Weapon Firepower in Knights of the Old Republic

[Big Phil]

This was discussed - briefly - a few weeks back. The discussion was regarding weapon power increases from KOTOR to the Empire.

Does anyone have an estimate, or know how to estimate, the weapon power output for KOTOR lasers (such as those on the Sith ship that destroyed Taris)?

In the game, as the characters are fleeing Taris, we see two scenes. One is a close up of the blasts striking the city and destroying buildings, and would seem to suggest fairly low power levels.

The other scene is of the Ebon Hawk just past Taris' atmosphere being pursued by Sith fighters. In this scene (from at least several hundred miles up I'm guessing) we can actually see the glow of the explosions on Taris' surface from the laser strikes.

One other note, they refer to the weapons on Sith warships as lasers, not turbolasers. Does anyone know if this is a canon reference?

[Steven Snyder]

I seriously doubt the term 'laser' is anything more than a colloquialism in the SW universe. We know that turbolasers aren't lasers.

[Stofsk]

I seriously doubt the term 'laser' is anything more than a colloquialism in the SW universe. We know that turbolasers aren't lasers.

So what are they then? Miniaturised particle cannons with insane power settings and a visual 'tracer' component?

No seriously, I don't know. That was just a wild, drunken stab in the dark. What can they be construed as?

[Illuminatus Primus]

Shipboard powerful turbolasers are probably all c-propogating particle beams with a visible disturbance which travels along the continuous beam, forming a nolt.

[Darwin]

Also remember that Taris has a very deep (like Coruscant) urban structure. The laser blasts seem to be passing right through the upper city, and probably blowing big holes in the lower. Unfortunately the ground-based cinematic shots don't linger long enough to show more than the bare beginnings of the bombardment.

Its pretty clear that the weapons technology (ignoring hand blasters that are nerfed for gameplay reasons) Is similar. The sith battleships had neither the size nor the firepower (number of guns or power capability) of later era imperial vessels, however.

[Admiral Bravo]

One other note, they refer to the weapons on Sith warships as lasers, not turbolasers. Does anyone know if this is a canon reference?

There is. Both the Star Wars databank and the strategy guide mention that the Leviathan's primary weapons are quad laser cannons and that it only has 4 turbolaser batteries.

[YT300000]

One other note, they refer to the weapons on Sith warships as lasers, not turbolasers. Does anyone know if this is a canon reference?

There is. Both the Star Wars databank and the strategy guide mention that the Leviathan's primary weapons are quad laser cannons and that it only has 4 turbolaser batteries.

Maybe their power generation wasn't anywhere near as good?

[Eleas]

One other note, they refer to the weapons on Sith warships as lasers, not turbolasers. Does anyone know if this is a canon reference?

There is. Both the Star Wars databank and the strategy guide mention that the Leviathan's primary weapons are quad laser cannons and that it only has 4 turbolaser batteries.

Maybe their power generation wasn't anywhere near as good?

Their turbolaser tech wasn't anywhere near as well developed. I recall WEG sourcebooks stating that turbolasers were still considered fairly new by the time of ANH. Of course, it's all relative...

[Big Phil]

Great, so we don't think they're lasers, nor are they as powerful as Imperial weapons.

That being said, how powerful are they? 200 GT per shot? 20 GT per shot? 20 MT per shot?

Or can someone please suggest to me how I can do this calculation myself?

[Ghost Rider]

Great, so we don't think they're lasers, nor are they as powerful as Imperial weapons.

That being said, how powerful are they? 200 GT per shot? 20 GT per shot? 20 MT per shot?

Or can someone please suggest to me how I can do this calculation myself?

One of the ways is take the Taris scene. Account for the size of the holes the blast made(obviously four turbolasers aren't doing all the damage) and then once you fdind out how much TNT it takes to make a hole of that size...you can get a relative low end of the Lasers.

I think a few of us thought around maybe somewhere in the range of 100KT-10-20 MT.

But the largest factor was with 52 guns their rate of fire was absolutely fucking frightening.

[Tychu]

The other scene is of the Ebon Hawk just past Taris' atmosphere being pursued by Sith fighters. In this scene (from at least several hundred miles up I'm guessing) we can actually see the glow of the explosions on Taris' surface from the laser strikes.

Its been a while since i played the first KOTOR i dont remember the exact scene but can it be Sith Fighters just striking the upper atmosphere thats creating a strike on Taris' surface?

[Big Phil]

The other scene is of the Ebon Hawk just past Taris' atmosphere being pursued by Sith fighters. In this scene (from at least several hundred miles up I'm guessing) we can actually see the glow of the explosions on Taris' surface from the laser strikes.

Its been a while since i played the first KOTOR i dont remember the exact scene but can it be Sith Fighters just striking the upper atmosphere thats creating a strike on Taris' surface?

I don't think it's the fighters. You see the fighters chasing the Ebon Hawk in the foreground, and in the background you can see the continuing bombardment (you can see the laser bolts) and the flashes of the lasers as they strike the surface.

I measured this last night (boy, that's fun, sitting in front of the TV with a ruler waiting for a two second scene to flash by), and I measured the flashes at between 1/4 and 1/2 inch on a 27 inch television screen. Assuming that the Ebon Hawk was already several hundred miles up, and that Taris is roughly earth sized, I imagine the explosions must be fairly powerful to be visible from low orbit.