Lit Fleet Junkie Flagship- The technical discussions of the GFFA (Capital Ships thread Mk. II)

I'd assume that the massive gravity well created by the gas giant Yavin made it impossible to jump from hyperspace right on top of Yavin. Beyond that, I don't overthink those sorts of things. Star Wars isn't hard science, folks that try to view it that way are in for a frustrating time.

--Adm. Nick

 

It could also be an issue with the size of the ship....Smaller ships can get closer and cut corners more...something the size of the DS is pretty much able to jump to the edge of a system or into space between planets and cruise the rest of the way.

 

The book Tarkin has microjumps, there are examples in other books too possibly. I think it being an issue with DS (scale, gravitation between between the planet, moon, and station), and Tarkin's 'hubris'/thought process making him disinclined to do that, work well in-universe. Out of universe I don't really think about it because I feel the approach of the Death Star really heightens the tension of the battle and the stakes.

 

This just dawned on me. They attack the planet with a laser battering ram thingy made from "miniaturized Death Star tech." Why is the Eclipse or Sovereign not a thing then? I feel like the First Order showing up with a fleet of those in TFA would've been a far better plot then Starkiller base. It would've cost them less resources too probably.

 

We really don't need more power creep.

 

It's not like 30 minutes was all that long of a wait for the Death Star to get into firing position. Even if the Death Star could do microjumps, it probably wasn't worth firing up the hyperdrives just for that...and with the planet in the way, I'm thinking it might have taken even longer than 30 minutes than just going around by sublight engines.

 

Really, I feel the DS-1 should not have even been able to go into hyperspace, since it is 160km.

 

Then what on earth would the point of a planet-killing superweapon be? You'd build it at one planet, and that one planet is all you'd be able to blow up, then its 10000 years to travel to the next closest one, God forbid you need to blow up a planet on the entire opposite end of the galaxy.

 

How else would it go places to threaten planets with being shot at (and carry out the shootings if threats don't work)?

 

True, but I mean, it's like sending the moon or pluto through hyperspace, It has always irked me because of how big it is.

 

The Moon and Pluto are much bigger than 160km though. Pluto is over 2000 km in diameter - some 13x as wide as the DS1.

 

Size is not a problem. We're talking about transiting into a different dimension to transit across vast distances in a matter of minutes/hours/days. Different dimensions can have different rules. The only rule we know that has any play on Hyperspace is immense gravity of realspace objects (stars, black holes, planets). We don't know if the reverse is true.

The Death Star coming out of hyperspace and settling into a system should throw orbits out of wack by some degree, depending on the size of nearby objects

 

Weren't microjumps established to be really tricky to pull off anyways? I can only recall Thrawn and Jedi doing it. If it's tricky to pull it off with regular ships, imagine trying it with a massive, one of a kind space station that the Emperor put a lot of work into. Waiting 30 minutes is the safe/sane option.

 

And it's not like Tarkin was concerned about his plan. If he was he would have deployed more fighters or brought in destroyers. He didn't.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but they were used a decent amount in the X-wing books.

 

Well either the Death Star can travel through hyperspace...or else it's stuck in whatever solar system it was built in.

 

Honestly, even with all of Tarkin's hubris, if it wasn't for Luke, he would have won. Even if the Rebel fleet had been ten times the size it was at Endor, it probably couldn't have taken the first Death Star, which is why they were so desperate to destroy the second Death Star before it was completed (no exhaust port this time).

That "miniaturized Death Star battering ram" felt silly though. Like why bother with dragging that thing down there when it could be mounted on a Star Destroyer? Well, most of the fleet had been wiped out earlier, but still, for something that's supposed to be related to the Death Star, it was underwhelming (it blew a hole in the base door and that's it). But then that whole battle was boring anyway (rusty skimmers vs. brand new AT-M6).

 

I think the goal was to take as many Resistance members as possible alive. Thus, the cannon does minimal collateral damage - blows a hole in the base door, but doesn't incinerate everything within the base.

It needs therefore to be precisely positioned, on a stationary surface. Firing it from a Star Destroyer, might compromise that - it would also mean that the beam slants down from the Star Destroyer (since Star Destroyers that size don't land), instead of firing straight at the door.

 

You don't send a Tector to do these jobs. You send an ImpStar, or a VicStar; they're the generalist ships that can operate independently. The Tector is in a fleet somewhere, served by fleet tenders and waiting for its chance to pummel some poor target into pudding.

I've always just assumed that micro-jumping a moon-sized object was such a colossal waste of resources that not even the Empire would justify it lightly. When your only concern is thirty gnats buzzing around your behemoth, better to just take your time and complete your orbital approach. Kriff, it might have taken nearly half an hour just to prep the hyperdrives of the Death Star to make a jump anyway; I can imagine moving 17 million cubic kilometers of technology into hyperspace being anything but a trivial matter.

 

Not that I can recall. Wookieepedia has a list of apperences, and the X-wing books aren't among them. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Precision_hyperspace_jump

Ok, what if it's not a planetary Governor, but Darth Vader, who wants to talk to the captain about his performance? Bet the captain would be wishing they had at least a small hangar then.

I understand the idea of specialization, but it seems more like a handicap if it's completely useless in any other situation and unless it's surrounded by other ships. (The Empire appears to like sending Star Destroyers on their own anyways). I mean, if the continuity error never happened, would people really be clamoring for a new Star Destroyer deign without a hangar to fill this obvious tactical gap in the Imperial fleet?

Despite what I said above, I don't think i'd mind as much if it was a completely original Star Destroyer design that just happened to not have a bridge. But it's not, it looks exactly like an Imperial Star Destroyer, except without the hangar and the handwave informed attribute "oh it's got lots of armor. Trust us". If the Tector is supposed to be so role specific, so dependent on other ships, then why make it look almost exactly like another ship designed to be completely independent? As an example,the X-wing is often described as a "jack of all trades, master of none" ship able to fill a variety of roles, and whose hyper-drive makes it independent. This is like introducing a new rebel fighter that looks exactly like the X-wing with slight cosmetic changes, and claiming it's now only good at being a bomber and only when working with other ships.

 

My point is you would still need some sort of shuttle capability so you are not showing up and relying on wherever you go to to send a shuttle to pick you up from the ship. Sentinel, Lambda and possibly even TIE/sh types.

Imagine a fleet operation and the Fleet Commander calls a meeting on the flagship...do you as the captain of the Tector say "Hey...can someone pick me up on the way??"

 

I think that is as good of an explanation as any. You would think if they wanted everyone dead, it probably would been pretty easy to do from a distance.

 

Oh about the Tector:

Having no hangar might be a bit limiting, but ships can still dock! Plenty of smaller ships don't have hangars themselves. They operate fine.

 

removed, flame. /heels

 

removed, flame. /heels