[brandx0]

Well, that was kind of the point though, that they were so immensely powerful and nobody could figure out why.

It's not as if the republic could also simply divert every fleet to go attack them.  Remember that at this point in time they're still fighting a couple other wars with various factions.  There was only one or two fleets available to use against the Yevetha

[Scourge of Ages]

Well, that was kind of the point though, that they were so immensely powerful and nobody could figure out why.

It's not as if the republic could also simply divert every fleet to go attack them.  Remember that at this point in time they're still fighting a couple other wars with various factions.  There was only one or two fleets available to use against the Yevetha

Given.

Even though it's been so long since I read it, the one thing that really bothered me about that trilogy is why McDowell (the author) felt the need to up and invent so many new fighters and bombers. Did the ol' B-Wing suddenly just not cut it? And why a "Recon X"? A-wing not scouty enough?

[brandx0]

I believe the idea of the Black fleet crisis was to show the new generation of the new republic.  B-Wings, A-Wings Y-Wings and X-Wings were now obsolete, as were the old mon cal cruisers and other material.  The idea was that as time progressed, so too would technology.  I mean by the time the Black Fleet crisis occurs the X-Wing is 20 years old, the E-Wing was built to replace it and thus the Recon X, where the X-Wing wasn't good enough to serve front line anymore, and so they relegated it to a support role (For a real life example, as the F-15 replaced the older F-4, the F-4 was still used as a reconnaissance place)

However fans liked their old fighters too much, and so the E-Wing and K-Wing were forgotten about, and more than 40 years after the X-Wing was built the new republic is still using them in a front line capacity.  It does stretch believability a bit, even though they are upgraded.  Why don't we see refitted F-104s and MiG-17s used in the front lines of the best militaries in the world these days?

Just some food for thought. 

[Herra Tohtori]

I believe the idea of the Black fleet crisis was to show the new generation of the new republic.  B-Wings, A-Wings Y-Wings and X-Wings were now obsolete, as were the old mon cal cruisers and other material.  The idea was that as time progressed, so too would technology.  I mean by the time the Black Fleet crisis occurs the X-Wing is 20 years old, the E-Wing was built to replace it and thus the Recon X, where the X-Wing wasn't good enough to serve front line anymore, and so they relegated it to a support role (For a real life example, as the F-15 replaced the older F-4, the F-4 was still used as a reconnaissance place)

However fans liked their old fighters too much, and so the E-Wing and K-Wing were forgotten about, and more than 40 years after the X-Wing was built the new republic is still using them in a front line capacity.  It does stretch believability a bit, even though they are upgraded.  Why don't we see refitted F-104s and MiG-17s used in the front lines of the best militaries in the world these days?

Just some food for thought. 

Well... There are examples of such developements in modern fighter pilots. Compare the F/A-18 A/B/C/D Hornet and the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. They are in fact different airplanes, the only thing they have in common is name for political reasons and general shape (which they share with most other fighter airplanes of their generation anyway).

Similarly I don't think the later X-Wing variants use even the same airframe as the original Incom T-65 "X-Wing" used, but are most likely complete re-designs into general shape of a very proven and successful earlier design.

Same actually goes with MiG-25 and MiG-31 as well as Su-27, Su-30, Su-33, Su-34, Su-35 and Su-37 (and the Chinese Shenyang J-11 but it's a licenced copy of Su-27). Historically the F-86 Sabre and F-100 Super Sabre have similar developement history. F-15 and F-16 have various variants but they still use primarily the same airframe (for now), but in a way you could count them in as well, since the later versions are very much different from the original versions...

[MR_T3D]

well i think that in SW tech is relatively stagnet, maening that ships can last for a long time.

oce they reached the level of working well enough (think of the X-wing as the AK-47 of fighters)

[Turambar]

Star Wars wasn't that technologically stagnant until the prequels and KOTOR came along.

we will probably do engine and weapon upgrades to the ships, like i recall reading something about an x-wing modified to have approximatly interceptor speeds sometime before the blasphemous xj-wing

[bobbtmann]

Star Wars wasn't that technologically stagnant until the prequels and KOTOR came along.

The Old Republic was supposed to be pretty darn old, even before KOTOR. It seems to me if that if the E-wing is much better than the X-wing, and the X-wing is better the Head Hunter, and the Head Hunter is better than its predecessor etc, and this trend continued for 20 000 years (or whatever is canon), then something is wrong here. Either the Star Wars universe was technologically stagnant up until the battle of Yavin, or the early fighters must have been lumps of immobile rocks. Same with droids. Apparently they got better and better, but they still can't pilot a fighter as well as a human (TIE/D).

I think with Star Wars it's best to not think about these things. Too many problems.

[chief1983]

It was stagnant for some extent I'm sure, but there could always have been dark ages where there were massive regressions in tech too.  I mean did they really cover everything that happened over the 20,000 years?  Who knows, maybe Coruscant had a bad falling out that started with a housing crisis

[Turambar]

I always took the lack of proper old-looking stuff to be representative of a lack of imagination on the part of the writing and design teams. 

[Narvi]

I'd vote to include Revenge of the Sith if someone would put the whole thing on youtube with the score isolated like they have with the original trilogy.  I think the Venator class fits in well with the real Star Wars aesthetic, though that might be the only one.  I don't mind the Acclamator either, it just doesn't seem to have very much character compared to the other star destroyers.  But yeah, as long as you could close your eyes and listen to the music when they fight the buzz droids it might be pretty watchable.  They do decapitate Christopher Lee.

Venators should have been Victories, and Christopher Lee wasn't bad, his lines were.  Also, my main gripe with the Venator is its magical ability to carry 35 squadrons of fighters compared to the Imperial's capacity of 6 fighter squadrons.  What the hell.

Victories are ugly as hell, though.

And the Venator is supposed to be a more dedicated carrier than the Imperial, isn't it? The Imperial carries more walkers and landers and the like. So it doesn't really bother me.

[Akalabeth Angel]

Venators should have been Victories, and Christopher Lee wasn't bad, his lines were.  Also, my main gripe with the Venator is its magical ability to carry 35 squadrons of fighters compared to the Imperial's capacity of 6 fighter squadrons.  What the hell.

Victories are ugly as hell, though.

And the Venator is supposed to be a more dedicated carrier than the Imperial, isn't it? The Imperial carries more walkers and landers and the like. So it doesn't really bother me.

        Was the Victory ever intended to be an actual ship though? From the Star Wars sketchbook, it seems to simply be a discarded concept for the ISD. But somehow at some point became a ship class of its own, just like the rejected art for the Corellian Corvette became the Corellian Gunship. And so who's making these decisions to make this old rejected concept art into real ships, and how much say does that person have for what's canon and what's not? It's like people making the designs for the old Volition concept art. Yeah, they're technically volition ships but they're not canon because it's just concept art that got rejected.

[chief1983]

It became EU canon when Lucas approved it for publishing.  No one at Volition has approved their concept art to model translations though, so those are still fanon.

[swashmebuckle]

Kabump so I was in the bookstore today trying to look like I wasn't perusing the Star Wars section, and I found that there are some pretty substantial X-wing comic book collections to be had.  The thing that kept me from buying one (other than not having a job) was that nobody had mentioned any such thing here even though it's pretty much as straight up space battle as the EU can get, which leads me to believe that they must suck.  So the question is, have you read them, and if so, do they suck?

[Pred the Penguin]

I think with Star Wars it's best to not think about these things. Too many problems.

I think the "lack" of intelligence in droids were due to the frequent memory wipes they received.

[Scourge of Ages]

Kabump so I was in the bookstore today trying to look like I wasn't perusing the Star Wars section, and I found that there are some pretty substantial X-wing comic book collections to be had.  The thing that kept me from buying one (other than not having a job) was that nobody had mentioned any such thing here even though it's pretty much as straight up space battle as the EU can get, which leads me to believe that they must suck.  So the question is, have you read them, and if so, do they suck?

I have not, and I'm currently working my way through "Legacy of the Force" so I have actually been in a bookstore. Frankly, I never notice the comic area on the SW rack; not sure why. The only comic I did read was the one with the world devastators, and that was from the library. I might check the X-Wing ones out though.

[Vip]

Actually, the X-Wing comics are made by Mr. Stackpole and therefore are quite similar to his X-Wing novels. If you liked this series, then you can give the comic books a shot. Lots of Rogue Squadron and space battles. I also like the style of it.