Proof of ISD dome shielding

[Rogue 9]

McC, you are the man.

[McC]

My pleasure, guys.

Anyone else see something wrong with this video? Look at the final pair of missiles to hit the domes. They materialize out of thin air some distance from the last A-Wing and strike the dome. Could it be a pair of them were dropped but then staggered by not activating until after another pair had hit?

Actually, watch the second A-wing just as it comes on screen. There's an errant black "blob" underneath the fighter that just seems to appear from no where. Perhaps this blob is actually a pair of dormant concussion missiles. The pilot knew he wouldn't be able to fire his entire salvo before turning away, so he fired a delayed activation pair early before his wing leader had cleared the way and these are the missiles we see impact as both fighers veer off.

Out-of-universe, it looks like the two A-wings are actually the same photographic element, but simply staggered in when the come on the screen. They do the exact same movements

[Master of Ossus]

My pleasure, guys.

Anyone else see something wrong with this video? Look at the final pair of missiles to hit the domes. They materialize out of thin air some distance from the last A-Wing and strike the dome. Could it be a pair of them were dropped but then staggered by not activating until after another pair had hit?

Actually, watch the second A-wing just as it comes on screen. There's an errant black "blob" underneath the fighter that just seems to appear from no where. Perhaps this blob is actually a pair of dormant concussion missiles. The pilot knew he wouldn't be able to fire his entire salvo before turning away, so he fired a delayed activation pair early before his wing leader had cleared the way and these are the missiles we see impact as both fighers veer off.

Actually, that makes sense. In the EU, missiles are often fired so as to get one to impact very shortly after another one has dropped the shields.

Edit: Thanks for the screen-grabs, McC. They're phenomenal.

[McC]

Actually, that makes sense. In the EU, missiles are often fired so as to get one to impact very shortly after another one has dropped the shields.

Cool, glad to know I'm not totally insane

Edit: Thanks for the screen-grabs, McC. They're phenomenal.

Absolutely. Feel free to fire off any requests for others, as the need arises. They take a matter of moments to work up.

[Ender]

McC, what program do you use to make those?

[McC]

McC, what program do you use to make those?

A combination. I used Power DVD to figure out where the chapters I wanted were (PowerDVD is just a standard DVD playback program), DVD Decrypter to extact the chapters, VirtualDub to open the extractions and export TGA image sequences, and then Adobe AfterEffects to resize/position/brighten and ultimately export to QuickTime.

[Ender]

hmmm.. I don't suppose you know of one program that can do it all, do you?

[McC]

I tend to stick by the mantra "Jack-of-all-trades, master of none" when it comes to stuff like this. I suppose you could do something similar with just DVD Decrypter and VirtualDub (both free). I throw AfterEffects into the mix in order to have better image control and output to QuickTime rather than AVI.

[Rogue 9]

I just watched the lot with the Imperial March playing in the background. It was sweet.

[Praxis]

I wonder...

What if the anti-starfighter cannons, with sufficient time, are capable of predicting the path of missles and shooting them down? (the X-wings weren't hit because they flew erratically, unpredictably, and the guns turned too slow- not so with a missle, which can be easily predicted)

So, to counter this, what if they launch the torps at capships with torpedo engines off, and the torpedoes activate and accelerate a few seconds before hitting the target?

[Praxis]

What about the scene where that TIE fighter smacks into the Home One underneath while chasing Wedge? I'm fairly certain I saw a shield flash in the explosion, even in the original tapes (not SE).

[Rogue 9]

What about the scene where that TIE fighter smacks into the Home One underneath while chasing Wedge? I'm fairly certain I saw a shield flash in the explosion, even in the original tapes (not SE).

Yeah, you did. But really, what does that prove, anyway? We already know the cruisers have shields.

Edit: Though I wouldn't object to a clip of it.

[Praxis]

What about the scene where that TIE fighter smacks into the Home One underneath while chasing Wedge? I'm fairly certain I saw a shield flash in the explosion, even in the original tapes (not SE).

Yeah, you did. But really, what does that prove, anyway? We already know the cruisers have shields.

Edit: Though I wouldn't object to a clip of it.

I've actually had people in Trek vs Wars debate tell me that Trek would win because they have shields and Wars doesn't...

[Rogue 9]

What about the scene where that TIE fighter smacks into the Home One underneath while chasing Wedge? I'm fairly certain I saw a shield flash in the explosion, even in the original tapes (not SE).

Yeah, you did. But really, what does that prove, anyway? We already know the cruisers have shields.

Edit: Though I wouldn't object to a clip of it.

I've actually had people in Trek vs Wars debate tell me that Trek would win because they have shields and Wars doesn't...

"The shield is down! Commence attack on the Death Star's main reactor!"
______________________________________________________________________

"They're going into attack position."

"Shields up!"
______________________________________________________________________

"Sir! We've lost our bridge deflector shield!"
______________________________________________________________________

Yeah, I could go on all day.

[Praxis]

Yeah, you did. But really, what does that prove, anyway? We already know the cruisers have shields.

Edit: Though I wouldn't object to a clip of it.

I've actually had people in Trek vs Wars debate tell me that Trek would win because they have shields and Wars doesn't...

"The shield is down! Commence attack on the Death Star's main reactor!"
______________________________________________________________________

"They're going into attack position."

"Shields up!"
______________________________________________________________________

"Sir! We've lost our bridge deflector shield!"
______________________________________________________________________

Yeah, I could go on all day.

Yes, I know. Their response is usually something like... "oh..."

[McC]

Edit: Though I wouldn't object to a clip of it.

Oh, did you mean this? (QuickTime, 3.39MB)

[Darth Garden Gnome]

Oh, did you mean this? (QuickTime, 3.39MB)

Nice.

And yeesh, that's pretty fucking bad on the part of the TIE Fighter pilot. He flies right into that thing; I could've managed to avoid that.

[Vympel]

There's a flash, then a lingering fire with blackness just behind it. The shots had to have hit the hull and done some damage, because explosions against shields don't last anywhere near as long as the results of the X-wing's attack did.

I suppose it's possible, that is the Communication's Ship bridge after all.

[Alan Bolte]

Notice that you get no shield flashes or explosions whatsoever from that TIE's lasers hitting the Liberty (I think it was the Liberty, not Home One, correct me if I'm wrong), but the X-Wing run against the Comm ship gets huge flashes followed by a small, lingering fireball. Judging by this and other clips, I think perhaps that as a shield weakens, the visible flashes from laser impacts get bigger, until penitration occurs, indicated by a very large flash accompanied by a small explosion at the point of impact. The flashes increasing in size would indicate increased time of splintering and internal reflection of the beam through the shield volume, which I guess would in themselves be indicative of decreased absorbsion by the shield. In essence, the shield generator cannot reradiate the incoming energy fast enough, or the projector has begun to fail and cannot transfer energy quickly enough, so the laser energy is conducted across the shield volume and reradiates from there. That we only see such flashes when a relatively high-power laser hits, or when the shield is about to fail, indicates that reradiation by the generator cooling system is the primary means of dispursing laser energy, and that sheild reradiation is less efficient.

What do you think, logical?

[nasor]

I’m new to the community, so forgive me if this is a stupid question but…do people really argue about whether or not the domes are shielded? I mean, it seems pretty obvious that such an important bit of the ship would be covered by the shields. Why wouldn't they be?

[Master of Ossus]

I’m new to the community, so forgive me if this is a stupid question but…do people really argue about whether or not the domes are shielded?

Yes. Most of them are the same ones that argue that the domes are shield generators or the like.

I mean, it seems pretty obvious that such an important bit of the ship would be covered by the shields. Why wouldn't they be?

No explanation for this is ever given.

[Ender]

I’m new to the community, so forgive me if this is a stupid question but…do people really argue about whether or not the domes are shielded?

Yes. Yes they do.

I mean, it seems pretty obvious that such an important bit of the ship would be covered by the shields. Why wouldn't they be?

*shrug* these are also the same people who talk about killing ISDs by shooting torpedos through the engines. Yes, I'm sure your topedo is going to survive flying through billions of tons of plasma moving a barely below C velocities. After all, we are only talking about it getting hammered with stellar levels of KE....

[Darth Wong]

I’m new to the community, so forgive me if this is a stupid question but…do people really argue about whether or not the domes are shielded? I mean, it seems pretty obvious that such an important bit of the ship would be covered by the shields. Why wouldn't they be?

You have to understand that there are Trekkies out there who are always looking for cheap 'n dirty excuses to claim that it would be easy to destroy SW ships, defeat the Death Star, etc. I'll tell you the truth: I never would have gotten into this whole SW v ST debate at all many years ago if not for the incredibly obnoxious tactics they use in this endeavour, particularly when they start abusing science toward this end.

PS. To be fair, there are also some idiot SW fans who buy into these interpretations. Usually they fall into the category of very young fans who like to talk up the good guys and make the bad guys out to be fools, so anything that makes the Empire look weak and/or stupid makes them happy.

[Vympel]

PS. To be fair, there are also some idiot SW fans who buy into these interpretations. Usually they fall into the category of very young fans who like to talk up the good guys and make the bad guys out to be fools, so anything that makes the Empire look weak and/or stupid makes them happy.

I wonder though, was it the chicken that came first, or the egg? What I mean here is it the EU's appalling, rabid Rebel Alliance/ New Republic bias that created this, or was it the good/bad guy comparison you're talking about that created the EU bias?

I became a Galactic Empire "fanboy" because The Empire Strike Back was the first SW movie I ever saw (and I still remember where every ad break was on my shitty tape of it from one of the Aussie networks) and that was only solidified when TIE Fighter came out in 1994 and gave a different perspective on the whole conflict that I found attractive (because bad guys are simply more interesting). So I don't really know what to hink.

[Rogue 9]

PS. To be fair, there are also some idiot SW fans who buy into these interpretations. Usually they fall into the category of very young fans who like to talk up the good guys and make the bad guys out to be fools, so anything that makes the Empire look weak and/or stupid makes them happy.

And such is foolish; where's the epic story in handily defeating a pack of idiots? I'm an Alliance fan myself, but I'd rather not have idiotic opponents for story purposes...