Star Wars engineering blunders

[Deepcrush]

The problem with the Broadside is that it is classed as a cruiser and a corvette. Is that possible (military wise).

Modern wet navy, I'm thinking no but you'd have to ask Seafort as thats his specialty.

Though, its fully possible in SW. It is able of independent operation like a cruiser role demands but while in combat it acts as a corvette.

[SuperSaiyaMan12]

Damn right. Any legged vehicle is just plain stupid.

Tell that to the Logging Industry. They're literally designing six legged walkers to make their environmental impact less.

[Monroe]

Damn right. Any legged vehicle is just plain stupid.

Tell that to the Logging Industry. They're literally designing six legged walkers to make their environmental impact less.

Yeah its a pretty good design too.

[Tsukiyumi]

Anyone got a name for that project? I'd like to see that.

[SuperSaiyaMan12]

Anyone got a name for that project? I'd like to see that.

I saw it on Modern Marvels: Lumber. I forget the name of the walker, but when I saw it I immediately thought 'Star Wars is coming to life'!

[Tsukiyumi]

Ah, here it is. Pretty cool.

[Coalition]

What large ships? The only large ship we see is Vader's command ship. The rest are only Destroyers. (And if someone mentions that the Executor nearly bankrupted them Empire, then they obviously didn't watch ANH or RotJ.).

'Destroyers' that are a fricking MILE long and on their own can function perfectly as battleships.

Yup, they are a mile long and can function as battleships compared to small fry. But against a real warship (aka Executor style) they are mere destroyers, and are designed around that philosophy.

Star Destroyers vs smaller ships would be like WW2 Destroyers vs PT boats or WW2 subs. PT boats and WW2 subs are decent warships, but if they are in sight and brought under fire, the Destroyer has a good chance to kill them (and was originally named "Torpedo Boat Destroyer").

For their weapons on only one face, it means that the ISD captain can easily bring all of his firepower to bear on a single target by pitching, yawing, or rolling as necessary.

Think of them as the Imperial version of the Jem'Hadar Attack ship. Very dangerous, weapons focused on one target, and against smaller targets (not protected by character shields) they are lethal. But in real combat they are not as much of a threat compared to Battlecruisers.

[Deepcrush]

You must have missed the whole part where we covered SW canon. ISDs are cruisers and are treated as top rate ships. SSDs (Battle Cruisers, Battleships, Dreadnoughts) have their own class system set up but much like old First Rate Ships of the Line are VERY VERY rare even in the massive SW galaxy.

The only canon destroyer type ship in SW is the Victory SD.

[Coalition]

You must have missed the whole part where we covered SW canon. ISDs are cruisers and are treated as top rate ships. SSDs (Battle Cruisers, Battleships, Dreadnoughts) have their own class system set up but much like old First Rate Ships of the Line are VERY VERY rare even in the massive SW galaxy.

The only canon destroyer type ship in SW is the Victory SD.

I probably missed the SW canon discussion. True, ISDs would be top-rate ships compared to the little system ships that the Rebellion has in large numbers. But compared to a SSD or similar, they are mere escorts.

In my opinion an ISD in Star Trek terms would be a Norway or Saber class. Against Fighters, Runabouts, or converted freighters they would be dangerous. Against a capital ship (War Galaxy, Sovereign) they are targets.

As to SSD and similar being rare in Star Wars, please remember the RotJ Death Star. It was built in secret, and the Rebellion only found out about it because the Emperor leaked the information. Figure how much material was used to make it, and realize that it was hidden from the entire galaxy. Compare the volume of a Death Star to the volume of a SSD, and you will see that SW can build a lot of them instead of a Death Star. A change in orders would mean they would be built in secret.

[Sionnach Glic]

Damn right. Any legged vehicle is just plain stupid.

Tell that to the Logging Industry. They're literally designing six legged walkers to make their environmental impact less.

Fine. Any legged military vehicle is just plain stupid.

[Deepcrush]

I probably missed the SW canon discussion. True, ISDs would be top-rate ships compared to the little system ships that the Rebellion has in large numbers. But compared to a SSD or similar, they are mere escorts.

The ISDs can escort SSDs but they are not in fact Escorts.

In my opinion an ISD in Star Trek terms would be a Norway or Saber class. Against Fighters, Runabouts, or converted freighters they would be dangerous. Against a capital ship (War Galaxy, Sovereign) they are targets.

You can take your opinion to any reach you want. However, the Norway and Saber are frigate and corvette sized craft that fit frigate and corvette roles. The ISDs are not such ships. The SW universe has the Nebulon-B frigate and the Corellian CR90 corvette to run such roles. Against fighters and small craft they are threats, against larger Destroyers and Cruisers they need massed numbers.

As to SSD and similar being rare in Star Wars, please remember the RotJ Death Star. It was built in secret, and the Rebellion only found out about it because the Emperor leaked the information. Figure how much material was used to make it, and realize that it was hidden from the entire galaxy. Compare the volume of a Death Star to the volume of a SSD, and you will see that SW can build a lot of them instead of a Death Star. A change in orders would mean they would be built in secret.

Thats true, and if it were up to me they would have done just that. However secret building or not, thats an OOU factor. IU, the SSD is treated as a battleship/battlecruiser classes. So, the classes under that would be the cruiser classes. ie... ISDs or Venators or MC80s or MC90s.

Under that would be the Destroyer classes. ie... Victory, Recusant and Providence.

Below them are the escort classes. Remember that scales in SW are more fitting to their combat roles and not just their size.

[Captain Seafort]

The ISDs can escort SSDs but they are not in fact Escorts.

If they're escorting then they're escorts. You could say the same thing about the Iowa class.

You can take your opinion to any reach you want. However, the Norway and Saber are frigate and corvette sized craft that fit frigate and corvette roles.

They're small-to-mid sized ships, just like the ISD. Relative to the size of the respective capital ships they're actually somewhat larger than the ISD.

IU, the SSD is treated as a battleship/battlecruiser classes. So, the classes under that would be the cruiser classes.

Agreed

ie... ISDs or Venators or MC80s or MC90s.

Nope - Vengeance, Mediator, Allegiance, Home One, etc.

Then you've got the ISD.

[Deepcrush]

If they're escorting then they're escorts. You could say the same thing about the Iowa class.

What I'm saying is that they normally aren't the escorts. Normally smaller destroyers and frigates are escorting them.

They're small-to-mid sized ships, just like the ISD. Relative to the size of the respective capital ships they're actually somewhat larger than the ISD.

Fair enough on the relative tonnage. SW has a habit of making massive jumps.

Nope - Vengeance, Mediator, Allegiance, Home One, etc.

Mediator is a Battlecruiser, part of the lower SSD ranking.
The only Vengeance I know of was an SSD battleship.
Allegiance is around the size of the Mediator. So it's either a Battlecruiser or a small Battleship.

However, Seafort is right about Homeone. So I'll change up what I put for the cruiser bracket.

Homeone - Big cruiser
ISDs (plus variants on the ISDs) - Mid cruiser
Venators, MC80s & MC90s - Small cruisers.

I've never heard of anything under 1200m in the Imperial or New Republic eras being classed as cruisers so I'm guessing that is the lower limit. Since the Providence class is listed as a destroyer and thats 1100m. I'd take fair bet the 1200m mark is the start of the current cruiser range.

[Captain Seafort]

There's one slight nitpick regarding your sizes - Allegiance is about the same size as Home One.

As for the brackets, it doesn't make sense for the cruiser bracket to be so wide, while the destroyer bracket is so narrow - you're looking at everything from over 8km long down to less than a km, and then 1km down to 800m (the Munificent class star frigates). It makes more sense if SDs go up to at least a few km (say, two miles for round numbers), cruisers up to 8km or so, battleships to 15km (upper limit - the Sovs) and dreadnoughts beyond that (based on the fact that "dreadnought" seems to have become a ship type in its own right).

[Sionnach Glic]

Yay, Seafort's back from the dead.