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Posted: 2003-07-07 12:29am
by Master of Ossus
StarshipTitanic wrote:
Mutant Headcrab wrote:
Mitth-raw-nuruodo wrote: I think that was the original X-Wing series where Ion cannons didn't do physical damage. I remember they damaged shields, then started to disable hull. damn I wish I could find that game again...
With the larger capital ships, the ion cannons would eventually disable them and leave them floating in space. Against fighters, though, the ion cannons would outright destroy them once you got through the shields.
Nope, ion cannons brought the systems level down to 0% on fighters, too, disabling the craft. This is a key way to win several missions.
In the original X-Wing, ion cannons could be used to destroy starfighters, too. I used to use them on TIE bombers, since it took five laser shots to kill them and three ion cannons. Even in later games, ion cannons could be used to kill mines and such, but anything larger than that required guns.

Posted: 2003-07-07 04:36pm
by Andras
Yeah, Ion cannon would destroy fighter types, but at mission end, they wouldn't count as destroyed, so if you had to destroy all of a particular type, dont blow one up with Ions, or you'll lose

Posted: 2003-07-08 04:07pm
by Connor MacLeod
Master of Ossus wrote:
StarshipTitanic wrote:
Mutant Headcrab wrote: With the larger capital ships, the ion cannons would eventually disable them and leave them floating in space. Against fighters, though, the ion cannons would outright destroy them once you got through the shields.
Nope, ion cannons brought the systems level down to 0% on fighters, too, disabling the craft. This is a key way to win several missions.
In the original X-Wing, ion cannons could be used to destroy starfighters, too. I used to use them on TIE bombers, since it took five laser shots to kill them and three ion cannons. Even in later games, ion cannons could be used to kill mines and such, but anything larger than that required guns.
EU sources are rather ambiguous about the destructive effects (or lack of) in ion cannons (The Rogue Squadron novels imply they are damaging/destructive, after all.) The Essential guides also suggest it - the KDY-150 planetary ion cannons have 1/4 the power output of a turbolaser! (to say nothing of the fact the descriptions of Ion cannons describe physical damage, despite the claims to the contrary.) IIRC too, in the novel "Dark Apprentice" an ion cannon melts/fuses the mechanical joints on a AT-AT walker leg.

The canon TESB novelization indicates that ion cannons do indeed inflict physical damage (LEia even believed the Hoth Ion cannon might destroy Imperial ships!). There is also the fact we are talking about relatavistically-moving streams of charged particles, which unless science has changed dramatically since I last checked, should mean that they carry momentum and KE (depending on mass and velocity) which do bad things to normal matter.

Posted: 2003-07-08 04:09pm
by Connor MacLeod
Darth Yoshi wrote:Image
Quality isn't so good, though. I'll look for a better one.
Dang, those turrets look like they're putting up a pretty heavy rate of fire :)

Posted: 2003-07-08 04:35pm
by phongn
They're really HTLs set to stun :D

Posted: 2003-07-08 04:45pm
by Darth Yoshi
Connor MacLeod wrote:Dang, those turrets look like they're putting up a pretty heavy rate of fire :)
They are. Thankfully, those things aren't aiming for you.

Incidentally, only in X-wing did the ion cannon destroy fighters, and that only worked on TIEs, not the Rebel fighters. Wierd.

In the first Rogue Squadron novel, one of the X-wings is implied to have been destroyed by planetary ion fire.

Posted: 2003-07-08 05:18pm
by His Divine Shadow
Darth Garden Gnome wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote:Yes they should and do. Ion cannons do cause physical damage and ships have been destroyed by them many times. The zero damages disablement only crap was spawned by one of the earlier X wing games.
Where? I don't recall any instances, nor have I ever seen or read about them causing physical damage to ships. They didn't cause any damage to the ISD in TESB, either.
Here's a quote describing an ion-cannon:

Pg. 115: The New Republic engineers powered up the ion cannon and focused a single blast toward the lower section of the closest Imperial walker. The bolt struck and fused the knee joint of the AT-AT's front foreleg, melting the sevomotor mechanisms.

(ref: Dark Apprentice)

Posted: 2003-07-08 07:37pm
by Lord of the Farce
Darth Yoshi wrote:
Connor MacLeod wrote:Dang, those turrets look like they're putting up a pretty heavy rate of fire :)
They are. Thankfully, those things aren't aiming for you.
IIRC, if you start attacking the ISD from the far side, sometimes it does start to shoot at you! (Not that those guns are really much of a threat to you, unless you happen to be flying the Falcon or RS2's shoddy Slave 1).

Posted: 2003-07-09 01:01am
by Darth Yoshi
If you manage to get hit by those things, the TIEs and LTLs have probably finished you off anyway. Although once I did get hit by that blast. I was actively trying to get hit, to see if it actually does damage. It did.

Posted: 2003-07-09 05:10am
by Vympel
Every ISD in RS2 is an Imperator II- all eight of the turrets are the Imperator II style and act accordingly- they actually did a pretty good job of showing them move and fire, though as far as I'm concerned the bolts themselves are just retarded.

Posted: 2003-07-09 06:21am
by Connor MacLeod
I think its rather interesting, considering it suggests that the heavy turrets of an ISD-2 are capable of a substantially lethal rate of fire. Although that may partly be due to reduced power shots. :)