Battledroids not as feeble as we thought?

[Vympel]

The SBD that may have been hit by the falling C-3PO head/ Battle Droid body (you don't see it strike it) got shot in the back. It stands to reason its armor is thicker in the front than the back- the shot it takes with impunity is at the front.

[Glimmervoid]

I think Gungans are just real big pussies.

Gungans, IIRC, possess superior physical strength when compared to the average human. Beyond that, they were a rather warlike species prior to the arrival of the Naboo (having lots of civil wars and such), and even afterwards maintained a pretty sizeable standing army.

I find it kind of annoying how it seems that everyone projects Jar Jar's stupidity on the entire Gungan species, conveniently forgetting that Jar Jar was banished for being an idiot. I've heard people say "Gungans must be stupid because they elected him as representative." His election as a Naboo representative, however, suggests one of two things. Option 1) He became more serious (and, granted his screen time was much shorter, but beyond his speech impediment he displayed little of the antics he did in TPM). Option 2) He's a war hero, having been a general in the Gungan Army when they fought the Trade Federation. Anyone care to name all the politicians in their nation's history that served in the military?

OR maybe they just wanted his as far away for naboo as possible. lol

[Lord Revan]

we for a fact that DC-17(m) is weaker then the DC-15(a), but we can't make any conclutions for Republic Commando (the game) thanks to game mechanics (even a one hit from DC-15a should take those big trandos down, but even three are too little for task in the game).

[Cykeisme]

I guess games really can't be relied upon for specifics especially in areas such as this where alterations for the purpose of gameplay balance are not only possible, but probable.
The best example would be the horrible "glass TIE"/"flying tank X-Wing" brain bug that stems from the first X-Wing game that came out ages ago.

As an aside, IIRC the E-11 blaster rifle in Jedi Outcast did 20 points of damage on a torso hit, and double that on a head hit. Stormtroopers had 44 hit points on the two higher difficulty levels (messed with the tools a bit).
Kyle's sawed-off Bryar rifle/pistol could do up to 70 points (!) of base damage when you fully charge a shot.

Btw, is the yield of a shot from Han's DL-44 higher than an E-11 shot?

Maybe he was afraid it could kill him. After all Obi-Wan was supposed to take Jango to Coruscant for interogation.

Possible, but I doubt Obi-Wan was holding back when he fought Jango on the platform.
Besides, it's even easier to scale the lethality of a punch or kick than it is for a lightsaber strike.

[YT300000]

I guess games really can't be relied upon for specifics especially in areas such as this where alterations for the purpose of gameplay balance are not only possible, but probable.
The best example would be the horrible "glass TIE"/"flying tank X-Wing" brain bug that stems from the first X-Wing game that came out ages ago.

As an aside, IIRC the E-11 blaster rifle in Jedi Outcast did 20 points of damage on a torso hit, and double that on a head hit. Stormtroopers had 44 hit points on the two higher difficulty levels (messed with the tools a bit).
Kyle's sawed-off Bryar rifle/pistol could do up to 70 points (!) of base damage when you fully charge a shot.

Btw, is the yield of a shot from Han's DL-44 higher than an E-11 shot?

I'd imagine so, since it took a torso sized chunk out of the Docking Bay 94 walls (concrete or better), and the E-11 only makes grapefruit sized holes in the Cloud City walls. Though, admittedly, this is a rather tenuous statement, without knowing the actual strength of either material.

[Noble Ire]

The SBD that may have been hit by the falling C-3PO head/ Battle Droid body (you don't see it strike it) got shot in the back. It stands to reason its armor is thicker in the front than the back- the shot it takes with impunity is at the front.

Ah, but when the droid collapses, you can clearly see the blast has torn through the SBD completely, and made a fits-sized hole through the "more heavily" armored front.

Well, the discovery channel special was good for something at least.

[Vympel]

Hmm? I watched that bit last night, I didn't see any indication of that.

[Nephtys]

40 shots to down an SBD? Try 200. It literally is impossible to just gun down one of those guys in RC. Of course, shooting an unarmored Genosian takes about 10 or so rounds to the head to kill too...

But anyway, I thought the SBDs in RC were a heavier variant of the one shown in AOTC? Which might kinda explain it's near invincibility to anything short of the anti-tank grenade.

[Noble Ire]

Hmm? I watched that bit last night, I didn't see any indication of that.

Perhaps I didnt percieve it correctly, but I'm fairly sure thats what happened. I shall check, Off to the AOTC DVD!

[Cykeisme]

40 shots to down an SBD? Try 200. It literally is impossible to just gun down one of those guys in RC. Of course, shooting an unarmored Genosian takes about 10 or so rounds to the head to kill too...

Blast off some of the armor plating first (the droid's "hit point" bar won't budge when you do this), then focus your fire on the exposed components. The HP bar drops pretty quickly if you use the iron sights to ensure all your shots go in the armor rent. IIRC it might take more than 40, but probably not 200 even on Hard, unless the 200 shots are spread all across undamaged sections

But anyway, I thought the SBDs in RC were a heavier variant of the one shown in AOTC? Which might kinda explain it's near invincibility to anything short of the anti-tank grenade.

They appear identical to the ones in AotC. That doesn't rule out the idea that they're different, but considering how many SBDs we see, I doubt it.

I repeat myself, but I think we can chalk up their toughness of in-game enemies to a liberal take on (movie) reality for purposes of game balance. I should think thermal detonators, even Class E TDs, would be much more powerful and less common than the ones we get in the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series and Republic Commando.

[Eframepilot]

Normal battledroids appear to be about as strong as Gungans, which makes them considerably stronger than humans but considerably weaker than what you would expect from mechanical constructs built for combat. I wouldn't bet on a battledroid in arm-wresting against a T-800 Terminator or even Data. Blame the Trade Federation and the Geonosians for using the cheapest parts available. In the Ep. 3 novelization, Grievous specifically orders that normal battledroids not be sent to apprehend Obi-Wan and Anakin, because they're so worthless.

And game mechanics are worthless in determining just about anything. Canon movie performance should take precedence.

[Cykeisme]

While they are built for combat, battle droids achieve their destructive potential by firing their blaster rifles (or other ranged weapons) at their targets. Hand-to-hand combat ability and arm-wrestling are probably secondary design parameters.

Incurring increased cost and complexity by increasing their mechanical strength wouldn't provide them with a commensurate increase in battlefield effectiveness. The fact that they're constructed out of the cheapest parts available allows then to maximize their advantage of numerical superiority and low unit replacement cost, which does make a difference.

Maybe "blame" is a bit harsh a word for assigning responsibility to those who made the design decisions

[wautd]

possible spoiler:

I heared a battledroid gets his ass kicked by R2D2 in ROTS

[NecronLord]

I heared a battledroid gets his ass kicked by R2D2 in ROTS

Anakin modified R2 to be combat capable. He has makeshift weapons and ground combat programming.

[Crown]

I heared a battledroid gets his ass kicked by R2D2 in ROTS

Anakin modified R2 to be combat capable. He has makeshift weapons and ground combat programming.

You are of course joking ... right

[Lord Revan]

But anyway, I thought the SBDs in RC were a heavier variant of the one shown in AOTC? Which might kinda explain it's near invincibility to anything short of the anti-tank grenade.

They appear identical to the ones in AotC. That doesn't rule out the idea that they're different, but considering how many SBDs we see, I doubt it.

I repeat myself, but I think we can chalk up their toughness of in-game enemies to a liberal take on (movie) reality for purposes of game balance. I should think thermal detonators, even Class E TDs, would be much more powerful and less common than the ones we get in the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series and Republic Commando.

OK the SBD are a different model in RC then in the movies (they have one big gun with low ROF compared to the dual blasters with insane ROF in the movies).

[NecronLord]

No. It makes sense. If you're able to do it, wouldn't you want your astromech able to look after the ship? He can't shoot them or anything daft, but he's capable of dismembering buzz droids and activating remote controlled weapons

[Cykeisme]

OK the SBD are a different model in RC then in the movies (they have one big gun with low ROF compared to the dual blasters with insane ROF in the movies).

I kinda chalked that up to game mechanics too.

It's possible that the SBDs in RC were intended to be a different model of SBD with different armament and over an order of magnitude more heavily armored.. but then it's odd that we don't see any regular "movie SBDs" in the game then.

Note that the "game SBDs", if they were intended to portray a different model, were not limited production machines. The Trade Federation coreship was stocked with rack upon rack of "game SBDs". I'm fairly certain they're intended to be the same.

Btw, is it just me or do the Clone Troopers at the beginning of the Geonosis mission (start of the game) seem to be carrying something other than DC-15s?

Edit:
According to the game's official site, the SBDs have both rapid fire blasters and a slow cannon shot.

Super Battle Droid Blaster & Cannon: The Super Battle Droid Blaster is an overcharged energy displacement blaster. It has a relatively high fire rate for such a large weapon but its draws power from the droid. Due to this high-energy consumption, droid locomotion speed is severely limited. The Super Battle Droid Cannon is a secondary weapon that utilizes a hyper charged High Energy Impulse Generated Blaster bolt. Inflicts maximum damage but takes time to charge up.

The cannon blasts were probably just more memorable since it hurt so much

[wautd]

I heared a battledroid gets his ass kicked by R2D2 in ROTS

Anakin modified R2 to be combat capable. He has makeshift weapons and ground combat programming.

You are of course joking ... right

I'll have to wait untill I see it but so far i'm afraid they pulled something like an ewok vs stormtrooper thing. Haha battledroids suck, they got beated by R2D2!!11! something like that

[NecronLord]

I'll have to wait untill I see it but so far i'm afraid they pulled something like an ewok vs stormtrooper thing. Haha battledroids suck, they got beated by R2D2!!11! something like that

RotS Battle Droids are supposedly going to stand there and wait for their enemies to go grab weapons before opening fire, so, yeah.