[Megawolf492]

Nothing in the Expanded Universe is internally consistent with other Expanded Universe works anyway,

That's a kind of ridiculous statement to make considering most of the EU actually doesn't step on each others toes at all.

Yeah, the only instance of inconsistency that I know of is the Clone Wars books. They kinda messed up their timeline with respect to the rest of the EU. I believe they have since fixed this, but this is the only major mistake that I know of. Sure, there are probably a bunch of minor mistakes throughout, but generally newer books try to fit in with the rest of the EU.

when they tell you that Deck 5 is about to blow out and then we cut to an exterior shot of half a deck exploding, are you saying it's something other than Deck 5 blowing out?

That makes the most sense. They show something explode then immediately tell you the shields are down. We don't have an unreliable narrator here and the whole "the empire would never do that" argument isn't definitive or strong enough to overturn it. Sure, having shield generators exposed would be kinda stupid (unless for some reason they HAD to), but it's also stupid to have the bridge the only system able to keep the ship operational. There should be backups in case the bridge went down.

I know at least one (rather good, in fact) book...

May we have a name?

[Lorric]

but it's also stupid to have the bridge the only system able to keep the ship operational. There should be backups in case the bridge went down.

Yes, unfortunately that statement adds credibility to the shields being the domes.

Imagine a ship that vast, and all you have to do is destroy the bridge and then it's nothing more than a car with a brick on the accelerator...

[headdie]

but it's also stupid to have the bridge the only system able to keep the ship operational. There should be backups in case the bridge went down.

Yes, unfortunately that statement adds credibility to the shields being the domes.

Imagine a ship that vast, and all you have to do is destroy the bridge and then it's nothing more than a car with a brick on the accelerator...

IIRC ISD and the Executor classes had backup bridges near the engineering sections of the ship, the EU I believe offers the explanation that in the case of the Executor the backup command crew were not able to establish control of the ship before the gravity from the second death star pulled the ship in

[Lorric]

but it's also stupid to have the bridge the only system able to keep the ship operational. There should be backups in case the bridge went down.

Yes, unfortunately that statement adds credibility to the shields being the domes.

Imagine a ship that vast, and all you have to do is destroy the bridge and then it's nothing more than a car with a brick on the accelerator...

IIRC ISD and the Executor classes had backup bridges near the engineering sections of the ship, the EU I believe offers the explanation that in the case of the Executor the backup command crew were not able to establish control of the ship before the gravity from the second death star pulled the ship in

Ah, that's not so bad then.

[Phantom Hoover]

Nothing in the Expanded Universe is internally consistent with other Expanded Universe works anyway,

That's a kind of ridiculous statement to make considering most of the EU actually doesn't step on each others toes at all.

Yeah, the only instance of inconsistency that I know of is the Clone Wars books. They kinda messed up their timeline with respect to the rest of the EU. I believe they have since fixed this, but this is the only major mistake that I know of. Sure, there are probably a bunch of minor mistakes throughout, but generally newer books try to fit in with the rest of the EU.

Timelines are kind of a different kettle of fish because they're generally little more than flavour detail with a limited effect on the actual story, and it's very easy to accidentally create inconsistencies amidst the web of cross-references.

[Grizzly]

Not to mention they made the classic mistake of "radar domes = shield generators", so you could literally solo a Star Destroyer without even using torpedoes by taking out the domes and then plinking it to death.

I hate to tell you but by now that's not a mistake. If it ever actually was.

The radar dome exploding was a symptom of the shields being down, not the cause of it. Not even the Empire is stupid enough to paint a shield generator with a giant bullseye; radar domes actually have a reason for being off the hull like that.

I dont see much other than the dome exploding, also lifting the shields away from the hull can be made to have logic if needed but I agree it was probably more of an artistic decision

On the other hand, the Star Wars universe is well known for having ships with critical design flaws. Possibly, the radar dome going down is what causes a malfunction, causing the shields to go down almost simultaniously.
Or it just looked cool.
That's probably the reason.

[ShivanSpS]

And thats why the bridge must be in the safer part of the ship, whats the point of placing it exposed with windows that are structural weakness.

[MatthTheGeek]

The point is that it looks cool. Your argument is invalid.

[Lorric]

The problem with Star Wars is that those ships were put together for a movie. No one was going over them with a toothcomb to make them balanced and effective for their role in a simulated engagement. They just needed to look nice for the films.

[MatthTheGeek]

Also, real-life ships, vehicles, and hardware in general, are flawed. If you really want something that makes sense in a given universe, finding and removing flaws is going straight the wrong way.

[Phantom Hoover]

But so is introducing glaring, unremarked-upon flaws in the design of every single ship.

[Mongoose]

If we're continuing down this fun little tangent, wouldn't it make reasonable sense for a device that projects an energy shield over an entire ship to have to be positioned in a place where it can, y'know, actually project over the ship?  Having shield emitters need to be positioned on the ship's exterior seems like far less of a logical leap than having them be buried somewhere in the innards.

[headdie]

every machine no matter how well designed is flawed by virtue of it needing to balance conflicting needs, for example, a door, no matter how well designed will be weaker than the wall it's attached to and yet the door is needed to allow access.

also ask this.  are the shields on a star destroyer a field or a barrier?

if they are a field then yes they are poorly placed.  if they are a barrier then all points that generate/manipulate it must allow the barrier to go around the ship without intersecting it and if the design of the hull forces you to mount the generators/manipulators away from the hull to make them work properly then that is what you must do.

[AdmiralRalwood]

when they tell you that Deck 5 is about to blow out and then we cut to an exterior shot of half a deck exploding, are you saying it's something other than Deck 5 blowing out?

That makes the most sense. They show something explode then immediately tell you the shields are down. We don't have an unreliable narrator here and the whole "the empire would never do that" argument isn't definitive or strong enough to overturn it. Sure, having shield generators exposed would be kinda stupid (unless for some reason they HAD to), but it's also stupid to have the bridge the only system able to keep the ship operational. There should be backups in case the bridge went down.

The reason it's stupid is because no other class of ship (not even on the same scale as star destroyers) has giant, exposed shield generators. Later works have apparently retconned them into hyperspace communication domes that also have shield projector vanes? I don't know; Wookieepedia has never exactly been perfectly reliable, and I kind of stopped trying to keep track of the EU's continuity snarl.

I know at least one (rather good, in fact) book...

May we have a name?

It's in the X-Wing series. I think the particular book I'm thinking of is Iron Fist; specifically, the battle for Razor's Kiss.

[headdie]

when they tell you that Deck 5 is about to blow out and then we cut to an exterior shot of half a deck exploding, are you saying it's something other than Deck 5 blowing out?

That makes the most sense. They show something explode then immediately tell you the shields are down. We don't have an unreliable narrator here and the whole "the empire would never do that" argument isn't definitive or strong enough to overturn it. Sure, having shield generators exposed would be kinda stupid (unless for some reason they HAD to), but it's also stupid to have the bridge the only system able to keep the ship operational. There should be backups in case the bridge went down.

The reason it's stupid is because no other class of ship (not even on the same scale as star destroyers) has giant, exposed shield generators. Later works have apparently retconned them into hyperspace communication domes that also have shield projector vanes? I don't know; Wookieepedia has never exactly been perfectly reliable, and I kind of stopped trying to keep track of the EU's continuity snarl.

I know at least one (rather good, in fact) book...

May we have a name?

It's in the X-Wing series. I think the particular book I'm thinking of is Iron Fist; specifically, the battle for Razor's Kiss.

the one where one of the wraiths piggybacks on the hull of the razors kiss and blasts the shield generator to give the Mon Remonda a fighting chance against both SSDs

[ShivanSpS]

Actually Battlestar Galactica made it right, no fancy windows and the bridges of both the Pegasus and Galactica where very well protected, placing something so important like the command crew so exposed is just stupid, there is nothing cool about it, its just a massive design flaw.

[MatthTheGeek]

You just have no sense of cool. Sucks to be you.

[Lorric]

Might as well paint a target on both the bridge and the generators.

[headdie]

Actually Battlestar Galactica made it right, no fancy windows and the bridges of both the Pegasus and Galactica where very well protected, placing something so important like the command crew so exposed is just stupid, there is nothing cool about it, its just a massive design flaw.

most modern warships still have the navigation bridge high up on the superstructure towards the front

[BritishShivans]

The thing is tho, on the vast majority of modern warships, the "bridge" as people usually think of it is just a place to drive the ship from.