Hey Justin - this is more a response for your vid on names of Imperial warships. I worked at West End Games & Decipher. I got to name Half of Death Squadron, the Tyrant, Conquest were both mine, and I share credit for the Stalker. The Tyrant was actually Grand Moff Tarkin’s flagship before new Canon made it the Sovereign. The naming conventions were based off the Avenger, the Devastator, and the Executor. The former two were based off World War II era dive bombers & torpedo planes that won the battles of the Pacific. We didn’t run out of names, we wanted to use names that fit the Tarkin Doctrine and left no ambiguity to those who would dare to Rebel against The Empire.
The TBD Devastator and TBF Avenger were both torpedo bombers, and the Devastator was basically obsolete by the time it saw action, its success at Coral Sea notwithstanding. You want the SBD Dauntless and SB2C Helldiver for dive bombers... although the latter especially seems 'off' for an _Imperial._
Fun Fact: EckhartsLadder made a cool cameo in The Templin Institute's latest video about Luthen Rael and the consequences of his actions in Andor show.
In one of the Clone Wars novels (Wild Space maybe? Or Cestus Deception?) Kenobi is on a mission to disable a tech that prevents jumping to hyperspace so he can get off-planet with intel and is accompanied with a republic agent. They disable it in the way he does on the Death Star. I always liked how EU filled in the holes of how characters knew how to do certain things for example or had knowledge that is not explained in the movie. During the scene where they are disabling the tractor beams the agent mentions how putting those tractor beams in a sphere aimed at each other to amplify each other would create a hyperspace shadow that would prevent s ship from coming in or jumping out. Kenobi responds that they do not have ships big enough for it, to which the agent determinedly responds that one day the Republic will and that will be the end of any wars like The Clone Wars. Whenever I see Imperial Interdictor ships with those giant spheres embedded in the hulls I am reminded of that and it illustrates nicely how Palpatine worked by subverting good people and their efforts to his own ends. So according to this the interdiction tech is upgraded and modified application of tractor field technology, possibly with added gravity manipulation though I never encountered gravity anomalies mentioned when interdictors were active.
Huh, that's actually pretty cool And yeah, the Republic Agent understood that ships that size comes with a Technology upgrade and change that would mean a society dependent on heavier warfare and subjugation The Republic wasn't truly ready for war when it started, the Clones being the main reason they even stood a chance Empire on the other hand was an entirely different beast.
I really want to see a video on the Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser. It's a fascinating design, and one that bears scrutiny in a lore video. There's not much lore, so it would be fun to hear your thoughts on it and maybe some fun speculation, as well as discussing it as a tribute to the late, great Colin Cantwell and its history as one of the original designs for the Imperial Star Destroyer.
Whenever they showed those Artillery-style mounts on the Death Star, I kinda figured that wasn't the actual weapon, but just the control unit for an externally mounted weapon linked to it. Kinda like how the Falcon's laser turrets are external mounts but the control units for them are internal and not exactly attached to them, except by cabling or something.
For the weapons classes I've always understood them as this: **Turbolasers =strongest energy weapons (sans superweapons) for anti capital ship and planetary bombardment. These come in light, medium, and heavy variants. **Lasers =standard anti-fighter weapons. Weaker than turbolasers but stronger than blasters. Because they are lighter, they can be turret mounted on capital ships to track starfighters better than turbolasers. Because they use less energy, they can be mounted on smaller ships like starfighters. These come in light, medium, and heavy variants. **Blasters =these are the handheld energy weapons. Due to smaller power sources, these are weaker than lasers, but lighter and easier to carry. These come in light, medium, and heavy variants. A blaster pistol would be a light blaster. A blaster rifle would be a medium. And something like the E-Web is labeled a heavy repeating blaster. There are exceptions. The snowspeader is said to have blasters. "That armor's too strong for blasters!" And hand weapons and rifles are often called lasers. This may be due to errors or a misunderstanding of the classifications (which admittedly may not be defined past fan sources). Still, the snowspeader's description of using blasters may have been intentional. The X-Wing novels referenced X-Wings being able to "make short work" of AT-AT walkers. It doesn't indicated if they used torpedoes or just their lasers, but just their lasers was the impression I took from the description. This suggests the lasers were enough when the blasters were not.
Regarding ship names, the real-world origin of "cruiser" is a ship that could go on "cruising missions" - that is, long voyages without additional support. Cruisers have a good mix of firepower, durability and speed, but aren't top-tier in any of them. Their greater mobility and relative expendability does make them more useful overall than ships-of-the-line/battleships unless there is an active slugfest nearby. So I think "cruiser" does cover most of the bigger capital ships well (including most Star Destroyers).
3:15 SSD = 7 Km. 👍 8:15 In X-Wing and Tie Fighter PC games, you could use concussion missiles to intercept and shot down photon torpedoes, so missiles have more speed while torpedoes have more punch.
Ship classes: Corvettes are 100-300m, Frigates are 300-600m, "Destroyers" would be the 600-900m category, Cruisers are 900-1600m, "Heavy" Cruisers would be 1600-3000m, Battlecruisers are 3000-8000ishm, and Dreadnoughts are all 8000+m length. Resurgent SDs and MC85 would be classified as Heavy Cruisers. The Resistance's MC85 is likely a stolen reserve fleet MC85 as you'd be able to write them off the logistical sheets easier, and probably has an operational firepower closer to a ISD2, which is still under the threshold set by the Resurgence class. 1600m threshold is the ISD threshold. Typical cruisers are 1200m like MC80 and Venator. The "Flak" Gun seen in ROTS is a return to projectile weapons by the CIS. It's a mass driver whose "mass payload" is a shrapnel canister. The "shell" that is ejected is simply the containment field for the shrapnel. A shotgun shell filled with anti-capital ship buckshot. Proton Torpedoes vs Concussion Missiles is basically the difference between High Explosive ordnance and High Explosive Anti-Tank. Concussion missiles are a standard missile with an explosive warhead. Proton Torpedoes fire a jet of high yield particles into a target. It's more expensive to manufacture and bypasses more normal defenses. A fighter might carry two torps but carry 20 missiles.
I have a few questions about the science of hyperspace: 1. What speeds do hyperdrive classes correlate to, and at what class would they transition to below lightspeed? 2. Could a hyperdrive propel a ship through hyperspace at slower-than-light speeds? 3. How fast do Purrgils travel through hyperspace?
I use the term 'Brig' to describe ships of the Millenium Falcon size (20-50m) and which have some kind of internal habitation you can walk inside rather then just cockpit, yet are still small enough to land in most hangar with 2-6 hulls occupying the space needed for a dozen Starfighters. At the (50-90) size range such as the GR-75 and Gozanti, and Braha'tok gunship sized vessels I use 'Sloop' these vessels are distinctly smaller then the Corvette class with 2-6 being equivilent to 1 Corvette. This distinction is reflected in the StarWars Armada minuture game by Sloop ships being a group of hulls on their mini plate which otherwise obey capitol ship rules which normaly are 1 hull per mini, while the Brig class ships obey starfighter rules and are 1 hull per mini while conventional fighters are multiple (generally 3x) hulls per mini. Capitol ships are only Corvettes and up, so Brigs and Sloops are neight capitol ships or starfighters and would be called sub-capitol ships, their are actually an enormouse number of Brig and Sloop sized ships in the Lore due to so many of them existing for hero ships in RPG games and videogames.
Eck, i'm curious about the Saboath Mercenaries from the early clone-wars era and their specs, they had lots of tech at their disposal, ranging from starfighters, horseshoe shaped frigates equipped with spy technology, heavy artillery starfighters, bombers, missile deployers full of trihexalon, and even destroyers/capitol ships alongside trade federation forces among their arsenal, they're from the game jedi starfighter and i'm very interested in them lorewise and on a technological standpoint. I hope this serves as a good video idea for you.
What should have been mentioned is that StarWars weapons with the word "laser" in their title are not really lasers, but, probably, some type of plasma weapons. Real lasers would have speed of light, but SW "lasers" fire painfully slow bolts/packages and, if I remember correctly, use superheated Tibanna gas.
The exception being the weapons of the Unknown Regions, which are called "Spectrum Lasers" and do appear to be actual lasers, not just a colloquialism for plasma weapons.
My head-canon is that it's a contraction from "Turbostabilized, Laser-Heated Plasma Cannon" Turbostabilized, Laser-Heated Plasma Cannon -> Turbo-Laser Plasma Cannon -> Turbo-Laser Cannon -> Turbolaser "Turbostabilized" refering to a turbine that forms the tibanna gas into a vortex that, when ionized by the heat of lasers, self-stabilizes due to magnetic interactions, due to said turbostabilization, more tibanna can be put into a single shot without it becoming a spread-out blast, than in the case of laser cannons, which forgo the extra bulk and complexity of the stabilization system, in favour of compactness and shot efficiency (less tibanna per shot)
If I had to guess, calling superheated tibana gas or plasma "lasers" is a lot like us calling aluminum cans and foil "tin." We know they aren't tin, but they were at one point a bajillion years ago, and it's just quicker to say.
They aren't using superheated gas. The blaster gas (Tibana is just one of many types used) energizes the bolt more. What the laser are is a particle beam bolt.
Honestly I'd love a video sbout exotic weaponry for ships; the sort of stuff you only find in a few pieces of media. Luthen's lasers on the Fondor are a good example of what I am thinking, although we know very little about those.
Just off the top of my head there are mag pulse weapons, typically mounted as warheads on starfighters and bombers. While mentioned in both Legends and current canon, so far only the former has depicted what they actually do. They're similar to the ion torpedoes in Rogue One, bypassing a ship's shields and disabling it for a short while. They've only been seen in action in the X-Wing series of computer games, and even then they were typically quite rare (probably because it was a bit OP to disable powerful capital ships and stations for 30+ seconds at a time with just a single mag torpedo).
would love to see a bit of an in depth look at Luthens ship in Andor, one of the coolest things I've seen a ship do in Star Wars and an obviously custom made ship package of defenses that was friggin amazing to see in the series!
You know, as a life long fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek, I'm always amazed at just how similarly the fictional technologies in each are to the other. Deflector shields in Star Trek work very similarly to those in Star Wars (and are similarly inconsistent across media) for example, and even though warp drive and Hyperdrive operate differently (one bends space around the ship, the other makes use of what Starfleet would likely call 'subspace' in their own universe), both universes - again - use another layer of reality to make their magic tech go vroom. I suppose its probably just by virtue of the fact that they're two of the oldest sci fi universes in existence, but regardless I do enjoy how the two of them have basically collectively defined how we expect magic space tech to work in our science fiction stories. I'm very here for it! :) ...oh, and Star Wars ships absolutely operate according to real natural laws IMO - they've just mastered the tech necessary to bend and circumvent such barriers to make things work over the course of millennia of galactic civilization. That's my hill and I'm dying on it ;). Great video!!
One video idea I was thinking of is discussing whether the Bad Batch will interact with Han Solo way down the line. In the Empire Strikes Back Han talks about "running into a bounty hunter on Ord Mantell" when they're still on Echo Base. I smell a crossover.... Love your content, you're my favorite Star Wars lore UA-camr. Keep up the awesome work!
I love the planet Korriban, especially when I played Star Wars the old republic game and was really fascinated by the Sith species but the game never went into to much depth about their lore. It would be great to get some backstory/overview of the Sith species and their planet. Love the videos, keep up the good work.
7:27 Though according to the Cross-sections book, DS-1 had an amount of railguns mounted that, for anything short of the Supremacy (possibly excluding SSDs), would be classified as Ludicrous.
7:58 So, basically, Star Wars torpedoes are Eve Online/Echoes Regular Missiles, while SW missiles correspond to the rapidfire missiles. For the record, Eve also has torpedoes, which only typically see use on dedicated stealth bombers in the same way that Star Wars ones are used, but only for PvP.
1:46 Honestly even more than you'd think is even older than that. a HUGE number of the rules were established by Brian Daley for the Han Solo Adventures. Or the older screenplay stuff for the movie where the Jargon was more technical before people told George he had to chill. I think the concept of gravity damaging the hyperdrive came from something like that, an alternate version of the "Hyperspace isn't like dusting crops" where Han was more concerned about being too close to Tattooine's gravity rather than just hitting something else. (Though WEG would combine the two somewhat)
ray shielding though also prevents matter from going through, though, right? like the ray shields that separate Qui-Gon, Obi-wan, and Darth Maul, you can't just walk through them. I'm pretty sure they call them 'ray shields' in the movie
Great vid Eck! Thanks much. Just to note, I would suggest from a real world perspective that still translates to SW appropriately, is that "Interceptors" are intended for "Intercepting" another fleet's Bombers or similar type attack craft (i.e. in SW, heavy turbolaser craft), NOT other fighters. "Fighters" are just that, intended for fighting another fleets similar styled craft. Usually to carve a hole in the opposing fleet so that heavies can slug it out or even make the way more accessible for the Interceptors to reach a heavy (or enable a bomber fleet to get through to a target). Yes, both can be used in the role of the other on occasion but that is not their design intent. The Vietnam War sorta skewed this principal, as with no bomber/capital ship opposition, USA was able to use their ac in whatever role they wished, including using some interceptors as fighters or even as bombers and since then, many "Fighters" have been designed as jack-of-all-trades. Still, the term is intended as I've described. Possibly the SW designers thought otherwise but in real world, that's the principal. Cheers! :) p.s. As for the Naval terms used, it looks like SW got most right in similarities to real world except for the term "Destroyer". Mind as of 21st Century, the term has been abused by many nations. IRL, a "Destroyer" used initially as a sub-hunter or "Torpedo-boat destroyer" was later continuously scaled up and inherited other duties as well. In modern terms, it now usually lands between a Frigate and a Heavy Cruiser displacement wise (depending on source country/builder). A "Star Destroyer" is more appropriately a "Star Battleship", about the same size as a "Star Battlecruiser" but much more heavily armoured (and armed) and usually not as fast. A "Dreadnought", is essentially a Battleship but with it's MAIN guns all predominantly of same calibre (size + ordinance) whereas a standard battleship can carry a variety of different calibre BIG guns. 'Ship' size was therefore, not the key for determining nomenclature. I do realize in SW though, they went for "coolest sounding destructive name" so I give that a pass. I realize you stated "don't worry about "real world comparisons" but just for fun, I thought I'd let folks know what they are. :)
When it comes to stealth ships, that republic stealth ship from clone wars comes to mind. It had specialised technology that allowed it to move with lifeforms and systems online undetected if my memory serves me correctly.
Maybe you could make a video about the shipyards. Because in solo you see that they build a lot of the stuff on the ground and then bring it up. On corelia, i think, they even build ships on the ground, while in other shipyard they usually do it in space. Love your vids
How about the weapon systems of the Aggressor class destroyer used by Tyber Zann. Or how some imperial star destroyer have that miniature super laser but instead of it being green its orange ?
👍🏼 I think this was a good video covering the basics of starships and their weapons in the SW Universe. Couple things I wanted to add: + Ship classes seem to me to be one of the most inconsistent terms with capital ships in Star Wars. I know it would maybe make it slightly more complicated, but I think taking both size *and* purpose/mission of the ship could help us classify capital ships better. For example, a frigate being a capital ship that supports another ship (or defends a location) in a primarily anti-starfighter role. Then you could say Light and Heavy: Nebulon-B would be a Light Frigate and Lancer would be a Heavy Frigate. (Though the Nebulon is technically an "escort frigate", further muddying the discussion, but it also explains why it's more balanced in turbo lasers and laser canons versus the Lancer). Or you could argue the reverse, Lancer is a Light Frigate (for lack of any turbolasers and 50m shorter) and Nebulon-B would be a Heavy Frigate. 🤷🏻♂️ Another example, cruisers. Light Cruisers, Medium Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers. You get the idea. Also, take onto consideration of heavy/light also being about the ship's amount/capability of armament and defenses, not just size. + Blasters vs laser canons. SW isn't entirely consistent on this but it seems to be blasters are always to be used in atmosphere or otherwise are "ground-based". Speeders will have blasters or blaster canons, starships have laser canons. And hand weapons (small arms) are always blasters unless they're projectile weapons (slug-thrower). That seems to be the only distinction. Of course we've seen blaster rifles used in the vacuum of space, so we know they work there, but a space station or starfighter is never going to have blaster canons. And some ground vehicles will have laser canons (AT-TE comes to mind) so... the usual inconsistency of Star Wars.
With torpedoes versus missiles, while the flight sim games do tend to go with "missile is for fighters, torpedo is for ships" the sourcebooks and EU materials released before the flight sims put it differently. Concussion missiles are anti-armor weapons. They have a small warhead for damaging armor, and then a larger main charge to blast through the compromised section. Proton torpedoes are either thermonuclear "high explosives" (general purpose "I want that thing blown up") OR, in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook... nukes that are treated like nukes: expensive, rare, and not commonly used. But, of course, because torpedoes were so crucial in ANH... well... everyone fling around proton torpedoes willy-nilly.
I want to see a Vindicator in an Imperial fleet live action, just saying. With the Cantwell Arrestor Cruiser it seems possible that soon we might see maybe a Victory, Gladiator, or Vindicator.
Hi, I love your work. I was wondering, would you do, or have you done a video on the different types of YT-1300? Such as the placement of the cockpit (left-right-centre), the purpose of the ship, it seems small for a cargo ship and the idea that the mandibles are for holding massive cargo pods is well, dumb because the ship lacks the massive forward breaking thrusters it would need to stop the inertial of such 10,000-ton cargo pods. Plus, the centre cockpit means the pod can't be place there. Second, a better break down on the types of hyper-drives and their speed would be great.
this is an extremely helpful video for me. im very surface level with alot of my intrest but my my hobby sometimes likes to require some info that id normally dont know, especially with franchises like SW that have EXTENSIVE lore.
Apparently DS-1 house nearly 2 million people between military and civilians. So estimating 10 people per communal toilet on average that's 200,000 toilets. What a shit job it must have been to clean
@@andrewbryant4259 The more interesting problem is what they did with all the feces. Did they have a sewer system in the death star, complete with water treatment plants? Did they repurpose the waste as fertilizer? With all the space on the ds they could set up indoor farms, with artificial sunlight. If they could recycle the water and grow their own food, the ds could be a fully selfsustaining biodome. But they probably dumped all the sewage into space instead.
I'd love to see a video in a universe that's always trying find new ways to kill Jedi, why slug throwers, Gaus/Rail guns and other projectile weapons were not persuaded. Even when it comes to Clone/storm trooper armour I'm sure a slug could get through a bit easier. I'd even be curious how a pure beskar bullet would fair againts a less pure alloy armour.
If I remember right, "concussion missiles" were introduced by the 90s X-Wing/TIE Fighter series, specifically the TIE Fighter game in which you could change your payload from proton torpedoes for capital ships or concussion missiles for fighters. Interdictors and the concept of mass shadows were introduced by Timothy Zahn in his books. If there were earlier occurrences of these concepts I was not aware of them.
The technology of 'inertial dampeners' is, I think, the wildest sci-fi concept that is never explored. I think it even explains why starfighters move as if they're thrusting through an atmosphere. If you can 'dampen' inertia, then you can presumably also redirect it. A bizarre concept, but absolutely gamechanging.
hi, would it be possible to make more videos about obscure and not as much mentioned ships, like i realy liked your video of the YV-929, and would like to know more about ships that have not shown up in other media
In canon, (I forget specifically where), it's also noted that the Interdictors work as electronic weapons ships as well, and can scramble the targeting of missiles and torpedoes.
I think that might've also been true in legends as well, because in Empire at War [And also some of its more lore-heavy mods like Thrawn's Revenge] You often see interdictor ships having jamming abilities as well. It makes sense to me from a logistical perspective, having your interdictor equipped to handle other support roles as well when it's not being used to trap the enemy. Plus, being able to jam missiles and torpedos helps defend your interdictor against the fighters and bombers your ensnared enemy will inevitably try to ambush it with in order to escape.
One reason the X-Wing books talk a lot about shields is that they were heavily inspired by the X-Wing and TIE Fighter space simulator games, in which shields were a major game mechanic. On-screen, shields are indeed highly inconsistent. It's always bothered me that the original films used to talk about "angling deflector shields" as if they were literally set at angles to deflect incoming fire, and yet almost all subsequent lore (film or otherwise) has just ignored this and defaulted to the more familiar "blue energy bubble" concept of "shields".
I'd like to know, as far as ships go in star wars Do all the ship in universe, regardless of faction, all run off the same "fuel"? If so, what is this fuel and is it the only source of energy for these ships? Or are there other sources but they've simply fallen out of favor?
I'd like to know a little bit more about hyperspace and hyperdrive classes. I understand it's not fully fleshed out in the lore and lower ratings = faster travel. But how it's possible to have huge ships with low hyperdrive classes seems counterintuitive, especially because there doesn't seem to be a propulsion mechanism within the hyperdrive itself. So how it makes a ship faster or slower is sort of confusing. My head canon is to kind of think of hyperspace as if you're traveling through a medium. If you have a high hyperdrive rating like a class 10 there is more resistance and it's harder for your ship to travel through, like swimming through jello, and a lower class like a 2 or 3 might be more like swimming through water, and a class 1 or lower would be like flying through the air. Your ship would still use its sublight engines to move, and the hyperdrive just transports you to the hyperspace dimension and depending on how powerful it is (class rating) that's how easy it is to move once in hyperspace. I'm probably way off but that's how I think of it.
another somewhat basic but less commonly used piece of info ould be hull and shield strength ratings. good summary on wookieepedia: "From starfighters to capital ships, vessels equipped with a deflector measured the shield recharge rate with SBD. It was often followed by the vessel's hull rating, measured in RU. For example, a T-65 X-wing starfighter shields are rated at 50 SBD with a 20 RU rated hull. By comparison, an Imperial Class Star Destroyer shields are measured at 4800 SBD with a 2272 RU rated hull." do note this is a legends only measurement unit, AFAIK we dont have any direct way to measure this in Canon. these stats are all from table top games (mostly West End Games ones) from the 80s and 90s, and the numbers may vary depending on who is providing the info (in universe: different factions provide differing accounts of the capabilities of their ships, out of universe its a lack of coordination.)
My headcanon of the Star Wars physics was that the entire universe is in a nebula or stellar nursery that has enough atmosphere to transmit sound and enough to give drag to ships on screen to stop if not under continuous power. It would also explain why energy weapons, missile weapons, and plasma weapons function how they do... but not enough atmosphere to allow organics to survive in the environment of space.
Just as a note: According to _some_ SW Legends sources, Turbolaser differes from a Laser by the manner of projectile creation: Turbolasers, as the name suggests, use a sort of "turbo" system to increase the armour piercing capability of the projectiles, meaning they are denser in energy the Laser projectiles. So technically, a handheld turbolaser isn't a contradiction in itself, because the "turbo" part doesn't in any way refer to size, just the method. The "little" guns on the sides of a CR90 are described as turbolasers, even though they are anti fighter weapons.
My headcanon for torpedoes. Torpedoes have a kidn of energy shroud that allows them to burrow into shields, bypassing them. This eats a torpedoe's fuel, resulting in them being slower and less maneuverable, so you've gotta get the targeting really on the mark. With missiles you're either ignoring shields, or have some other means to deal with them.
In episode 4 we hear Han telling Chewie to jam the TIE fighter. How much of an effect do you think jamming has on Star Wars combat? Might that be a way to justify the heavy visual element of Star Wars even though they have sensors?
The Hornet fighters use a pair of turbolasers, the book it's in mentions they're low fire rate and Jag Fel baits them into firing them so often they overheat, so they exist but seem to have too many downsides to see common use... They'd certainly be a nasty surprise though.
I like the separation between heavy and light concussion missiles. I'm not sure where empire at war mods get this from, but most of then make a clear difference between regular concussion missiles, used against fighters, and heavy concussion missiles, used against capital ships. In my head canon, I've always thought that concussion missiles are more traditional missiles, fired with guidance systems and armed with a large warhead. Whilst proton torpedoes are closer to photon torpedoes from star trek. In fact I looked up the difference once, and according to at least a few websites, the difference between a proton and photon torpedo, is its descriptor word. They function essentially the same. So proton is heavy scifi stuff, while concussion missiles are something closer to what we may achieve should we end up with some kind of war in space. Lol And since starwars isnt very clear on, well any of these things, I think my headcanon works pretty well.
Some more fun facts: - Star Wars "lasers" and Star Trek "lasers" are not the same thing. A weapon from Star Wars would be called a "Disruptor" or "Plasma Bolt". This is because "lasers" in Star Wars are actually accelerated particles of supercharged/superheated gas (aka plasma), typically Tibanna Gas. - Tibanna gas is highly reactive, making it ideal for weapons and ship fuel, is frozen - often in carbonite - for safe transportation and storage (ironically making it an ideal coolant for some technologies), and can ignite in a vacuum, which is why starships explode in the Star Wars universe. - Tibanna Gas is also one of the ways you can track technological advancements in the Star Wars universe (at least in Legendsverse), as it was less commonly used during the Old Republic. By the time of the Clone Wars, Tibanna had become the dominant fuel.
I think some tech in Star Wars is the most important tech in the whole Star Wars universe and with many sci-fi properties; inertia dampeners, repulser lifts, and artificial gravity none of the sci-fi would not be the same. I was reading the X-Wing books (20+ years ago) and I remember Wedge talking about how he set his inertia dampeners in his cockpit. he would set it low so he would not be in true Zero-G. Wedge mentioned that Porkens said he had it thinking he was pulling up when he crashed into the Death Star. I think that is one of the reasons the Fighters bank and move like atmospheric fighters to keep the pilots from passing out. Repulsers are fantastic they can lift ships from the ground to orbit and land They lift all kinds of things and everywhere in the universe. But I think they can't go through shields. That is why the Empire uses walkers they can go through shields while a hover vehicle can't. That is why the Empire landed far away from the shields and walked miles in. You can see that in the Battle of Naboo the Droids push through the shields while the tanks stayed back. When the shields came down they then flew in fast. Much of high sci-fi fantasy has artificial gravity which helps the character. It helps with real-world shooting and humans in low, micro, to no gravity are not that healthy. But the combo of; inertia dampeners and artificial gravity keeps the passenger's turn to paste or splat to the back wall of the ship when they move too fast or slow to a stop. If we in the real world ever develop this tech it would be a massive change to the world we live in and space travel would be an everyday thing.
the tractor beams were also used in shipyards and junk yards to move ships from point a to b sometimes as sometimes a tug that had to latch on may of been unable to move a massive object where as a tractor beam could pull it towards it then others could take over and do the same
My personal headcanon is that since Star wars ships can essentially tell gravity to sod off with a wave of their hand, most of these ships aren't actually moving very quickly most of the time, and are not even at orbital velocities. This would be why they hardly ever seem to take orbital mechanics into account, and in particular why damaged or destroyed ships almost always immediately start listing towards whatever planet they're over - the repulsor tech turns off form damage and there's nothing else keeping them in orbit because why would you bother dealing with orbits if you can just straight line it?
Something I didn't hear that I think is relevant. reactors/power cores- As with many things exactly how they work is a bit nebulous, but this is the power source of a vessel, this powers everything on the ship but most notably the shields, ships with a better power source can sustain shields under fire longer. It seems there is a sense of fighters and other small vessels needing to refuel regularly but ships like cruisers or above having reactors that can run indefinitely but can be overwhelmed.
Cringe: classifying a ship based on its size / power level Based: classifying a shape based on its intended design role Turbo based: calling a frigate sized vessel a "destroyer" because the word "frigate" does not exist in their language and doctrinally, their frigate effectively functions like a destroyer anyway
I doubt this will get a video, though I'd love to see your take on it. In a lot of books and stories, the terms batteries and turrets are used interchangeably even though they're technically not. I'd love to see you do a video like this one based off that idea. ie: the difference between and Quad-Laser/Turbolaser turret and a Quadruple Battery
Canonically my understanding is that a all the 'laser' weaponry of starwars is the same core technology which is actually best described physically a plasma bolt. The "blaster" is a weapon with adjustable settings, aka Stun settings. Almost all hand held weapons are Blasters. If a ship has a Blaster it would just imply an ability to change settings between rapid fire low power shots and slower higher power shots as the situation dictates. The B-Wing has a Blaster Cannon (Cannon here is probably to indicate its far stronger then a hand held weapon) which it likely adjusts to rapid fire mode vs other starfighters, and sets to heavy for attacking capitol ships. The Millenium Falcon on the other hand has a remote operated Blaster on it's ventral surface which looks to be only as powerfull as the largest man portable weapons, as it is a blaster it would have a stun setting as it is intended to repell boarders. A Laser cannon is only able to fire at one setting, generally optimized for high rate of fire and which will always be lethal to men or machines. By ommitting adjustable setting the devices is somewhat simplified and more cost effective and lighter to allow it to be put in a rapidly rotating turret. Heavy Laser cannons are rare but do exist the CR-90 has 4 of them and they would be a bit of a dual purpose gun effective against fighters and other capitol ships. A Turbo Laser is generally larger but the key destinction is that it's plasma bolt is spun to give it a longer effective range. Given that we see Turbo Lasers don't just get bigger and bigger on capitol ships and that ships in StarWars engage at very short range we can conclude that larger plasma bolts don't have inherently better range, range gets determined entirly by quality of the bolt and this has a deminishing returns such that most Turbo laser tech has arrived at comperable range and power which is then mass produced and incorporated onto capitol ships in larger and larger numbers as power availability incresses.
I’d love to know more about the companies that manufactured the various ships. There’s a lot of suggestion that the companies on both sides were simply watching this all take place and didn’t care as long as the credits came flowing in.
In your option if star wars had a starfighter version of the A-10. What would be the equivalent or makes sense to use in place of the 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger? A heavy laster/ ion cannon or a light turbo laser? Granted this would be on top of loads of torpedoes/missiles and bombs.
seems to me everytime ion weaponry is used it ignores shild to soe extent .either that or the destroyer hit by planetary ion cannon didnt have the up in a war zone..then the ion bombs at scarif
Hi Justin, looks like you have high resolution scans of the beautiful painted covers for the X Wing novels and I was wondering where you found those? Those covers were great but can't find any posters or the art in high resolution elsewhere.
In times of emergency, some ships could deploy their Flintstonian Drive. Small apertures on the hull would open, to allow the crews feet to propel the vessel at surprising velocities.
About the only unmentioned weapon I can think of, is the Gyrojet gun. They aren't often mentioned and terribly inconsistent; like Boba Fet's pistol is referred to as a "gyrojet pistol" here and there.
Idea: Freestanding subsectors (Mid Rim to Wild Space) and planets like Yorn Skot (N-14; Inner Rim) that are not apart of the Galactic Government of the time, but also are not in another galaxy or in the Unknown Regions.
Hey Justin - this is more a response for your vid on names of Imperial warships. I worked at West End Games & Decipher. I got to name Half of Death Squadron, the Tyrant, Conquest were both mine, and I share credit for the Stalker. The Tyrant was actually Grand Moff Tarkin’s flagship before new Canon made it the Sovereign. The naming conventions were based off the Avenger, the Devastator, and the Executor. The former two were based off World War II era dive bombers & torpedo planes that won the battles of the Pacific. We didn’t run out of names, we wanted to use names that fit the Tarkin Doctrine and left no ambiguity to those who would dare to Rebel against The Empire.
The TBD Devastator and TBF Avenger were both torpedo bombers, and the Devastator was basically obsolete by the time it saw action, its success at Coral Sea notwithstanding.
You want the SBD Dauntless and SB2C Helldiver for dive bombers... although the latter especially seems 'off' for an _Imperial._
There is proof of this?
@@jobt1999 Most likely, if you know where to look.
Makes sense Geroge Lucas was influenced by ww2 films like the Dambusters.
Very cool man!
Fun Fact: EckhartsLadder made a cool cameo in The Templin Institute's latest video about Luthen Rael and the consequences of his actions in Andor show.
Yeah, that definitely made me chuckle
I laughed so hard when Eck popped in
@@abnerr5265 so did I. I loved it.
Loved it cause it happened right as I was thinking escalation ladder sounds familiar
Link?
In one of the Clone Wars novels (Wild Space maybe? Or Cestus Deception?) Kenobi is on a mission to disable a tech that prevents jumping to hyperspace so he can get off-planet with intel and is accompanied with a republic agent. They disable it in the way he does on the Death Star. I always liked how EU filled in the holes of how characters knew how to do certain things for example or had knowledge that is not explained in the movie. During the scene where they are disabling the tractor beams the agent mentions how putting those tractor beams in a sphere aimed at each other to amplify each other would create a hyperspace shadow that would prevent s ship from coming in or jumping out. Kenobi responds that they do not have ships big enough for it, to which the agent determinedly responds that one day the Republic will and that will be the end of any wars like The Clone Wars. Whenever I see Imperial Interdictor ships with those giant spheres embedded in the hulls I am reminded of that and it illustrates nicely how Palpatine worked by subverting good people and their efforts to his own ends. So according to this the interdiction tech is upgraded and modified application of tractor field technology, possibly with added gravity manipulation though I never encountered gravity anomalies mentioned when interdictors were active.
I actually belive that scene you are describing is from Labyrinth of Evil
Huh, that's actually pretty cool
And yeah, the Republic Agent understood that ships that size comes with a Technology upgrade and change that would mean a society dependent on heavier warfare and subjugation
The Republic wasn't truly ready for war when it started, the Clones being the main reason they even stood a chance
Empire on the other hand was an entirely different beast.
I really want to see a video on the Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser. It's a fascinating design, and one that bears scrutiny in a lore video. There's not much lore, so it would be fun to hear your thoughts on it and maybe some fun speculation, as well as discussing it as a tribute to the late, great Colin Cantwell and its history as one of the original designs for the Imperial Star Destroyer.
Whenever they showed those Artillery-style mounts on the Death Star, I kinda figured that wasn't the actual weapon, but just the control unit for an externally mounted weapon linked to it. Kinda like how the Falcon's laser turrets are external mounts but the control units for them are internal and not exactly attached to them, except by cabling or something.
I like how Anaxes classifies the Munificent Frigate as a cruiser.
I think it's in the lower end of heavy cruisers
I would really enjoy a video on Ralph McQuarrie and Star Wars concept art.
For the weapons classes I've always understood them as this:
**Turbolasers =strongest energy weapons (sans superweapons) for anti capital ship and planetary bombardment. These come in light, medium, and heavy variants.
**Lasers =standard anti-fighter weapons. Weaker than turbolasers but stronger than blasters. Because they are lighter, they can be turret mounted on capital ships to track starfighters better than turbolasers. Because they use less energy, they can be mounted on smaller ships like starfighters. These come in light, medium, and heavy variants.
**Blasters =these are the handheld energy weapons. Due to smaller power sources, these are weaker than lasers, but lighter and easier to carry. These come in light, medium, and heavy variants. A blaster pistol would be a light blaster. A blaster rifle would be a medium. And something like the E-Web is labeled a heavy repeating blaster.
There are exceptions. The snowspeader is said to have blasters. "That armor's too strong for blasters!" And hand weapons and rifles are often called lasers. This may be due to errors or a misunderstanding of the classifications (which admittedly may not be defined past fan sources). Still, the snowspeader's description of using blasters may have been intentional. The X-Wing novels referenced X-Wings being able to "make short work" of AT-AT walkers. It doesn't indicated if they used torpedoes or just their lasers, but just their lasers was the impression I took from the description. This suggests the lasers were enough when the blasters were not.
Some heavy blasters and light lasers may have something of an overlap.
Regarding ship names, the real-world origin of "cruiser" is a ship that could go on "cruising missions" - that is, long voyages without additional support. Cruisers have a good mix of firepower, durability and speed, but aren't top-tier in any of them. Their greater mobility and relative expendability does make them more useful overall than ships-of-the-line/battleships unless there is an active slugfest nearby. So I think "cruiser" does cover most of the bigger capital ships well (including most Star Destroyers).
3:15 SSD = 7 Km. 👍
8:15 In X-Wing and Tie Fighter PC games, you could use concussion missiles to intercept and shot down photon torpedoes, so missiles have more speed while torpedoes have more punch.
Ship classes: Corvettes are 100-300m, Frigates are 300-600m, "Destroyers" would be the 600-900m category, Cruisers are 900-1600m, "Heavy" Cruisers would be 1600-3000m, Battlecruisers are 3000-8000ishm, and Dreadnoughts are all 8000+m length. Resurgent SDs and MC85 would be classified as Heavy Cruisers. The Resistance's MC85 is likely a stolen reserve fleet MC85 as you'd be able to write them off the logistical sheets easier, and probably has an operational firepower closer to a ISD2, which is still under the threshold set by the Resurgence class.
1600m threshold is the ISD threshold. Typical cruisers are 1200m like MC80 and Venator.
The "Flak" Gun seen in ROTS is a return to projectile weapons by the CIS. It's a mass driver whose "mass payload" is a shrapnel canister. The "shell" that is ejected is simply the containment field for the shrapnel. A shotgun shell filled with anti-capital ship buckshot.
Proton Torpedoes vs Concussion Missiles is basically the difference between High Explosive ordnance and High Explosive Anti-Tank. Concussion missiles are a standard missile with an explosive warhead. Proton Torpedoes fire a jet of high yield particles into a target. It's more expensive to manufacture and bypasses more normal defenses. A fighter might carry two torps but carry 20 missiles.
I have a few questions about the science of hyperspace:
1. What speeds do hyperdrive classes correlate to, and at what class would they transition to below lightspeed?
2. Could a hyperdrive propel a ship through hyperspace at slower-than-light speeds?
3. How fast do Purrgils travel through hyperspace?
I would really want to see a video about troop carriers, dropships and gunships and how to differentiate between them. Love your videos:)
I use the term 'Brig' to describe ships of the Millenium Falcon size (20-50m) and which have some kind of internal habitation you can walk inside rather then just cockpit, yet are still small enough to land in most hangar with 2-6 hulls occupying the space needed for a dozen Starfighters. At the (50-90) size range such as the GR-75 and Gozanti, and Braha'tok gunship sized vessels I use 'Sloop' these vessels are distinctly smaller then the Corvette class with 2-6 being equivilent to 1 Corvette. This distinction is reflected in the StarWars Armada minuture game by Sloop ships being a group of hulls on their mini plate which otherwise obey capitol ship rules which normaly are 1 hull per mini, while the Brig class ships obey starfighter rules and are 1 hull per mini while conventional fighters are multiple (generally 3x) hulls per mini. Capitol ships are only Corvettes and up, so Brigs and Sloops are neight capitol ships or starfighters and would be called sub-capitol ships, their are actually an enormouse number of Brig and Sloop sized ships in the Lore due to so many of them existing for hero ships in RPG games and videogames.
Eck, i'm curious about the Saboath Mercenaries from the early clone-wars era and their specs, they had lots of tech at their disposal, ranging from starfighters, horseshoe shaped frigates equipped with spy technology, heavy artillery starfighters, bombers, missile deployers full of trihexalon, and even destroyers/capitol ships alongside trade federation forces among their arsenal, they're from the game jedi starfighter and i'm very interested in them lorewise and on a technological standpoint. I hope this serves as a good video idea for you.
What should have been mentioned is that StarWars weapons with the word "laser" in their title are not really lasers, but, probably, some type of plasma weapons. Real lasers would have speed of light, but SW "lasers" fire painfully slow bolts/packages and, if I remember correctly, use superheated Tibanna gas.
The exception being the weapons of the Unknown Regions, which are called "Spectrum Lasers" and do appear to be actual lasers, not just a colloquialism for plasma weapons.
My head-canon is that it's a contraction from "Turbostabilized, Laser-Heated Plasma Cannon"
Turbostabilized, Laser-Heated Plasma Cannon -> Turbo-Laser Plasma Cannon -> Turbo-Laser Cannon -> Turbolaser
"Turbostabilized" refering to a turbine that forms the tibanna gas into a vortex that, when ionized by the heat of lasers, self-stabilizes due to magnetic interactions, due to said turbostabilization, more tibanna can be put into a single shot without it becoming a spread-out blast, than in the case of laser cannons, which forgo the extra bulk and complexity of the stabilization system, in favour of compactness and shot efficiency (less tibanna per shot)
If I had to guess, calling superheated tibana gas or plasma "lasers" is a lot like us calling aluminum cans and foil "tin."
We know they aren't tin, but they were at one point a bajillion years ago, and it's just quicker to say.
I’d say a laser cannon still uses lasers to create the plasma.
They aren't using superheated gas. The blaster gas (Tibana is just one of many types used) energizes the bolt more. What the laser are is a particle beam bolt.
Honestly I'd love a video sbout exotic weaponry for ships; the sort of stuff you only find in a few pieces of media. Luthen's lasers on the Fondor are a good example of what I am thinking, although we know very little about those.
Gonna second this 👍
Just off the top of my head there are mag pulse weapons, typically mounted as warheads on starfighters and bombers. While mentioned in both Legends and current canon, so far only the former has depicted what they actually do. They're similar to the ion torpedoes in Rogue One, bypassing a ship's shields and disabling it for a short while. They've only been seen in action in the X-Wing series of computer games, and even then they were typically quite rare (probably because it was a bit OP to disable powerful capital ships and stations for 30+ seconds at a time with just a single mag torpedo).
Such a great video! Wish we could get another table top series on the channel
@@michaelandreipalon359 Star Wars better
@@michaelandreipalon359 yb better
I’m not sure that corvettes and frigates really count as capital ships- those are usually treated more as escorts for the bigger ships in the fleet
@@michaelandreipalon359 Yb better
It's 2 o clock in the morning and I can't sleep and eck drops a video when i need it 👍🏻
I neeeeed itttt
would love to see a bit of an in depth look at Luthens ship in Andor, one of the coolest things I've seen a ship do in Star Wars and an obviously custom made ship package of defenses that was friggin amazing to see in the series!
You know, as a life long fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek, I'm always amazed at just how similarly the fictional technologies in each are to the other. Deflector shields in Star Trek work very similarly to those in Star Wars (and are similarly inconsistent across media) for example, and even though warp drive and Hyperdrive operate differently (one bends space around the ship, the other makes use of what Starfleet would likely call 'subspace' in their own universe), both universes - again - use another layer of reality to make their magic tech go vroom. I suppose its probably just by virtue of the fact that they're two of the oldest sci fi universes in existence, but regardless I do enjoy how the two of them have basically collectively defined how we expect magic space tech to work in our science fiction stories. I'm very here for it! :)
...oh, and Star Wars ships absolutely operate according to real natural laws IMO - they've just mastered the tech necessary to bend and circumvent such barriers to make things work over the course of millennia of galactic civilization. That's my hill and I'm dying on it ;).
Great video!!
One video idea I was thinking of is discussing whether the Bad Batch will interact with Han Solo way down the line. In the Empire Strikes Back Han talks about "running into a bounty hunter on Ord Mantell" when they're still on Echo Base. I smell a crossover....
Love your content, you're my favorite Star Wars lore UA-camr. Keep up the awesome work!
I love the planet Korriban, especially when I played Star Wars the old republic game and was really fascinated by the Sith species but the game never went into to much depth about their lore. It would be great to get some backstory/overview of the Sith species and their planet. Love the videos, keep up the good work.
channel metanerdz lore did a deep dive into the sith species quite recently. very good video!
What a video! I'll finally be able to understand my friends when they nerd out on me about their favourite starwars ships 🤣
7:27
Though according to the Cross-sections book, DS-1 had an amount of railguns mounted that, for anything short of the Supremacy (possibly excluding SSDs), would be classified as Ludicrous.
7:58
So, basically, Star Wars torpedoes are Eve Online/Echoes Regular Missiles, while SW missiles correspond to the rapidfire missiles.
For the record, Eve also has torpedoes, which only typically see use on dedicated stealth bombers in the same way that Star Wars ones are used, but only for PvP.
EckhartsLadder: "Time to bully Star Wars Ship Designs once more."
1:46 Honestly even more than you'd think is even older than that. a HUGE number of the rules were established by Brian Daley for the Han Solo Adventures. Or the older screenplay stuff for the movie where the Jargon was more technical before people told George he had to chill. I think the concept of gravity damaging the hyperdrive came from something like that, an alternate version of the "Hyperspace isn't like dusting crops" where Han was more concerned about being too close to Tattooine's gravity rather than just hitting something else. (Though WEG would combine the two somewhat)
Hey.
I just want to say that I like (and watch) your videos for years.
Keep up your good work Eck.
A nice day to you, your friends and your family!
ray shielding though also prevents matter from going through, though, right? like the ray shields that separate Qui-Gon, Obi-wan, and Darth Maul, you can't just walk through them. I'm pretty sure they call them 'ray shields' in the movie
They don't stop much more than plasma from passing, but if a person walks through they will likely die. You see it in thr Cube episode of TCW.
After playing the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, I always wondered where the speed unit of Megalights came from, both in lore and real life.
8:22 That's exactly what it is yep! It's acknowledged to be a projectile based weapon that creates shrapnel clouds to damage/destroy starfighters
Have you talked about the Raider II in depth? I think it's by far the best designed Imperial Ship and deserves more love.
Great vid Eck! Thanks much.
Just to note, I would suggest from a real world perspective that still translates to SW appropriately, is that "Interceptors" are intended for "Intercepting" another fleet's Bombers or similar type attack craft (i.e. in SW, heavy turbolaser craft), NOT other fighters. "Fighters" are just that, intended for fighting another fleets similar styled craft. Usually to carve a hole in the opposing fleet so that heavies can slug it out or even make the way more accessible for the Interceptors to reach a heavy (or enable a bomber fleet to get through to a target).
Yes, both can be used in the role of the other on occasion but that is not their design intent.
The Vietnam War sorta skewed this principal, as with no bomber/capital ship opposition, USA was able to use their ac in whatever role they wished, including using some interceptors as fighters or even as bombers and since then, many "Fighters" have been designed as jack-of-all-trades. Still, the term is intended as I've described.
Possibly the SW designers thought otherwise but in real world, that's the principal. Cheers! :)
p.s. As for the Naval terms used, it looks like SW got most right in similarities to real world except for the term "Destroyer". Mind as of 21st Century, the term has been abused by many nations.
IRL, a "Destroyer" used initially as a sub-hunter or "Torpedo-boat destroyer" was later continuously scaled up and inherited other duties as well. In modern terms, it now usually lands between a Frigate and a Heavy Cruiser displacement wise (depending on source country/builder). A "Star Destroyer" is more appropriately a "Star Battleship", about the same size as a "Star Battlecruiser" but much more heavily armoured (and armed) and usually not as fast. A "Dreadnought", is essentially a Battleship but with it's MAIN guns all predominantly of same calibre (size + ordinance) whereas a standard battleship can carry a variety of different calibre BIG guns. 'Ship' size was therefore, not the key for determining nomenclature. I do realize in SW though, they went for "coolest sounding destructive name" so I give that a pass.
I realize you stated "don't worry about "real world comparisons" but just for fun, I thought I'd let folks know what they are. :)
When it comes to stealth ships, that republic stealth ship from clone wars comes to mind. It had specialised technology that allowed it to move with lifeforms and systems online undetected if my memory serves me correctly.
Maybe you could make a video about the shipyards. Because in solo you see that they build a lot of the stuff on the ground and then bring it up. On corelia, i think, they even build ships on the ground, while in other shipyard they usually do it in space. Love your vids
5:34 specifically in EaW(Empire at War) bombers can pierce through full shields but missles from other ships(non-bombers) can’t
How about the weapon systems of the Aggressor class destroyer used by Tyber Zann. Or how some imperial star destroyer have that miniature super laser but instead of it being green its orange ?
Yeaaa another video explaining the neeche vehicles in star wars
👍🏼 I think this was a good video covering the basics of starships and their weapons in the SW Universe. Couple things I wanted to add:
+ Ship classes seem to me to be one of the most inconsistent terms with capital ships in Star Wars. I know it would maybe make it slightly more complicated, but I think taking both size *and* purpose/mission of the ship could help us classify capital ships better. For example, a frigate being a capital ship that supports another ship (or defends a location) in a primarily anti-starfighter role. Then you could say Light and Heavy: Nebulon-B would be a Light Frigate and Lancer would be a Heavy Frigate. (Though the Nebulon is technically an "escort frigate", further muddying the discussion, but it also explains why it's more balanced in turbo lasers and laser canons versus the Lancer). Or you could argue the reverse, Lancer is a Light Frigate (for lack of any turbolasers and 50m shorter) and Nebulon-B would be a Heavy Frigate. 🤷🏻♂️
Another example, cruisers. Light Cruisers, Medium Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers. You get the idea.
Also, take onto consideration of heavy/light also being about the ship's amount/capability of armament and defenses, not just size.
+ Blasters vs laser canons.
SW isn't entirely consistent on this but it seems to be blasters are always to be used in atmosphere or otherwise are "ground-based". Speeders will have blasters or blaster canons, starships have laser canons.
And hand weapons (small arms) are always blasters unless they're projectile weapons (slug-thrower).
That seems to be the only distinction.
Of course we've seen blaster rifles used in the vacuum of space, so we know they work there, but a space station or starfighter is never going to have blaster canons.
And some ground vehicles will have laser canons (AT-TE comes to mind) so... the usual inconsistency of Star Wars.
With torpedoes versus missiles, while the flight sim games do tend to go with "missile is for fighters, torpedo is for ships" the sourcebooks and EU materials released before the flight sims put it differently.
Concussion missiles are anti-armor weapons. They have a small warhead for damaging armor, and then a larger main charge to blast through the compromised section. Proton torpedoes are either thermonuclear "high explosives" (general purpose "I want that thing blown up") OR, in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook... nukes that are treated like nukes: expensive, rare, and not commonly used.
But, of course, because torpedoes were so crucial in ANH... well... everyone fling around proton torpedoes willy-nilly.
I want to see a Vindicator in an Imperial fleet live action, just saying. With the Cantwell Arrestor Cruiser it seems possible that soon we might see maybe a Victory, Gladiator, or Vindicator.
Hi, I love your work. I was wondering, would you do, or have you done a video on the different types of YT-1300? Such as the placement of the cockpit (left-right-centre), the purpose of the ship, it seems small for a cargo ship and the idea that the mandibles are for holding massive cargo pods is well, dumb because the ship lacks the massive forward breaking thrusters it would need to stop the inertial of such 10,000-ton cargo pods. Plus, the centre cockpit means the pod can't be place there. Second, a better break down on the types of hyper-drives and their speed would be great.
“Proton torpedoes are not gonna be able to chase a fighter.” Unless you use them on a TIE Bomber (X-Wing Alliance) X3
this is an extremely helpful video for me. im very surface level with alot of my intrest but my my hobby sometimes likes to require some info that id normally dont know, especially with franchises like SW that have EXTENSIVE lore.
Certainly it's not ALL the dumb ship stuff you know. Go ahead and tell me how many toilets the death star had
at least 4
Apparently DS-1 house nearly 2 million people between military and civilians. So estimating 10 people per communal toilet on average that's 200,000 toilets. What a shit job it must have been to clean
@@andrewbryant4259 i see what you did there
I can tell you that the Trade Federation's Lucrehulk had exactly 50 identical conference rooms like the one you see in The Phantom Menace.
@@andrewbryant4259 The more interesting problem is what they did with all the feces. Did they have a sewer system in the death star, complete with water treatment plants? Did they repurpose the waste as fertilizer? With all the space on the ds they could set up indoor farms, with artificial sunlight. If they could recycle the water and grow their own food, the ds could be a fully selfsustaining biodome.
But they probably dumped all the sewage into space instead.
I think a video going indepth of the ship class's and such would be awesome!!!!
You know what I would watch? Eck listing off specifications for a bunch of different ships for no reason
The Lady Luck's illustrious career must be waxed poetic about
It might be interesting to hear about energy generation in Star Wars, or across sci fi
I'd love to see a video in a universe that's always trying find new ways to kill Jedi, why slug throwers, Gaus/Rail guns and other projectile weapons were not persuaded. Even when it comes to Clone/storm trooper armour I'm sure a slug could get through a bit easier. I'd even be curious how a pure beskar bullet would fair againts a less pure alloy armour.
Can we get a vid on the benefits and disadvantages of using Maser over laser/turbo lasers?
Very much appreciated because I was one of those people scratching my head to the mention of capital ships.
Give us all your garbage, we'll be your compactor
Babylon 5 ships would make a good video, there's alot of great designs!
If I remember right, "concussion missiles" were introduced by the 90s X-Wing/TIE Fighter series, specifically the TIE Fighter game in which you could change your payload from proton torpedoes for capital ships or concussion missiles for fighters. Interdictors and the concept of mass shadows were introduced by Timothy Zahn in his books. If there were earlier occurrences of these concepts I was not aware of them.
The technology of 'inertial dampeners' is, I think, the wildest sci-fi concept that is never explored.
I think it even explains why starfighters move as if they're thrusting through an atmosphere.
If you can 'dampen' inertia, then you can presumably also redirect it. A bizarre concept, but absolutely gamechanging.
I see Eckhart and his dog are asking for financial support and join them in a vitramerm feast with them. How's it going? May The Force be with you.
hi, would it be possible to make more videos about obscure and not as much mentioned ships, like i realy liked your video of the YV-929, and would like to know more about ships that have not shown up in other media
In canon, (I forget specifically where), it's also noted that the Interdictors work as electronic weapons ships as well, and can scramble the targeting of missiles and torpedoes.
I think that might've also been true in legends as well, because in Empire at War [And also some of its more lore-heavy mods like Thrawn's Revenge] You often see interdictor ships having jamming abilities as well. It makes sense to me from a logistical perspective, having your interdictor equipped to handle other support roles as well when it's not being used to trap the enemy. Plus, being able to jam missiles and torpedos helps defend your interdictor against the fighters and bombers your ensnared enemy will inevitably try to ambush it with in order to escape.
One reason the X-Wing books talk a lot about shields is that they were heavily inspired by the X-Wing and TIE Fighter space simulator games, in which shields were a major game mechanic. On-screen, shields are indeed highly inconsistent. It's always bothered me that the original films used to talk about "angling deflector shields" as if they were literally set at angles to deflect incoming fire, and yet almost all subsequent lore (film or otherwise) has just ignored this and defaulted to the more familiar "blue energy bubble" concept of "shields".
I'd like to know, as far as ships go in star wars
Do all the ship in universe, regardless of faction, all run off the same "fuel"?
If so, what is this fuel and is it the only source of energy for these ships? Or are there other sources but they've simply fallen out of favor?
I'd like to know a little bit more about hyperspace and hyperdrive classes. I understand it's not fully fleshed out in the lore and lower ratings = faster travel. But how it's possible to have huge ships with low hyperdrive classes seems counterintuitive, especially because there doesn't seem to be a propulsion mechanism within the hyperdrive itself. So how it makes a ship faster or slower is sort of confusing.
My head canon is to kind of think of hyperspace as if you're traveling through a medium. If you have a high hyperdrive rating like a class 10 there is more resistance and it's harder for your ship to travel through, like swimming through jello, and a lower class like a 2 or 3 might be more like swimming through water, and a class 1 or lower would be like flying through the air. Your ship would still use its sublight engines to move, and the hyperdrive just transports you to the hyperspace dimension and depending on how powerful it is (class rating) that's how easy it is to move once in hyperspace. I'm probably way off but that's how I think of it.
I am LOVING the new playful titles lately, its fun 😄
another somewhat basic but less commonly used piece of info ould be hull and shield strength ratings.
good summary on wookieepedia:
"From starfighters to capital ships, vessels equipped with a deflector measured the shield recharge rate with SBD. It was often followed by the vessel's hull rating, measured in RU. For example, a T-65 X-wing starfighter shields are rated at 50 SBD with a 20 RU rated hull. By comparison, an Imperial Class Star Destroyer shields are measured at 4800 SBD with a 2272 RU rated hull."
do note this is a legends only measurement unit, AFAIK we dont have any direct way to measure this in Canon. these stats are all from table top games (mostly West End Games ones) from the 80s and 90s, and the numbers may vary depending on who is providing the info (in universe: different factions provide differing accounts of the capabilities of their ships, out of universe its a lack of coordination.)
My headcanon of the Star Wars physics was that the entire universe is in a nebula or stellar nursery that has enough atmosphere to transmit sound and enough to give drag to ships on screen to stop if not under continuous power. It would also explain why energy weapons, missile weapons, and plasma weapons function how they do... but not enough atmosphere to allow organics to survive in the environment of space.
Just as a note: According to _some_ SW Legends sources, Turbolaser differes from a Laser by the manner of projectile creation: Turbolasers, as the name suggests, use a sort of "turbo" system to increase the armour piercing capability of the projectiles, meaning they are denser in energy the Laser projectiles. So technically, a handheld turbolaser isn't a contradiction in itself, because the "turbo" part doesn't in any way refer to size, just the method. The "little" guns on the sides of a CR90 are described as turbolasers, even though they are anti fighter weapons.
My headcanon for torpedoes.
Torpedoes have a kidn of energy shroud that allows them to burrow into shields, bypassing them. This eats a torpedoe's fuel, resulting in them being slower and less maneuverable, so you've gotta get the targeting really on the mark. With missiles you're either ignoring shields, or have some other means to deal with them.
I would like to hear a video about the Azure Angel modified Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor. It is one of my favorite ships.
Maybe do a video dedicated to the best unique ship modifications. Including Azure Angel, Millennium Falcon, Invisible Hand, etc.
In episode 4 we hear Han telling Chewie to jam the TIE fighter.
How much of an effect do you think jamming has on Star Wars combat?
Might that be a way to justify the heavy visual element of Star Wars even though they have sensors?
You have your own ramen flavor? One could say it’s Eckharts Platter. Okay I’ll see myself out
Wonderful video! Thank you!
The Hornet fighters use a pair of turbolasers, the book it's in mentions they're low fire rate and Jag Fel baits them into firing them so often they overheat, so they exist but seem to have too many downsides to see common use... They'd certainly be a nasty surprise though.
Great video Eck. I love these videos
I like the separation between heavy and light concussion missiles.
I'm not sure where empire at war mods get this from, but most of then make a clear difference between regular concussion missiles, used against fighters, and heavy concussion missiles, used against capital ships.
In my head canon, I've always thought that concussion missiles are more traditional missiles, fired with guidance systems and armed with a large warhead. Whilst proton torpedoes are closer to photon torpedoes from star trek.
In fact I looked up the difference once, and according to at least a few websites, the difference between a proton and photon torpedo, is its descriptor word. They function essentially the same.
So proton is heavy scifi stuff, while concussion missiles are something closer to what we may achieve should we end up with some kind of war in space. Lol
And since starwars isnt very clear on, well any of these things, I think my headcanon works pretty well.
Some more fun facts:
- Star Wars "lasers" and Star Trek "lasers" are not the same thing. A weapon from Star Wars would be called a "Disruptor" or "Plasma Bolt". This is because "lasers" in Star Wars are actually accelerated particles of supercharged/superheated gas (aka plasma), typically Tibanna Gas.
- Tibanna gas is highly reactive, making it ideal for weapons and ship fuel, is frozen - often in carbonite - for safe transportation and storage (ironically making it an ideal coolant for some technologies), and can ignite in a vacuum, which is why starships explode in the Star Wars universe.
- Tibanna Gas is also one of the ways you can track technological advancements in the Star Wars universe (at least in Legendsverse), as it was less commonly used during the Old Republic. By the time of the Clone Wars, Tibanna had become the dominant fuel.
I think some tech in Star Wars is the most important tech in the whole Star Wars universe and with many sci-fi properties; inertia dampeners, repulser lifts, and artificial gravity none of the sci-fi would not be the same.
I was reading the X-Wing books (20+ years ago) and I remember Wedge talking about how he set his inertia dampeners in his cockpit. he would set it low so he would not be in true Zero-G. Wedge mentioned that Porkens said he had it thinking he was pulling up when he crashed into the Death Star. I think that is one of the reasons the Fighters bank and move like atmospheric fighters to keep the pilots from passing out.
Repulsers are fantastic they can lift ships from the ground to orbit and land They lift all kinds of things and everywhere in the universe. But I think they can't go through shields. That is why the Empire uses walkers they can go through shields while a hover vehicle can't. That is why the Empire landed far away from the shields and walked miles in. You can see that in the Battle of Naboo the Droids push through the shields while the tanks stayed back. When the shields came down they then flew in fast.
Much of high sci-fi fantasy has artificial gravity which helps the character. It helps with real-world shooting and humans in low, micro, to no gravity are not that healthy. But the combo of; inertia dampeners and artificial gravity keeps the passenger's turn to paste or splat to the back wall of the ship when they move too fast or slow to a stop.
If we in the real world ever develop this tech it would be a massive change to the world we live in and space travel would be an everyday thing.
"Treats their employees really, really well" I can see that as they can sit in the ramen pool
8:23 in case no one has mentioned it yet- this Thing is a mass driver cannon, comparable to the one on the at te. Your welcome.
"You love the brand and so do I!" - Eckartsladder 2022
the tractor beams were also used in shipyards and junk yards to move ships from point a to b sometimes as sometimes a tug that had to latch on may of been unable to move a massive object where as a tractor beam could pull it towards it then others could take over and do the same
A retrospective on Star Wars Rebels would be fun. Especially with Ahsoka coming out the timeing would be great.
My personal headcanon is that since Star wars ships can essentially tell gravity to sod off with a wave of their hand, most of these ships aren't actually moving very quickly most of the time, and are not even at orbital velocities.
This would be why they hardly ever seem to take orbital mechanics into account, and in particular why damaged or destroyed ships almost always immediately start listing towards whatever planet they're over - the repulsor tech turns off form damage and there's nothing else keeping them in orbit because why would you bother dealing with orbits if you can just straight line it?
Something I didn't hear that I think is relevant. reactors/power cores- As with many things exactly how they work is a bit nebulous, but this is the power source of a vessel, this powers everything on the ship but most notably the shields, ships with a better power source can sustain shields under fire longer. It seems there is a sense of fighters and other small vessels needing to refuel regularly but ships like cruisers or above having reactors that can run indefinitely but can be overwhelmed.
Cringe: classifying a ship based on its size / power level
Based: classifying a shape based on its intended design role
Turbo based: calling a frigate sized vessel a "destroyer" because the word "frigate" does not exist in their language and doctrinally, their frigate effectively functions like a destroyer anyway
I doubt this will get a video, though I'd love to see your take on it. In a lot of books and stories, the terms batteries and turrets are used interchangeably even though they're technically not. I'd love to see you do a video like this one based off that idea. ie: the difference between and Quad-Laser/Turbolaser turret and a Quadruple Battery
"I know you love and so do i a full commitment is what vite ramen is thinking of you wouldn't get this from any other ramen"
Canonically my understanding is that a all the 'laser' weaponry of starwars is the same core technology which is actually best described physically a plasma bolt. The "blaster" is a weapon with adjustable settings, aka Stun settings. Almost all hand held weapons are Blasters. If a ship has a Blaster it would just imply an ability to change settings between rapid fire low power shots and slower higher power shots as the situation dictates. The B-Wing has a Blaster Cannon (Cannon here is probably to indicate its far stronger then a hand held weapon) which it likely adjusts to rapid fire mode vs other starfighters, and sets to heavy for attacking capitol ships. The Millenium Falcon on the other hand has a remote operated Blaster on it's ventral surface which looks to be only as powerfull as the largest man portable weapons, as it is a blaster it would have a stun setting as it is intended to repell boarders.
A Laser cannon is only able to fire at one setting, generally optimized for high rate of fire and which will always be lethal to men or machines. By ommitting adjustable setting the devices is somewhat simplified and more cost effective and lighter to allow it to be put in a rapidly rotating turret. Heavy Laser cannons are rare but do exist the CR-90 has 4 of them and they would be a bit of a dual purpose gun effective against fighters and other capitol ships.
A Turbo Laser is generally larger but the key destinction is that it's plasma bolt is spun to give it a longer effective range. Given that we see Turbo Lasers don't just get bigger and bigger on capitol ships and that ships in StarWars engage at very short range we can conclude that larger plasma bolts don't have inherently better range, range gets determined entirly by quality of the bolt and this has a deminishing returns such that most Turbo laser tech has arrived at comperable range and power which is then mass produced and incorporated onto capitol ships in larger and larger numbers as power availability incresses.
Could you do a video on the logistics of fuel and other resources needed for ships to function?
I’d love to know more about the companies that manufactured the various ships. There’s a lot of suggestion that the companies on both sides were simply watching this all take place and didn’t care as long as the credits came flowing in.
So I have a question, how did the Super Star Destroyer jump to Hyperspace in Coruscant`s atmosphere in the X-wing book?
In your option if star wars had a starfighter version of the A-10. What would be the equivalent or makes sense to use in place of the 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger? A heavy laster/ ion cannon or a light turbo laser? Granted this would be on top of loads of torpedoes/missiles and bombs.
seems to me everytime ion weaponry is used it ignores shild to soe extent .either that or the destroyer hit by planetary ion cannon didnt have the up in a war zone..then the ion bombs at scarif
Hi Justin, looks like you have high resolution scans of the beautiful painted covers for the X Wing novels and I was wondering where you found those? Those covers were great but can't find any posters or the art in high resolution elsewhere.
Can you do some battle breakdowns from the (new) Thrawn books? I love all 6 of those books and I would love to see some content about them.
Perhaps physical shields & armor?
I'm curious how much it's used and how.
In times of emergency, some ships could deploy their Flintstonian Drive. Small apertures on the hull would open, to allow the crews feet to propel the vessel at surprising velocities.
I like that plasma isn't made of particles any more. It's just 'energy' now.
About the only unmentioned weapon I can think of, is the Gyrojet gun. They aren't often mentioned and terribly inconsistent; like Boba Fet's pistol is referred to as a "gyrojet pistol" here and there.
The Imperial II-class Star Destroyer has 9,235 officers.
Idea: Freestanding subsectors (Mid Rim to Wild Space) and planets like Yorn Skot (N-14; Inner Rim) that are not apart of the Galactic Government of the time, but also are not in another galaxy or in the Unknown Regions.