Star Wars 7 A Force Awakens or A New Set of Armour...

Hopeless

Mongoose
Just wondering if anyone caught the new trailer and wondered about the chrome trooper?

By that I mean is that a suit of Reflec Armour they're wearing?

I am assuming its resistant to energy weapons including laser swords or the Star Wars equivalent... and I couldn't help thinking... Cylons or Traveller?

Who chromed it first?

Anyone know?
 
Chromed armor in Star Wars?! My god...

As far as I remember, Star Wars never had chromed armor but Glen Larson with Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rodgers was stuck in the Disco Era. Those chrome Cylons were dazzling examples.

Why do I hear synthesizer music in the SW soundtrack or someone saying "That's no moon, it's disco night!"?
 
That coating reflects targeting lasers so that they are easier to hit. Also works in the IR band. The White combat armor was too hard to target... (unless you were a main character, in which case every other shot is an auto crit)
 
Uh, ever taken a serious look at the costumes and hairstyles from ANH? Talk about stuck in disco. But no, I haven't yet seen the chrome trooper. I don't think the new stormtrooper armors are an improvement. The face is funny looking. Not that the stormtroopers have ever looked cool. Only the royal guards and the TIE pilots look cool.
 
Wait a mo, are we suggesting there's some kind of logic applied to Star Wars as opposed to it looks cool and trying to justify anything with science is anything but a fools game?

(No, I don't get why/how people take Star Wars seriously but hey, I'm a grumpy old fart)
 
Every time it's mentioned, some one pops up and points out that blasters aren't lasers.

So they're particle accelerators?
 
Condottiere said:
Every time it's mentioned, some one pops up and points out that blasters aren't lasers.

So they're particle accelerators?

I was never sure. They don't look or act like lasers. They are slower than modern rifle rounds and they light up. To hit with enough force, particle accelerators would be near c in speed.
 
From Wookieepedia: "A blaster was a ranged weapon that fired bursts of particle beam energy called blaster bolts from a replaceable power pack."
 
Battery energy density seems impressive.

But then, so is maintaining a stable truncated energy field on a large torchlight.
 
One of the old JTASs had a writeup for a lightsword and a lightrapier complete with power pack worn on a belt.
 
Yeah, Star Wars fans like to try and say that turbo lasers aren't lasers when they want to win the Empire vs Federation debate. :roll:
 
JRoss said:
Yeah, Star Wars fans like to try and say that turbo lasers aren't lasers when they want to win the Empire vs Federation debate. :roll:

They argue that even given the Mark I eyeball range limitation of those lasers? :lol:

Given the range of Trav Starship weapons, Star Wars ships would be decimated LONG before they could bring weapons to bear on Trav ships.
 
My ranking was always thus:

Speed: Star Wars, Star Trek, Traveller

Communications: Star Wars, Star Trek, Traveller

Shields: Traveller (black globes, anyway), Star Trek, Star Wars

Weapons: Complicated: Traveller has meson guns, which are likely the best beams, while Star Trek's torpedoes have FTL capabilities. Star Wars fans point out the Death Star, but there was never more than one of those bad boys at a time.

Tactical: Star Trek, tie between Star Wars and Traveller. Star Trek ships have cloaking devices, they have transporters, and are shown to be very capable of adapting. Three times during the show there were instances of our heroes deciding to just cause stellar flare that were capable of wiping out multiple ships in seconds. A small Klingon fighter used that tactic to destroy an entire shipyard.

Matchups
Traveller vs. Star Trek: In a ship-to-ship fight the Traveller vessel would lose every time. Star Trek ships are capable of real-time FTL operations and could stay out of range as they pleased. Things might end up stalemating if the Traveller ship had sufficient point-defense to withstand the torpedo volleys.

In a fleet-on-fleet combat things would be trickier. I still favor Star Trek here, provided the Traveller fleet can't catch the Star Trek fleet in a pincer and hammer away with mesons.

Matching any empire from Star Trek against any empire from Traveller is once again a no-contest win for Star Trek simply because of their superior speed of travel and communications, at least initially. The Travellers seem to have much larger empires, and might have enough ships to cause a problem, but unless they all attacked as one, there would be little chance of their victory.

Traveller vs. Star Wars: Ship to ship, I've got to go with Traveller. Mesons penetrate shields, both ships are going to fight at similar speeds, since Star Wars vessels can't navigate beyond lightspeed and fight at the same time.

Fleet vs. fleet is a different game, because we have to assume one Death Star II (at least if it's the Galactic Empire we're considering) per fleet. That thing can make mincemeat of a capital fleet, but since most Traveller fleets have small-craft sections, this might just be a draw. Enough of a defensive screen to get a single meson into range and you'll start seeing heavy losses for the Empire.

Empire vs. Empire probably goes to Star Wars, by virtue of their speed and communications.

Star Wars vs. Star Trek: one-on-one, it's no contest in Star Trek's favor. Their ships warp as they please and can simply engage star destroyers from behind.

Fleet vs. fleet is pretty much the same thing. The Death Star isn't going to hit anything once the first ship or two falls to it's weapon. If we're talking Klingons or Romulans, they'll just sneak right in and do their business while the Empire has its pants down.

Empire vs. Empire is more evenly matched. The Empire is probably much bigger than the Federation. Even though some sources claim a million planets for the Empire, there's no way that Dooku's separatists would have been considered a threat in Episodes II and III if the Republic was that large. Unlike Traveller, the ships from Star Wars can marshall their forces to pretty much anywhere. They're hampered by the fact that they can't blindly navigate like warp drive can. You have to scout "hyperspace routes". By this logic I'd say that neither show could invade the other show's territory successfully.
 
Blaster shots also exceed the speed of the light, or at least Han's does.

That's why he could afford to shoot last, since his shot hits before he pulls the trigger.
 
Hans Solo had a temporal displacing Warp Blaster? I did not know that.

A particle accelerator blaster is similar to the Plaser or pulse laser, the packet of micro-burst energy strikes the target quickly delivering more damage but, as Obi wan stated, is 'random and clumsy'. The mechanism discharging the blast might cause a kick like a fusion or plasma gun albeit much weaker.
 
Reynard said:
From Wookieepedia: "A blaster was a ranged weapon that fired bursts of particle beam energy called blaster bolts from a replaceable power pack."

Mumbo jumbo warning.

Keeping in mind that Star Wars science is pretty dodgy at the best of times, I'd assume the personal blaster is a laser-railed low-yield plasma pellet gun. Like the LPL Stun Gun (which uses a laser to create an ionized path for an electrical stun charge) but turned up to 11 or 12 and using a discrete package of plasma-state matter instead of a lightning arc. We only see the laser because of how our eyes process really fast moving objects and because it is both guiding and following the pellet. The following portion is lighting up the small amount of plasma trailing the pellet as it traverses to the target.

Does it make scientific sense? Eh. This is Star Wars.

There was a plasma pistol take on the blaster in White Dwarf 11, along with a number of other SF weapons. About the same era in Space Gamer saw an article on Niven's Variable Sword for Traveller.
 
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