Any logical reason for exposed bridges?

[NecronLord]

Maybe SW forces field oodles of buzz droids designed to take out optics, thus necessitating windows.

[DeTejas]

All I have to say is... Invisible Hand.

i thought the top pod was sensors/where dooku stayed. (just as stupid having your living quarters in the most visible portion of the ship though) Unless you mean the pod on the bottom was the bridge, which it might very well be.

[Bounty]

All I have to say is... Invisible Hand.

i thought the top pod was sensors/where dooku stayed. (just as stupid having your living quarters in the most visible portion of the ship though) Unless you mean the pod on the bottom was the bridge, which it might very well be.

Dooku's tower was originally for sensors, but he's talking about the bridge itself - the little pod stuck unto the top-front of the ship, outside the armour and exposed to enemy fire from at least four sides.

[NecronLord]

Yeah. Various sources have identified the Wizard's Tower as a sensor pod, Grievous' quarters, and Dooku's. I think the original version, though, on the other Providences is a sensor pod. Which is quite acceptable and sensible. Similarly, Dooku and Grievous refitting it isn't too bad; they're not noramlly in it when the ship's in battle.

[Warsie]

[

The Executor's loss would speak otherwise.

l. And when your flagship can be disabled by a errant starfighter this is a very bad design. Especially if your fleet is going to be deploying in gravity wells.

There were backup bridges on Executor. The loss of Battle Meditation and other factors of battle meant that they could not transfer power to the backup bridge(s?) quickly enought and Executor crashed and burned into DSII

[Darth Wong]

Maybe it's an honor thing? Separating the bridge from the main body means that even if the ship is incapacitated with the weapons, engines, reactors and shield generators in the main hull savaged and half it's crew dead, the captain is still relatively unhurt inside his bridge tower and can still surrender and be captured?

There may be an entrenched aristocracy at work. One of the interesting anecdotes about the development of the USS Monitor was that a lot of the crew were quite unhappy about the fact that the officers were situated down in the belly of the ship alongside the men, and could see them from their station. They preferred the traditional arrangement where the officers' area of the ship was quite far removed from the area where the men worked and slept. Officers were from an entirely different world than enlisted men, and were treated accordingly. Mixing them together was seen as improper, from both sides of the divide.

The bridge tower on a typical Republic or Imperial vessel serves to situate the officers far above the rest of the crew, in a majestic-looking tower. This might be part of the social order of things in their society.

[Old Peculier]

It might be a security matter. All the command and control stations are separated by turbolifts from the rest of the ship to stop mutiny. Also makes a good choke point for defending from boarding parties.

[Bounty]

It might be a security matter. All the command and control stations are separated by turbolifts from the rest of the ship to stop mutiny. Also makes a good choke point for defending from boarding parties.

So the boarding party or mutineer cuts all control lines on one of the dozens of decks below the bridge they control. Not that a CIC deep inside the ship can't be properly defended, either.

[Old Peculier]

So the boarding party or mutineer cuts all control lines on one of the dozens of decks below the bridge they control.

From what I remember from the ICS, Star Wars data cables are rather hefty things and not easily accessible. Cutting these would probably attract a lot of attention. More importantly, they may be able to cut off control lines, but a even a large mutiny would be hard pressed to commandeer the ship without access to the bridge, which would hopefully be full of more loyal offices.

Not that a CIC deep inside the ship can't be properly defended, either.

True, but if the bridge is going to be separated from the rest of the ship due to security reasons, and the "entrenched aristocracy", then it might as well be separated by a neck-like tower.

[Shroom Man 777]

The bridge tower on a typical Republic or Imperial vessel serves to situate the officers far above the rest of the crew, in a majestic-looking tower. This might be part of the social order of things in their society.

And there's the fact that aristocratic dicks like Moffs (man that's a silly title) probably don't even want to breathe the same air as those clones and droids that comprise their crews.

Hrm...I wonder if they still use clones to man their guns in the Empire like in ROTS.

[Vympel]

Speaking of aristocracy, they also like to walk above their betters, even on the bridge, hence the bridge pits.

[Adrian Laguna]

Moffs (man that's a silly title)

Why? It's not like "Count" and "Duke" are any better, at least "Moff" doesn't mean something other than the title.

[Dooey Jo]

Moffs (man that's a silly title)

Why? It's not like "Count" and "Duke" are any better, at least "Moff" doesn't mean something other than the title.

You just know that the underlings call him Grand Muff Tarkin behind his back...

[Dark Flame]

And there's the fact that aristocratic dicks like Moffs (man that's a silly title) probably don't even want to breathe the same air as those clones and droids that comprise their crews.

Emphasis mine, but I'm wondering what sort of air those droids are breathing....

[Balrog]

And there's the fact that aristocratic dicks like Moffs (man that's a silly title) probably don't even want to breathe the same air as those clones and droids that comprise their crews.

Emphasis mine, but I'm wondering what sort of air those droids are breathing....

Perhaps some of them are air-cooled?

[BountyHunterSAx]

"Bounty Hunter's, we don't need their SCUM." -Moff Tarkin

Yes, it makes a lot of sense that the elevated bridge towers - prevalent in Imperial design and absent (to my knowledge) in Home One - exist as a means of elevating the 'commanders' over the proletariat.

-AHMAD

[Lord Revan]

that was captain/admiral Piett who said that line IIRC, not tarkin but otherwise your point stands

[Lazarus]

Concerning CIC's/ Battle Bridges or whatever you call them, they do exist at the very least on Victory-class SD's, because the Captain of a NR VSD commands her ship from one in Isard's Revenge. It's not unreasonable to suggest that at least some other designs have them too.

Some of them. It's painfully hard to see, and I didn't even notice them until I played Battlefront 2. They're big enough for the bridge itself and a turbolift up to it, and that's about it.

So because the designers of BF2 decided they needed a place for players to easily shoot at, that must be where Mon Cal bridges canonically are?

[Darth Wong]

And there's the fact that aristocratic dicks like Moffs (man that's a silly title) probably don't even want to breathe the same air as those clones and droids that comprise their crews.

Emphasis mine, but I'm wondering what sort of air those droids are breathing....

Perhaps some of them are air-cooled?

Something about basic physics strikes you as absurd or laughable? Air-cooling is quite real, and necessary for many mechanisms. In vacuum, the only means of cooling is radiative transfer, which is far less effective than radiative+convective transfer.

[Darth Ruinus]

"Bounty Hunter's, we don't need their SCUM." -Moff Tarkin

Yes, it makes a lot of sense that the elevated bridge towers - prevalent in Imperial design and absent (to my knowledge) in Home One - exist as a means of elevating the 'commanders' over the proletariat.

-AHMAD

I think the Home One type ships also have elevated bridges, since you get to bomb them in Battlefront II.

[Balrog]

Emphasis mine, but I'm wondering what sort of air those droids are breathing....

Perhaps some of them are air-cooled?

Something about basic physics strikes you as absurd or laughable?

What? No, that was not my intent.

[AirshipFanboy]

How so? The Executor was lost after a coordinated attack by the rebel fleet brought her shields down, then the fighter to the bridge. Really with GT firepower, after the shields are down, where would be a safe place to have the bridge? Even down in the bowls of the ship, GT firepower would obliterate it.

Not all the weapons that could smash the Bridge are GT level. Granted, the bowels of the ship (or just the center of the tower) might not be much safer from heavy turbolasers, but it would be safer from the guns carried on Starfighters.

Whew, you're right. Now if only star wars would have concieved of something like a rank system for their military, there could have been other officers in other command nodes....oh wait.

Just that there are other officers that can take over if the captain's killed, doesn't mean you should risk the Captain if you don't need to.

You're not really arguing than an exposed Bridge is good, you're arguing that its not the worst thing in the world. Okay, an exposed bridge might not be a fatal flaw, but just that a design decision isn't a fatal flaw doesn't make it a good idea.

[Adrian Laguna]

Some of them. It's painfully hard to see, and I didn't even notice them until I played Battlefront 2. They're big enough for the bridge itself and a turbolift up to it, and that's about it.

So because the designers of BF2 decided they needed a place for players to easily shoot at, that must be where Mon Cal bridges canonically are?

The designers of BF2 did not decide they needed a place for players to easily shoot at. Instead, they payed attention during the movie.

[Shroom Man 777]

Emphasis mine, but I'm wondering what sort of air those droids are breathing....

Well, if a droideka rolled in water in BF1, its hitpoints decreases. So I guess if it holds its breath too long, it drowns

And really, if I had a funny-sounding title like Moff, I wouldn't want to catch whatever's diseasing some of those filthy asthmatic battle droids, like Grievous.

Yes, I know GG's not RLY a droid.

Hrm, this whole snobby aristocratic segregation thing makes me want to see more cultural anachorisms in Star Wars culture. But I guess we already have slave-trading, hooray.

[nightmare]

An elevated bridge makes no difference whatsoever from a target perspective. Hell, even if you blow it up, an ISD has an auxilliary bridge.

We already know that a single HTL hit means destruction of a (presumably unshielded) ship. As for fighters, ten A-Wing concussion missiles - nuclear warheads mind you - only blew up a sensor dome on the Executor. That's pretty damn pitiful damage on an unshielded structure, though the limited explosion might have something to do with focused warheads.

A-Wing kamikaze? That explosion was clearly not caused by the A-Wing's weapons, and the bridge tower structure was untouched. That means all damage was internal, which serves as a good indicator of what an external fighter attack can do: very little besides destroying unshielded soft targets (which is important for a mission kill, mind you).

Or how about the unaided TIE fighter attack on the rebel fleet which also had these "exposed" bridges? Jack all it did.

So whatever "good" reasons there may be for elevated bridge towers, any "bad" ones appear to be... imaginary.