MGLT

seeker of enlightenment · Post by **seeker of enlightenment** » 2006-05-23 02:17am

MGLT....I have seen this designation on ships with sublight capiablities. What does this stand for?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-23 02:32am

Nothing. It's a nonsense unit. It originated on behind the scenes documents giving the model/compositors and idea of the relative speed of various ships.

Jim Raynor · Post by **Jim Raynor** » 2006-05-23 03:02am

I prefer to just ignore this idiotic stat and disregard it as game mechanics.

seeker of enlightenment · Post by **seeker of enlightenment** » 2006-05-23 03:04am

Cool... I had just seen it and thought it might actually be basied on something real.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2006-05-23 04:16am

Afaik, it stands for megalights per hour, but it is indeed a nonsense unit with no real-world comparison.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-23 04:45am

The amount of brain-in-ass required to get 'megalights per second' out of MGLT is stupendous. It's just nonsense - and we've got proper units from acceleration, so it's WORTHLESS nonsense.

General Deathdealer · Post by **General Deathdealer** » 2006-05-23 06:24am

Stark wrote:The amount of brain-in-ass required to get 'megalights per second' out of MGLT is stupendous. It's just nonsense - and we've got proper units from acceleration, so it's WORTHLESS nonsense.

TF.N also says it might refer to Micro-Gravity Linear (acceleration) Tolerance. They even go on to calculate that 1MGLT = 400 m/s2.
So like Stark said "it's WORTHLESS nonsense".

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-23 06:26am

Is MGLT ever referred to in anything other than games and lameass tech manuals? Does anyone in a novel ever say anything about it? I simply ignore the entire concept as meaningless, and stick with measures like '3,500G'.

General Deathdealer · Post by **General Deathdealer** » 2006-05-23 06:31am

The only place I have seen it is in the game. But on TF.N they say the following:
"The MGLT was used (and probably invented by) ILM artists long before the development of the modern computer games. The earliest known use of the term is in a diagram comparing the propulsive capabilities of starfighters, drawn during the production of Return of the Jedi. This illustration is reproduced in Return of the Jedi Sketchbook. As an acronym, the unit probably refers to something in the production of the movies' special effects; the "GL" could stand for "George Lucas". "

So I go back to what you said before "it's WORTHLESS nonsense."

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-05-23 09:05am

For the record, General, the site where you got that from, Star Wars Technical Commentaries, is by Dr. Curtis Saxton and is merely hosted by TheForce.Net.

General Deathdealer · Post by **General Deathdealer** » 2006-05-23 09:21am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:For the record, General, the site where you got that from, Star Wars Technical Commentaries, is by Dr. Curtis Saxton and is merely hosted by TheForce.Net.

Got it. I was merely stating where I got it from.

EDIT:
Never the less, MGLT is still a pretty much worthless term out side of the game (except for its brief mention in the ROTJ sketchbook). Its true speed is only speculated on by Dr Saxon.

Base Delta Zero · Post by **Base Delta Zero** » 2006-05-23 10:24am

I used to think MGLT was a measurment of hyperdrive speed, meaning indicating 'Megalight' or millions of times C... but yeah, it's nonsense.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-23 08:45pm

I love the feeling you get when everyone agrees to totally ignore a lameass EU invention and go with observable capability. It feels... scientific.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2006-05-23 09:13pm

Stark wrote:I love the feeling you get when everyone agrees to totally ignore a lameass EU invention and go with observable capability. It feels... scientific.

It happened with the magic, shipboard ion cannon too. You must be on a role, Stark.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-23 09:17pm

KNOW YOUR ROLE BITCHES!!! Shit, what was it that guy called me? The silly play on my name? It was cool, it was in ARSE... and I forgot. Forgot who it was, too. Bah.

However, the ion cannon thing is more complex than just throwing away a stupid unit - it pervades the EU, and many ships only exist due to their use of ion cannon. The bloody manuals are full of shit like 'lolzor it's ion cannonz let it killzor teh uber sh1ps'. It's hard to just say TL=explosive solids=ion cannons to things like that.

LeftWingExtremist · Post by **LeftWingExtremist** » 2006-05-23 09:34pm

good for comparing ships/fighters in the star wars universe. Not much else.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-23 09:36pm

Ah, but has a comparison between known units been done? For example, both Y-wings and X-wings are '100MGLT', but are they actually the same speed? Are the ratios between different 'MGLT' ratings the same as the ratios between their G-ratings? I think you'll find the answer is 'no'. Remember, in this measure capships are 5MGLT.

seeker of enlightenment · Post by **seeker of enlightenment** » 2006-05-23 09:57pm

Stark wrote:Ah, but has a comparison between known units been done? For example, both Y-wings and X-wings are '100MGLT', but are they actually the same speed? Are the ratios between different 'MGLT' ratings the same as the ratios between their G-ratings? I think you'll find the answer is 'no'. Remember, in this measure capships are 5MGLT.

So why bother with the MGLT scale when there are set "G-ratings"? The game could have followed what already existed... seems like a lot of bother.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-23 10:01pm

That's because a) they weren't established - when X-wing was made in the 90s the SW:EU was pretty small and WEG ruled the stats, and b) measures of acceleration don't work in non-newtonian speed-limit games like X-wing or FS2.

There's no excuse now, of course, but I doubt anything will change in the games. See, using the WEG sources is excellent for lazy developers, as they're all right there and you don't need to do any real research.

seeker of enlightenment · Post by **seeker of enlightenment** » 2006-05-23 10:23pm

Stark wrote:That's because a) they weren't established - when X-wing was made in the 90s the SW:EU was pretty small and WEG ruled the stats, and b) measures of acceleration don't work in non-newtonian speed-limit games like X-wing or FS2. There's no excuse now, of course, but I doubt anything will change in the games. See, using the WEG sources is excellent for lazy developers, as they're all right there and you don't need to do any real research.

So it comes down to pure lazyness now, since there are established acceleration measurements. With the internet all they have to do is log on and do a yahoo, or google search for Star Wars material.
This site for example has answered several of my questions... and it didnt' take long to find.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-23 10:32pm

Yeah... I imagine Lucasarts/film provides it's licensees with background material, and that this may still be things like RPG books etc, instead of a link to SWTC or SDN. They aren't owned by Lucasarts/film, so they can't be endorsed - and game developers have better things to do than find new stats for things 99% of people won't even notice.

For a laugh, go find a manual to a SW starfighter game. See the brief descriptions of each fighter? I bet they're ripped straight from an RPG guide. All the games I've got (rogue squadron, xwing etc) have almost word-for-word same descriptions. So there's no research at all.

seeker of enlightenment · Post by **seeker of enlightenment** » 2006-05-23 11:18pm

Stark wrote:Yeah... I imagine Lucasarts/film provides it's licensees with background material, and that this may still be things like RPG books etc, instead of a link to SWTC or SDN. They aren't owned by Lucasarts/film, so they can't be endorsed - and game developers have better things to do than find new stats for things 99% of people won't even notice.

For a laugh, go find a manual to a SW starfighter game. See the brief descriptions of each fighter? I bet they're ripped straight from an RPG guide. All the games I've got (rogue squadron, xwing etc) have almost word-for-word same descriptions. So there's no research at all.

I'll take a look. Amazing on some tech things how little effort is actually done... using the xerox mechine....