Would you trash the EU?

[President Sharky]

I would try to keep the EU similar to the way it is. It's a fine extension of the SW universe, and there are only a few entries into it that are in need of elimination, i.e. The Crystal Star, The Glove of Darth Vader, Children of the Jedi, Darksaber.

You guys do realize that if you trash the EU, you also trash the ICS and VD along with it?

[Illuminatus Primus]

You guys do realize that if you trash the EU, you also trash the ICS and VD along with it?

Doesn't bother us; technically minded people realize such values and information is logical anyway (and more) from the films alone. That just helped validate it.

And besides, I don't think dumping the EU counts the novelisations; so it need not even include the DK nonfiction. They don't tell a story, just talk about the films.

[Noble Ire]

I would try to keep the EU similar to the way it is. It's a fine extension of the SW universe, and there are only a few entries into it that are in need of elimination, i.e. The Crystal Star, The Glove of Darth Vader, Children of the Jedi, Darksaber.

You guys do realize that if you trash the EU, you also trash the ICS and VD along with it?

I believe Glove of Darth Vader is already non-continuity.
Thankfully.

[swaaye]

Do the MOVIES have to be considered canon? Lol. I'd rather forget the prequels instead of most of the books.

[Stofsk]

As for the EU, shitcan the lot of it. Every wankalot weapon, every Palpatine clone, the whole alphabet soup of Rebel/Republic fighters that don't start with X, Y, A, or B,

What's wrong with the nomenclature of Rebel fighters?

every Marty Stu fighter pilot and uber-Jedi, every half-assed dimwit Snidely Whiplash Imperial officer, every Force-negating slug,

What's wrong with the ysalamari? I thought they were a clever idea that was poorly used. I don't blame Zahn for introducing them, because frankly they weren't a big part of the plot, and Luke still kicks arse throughout the TTT anyway. What I found to be annoying was that there was no way to negate the 'force suck' ability these critters possessed, or their origins were not expounded upon (wouldn't it have been freakishly cool if it were revealed the ysalamari were a anti-Jedi bioweapon that were engineered in the past, and forgotten?).

every monster of the week, every reference to Tattooine that doesn't start and end with "Luke Skywalker grew up there", every reference to Yavin IV that doesn't start and end with "The Rebels had a base there until they blew up the Death Star and the Empire kicked them out",

I don't have a problem with Yavin IV. Tattooine has been used too much even in the films, and in the books? Forget about it. Luke's one and only trip back to Tattoine should have been in ROTJ, and never again.

[Crazedwraith]

As for the EU, shitcan the lot of it. Every wankalot weapon, every Palpatine clone, the whole alphabet soup of Rebel/Republic fighters that don't start with X, Y, A, or B,

You emna the grand total of two additional Fighters the E-Wing and the K-Wing. And a speeder, the V-Wing. None of which are in wipesread use at all. Yes, its absolutly terrible that teh NR built three new designs in thirty odd years...

[swaaye]

How many major fighter redesigns has our world seen in 30 years? There are still F-16s and F-14s flying around and they have been around for a LONG time.

In NJO they mentioned new X-Wing revisions. Just like today's fighter designs. They revise what works to make it better.

I found the number of new ships always showing up in the prequels to be pretty unrealistic. It's not exactly going to be trivial to draw up designs, parts, labor, etc on those ships. AND to build a fleet of them, lol. And throwing more manpower at a project does not help, but in fact will make things worse. So, even though the Republic has the labor manpower to build the ships, it's still going to take serious time to design major battleships...Not just a couple of years I think.

[Noble Ire]

I found the number of new ships always showing up in the prequels to be pretty unrealistic. It's not exactly going to be trivial to draw up designs, parts, labor, etc on those ships. AND to build a fleet of them, lol. And throwing more manpower at a project does not help, but in fact will make things worse. So, even though the Republic has the labor manpower to build the ships, it's still going to take serious time to design major battleships...Not just a couple of years I think.

Do you have any idea how much technological advancement and new ship designs the US and Germany came up with in WW2?

[Elfdart]

I'd dump the EU. It ranges from mediocre to embarassing. Aside from the ship guides and other picture books, it should be banished to the same Limbo as the lost season of Dallas, when it was decided that Bobby Ewing was in the shower the whole time (i.e. they realized just how badly they fucked up and decided to do it over).


Before listing what I would do, I'd like to list what I dislike about 90% of EU. I wrote this before, but it bears repeating:

1) Most of it takes away from the mystery of the movies. I don't need a backstory of a blond chick who appears for a split second in the widescreen version of ROTJ.

2) Most of it takes place after ROTJ and continues the trend started in the movie (which I think is the weakest of all SW movies): turning Han Solo, the coolest character in SW into a schlemiel. In ANH and TESB, he was was Robin Hood, Rhett Butler, and Peter Blood rolled into one. In ROTJ he was made to play second fiddle to a bunch of teddy bears. In the EU, he comes across like Al Bundy from Married With Children. I wish Lucas would have followed Harrison Ford's advice and killed off Han Solo. Better a noble death fighting the Empire than a future as a henpecked husband.

3) The use of apostraphes (') to give a sort of bogus exotic feel to the names of people, places and things. Leave that crap in Star Trek! OH NO! The Ch'Umps are attacking!

4) A SD called the "Storm Hawk". An SSD called Lusyanka (Nice try at hiding the source of 'Lubyanka'). Jeez

5) An Imperial officer named "Chris Peterson". Jeez again! I understand that the Emperor's clone is named Bill Thomas. Honest.

6) Titles like "Vector Prime" that are better suited for Deep Space Nine.

7) The total lack of the thing that made Star Wars great: The tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, irony and camp. Instead it's oh-so-serious. Look at the way Han and Chewie interact in the movies and compare it to all the pretentious "How dare you question me" bullshit in the EU.

8 ) Almost all of EU sucks.

9) Cloning dead villains or bringing them back as a brother, sister, cousin, whatever. When I was a kid, I would immediately stop reading a comic when they pulled this nonsense. It means they have no new ideas and are insulting the intelligence of the reader.

10) Mara Jade.

11) Han & Leia's kids. Oy veh!

12) Everyone has a Super Star Destroyer mothballed away for when the writer gets lazy and wants to impress someone.

13) Rather than clearing up "plot holes" like that silly columnist Jonah Goldberg claims, EU creates new ones.

If Lucas bashers think the characters in the movies are all one-noters, what does that make the ones from the EU? Borsk Feyla seems constitutionally incapable of being anything other than an asshole, just for the sake of being an asshole. Does he ever do anything good in the novels?

What I would do?

1) Make most of the EU stories without the main characters except as cameos once in a while. Even minor characters would be used sparingly. Stop the species=character bullshit. A decent, humane Hutt for example. Who knows? Maybe the new characters might have more depth if they don't play second fiddle to Han, Luke and Leia. Maybe they won't have the baggage to deal with.

2) Boba Fett and Palpatine, like Francisco Franco are STILL DEAD!

3) Actually, I like minimalism: when something becomes overabundant it is cheapened. In drama, less is more.

4) An editor who will reject any character who copies the dialogue or personality of characters in the movies. Any Corellian who acts like Han Solo should be erased.

5) The stories should take place on planets other than those in the movies. Lucas has good reason to keep returning to Tattooine. Nobody else does.

6) An editor should be assigned to delete any person, place or thing given a stupid name. Names that are too obviously based on real world ones should be changed. Gary Gygax at least rearranged the letters to create new names in his D&D novels. Some asshole actually created a SW character called Vidkun Benedict. Let me guess... he's a traitor!

7) More of the Rebels with their blue shirts, black vests, white helmets. They weren't all caught or killed on Leia's ship. They had cool unis, let's see them win a battle!

[Noble Ire]

1) Most of it takes away from the mystery of the movies. I don't need a backstory of a blond chick who appears for a split second in the widescreen version of ROTJ.

Aw, the mean old EU is hurting poor old Elfdart's imagination. Bad EU, bad!
Honestly, whats so bad about background info? Does seeing Mount Rushmore without knowing who the people are on it are make it any more impressive?

3) The use of apostraphes (') to give a sort of bogus exotic feel to the names of people, places and things. Leave that crap in Star Trek! OH NO! The Ch'Umps are attacking!

Okaayy........

5) An Imperial officer named "Chris Peterson". Jeez again! I understand that the Emperor's clone is named Bill Thomas. Honest.

I'll admit, this pisses me off too.

6) Titles like "Vector Prime" that are better suited for Deep Space Nine.

Let me guess, you randomly thought up an EU book and and decided to insult it. The same can be said for AOTC. Geez.

7) The total lack of the thing that made Star Wars great: The tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, irony and camp. Instead it's oh-so-serious. Look at the way Han and Chewie interact in the movies and compare it to all the pretentious "How dare you question me" bullshit in the EU.

Thanks for overgeneralizing and not giving any examples. Its greatly appreciated.

8 ) Almost all of EU sucks.

My god, the perfect anti-EU arguement. I am stunned by your evidence, eloquence, and originality.

9) Cloning dead villains or bringing them back as a brother, sister, cousin, whatever. When I was a kid, I would immediately stop reading a comic when they pulled this nonsense. It means they have no new ideas and are insulting the intelligence of the reader.

This happens what, once?

10) Mara Jade.

11) Han & Leia's kids. Oy veh!

Okay, you dont like these characters, and your entitled to your opinion. Well guess what bucko, lots of people like 'em! Deal with it.

12) Everyone has a Super Star Destroyer mothballed away for when the writer gets lazy and wants to impress someone.

Sooo.....SSDs are supposed to be mythic and super, ultra rare. Egads! KJA was right!

13) Rather than clearing up "plot holes" like that silly columnist Jonah Goldberg claims, EU creates new ones.

If Lucas bashers think the characters in the movies are all one-noters, what does that make the ones from the EU? Borsk Feyla seems constitutionally incapable of being anything other than an asshole, just for the sake of being an asshole. Does he ever do anything good in the novels?

I'll admit some characters are flat, but for the most part, they develop quite nicely. Borsk for example, at least at the eleventh hour. But you wouldnt knowe that, would you? I'm sure your above actually reading more than the first few pages of a handful of books.

1) Make most of the EU stories without the main characters except as cameos once in a while. Even minor characters would be used sparingly. Stop the species=character bullshit. A decent, humane Hutt for example. Who knows? Maybe the new characters might have more depth if they don't play second fiddle to Han, Luke and Leia. Maybe they won't have the baggage to deal with.

New characters and varied species are very common. Name even one species of any significance that is without variation (and yes, there are decent Hutts, early NJO.)

2) Boba Fett and Palpatine, like Francisco Franco are STILL DEAD!

Why are people always so pissed about Boba being alive. Even GL has stated it was his original intention.

3) Actually, I like minimalism: when something becomes overabundant it is cheapened. In drama, less is more.

A valid opinion, save that I'm certain that you will be the first to attack the next instance of EU minimalism when it comes around.

5) The stories should take place on planets other than those in the movies. Lucas has good reason to keep returning to Tattooine. Nobody else does.

Tatooine is a hub for the underworld, especially the Hutts. There is no reason to believe it is utterly irrelevant aside from being the Skywalker birth place.

6) An editor should be assigned to delete any person, place or thing given a stupid name. Names that are too obviously based on real world ones should be changed. Gary Gygax at least rearranged the letters to create new names in his D&D novels. Some asshole actually created a SW character called Vidkun Benedict. Let me guess... he's a traitor!

This does bother me.

7) More of the Rebels with their blue shirts, black vests, white helmets. They weren't all caught or killed on Leia's ship. They had cool unis, let's see them win a battle!

Hardly a reason to deride the entire EU.

[Ace Pace]

9) Cloning dead villains or bringing them back as a brother, sister, cousin, whatever. When I was a kid, I would immediately stop reading a comic when they pulled this nonsense. It means they have no new ideas and are insulting the intelligence of the reader.

This happens what, once?

Nitpick: Atleast twice, Thrawn was nearly ressurected.

[swaaye]

I am blown away that some of you can come here and say we should dump the EU. Uhh...what were you people living on from 1983-1999? Watching the old trilogy every day?

I grew up with those EU books. I recall some of them fondly every week. They are part of me, because they made up a lot of my youth. There are many really great books in there. It just blows my mind that some of you can say "dump them." Absolutely unbelievable.....

I have the entire NJO on my right on my bookshelf at this moment. I look over there and see about 19 books or so (I'm somehow missing one though), which consists of years of memories as I read them as they were released. Yeah, some of them stunk. But MAN are there some great moments in some of them. Hell I was reading these through most of my college life. Those books mean even more to me than their actual content. Lol. I have a friend who was just as into them as I was and we loved bitching about the evil characters, or how hard it was to read the Vong stuff at times, but we both loved them.

Heh I remember when I first read Vector Prime. I was like who the hell is this R.A. Salvatore guy lol. This book is pretty decent if a bit different. I was reading the book out on Lake Michigan, fishing with my father. I was reading below deck and was getting seasick but didn't even notice. Haha. I got myself so damned sick that I felt awful for 2 days afterwards...lol. I think I may have read half of the book that day, out on the water.

I look over at Survivor's Quest on my bookshelf and think how much Zahn has done for Star Wars. The games that use his material (TIE Fighter for God's sake!). The other authors. The sourcebooks. The card games. The Thrawn Trilogy. Hand of Thrawn Duology. Mara Jade. Jacen & Jaina. Pellaeon. Talon Karrde. Noghri. And some of you want to dump all of this......

And if we dump the EU that means that we have to throw away some of the best of LucasArts too. X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing Alliance. The entire Dark Forces series, from the original through Jedi Knight 2 (Jedi Academy isn't part of DF as Kyle isn't the main char). Kyle Katarn. Jan. Dark Troopers. Harkov, Zaarin, TIE Defenders, Assault Gunboats. OMG!

To me, the EU is Star Wars. Without the EU, it's a whole lot less interesting. Hell, without the EU I'm not interested. Star Wars would be like the Matrix on my interest scale: a passing sci-fi flick to catch. Didn't you people grow up with this stuff too? WTF. I remember a summer when I was around 12-13 when my sister and I would pick a Star Wars movie out of the original trilogy (this is WAY before the prequels) and watch one every night. I remember reading Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy when I was in 8th grade for the first time....ignoring the teacher in class too as I read them. Hahah. Lol. Star Wars is engrained in me. The movies, the books, the games, all of it.

So. I ask you all. How can you really consider what this thread suggests? How can you even REMOTELY consider this.

[Connor MacLeod]

Yes and no. His point with that was more aboout slow moving blobs in scifi. You can have a design that shots little blobs, you just have to make them go really fast for them to be effective. This is how star shiva was suppossed to work before its funding was cut/it went black budget (take your pick)

Incidently, that bit is now cited on atomic rocket as a"definitive analysis". Nifty.

And Shiva star had a range of what, exactly? Does the projectile persist for multiple seconds (like the TESB ion bolt?)

By contrast, what is the range of Ion cannons? Can a 10,000 km/s velocity match that? (and lets not even get into the energy of the ion bolt... )

The only one we've seen onscreen for certain is the one in ESB. How fast is it going? We can backtrack from there, the size when it leaves the cannon, and the size when it hits the Avenger to figure out if it has to be a tracer or not.

Last time I measured it (which was awhile back) between 2-5 seconds. And it probably HAS to be a tracer , since the velocity of the bolt seems to vary extensively (it propogates very slowly on emission, then very fast up to the ISD, then very slowly when it hits said ISD.)

[Connor MacLeod]

And the ion cannon did NOT impart rotation to the ship - the rotation was the result of the engine misfiring alone after the shot. The recoil of the shot would have (if anything) propelled the ship back at thousands or tens of thousands of gees (But thats an entirely different problem to deal with.)

Could you clarify here? What makes you think the shot possessed that much momentum?

1.) The ion bolt was required to possess enough energy to overload the shields of said ISD. In the case of the ISD, this is going to be at least in the e24-e25 watt range, but that's being bare-assed conservative. In reality its probably going to be at least an order of magnitude, if not two (maybe even three), greater.

2.) The "bolt" has to carry that energy in some form, and with that much energy, its got substantial momentum behind it - more than enough to visibly shove that target aside at the estimated velocites we could infer from the movie.

[swaaye]

Heh, well energy can't have momentum. It's substantially massless. But perhaps how the tech works it somehow does.....but it seems like more of a "ooh wow" then than anything else...

Not saying that it's not really cool or I want them to stop, but physically energy doesn't have any means to push matter around.... ALTHOUGH you know how solar sails (really BIG sails pushing really tiny matter) could be used to propel objects by catching moving particles in space? Well perhaps this is some sort of transmitted radiation or particle energy that because of its density it can push matter? LOL! Hmm...

[Connor MacLeod]

Heh, well energy can't have momentum. It's substantially massless. But perhaps how the tech works it somehow does.....but it seems like more of a "ooh wow" then than anything else...

Energy (in which context you mean photons or other massless parrticles) do indeed have "momentum" due to the fact that they possess energy (energy and mass are interchangable after all.. a certain amount of mass is equivalent to a certain quantity of energy.)

]
Not saying that it's not really cool or I want them to stop, but physically energy doesn't have any means to push matter around.... ALTHOUGH you know how solar sails (really BIG sails pushing really tiny matter) could be used to propel objects by catching moving particles in space? Well perhaps this is some sort of transmitted radiation or particle energy that because of its density it can push matter? LOL! Hmm...

Solar sails work because massless particles have (some) momentum. The only difference is is that the momentum is only noticable when you have ALOT of energy present.

[swaaye]

Zahn has a Masters degree in Physics, btw. His Conquerors trilogy is FILLED with scientific descriptions. Thrawn Trilogy & Duology have some too, but he was way less "enthusiastic" about injecting it into those books...

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

Zahn has a Masters degree in Physics, btw. His Conquerors trilogy is FILLED with scientific descriptions. Thrawn Trilogy & Duology have some too, but he was way less "enthusiastic" about injecting it into those books...

He has a ... Masters degree in Physics. He sure doesn't show his degree in his writing like Dr. Saxton then. I'd like for him to scientifically explain to me what was he smoking when he wrote in that "reverse-triggering the acceleration compensator" stuff in HTTE. I don't care if he invented it. If it is scientifically bull, he could ignore it like Dr. Saxton tends to do with EU's scientifically shitty ideas.

To be fair to him, he did depict the tractor beam as something more than an on-off Elevation/Azimuth system in TLC.

[Noble Ire]

Zahn has a Masters degree in Physics, btw. His Conquerors trilogy is FILLED with scientific descriptions. Thrawn Trilogy & Duology have some too, but he was way less "enthusiastic" about injecting it into those books...

He has a ... Masters degree in Physics. He sure doesn't show his degree in his writing like Dr. Saxton then. I'd like for him to scientifically explain to me what was he smoking when he wrote in that "reverse-triggering the acceleration compensator" stuff in HTTE. I don't care if he invented it. If it is scientifically bull, he could ignore it like Dr. Saxton tends to do with EU's scientifically shitty ideas.

To be fair to him, he did depict the tractor beam as something more than an on-off Elevation/Azimuth system in TLC.

I'm just curious, do you consider any EU source that is not in complete technological parity with the movies bull? I doubt that precise technological accuracy is in the forefront of the minds of most EU writers (perhaps it should be, but to me story and characterization is a bit more important.)

Not a flame, just a question of priorities.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

I'm just curious, do you consider any EU source that is not in complete technological parity with the movies bull?

It is not "in complete technological parity". It is the idea that the system that is designed to protect you from high-gees can produce a more rapid delta-v than the main propulsion system of the fighter.

I doubt that precise technological accuracy is in the forefront of the minds of most EU writers (perhaps it should be, but to me story and characterization is a bit more important.)

I can understand that with most EU authors, but not for someone with a Physics qualification.

I understand the plot requirement that he has Luke escape, but in trouble. He could still come up with a more plausible excuse. He could have done his TLC trac-reflective thing, which makes some sense. He could even have activated the hyperdrive for a blind-jump before reaching the edge. Or even tried to activate the hyperdrive while tractored - we can see in the movies that produces a great delta-v, and now we know mass manipulation has something to do with it thanks to the much later AOTC:ICS.

But to use the inertial compensator to produce a more rapid acceleration than the main engines?

One wonders how "backfiring" it can produce the effect - why can't they exploit a similar, but lesser effect for a super acceleration ... etc, etc.

I understand plot requirements. But when there are many methods to reach said plot requirement, and a author seems to choose the least likely one, my eyebrows go up. If he's scientifically trained...

[Connor MacLeod]

Zahn has a Masters degree in Physics, btw. His Conquerors trilogy is FILLED with scientific descriptions. Thrawn Trilogy & Duology have some too, but he was way less "enthusiastic" about injecting it into those books...

He has a ... Masters degree in Physics. He sure doesn't show his degree in his writing like Dr. Saxton then. I'd like for him to scientifically explain to me what was he smoking when he wrote in that "reverse-triggering the acceleration compensator" stuff in HTTE. I don't care if he invented it. If it is scientifically bull, he could ignore it like Dr. Saxton tends to do with EU's scientifically shitty ideas.

I don't recall the specifics in HTTE, but AC's, like any gravitic device (tractor beams, etc.) can by nature generate attractive/repulsive forces (gravity well projectors in Solo Command would be another example. Same with tractor beams.) So it does make some sense that AC's could be jury rigged to act as impromptu damping devices.

The thing is, its not really something you would WANT to normally have an AC do (thats what you have repulsors and tractor beams for, I imagine.) except perhaps as a last-ditch measure or desperation trick. The momentum of such a sudden stop would probably put immense stress on the AC setup and its bracings (which would in turn lead to damage we expect.) In reality, its not a modification any practical vessel (IE a warship) would incorporate (which is probably why its only seen used by individuals like smugglers.) And in any "normal" ship, the AC's probably can't do it (I wouldn't be surprised if it required some modifications to the AC setup to allow it to be done.)

(And it could be worse, the AC's could do this and have absolutely *no* side effects tied to it.)

[Connor MacLeod]

It is not "in complete technological parity". It is the idea that the system that is designed to protect you from high-gees can produce a more rapid delta-v than the main propulsion system of the fighter.

Yet these devices can protect against close proximity to black holes (million+ gees) or neutron stars (tens of millions of gees.) and other high-gravity phenomena.

Besides which, OTHER gravitic devices (repulsors, tractor beams, etc.) would be capable presumably of similar feats (indeed we know Repulsors can, based on ROTJ with the Rebel fleet, AOTC with Dooku's speeder, AND the Falcon in Rebel Dawn.) And we know that most graviitc devices can be modified to behave like other ones (Tractor beams can act like repulsors or gravity well projectors, Gravity well projectors can act like repulsors, and whatnot.)

Since they don't behave on the same principles as a reaction drive, you don't neccesarily need the huge energy outputs (or the propellantt) you do to achieve canon performance with ion drives (of course, you can't really use a repulsor away from any mass/gravity well as well.)

The problem is that having it do this would put immense stress on the AC (which even modified probably isn't braced as well as say, the REpulsors are.) Which is why there is damage (and probably why we never see actual warships doing this.)

Of course, this would be equally true of the other devices too (using tractor beams as braking mechanisms is probably rather dumb too, but it can be done.)

I can understand that with most EU authors, but not for someone with a Physics qualification.

Did it ever occur to you that there are authors who might realize these things and try to change or correct them, but are foiled by editors, censors, other idiots working for LFL as well? Do I have to remind you of the VAST difference between the ROTS ICS and the AOTC ICS that points to such butchery?

[Darth Yoshi]

I say keep some of the EU and trash the crap.

BTW, what do you mean about butchery in the ICS, Connor?

[Connor MacLeod]

I say keep some of the EU and trash the crap.

BTW, what do you mean about butchery in the ICS, Connor?

The lack of decent straightforward statistics in the datafiles, for example. Some other things I've noticed that differ substantially from Curtis' prior work (even as a contributor) points to the fact someone mutiliated Curtis' original work with the ROTS ICS (probably maliciously.)

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

Yet these devices can protect against close proximity to black holes (million+ gees) or neutron stars (tens of millions of gees.) and other high-gravity phenomena.

Point, but they are acting internally. IIRC, force (holding the ship together against a million gees) does not require energy, but work (changing the ships velocity) requires energy.

Since they don't behave on the same principles as a reaction drive, you don't neccesarily need the huge energy outputs (or the propellantt) you do to achieve canon performance with ion drives (of course, you can't really use a repulsor away from any mass/gravity well as well.)

They don't? They won't need the propellant, but for energy they will still have to very ... clever to use gravitics to circumvent the law of conservation of energy.

The problem is that having it do this would put immense stress on the AC (which even modified probably isn't braced as well as say, the REpulsors are.) Which is why there is damage (and probably why we never see actual warships doing this.)

I can almost buy this, but tell me this: Why did ACs not become primary sublight propulsion systems?

It is better than repulsorlifts, since it apparently can work in deep space without significant gravity to push on.

Unlike ion engines, it does not generate a nice, heated ion trial. And it provides more acceleration. It stands to reason that if the AC can damage itself to generate a delta-v equivalent to many seconds of ion thrust, it can be modified to use a somewhat lower acceleration, and be better braced as a primary propulsion system.

Did it ever occur to you that there are authors who might realize these things and try to change or correct them, but are foiled by editors, censors, other idiots working for LFL as well? Do I have to remind you of the VAST difference between the ROTS ICS and the AOTC ICS that points to such butchery?

I can see him not being able to correct scientific bull, yes. I can even see them forced to use things like the 8km length. He does not have to write scientific bull in his escapees. You see the distinction?

But then, maybe you convince me he wasn't writing bull on this point after all. It would resolve something in my mind for years.

The lack of decent straightforward statistics in the datafiles, for example. Some other things I've noticed that differ substantially from Curtis' prior work (even as a contributor) points to the fact someone mutiliated Curtis' original work with the ROTS ICS (probably maliciously.)

They sabotaged his work? I know that they didn't allow a lot of stats. But sabotage? Where?!