflector shield encompassed them both.
Shields and Forcefields: The Endor shield protected both DS2 and the moon itself. This follows logically from the fact that Solo's Rebel landing party needed stolen Imperial codes in order to lower the shield and land, but it's nevertheless nice to see it stated explicitly in the literature.

Contributed by Vympel

Ground Combat: This is an inconsistency between the film and the novelization; the movie's AT-ST walkers were nowhere big enough for a whole squad to stand in, and they did not have gunports through which the soldiers would fire their weapons "in all directions."

Contributed by Vympel

No misspellings in the above, and interesting analysis, but the passage cited mentions "cannons." Nothing about about troopers firing their hand weapons through gunports in the walker. Unless we're talking "hand cannons" or something...

Source: ROTJ novelization p.141

The large central view-screen was coming alive. It was no longer just the Death Star and the green moon behind it, floating isolated in space. Now the massive Imperial fleet could be seen flying in perfect, regimental formation, out from behind Endor in two behemoth flanking waves- heading to surround the Rebel fleet from both sides, like the pincers of a deadly scorpion.

......

Of course, it makes no sense for the ships' centripetal acceleration to be greater than their linear acceleration, as it would suggest that their maneuvering thrusters are more powerful than their main engines. Therefore, the most logical conclusion is that the ships' acceleration and deceleration was actually much greater than 28 km/s² and then levelled off, thus allowing them to maintain a lower peak velocity. For example, if they initially accelerated at 200 km/s², they would be able to level off at less than 450 km/s, hence needing a peak centripetal acceleration of less than 25 km/s².

Source: ROTJ novelization p.154

Desperately, he was shouting into his comlink, over the noise of continuous explosions, talking to Ackbar in the Alliance command ship. "I said closer! Move in as close as you can and engage the Star Destroyers at point-blank range- that way the Death Star won't be able to fire at us without knocking out its own ships!"

"But no one's ever gone nose to nose at that range, between supervessels like their Destroyers and our Cruisers!" Ackbar fumed at the unthinkable- but their options were running out.

"Great!" yelled Lando, skimming over the surface of the Destroyer. "Then we're inventing a new kind of combat!"

"We know nothing about the tactics of such a confrontation!" Ackbar protested.

"We know as much as they do!" Lando hollered. "And they'll think we know more!" Bluffing was always dangerous in the last hand; but sometimes, when all your money was in the pot, it was the only way to win- and Lando never played to lose.

"At that close range, we won't last long against those Star Destroyers." Ackbar was already feeling giddy with resignation.

"We'll last longer than we will against that Death Star, and we might just take a few of them with us!" Lando whooped. With a jolt, one of his forward guns was blown away. He put the Falcon into a controlled spin, and careened around the belly of the Imperial leviathan.

With little else to lose, Ackbar decided to try Calrissian's strategy. In the next minutes, dozens of Rebel Cruisers moved in astronomically close to the Imperial Star Destroyers- and the colossal antagonists began blasting away at each other, like tanks at twenty paces, while hundreds of tiny fighters races across their surfaces, zipping between laser bolts as they chased arond the massive hulls.
Naval Tactics: Engagements between large capital warships (as opposed to fighters) at "astronomically close" ranges are unheard-of in conventional naval tactics at this time.

The fact that they were able to successfully close to such short range without being destroyed first by Imperial gunnery is not surprising in light of the existence of very strong shield systems, but it does beg the question of why such a tactic has never been tried before. It may be that conventional tactics involve staying at such long range that the other side's ability to target specific subsystems with naval gunnery is degraded.

Source: ROTJ novelization p.160-161

On Endor, the battle of the bunker continued. Stormtroopers kept irradiating Ewoks with sophisticated weaponry, while the fuzzy little warriors bashed away

...

Chewie climbed down inside. It took him half a minute to master the controls- Imperial technology was pretty standardized. And then, methodially, one by one, he began approaching the other, unsuspecting, Imperial Walkers, and blasting them to dust. Most had no idea what was happening. As the giant war-machines began going up in falmes, the Ewoks were reinspired. They rallied behind Chewie's Walker. The Wookie was turning the tide of battle.
Ground Combat: The fact that the stormtroopers were decisively winning the battle until Chewbacca hijacked one of their support vehicles is made very clear. The film does not necessarily show every phase of combat or every casualty, hence leading many to conclude that its preference for showing Imperial casualties indicates that the Imperials were actually beaten man-to-man. But in the novelization the balance of power is quite obvious: despite the huge numerical advantage of the Ewoks and the element of surprise, the stormtroopers are nevertheless winning the battle until Chewbacca turns the tide with a hijacked AT-ST.

Contributed by Vympel

PS: Moderator, please feel free to delete these posts once the corrections have been made.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-09-08 10:11am

Just a few more corrections- fuck, my spelling was really atrocious when I typed it all up!

p. 164 Cargo ships loaded with charge were set on collision courses with fortress-vessels, their crews abandoning shops to fates that were uncertain, at best.

p. 168 Ackbar looked at the view screen; the electronically generated web was gone. The moon, and the Death tar, now floated in black, empty, unprotected space.

(edited in a few more corrections to Kurgan's post, too)

Oh, and it is indeed presented as manowars in the novelization. One might put a [sic] there if one was feeling anal.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-22 01:09pm

Spelling errors corrected. Thanks for the help, guys.

Rihannsu Science Officer · Post by **Rihannsu Science Officer** » 2004-09-22 04:26pm

Here's a link to, among other things, virtually all DS9 scripts. http://www.st-minutiae.com/academy/literature329/ That should contribute a plethora of material to the Canon Database.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-29 11:02am

I've added some more entries just now:

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Dat ... Series=DS9

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2004-10-06 05:18pm

In the Entry about Dopterians and Ferengi being related, it might be nice to have a picture of them. I've never seen a Dopterian. How similar do they look to Ferengi?

apocolypse · Post by **apocolypse** » 2004-10-07 01:22am

Darth Servo wrote:In the Entry about Dopterians and Ferengi being related, it might be nice to have a picture of them. I've never seen a Dopterian. How similar do they look to Ferengi?

I personally never thought they looked that much alike. Here's a couple links to some pics of them.

http://species.acalltoduty.com/html/dopterians.html

http://www.newhorizonsdesign.com/startr ... terian.jpg

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Canon Database being revised soon

Canon Database being revised soon

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