Destructionator XIII wrote:
Each of those applies as well to Star Destroyer firepower as they do to Death Star scaled firepower.
Yes, it potentially does, and there is every possibility it may not scale linearly. It cannot be assumed but it is not neccesarily impossible either. And at the same time I kind of doubt something like the Death Star could just pop out of thin air from say, a universe whose most advanced capital ship weapons and defences were merely kiloton range. R&D does not not simply work like a RTS game. (Moving the death star alone would be a massive feat too, even if its not nearly as impressive as blowing up a planet was (even if we're talking single digit accelerations even.) And even if they can't use it in a reactor the way often assumed, that doesn't mean it wouldn't apply in other manners (building warheads, for example.) And the sorts of forcefield tech needed to contain, direct, and handle that kind of firepower have implications on their own as well.
So no, linear scaling isn't neccesarily the answer, but at the same time one cannot simply dismiss what the Death Star represents in terms of SW capabilities. Stuff like that doesn't come out of thin air, like I said.
It would make more sense to use the smallest possible ship to do the job, so you can maximize the total number per produced output. If the potential exists to make a ship with Star Destroyer equivalent capability, but in a smaller package, they'd want to exploit it - it allows more ships to be built at equal cost.
Which they may very well. We know they have lots of ships smaller than an ISD after all. There's nothing wrong with that. And evne big warships may not be built to the same level of capability, or of equally same materials. (something less resilient but cheaper might suffice too.) So you could have a large number of "low quality" ISDs (which might be the WEG types we see) and then a smaller number of higher quality ISDs (which might represent the canon movies.)
And yes, the capability to build ISD capabilities in a smaller frame arguably exists. The problem is, however.. that that either represents a specialization or some sort of tradeoff (decrease in operational range or endurance, reduced engine/hyperdrive performance, lower mass, etc.) R&D in SW, while it exists, is neither rapid nor magic.
No, this was e=mc^2 specifically. Look at the density the Death Star would have to have to have mass inside it to convert to energy. It was done earlier in this thread: about 10x that of lead, excluding the actual structure! And that's only for a single shot. If reloading requires a small moon to be delivered to it each shot, cool (good bye to the main site's Death Star power output number though). If no, then it must have even more density, when it is already obscenely high.
The other alternative is hypermatter might have insane density and repulsor lifts are everywhere to hide its gravity, or E=mc^2 doesn't actually apply here.
Yes, but no matter how you try to explain it away its going to be fantastically implausible. Noone ever claimed SW was realistic (but if they did they need their heads examined.) I doubt carrying insane amounts of fuel is any worse than somehow getting more energy from a given quantity of fuel somehow, running off some extra-dimensional power tap, having it magically beamed to the ship (or the fuel transferred from some other, stationary source via magic wormhole) or whatever.
Non-linear scaling with volume. That explains weak stardestroyers, weaker starfighters, but strong death star all at the same time.
Just a second. What exactly are you proposing as the upper limit capabilities for Star Destoryers, starfighters, or whatever, since you consider anything derived from the DS implausible. Its rather hard to debate based on ambiguities.
If you have something specific with the logic, bring it up. The dodging part is conceded, but that just means there's no disproof of the high acceleration, not that there is proof of it. Mike's number of 1000g for X-Wings remains pure bullshit, for the reason I gave on page 6. (Not necessarily wrong, but definitely not proven.)
Again what is the problem? Do you want someone to admit that the Yavin incident could allow for a different interpretation? fine. The acceleration could be less than thousands of gees. I honstly never got much more than several hundred gees but that is also far different from saying "there is no possible way to get thousands of gees from that."