Rogue One Vehicles/Tech in Rogue One

From a pure design perspective (leaving aside whether or not they are EU-like), both the Rebel Starfighter and the TIE striker are excellent. Put them in photoshop, color them in black, and you can see what excellent silhouettes they have. The most important part of a design is its form - its basic shape - and these are very successful in that regard.

 

Yeah, yeah, I get that


I guess I should just be glad that these designs aren't based off those terrible Resistance starfighter designs in the "Art Of TFA" book.

 

Looks like there's some type of crew compartment on the underside of the U-wing.

And I'd be willing to bet that we've seen an early version of a U-wing before:



Not sure about the scale though. In the concept art, the ship looks fairly large -- note the troops in the open hatchway in the lower side of the hull. The U-wing that leaked today looks more starfighter-sized, but that lower compartment with the windows is intriguing.

 

So the U-Wing could be a troop transport, eh? I like that.

Also what does AT-ACT stand for? All-Terrain Armored Combat Transport perhaps?

 

[quote="Oissan, post: 53575367]

I don't find the ship-designs of both TFA and Rogue One - or what we have seen so far - all that interesting. The TIE Striker is really unimaginative, and quite frankly, also completely unnecessary. Especially for a movie like Rogue One. It would have been a better fit for TFA. As for the U-Wing, that one is even worse. It looks like they took a snowspeeder, added X-Wing engines to it and something long to the front for no apparent reason. The last bit has some similarity with Zam Wessell's speeder in AOTC, though that one had much better proportions. This one just looks weird all around.

I'm not sure why they add new designs to a movie that plays basically at the same time as ANH, while keeping the designs of the movie that plays 30 years after the OT mostly similar to those. Rogue One would have lended itself perfectly to use the old designs. It's one thing to have slightly differences, like with the AT-ATs, but something entirely different to have something entirely new. Because with that you have to explain why the Empire and the Rebels never used any of those in the OT. For TFA, meanwhile, you easily could have explained these things as new designs.
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Couldn't agree more. I wonder how closely the art departments of TFA and Rogue One worked. Or when the design for the Striker was conceived in relation to the TFA concept. The Striker seems like a natural progression of the TIE and something that would have made much sense to see in TFA.

The only thing I can think of is it becomes the precursor to the TIE Interceptor.

 

I think there is some in world justification for TFA's more conservative designs, at least as far as the Resistance goes. The Republic had experienced 30 years of peace, and a policy of disarmanent, so it's likely that they'd have invested very little towards starfighter design, and their miliitary in general. Just updated the old workhorses of the civil war.

I suppose the First Order's reliance on TIE's and Star Destroyer's could be ascribed to their reverance for the Empire.

On the other hand, I can completely buy that Palpatine had all sorts of dangerous toys and experimental craft that we didn't see in the OT. It follows that war time encourages the development of military technologies. Makes sense to me.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the Galactic Empire had some crazy prototypes build during the Galactic Civil War. Just look what the German Reich build or planned during WW2...

 

Alright, let's take a look based on that analogy:

• standard TIE fighter = Messerschmitt Bf 109 (34,000 built)
• TIE Bomber = Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" (6,500 built)
• TIE Interceptor = Focke-Wulf Fw 190 (20,000+ built)
• Vader's TIE fighter = Messerschmitt Me 262 (1,430 built)

I could bring myself to like the TIE Striker if it were a TIE design used exclusively by these new Death Troopers (which we didn't see again in the OT, too). I speculated a couple of weeks ago that these might be a cool Star Wars variant of a paratrooper. Now, if the TIE Striker were sort of the equivalent of a "parachute"...

 

I love the look of the driver's.

 

I quite like the new designs. i like the Striker more than the U-wing, that could change when seeing them in the actual movie.
i find the that the new designs are justifiably getting criticism, considering the apparent look, especially when comparing TFA lack of development. however, there's likely going to be throw away lines that support the notion that these are experimental ships. i suppose we have to remember this is likely a time where the Empire were at their strongest and most stable point in their reign. that probably means they had time / resources to experiment with new designs, while they may very well have proved not as efficient (in this battle possibly, in the movie) hence why they dont appear in the OT. or too costly, or... a variety of other reasons. while when we get to TFA there likely wasn't as much resources being put towards new or experimental vehicles/weaponry.

the U-wing though i would say is more a support type of fighter. i agree with others that the long fork/front is not really necessary, but once its shown on screen it may 'fill out' in proportions and indeed may show some other things that make them necessary. these look like sketches and show "not final" so theres likely more development going into them, while the movie itself will show them in action rather than on paper, so context is necessary

 

Thoughts -

THE TIE STRIKER: AERIAL ASSAULT VEHICLES - Ignore the generic TIE Fighter description (placeholder) and you have a TIE that is designed to attack ground forces. If the picture is correct then the 'Aviation Regulator', the larger and more horizontal wing and the streamlined fuselage are clues that this machine is designed to spend more time in an atmosphere than a normal TIE fighter. The only fly in the ointment is that if they are designed to support a ground attack then where were they on Hoth?

The U-Wing - I have a feeling that this is the Troop Transport. If the illustration is correct could the cockpit actually be a side-by-side arrangement for two crew (with perhaps room for others behind)? This could explain away the size issue and bring it in line with the burning wreckage in the trailer and spy photos. This is the Star Wars equivalent of an Assault Helicopter I think.

 

What I like is that it hints that we will get a fricken classic space dogfight in this movie. And I approve of that very much.

 

I think the not final stuff refers more to the mess of text. They're obviously not going to have any say in what ends up on screen, so the images came from lfl, and I don't think they'd passed on unfinished stuff.

I also don't think there'll be any lines, throw away or otherwise on the new ships. Look at real world movies. If I watched top gun (am I dating myself with that?) I'd think that all jets were f-14s. Of course there are tons more than that in just our own armed forces, not to mention the planes of the rest of the world. One of the things people on the boards (and elsewhere) have complained about is the constraining of the gffa, so I think it can be expanded, without a need to be explained. There is lots of room for lots of ships, troops, etc.

It looks like they were in the very first teaser that showed the troopers coming off the transport.

 

I wonder if the U-Wing is an obsolete ship.
Something like the Y Wing that gets phased out as the faster X, A and B Wings come into production.

 

GregMcP "I wonder if the U-Wing is an obsolete ship.
Something like the Y Wing that gets phased out as the faster X, A and B Wings come into production. "

That would not explain it's absence at the battle of the First Death Star only a short while after Rogue One. X-Wings and Y-Wings are also in Rogue One so the only viable explanation at this time is that it is the troop transport (which would not be seen in ANH).

 

If you look at the tentative cover for this book, the AT-ATs on the left side of the cover appear to have their side doors open. Perhaps we'll get stormtroppers or deathtroopers repelling from AT-ATs into ground combat?

 

Are we talking about the same ship? The souped up Snowspeeder with the two pointy fangs? That's a fighter.

It's not in ANH because reasons. Whatever headcanon reason you can invent.

 

GregMcP "Are we talking about the same ship? The souped up Snowspeeder with the two pointy fangs? That's a fighter.

It's not in ANH because reasons. Whatever headcanon reason you can invent. "

I doubt that we actually see 'that' ship in Rogue One. The troop ship in the first concept art and the actual thing in Rogue One are larger than that 'fighter'.

I'm beginning to wonder whether those stolen pages aren't a curve ball thrown out by LFL.

 

What the heaven's name are you guys talking about? Not ONCE did I mention Jedi or Sith.

You guys totally misunderstood what I wrote. Like, SO MUCH.

I was talking about how the BACKGROUND makes it look like it is Iraq or Afghanistan. I made it pretty clear. My point is that, even if you take away the stormtroopers, an image from a Star Wars movie should make you think of Star Wars. The only thing in that promo pic that's Star Wars is the stromtroopers. I never said they should ditch stormtroopers or TIE-fighters. I simply said that the background aestethics of Star Wars is just as important as what's in the foreground.

This was never an issue in the OT or PT. TFA succeeded in doing this with Jakku, but that's only because it's a complete rehash of Tatooine.

 

Tatooine looked like Tunisia, Hoth looked like Norway, the forest moon of Endor looked like a redwood forest, and this place looks a bit like Itaq (though based on the trailer, the place reminds me more of Islamabad or Kabul). Don't see what the problem is. Star Wars locations have always strongly echoed locations on our world, as they should. And clearly, in the actual film, the location will look distinct and Star Warsy. This is one piece of artwork from a leaked promotional book. Nothing to get worked up over.

 

I'm hoping we see some A280s and A280C's. cause i know we'l; see some DH-17 blaster pistols cause they were in the trailer.

 

Big Boss wrote

I agree with others that the long fork/front is not really necessary, but once its shown on screen it may 'fill out' in proportions and indeed may show some other things that make them necessary. these look like sketches and show "not final" so theres likely more development going into them, while the movie itself will show them in action rather than on paper, so context is necessary.

While the design apparently features X-Wing rockets I would have otherwise really missed the "S-foils". IMHO it's a popular belief that "S-foils" stands for "separation foils" but then why doesn't it explicitly say so?
The way I see it, "S-foils" is beautifully ambiguous, as it could also mean "space-foils" (instead or airfoils) or "solar-foils" (related to "solar fins", i.e. a method to dissipate waste heat from the reactors powering the rockets).
As a means to radiate waste heat, these "long forks" make perfect sense to me, but they help to reduce the ship's width (target surface) upon approach (something can't say for the TFA Resistance troop carrier...).

CrazyOldJedi wrote

The only fly in the ointment is that if they are designed to support a ground attack then where were they on Hoth?

You could then also ask why the Rebels on Hoth didn't use their X-Wings to fight the walkers. Maybe the protecting deflector shield was so close to the ground that it made the use of any other vehicles than snowspeeders impractical or impossible (besides, it didn't seem the walkers were in need of any support from above).

 

The picture and also the shots in the trailer are undoubtedly very modern in its depiction of Stormtroopers with the tank patrolling a town. But I think also that the background aesthetics aren't always the be all and end all. I grew up never thinking that the settings in the OT were obviously Tunisia, Norway etc and that was never an obstacle because the story and the characters immersed me enough to believe they were on another planet. I see no reason why that won;t continue with R1.

I really like that we are possibly seeing an Imperial occupation of a planet, very much in the visuals of recent occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and even further back to those we saw in WW2. Because after all this is what happens in war so I like that the vehicles on the ground will reflect this part of warfare.

 

I'm so confused...

What is 'that' ship? The one from the celebration teaser? It's pretty clear imo that its a u-wing.