World Devastator: Unappciated Workhorse?

[Crossroads Inc.]

Inspired by the recent SunCrusher debate…

Ok, so the World Devastator, was conceived as a terror weapon. A Device to be feared and something to strike horror into the forces of the New Republic.

But why be an agent of Evil? Used wisely, ((IMHO)) a World Devastator could be one of the most useful machines in all of StarWars history! Imagine dropping one off on a dead world, come back in a few years and you could have a small city ready for you to colonize! Imagine the Forces it could make or build. The resources it could harvest! It could build Mining droids, construction droids, computer manufacturing droids. Imagine if you had just one of these! Sure it COULD be a weapon of terror, But I think it could be far more useful applied to ‘good’ uses.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Basically yes. From what I recall of the Jedi Academy Trilogy, the designer of the World Devistators (and other weapons) was a naive genius employed in the Maw basically by being tricked into unawareness that her potentially extremely destructive benefitial systems would be employed as weapons.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Well It has often been shown that in StarWars many super weapons were developed by people deluded into thinking their creation would or could be used for good and not evil.

But WD’s are different; they actually CAN be used for good. All one needs is to change their programming a bit. As I mentioned above the capacity of what they can make is nearly endless. However I would love to see someone do a breakdown of just what they COULD produce, given time and resources of course.

Also, unlike a lot of EU, the WD’s are NOT Uber Wankery. It is a sound concept that does not go completely over the edge of what’s possible. They are basically massive Automated Factories with resource collectors, foundries, refineries and processors.

I’m sure on a smaller scale things like WD’s are already heavily used, the thing about an WD is that it can do such things on a massive planetary scale.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I’m sure on a smaller scale things like WD’s are already heavily used, the thing about an WD is that it can do such things on a massive planetary scale.

And that it's virtually autonomous and self-contained.

[Praxis]

Yeah, I've always felt that the WD is the PERFECT weapon.

You're beginning a war with an enemy. Capture one of their planets and drop a single world devastator on it. Continue with the war as usual, and then if you get schooled in battle, you just go back to that planet and you have an entire fleet built up for yourself.

It's perfect for making a quick army to replace losses, and strip-mining enemy worlds so you can gather the resources and then give the planet back and not worry about protecting it.

[Zeond]

How efficient are World Devastators? If they do not consume many more resources than standard production techniques then are there any reasons other than the cost of the WDs themselves and inertia for massive industrial facilities such as KDY to exist?

[Civil War Man]

There is a danger in using WDs in such a way. Though they are designed to be autonomous, they would require constant human supervision and maintenance to ensure that it does not go into DE WD mode.

World Devastators are basically huge droids. Droids in the SW universe require regular mindwipes in order to avoid developing personality quirks (exhibit A: R2-D2). You DO NOT want a World Devastator developing a personality quirk. Much badness. World Devastators were left alone because they were designed to smash things. Personalities are good for smashing (IIRC, as they added on to themselves, no two World Devastators looked alike).

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

World Devastators are basically huge droids. Droids in the SW universe require regular mindwipes in order to avoid developing personality quirks (exhibit A: R2-D2). You DO NOT want a World Devastator developing a personality quirk. Much badness.

Am I the only one who was reminded by this discussion of Star Control's Mycons?

Anyway, is there any indications for how long a World Devestator can operate? I would assume they're powered by hypermatter reactors like all of Star Wars' other big things, so would they need the occasional refueling in order to stay active?

[Techno_Union]

Anyway, is there any indications for how long a World Devestator can operate? I would assume they're powered by hypermatter reactors like all of Star Wars' other big things, so would they need the occasional refueling in order to stay active?

I thought they were powered by small black holes? If it's like an ISD, then it could be on its own for 2-3 years without resupplying (at least according to WEG).

And, IIRC, they do carry a crew of 20,000+ Imperials.

[Coalition]

Anyway, is there any indications for how long a World Devestator can operate? I would assume they're powered by hypermatter reactors like all of Star Wars' other big things, so would they need the occasional refueling in order to stay active?

Well, if they can construct different items themselves, they could convert their mining beam to tap hypermatter. So it mines a few things, makes a few Divisions of troops, and then goes somewhere convenient to get hypermatter and refuel.

Completely self-contained. If it could siphon up organic material (or recycle from the toilets), and convert that into food, you've got a very nice little warship there. The Captain could go anywhere he wanted, and conquer as much as he wanted. That could be why the Emperor had the control signal at Byss.

A very nice ship though. Give the Imperial Remnant a couple of those, and they can make a nice profit, selling its services to planets that need to rebuild.

In a shattered galaxy after the YV war, they would be very nice. IR contracts out services, in exchange for cash, materials, or loyalty.

So you would see Luke, Leia, and allies going around, trying to reduce the influence of the IR. They have to bring food, materials, medical supplies, etc, to damaged planets and systems, and keep the donor empires happy. All this is done to keep the big, bad IR from getting more influence.

The IR in the meantime, is willing to rent services of its Devastators to the different systems, in exchange for the money, materials, or loyalty. Monwy is fairly obvious, the planet buys manufactured goods from the WD, and uses them to rebuild itself. Materials would essentially be mining rights, or salvage, for the WD to consume for the new equipment, plus a little profit for the IR.

Loyalty, is where the planet votes to join the IR, and gain the advantage of the fleet protection. Imagine how many pirate or rogue groups are out there, seeing a galaxy with no decent military, just local defense forces. The Imperials may be dictators with a massive history of military oppression, but that is better than being considred a stop & rob by the pirates out there.

[Jaepheth]

Am I the only one who was reminded by this discussion of Star Control's Mycons?

Most on this board are of the non.

But in the end, all will know of Juffo-Wup.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I don't think a WD could create organic troops. It breaks stuff down to an atomic level with the little black holes.

[Crossroads Inc.]

-Snip-

Coalition? Gotta say after reading your ideas, I bet that would make a PERFECT Fanfic Idea. And it is also exactly what I had in mind in terms of utilizing the Devastators abilities.

Rebuilding a shattered world is a perfect task for these. It could take in all the old war machines, broken droids, shattered remains of buildings, and remake everything good as new again.

I will admit keeping them under control would be a problem… A Devastator with it’s own personality would be a bad thing, but of course that in itself would be a good plot idea.

In any case, If the IR has any of these, they would be wise to use them for ‘good’ and not ‘evil’ imagine what it could do for their PR

[CaptainChewbacca]

Anyone else think that a World Devastator with a personality would have a god complex?

[Solauren]

Hey, if you can break stuff down to the atomic level, use fusion and fission to create organic molecules, then fire up the cloning machines.

I once did calculations with world devestators using the grow rate of Silencer-7 from 'baby' size to it's size with aritmatic growth instead of geometric growth (which is how the thing probably works)

IF my math was right produce 1 'baby' world Devestator every 2 weeks, which would take 8 to grow to full size, during which time, every 2 weeks, the adult could pop out more....

Do the math to how long you had a massive, MASSIVE fleet of them

2 - 3 years, and you could literally out-gun pre-Endor Imperial military strength just on those things alone.

That's assuming constant raw materials and that World Devestators can convert atoms into other atoms (i.e Hydrogen atoms fused into Uranium)

[Crossroads Inc.]

Wow, sounds more and more like Devastators are Really under utilized in the StarWars Galaxy...

[Sriad]

Anyone else think that a World Devastator with a personality would have a god complex?

Is it still a "complex" when it's true?

[PainRack]

Question no 1:
Are world devastator more efficient at production than "normal" factories?

Question no 2:
What are the limits of replication? What is the limiting factor/s?

I suspect that when the two questions are combined, the WD replication abilities are inferior to a well maintained "factory" world in SW. Mechis is suggested to be able to produce billions of droids concurrently as for example.

The ultimate weapon perhaps, similar to RTS factories but not neccesarily "better" than normal means.

[Rubberanvil]

Question no 1:
Are world devastator more efficient at production than "normal" factories?

Is there any other self-contained portable manufacturing facility in the EU?

[CaptainChewbacca]

Question no 1:
Are world devastator more efficient at production than "normal" factories?

Yes. They require less maintenance and starting materials.

Question no 2:
What are the limits of replication? What is the limiting factor/s?

I seem to recall WDs spitting out Carrack-class cruisers, but does anyone have any pictures of it spitting out the swarms of TIE fighters? That should give us an idea of how big its output is.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Wow! a WD can make mass-produced ships as big as Carracks? Neat! I have a whole new apprication for them! Anyone have any Scans of them in action from the Graphic Novels?

Also, I would part of the advantage of them is, aside from thier moblity, unlike factories or shipyards, they can easily defend themselves.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Wow! a WD can make mass-produced ships as big as Carracks? Neat! I have a whole new apprication for them! Anyone have any Scans of them in action from the Graphic Novels?

Also, I would part of the advantage of them is, aside from thier moblity, unlike factories or shipyards, they can easily defend themselves.

The main advantage is that they can go from raw material to finished product in something like an hour.

[Praxis]

There is a danger in using WDs in such a way. Though they are designed to be autonomous, they would require constant human supervision and maintenance to ensure that it does not go into DE WD mode.

World Devastators are basically huge droids. Droids in the SW universe require regular mindwipes in order to avoid developing personality quirks (exhibit A: R2-D2). You DO NOT want a World Devastator developing a personality quirk. Much badness. World Devastators were left alone because they were designed to smash things. Personalities are good for smashing (IIRC, as they added on to themselves, no two World Devastators looked alike).

Unlike droids, you just design the world devastator in a much simpler way.

Droids like C-3PO and R2-D2 you want to come to understand human behavior so they can work with them, so they need a degree of intelligence.

WD's do not. Just put some advanced form of Linux on them and program them to keep working. You don't have worker droids developing personalities, do you? Just protocol droids and other droids that work with humans.

[Praxis]

The WD's were actually able to build ISD's I recall reading.
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tec ... evastators
Yep, thought so.

These facilities could create hordes of "TIE/d" droid-piloted TIE fighters, starships, and even Star Destroyers and other World Devastators (ref. SWEGVV).

Yeah, World Devastators can build other World Devastators, or add on to themselves with the materials making themselves bigger and bigger, or create fleets of droid-controlled TIEs, or light support ships like Carracks, or even Star Destroyers. Get 10 devastators, with five spitting out other devastators, one spitting out fighters, one spitting out support ships, and three spitting out ISD's, and have all the new ones built build more devastators, you'd have a HUGE fleet in a short time.

[Coalition]

I don't think a WD could create organic troops. It breaks stuff down to an atomic level with the little black holes.

Not organic troops. Food, water, rations, etc might be produced.