[esarai]

Mefustae, all good points, but you missed a critical part of what I said--'terminal engagement.'  That means the final portion of the missile's attack, when jamming and evasive maneuvering have failed and the last line of defense is shields.  It assumes the missile has already successfully tracked to target and has a collision vector.  The missile travels at sub-light speeds so it can maneuver.  Once a hit is certain it accelerates to C and pretty much becomes a MAC projectile, smashing into it's target for massive damage.

Headdie brings up another good point.  At long ranges an attacking fleet could just jump out of the way, but at normal SW combat ranges, these would be inescapable.  I guess that means these wouldn't really work as a stationary defense, but a ship armed with such a missile would scare the piss out of any sane captain.

And good point--how the f*** do hyperdrives work?

[headdie]

The key point is that you can't go through a gravity well beyond a certain point/strength otherwise you get ripped out of hyperspace and if you are really unlucky go splat, squish or fizz against/in the the object causing the gravity well.  naturally occurring asteroids small enough to be towed can cause a large enough gravity field to force a ship out of hyperspace (there are occasional references to pirates using the technique to ambush target ships.)  there are also certain government ships around and post ANH with gravity projectors (though these are often extremely power hungry).

[Flipside]

I seem to recall the Empire had the Interdictor class Star Destroyer for exactly the job of disabling Hyperspace.

[headdie]

I seem to recall the Empire had the Interdictor class Star Destroyer for exactly the job of disabling Hyperspace.

yes but the drain from the gravity projectors was such that if any combat of decent size or a squadron of x-wings fired off a volley of torps the captain often had to deactivate the projectors to strengthen their shields to prevent damage to the thin hull and fragile gravity projectors.

[Flipside]

Yup, I could take out a 'Dictor with a Z95 given enough time in the LucasArts games, but I suppose it's kind of how modern fleets are comprised today, there are certain ships with specialised jobs that are pretty vulnerable and need to be protected by other vessels, such as an Aircraft carrier being surrounded by a ring of Ticos etc, since they are actually pretty weak defensively.

[Mefustae]

yes but the drain from the gravity projectors was such that if any combat of decent size or a squadron of x-wings fired off a volley of torps the captain often had to deactivate the projectors to strengthen their shields to prevent damage to the thin hull and fragile gravity projectors.

Good luck trying to get that squadron close enough to do any damage when the gravity well generators are active. They'd have to jump in at extreme range, and fight through whatever screening force is protecting the Interdictor, first. As Flipside said, it's doubtful such a tactically specialized ship is going to be operating on its lonesome.

Mefustae, all good points, but you missed a critical part of what I said--'terminal engagement.'  That means the final portion of the missile's attack, when jamming and evasive maneuvering have failed and the last line of defense is shields.  It assumes the missile has already successfully tracked to target and has a collision vector.  The missile travels at sub-light speeds so it can maneuver.  Once a hit is certain it accelerates to C and pretty much becomes a MAC projectile, smashing into it's target for massive damage.

Headdie brings up another good point.  At long ranges an attacking fleet could just jump out of the way, but at normal SW combat ranges, these would be inescapable.  I guess that means these wouldn't really work as a stationary defense, but a ship armed with such a missile would scare the piss out of any sane captain.

My point still stands; it's an inefficient way to battle. You've got a sub-C projectile (at least to begin with), in a fighter involving lasers. Granted, Star Wars lasers seem to move substantially slower than C, but they can't be intercepted or destroyed, which a solid projectile can. Granted, a terminal phase jump to lightspeed could almost guarantee a hit, but you'll need quite a few to piece the average shield. Let's just say I don't think hyperdrives are all that cheap.

[deathfun]

Know an efficient way to battle? Create a black hole using red matter
Wrong Universe, but still

[Mongoose]

Well, the EU did have the Sun Crusher, which is almost an equivalent.

[NGTM-1R]

Good luck trying to get that squadron close enough to do any damage when the gravity well generators are active. They'd have to jump in at extreme range, and fight through whatever screening force is protecting the Interdictor, first. As Flipside said, it's doubtful such a tactically specialized ship is going to be operating on its lonesome.

Depends. Anti-interdictor tactics have been proposed and used before; and the Interdictor's main function is to pull things out of hyperspace. Thrawn used it to drop reinforcements exactly where he wanted them, but it could be made to work both ways; why no one ever has is a minor mystery.

[Firstdragon34]

Wasn't there a space station that manipulated gravity? This happened in the EU before the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

[Kadaeux]

Wasn't there a space station that manipulated gravity? This happened in the EU before the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

Centrepoint Station? The one that could pull planets into Hyperspace etc?.

As for using Hyperdrive technology on missiles. That is seriously not going to work, they couldn't fit Shields or Hyperdrives on the TIE Fighters let alone missiles.


The main point being. You can have any fixed defence in the universe. Spend the Empires annual budget on it even. But any fixed or orbital defence will always be inferior ultimately to a ship of the same value (still going off of the kinetic weapons tangent) because a projectile in space has a range of 'until it hits something' A missile is much the same unless set to detonate after a certain time, only energy weapons realistically have a 'maximum range' in space.

And something fixed and orbiting around a planet will always be easy to hit. Especially compared to a ship 10-20 million kilometres away.

[Firstdragon34]

The Eye of the Palpatine was a ship and it was a supposed superweapon, was it not?

[Polpolion]

As for using Hyperdrive technology on missiles. That is seriously not going to work, they couldn't fit Shields or Hyperdrives on the TIE Fighters let alone missiles.

they are obviously not building big enough missiles then, the idiots

[Firstdragon34]

I agree with you the Empire was pretty stupid and cocky. Emperor Palpatine wanted it to last for Ten thousand years, but he didn't forsee Vader or Leia kicking his butt! The Yuuzhan Vong kicked their butt as well.

[Kosh]

Firstly, hyperdrives don't work like that. Secondly, this is space we're talking about. Space is big. Light speed is ****ing pedestrian compared to the scale we're talking about. A projectile moving at relativistic speeds could still be dodged, considering that the light given off by the missile will precede it, and something moving close to the speed of light can't really be expected to maneuver to target.

Yes but one thing FTL makes possible is for a ship to instantly jump in nearly anywhere in a solar system, including within "knife fight" range of your own ship, rendering those long range weapon sets far less effective than they otherwise would be.

[Firstdragon34]

The only problem about FTL is that your coordinates has to be exact or you will be in a lot of trouble. Unless you knew where the enemy was going to pop out, then it would be simple to do a short jump to scare the livng crap out of them.

[BloodEagle]

A lot of thoughts floating around at the moment aren't there?  Anyway, I was thinking, It should be ridiculously hard to conquer any planet that doesn't want to be.  Even a planet that is low tech by SW standards could put a giant railgun in orbit.  I don't care how good your shields and armor are, there won't be much left after getting hit by a slug the size of a buss at a quarter of the speed of light...  So yeah, thoughts?

Someone answered your question.

http://i.imgur.com/xWweh.gif

[Flipside]

Aldaraan shot first!!

[Firstdragon34]

Then it got blown-up by an overzealous Moff.

Quote: "This battlestation is the ultimate weapon in the universe!"

Yeah, I'm a Star Wars nerd. ;p

[watsisname]

Know an efficient way to battle? Create a black hole using red matter
Wrong Universe, but still

That pissed me off so much.  I mean, come on, they should have used dark matter instead of red.
By doing so they'd have made a reference to something that actually has a basis in real physics, a terminology that sounds much more foreboding, and a means for having something that looks much more badass than using a ridiculously delicious cinnamon ball as a weapon! So WTF.

* watsisname is so nerd-rage.