Why didn't the Trade Federation just destroy the fighters?

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2007-03-13 01:50pm

Perhaps the control ship served as some sort of failsafe system with which the Trade Federation could shut down their droid forces in an instant. Gunray is well known as being extremely paranoid, and there is historical precedent for droid "revolts"; if, for whatever reason, his armies turned on him, the Viceroy would want a swift way of negating the threat. Still, that wouldn't really explain why the failsafe code was activated when the ship was destroyed.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2007-03-13 01:59pm

I thought that the Neimoidians issued the orders from the ship, transmitting them from the ship directly to the droids (something that by the time of Geonosis was replaced with a better system that allowed the droids to function more independently.)

BUT, I finally found a source, and it does support the position that it is a droid brain.

The cost of thousands of individual droid brains was avoided by instead relying on a Central Control Computer (CCC) housed in a modified Trade Federation battleship.

Although how much of it is the Droid "Brain" issuing the orders without prompting and how much of it is being programmed in by Neimoidian techs is uncertain to me.

EDIT:

A-Ha!

Same article.

Motion-capture data of highly trained organic soldiers gave the battle droids a flexible array of combat stances, positions and maneuvers, but the droids themselves were only as strategically capable as their programmers aboard the Droid Control Ship.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-03-13 02:23pm

Well, that's the "what", but it doesn't explain the "why". SW droid brains aren't prohibitively expensive - a lower middle class family can afford a good half-dozen or - and even the cost of half a million basic droid brains would probably be less than the cost of converting a capship with extra computer systems and freakin' power generators to support the CCC. Not to mention that a single glitch in your wonderfully centralised system junks the whole army. Imagine if one of the weird faceplate-Neimodians tripped over the CCC's UPS cable...

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-03-13 02:32pm

Bounty wrote:
Some yes, but I didn't think there was a "droid brain" on the Control Ship that was coordinating the military efforts on Naboo.
The question then is, what the hell was the control ship for? The droids had AI, a command structure, long-range communications (at least, the antennae suggest BVR comms)...when the control ship blew up the highest-ranking droid should've gone into survival mode and kept his units fighting until he got new orders.

I find it hard to believe that they'd ship the CPU routines to make the droids move back and forth into orbit when even cheap SW droids show a great deal of independence.

One suggestions is that the ship provides higher function and the power to run the droids along with a stay alive signal. It would make sense that the 'privates' would not have most of their own brains so to speak because they don't need then to follow orders. Remember that when the ship wenty down the droids just fell apart.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-03-13 02:59pm

One suggestions is that the ship provides higher function and the power to run the droids along with a stay alive signal.

None of these makes much sense considering SW tech. Power? It's not like we've seen C-3PO ever look for a power socket. SW batteries should suffice for simple droids, especially when they can recharge in the MTT's. Higher functions? See above; a cheap SW brain per 'bot has to be enough and the fact that orders were given to the droid commanders verbally confirms that droids have some capacity for independent thought. The stay alive signal? Possible, but that wouldn't justify a purpose-converted ship.

It would make sense that the 'privates' would not have most of their own brains so to speak because they don't need then to follow orders.

Which doesn't jive with the droids reacting to Qui-Gon's quip in the hangar.

Remember that when the ship wenty down the droids just fell apart.

Don't even mention that idiocy...

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-03-13 03:04pm

why not mention it? Or are you saying what we saw didn't happen?

Just because a capility exsist does not mean it has to be installed. when the TF army outnumbers it bio rulers by 10 to one it makes sense to have measure taken to keep the droids only as smart as they have to be.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-03-13 03:13pm

why not mention it? Or are you saying what we saw didn't happen?

The smiley may have been too harsh - I just don't like to be reminded of that Gungan saying "itsa broken!"

The disintegrating droids happened, unfortunately.

Just because a capility exsist does not mean it has to be installed. when the TF army outnumbers it bio rulers by 10 to one it makes sense to have measure taken to keep the droids only as smart as they have to be.

That's just the thing: they made their droids too stupid. It would have been more cost-effective and safer to give the grunts enough AI to keep fighting without the control ship, or at least not have them disintegrate when they get a connection error from the CCC. You can easily keep a kill-switch in that system and not lose your entire army when your single, absolutely centralised, overengineered control ship breaks down.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2007-03-13 03:26pm

At least they had the decency to rectify that mistake by the time the Clone War broke out.