Why does the Empire build ships/transports that are rubbish and don't work?

I don't get it.
Look right the Empire must be well rich. Cos to have all those star destroyers and super star destroyers must cost nuff money.
Then there's the Death Star. Again that's top dollar. Can you imagine the electricity bill on that badboy.
Ok. So we've established the Empire is cash happy. Therefore it must pay it's staff good money otherwise it'd be recruting monkeys. Cos if you pay peanuts then you get monkeys but there ain't none on the Empire payroll. So if you pay well then you get good staff. So if the Empire has good staff who are proper clever and wise and the best brains in the universe then why do they keep building rubbish machines/transports and then send them to places where they don't work? Don't those boffins in machine development on Coruscant think longterm.
For example, AT-ATs look cool but in reality are rubbish and are easily brought down on Hoth. And the ice plays a big part. Why didn't the Empire just fly some spaceships down and destroy the rebel base that way. Like with some double powerful Tie-Fighters that could withstand the cold.
Here's another one: Scout walkers on Endor. They're rubbish too cos easily get knocked down by a few logs pushed by some skylarkers in bear outfits. What's that all about?
Is the Empire run by dense people or what?

 

AT-ATs look cool but in reality are rubbish and are easily brought down on Hoth.

Only two are bought down on Hoth and not all that easily.

One was bought down by a JEDI (in training) from the inside.
The other was bought down by tow ropes after all other attacks had failed due to the heavy armour of the walkers. The Empire would have had no idea that rebel speeders were fitted with two cables.

Apart from that the rest of the AT-AT's lay waste to the rebel base and force the evacuation...seem pretty effective to me!

They're rubbish too cos easily get knocked down by a few logs pushed by some skylarkers in bear outfits. What's that all about?

A few of the walkkers were AMBUSHED on Endor. Apart from that they also laid waste to alot of ewoks, trees etc.

 

I agree with you that the transports aren't very good. The AT-ATs and the AT-STs. But their ships are great. Star destroyers, tie fighters, the death star.

 

besides, the AT-ATs still got the job done..

..the Hoth generator was knocked out, so they're kind of expendable, big deal.. everything the empire has is expendable, in a word, TIE fighters, and stormroopers.. the empire couldn't care less what happens to them, but they still work

 

The AT-At's are IMO the coolest thing about ESB.

Whern i first saw it, they were awesome. You hear the deafening thumps as they approach, but you didn't know what was coming. Then you get the first shot of their legs thru the bino's and you start to freak 'these things are huge'

Bottom line.........they rule

 

By the time of the OT, the Empire, former republic, hasn't fought a real war since the Clone Wars. Why do they need the best at that point? There weren't any real threats until the "insignifcant rebellion" came around.

 

Star Destroyers and rubbish should never be used in the same sentence! they're are probably the most superior star cruiser in the galaxy.

 

I don't think they were in the same sentance, but I agree they rule.

 

You english good.

 

Solo77:Bottom line.........they rule

I couldn't agree with you more.Overall,AT-AT's may not be the greatest veicle/transport ever.But they get the job done.
1:they transport alot o troops.
2:They have amazing armor.
3.What they lack in speed,is made up in Fire Power.
4.And just as Solo77 said,they just rule!

 

The AT-AT isn't "rubbish". It's an armored personnel carrier, and it performs it's job perfectly. It heavily armed and armored beyond normal abilities to harm it. It's not slow either. It moves from the horizon to the base in five miutes.

TIEs werent use because of the shield. Remember the shield?

The AT-STs are light armor recon vehicles. Think hummer. Multi-ton logs smashing into a hummer will have the same effect.

We never see the Imperial war machines in the movies. Only scout cars and transports. There's no need for the heavy weapons to be called out for a pathetic bunch of rebels.

 

Thank God I am not the only one who always thought the AT-ATs and AT-STs were ridicules. Couldn't the Empire build caterpillar treads, I mean tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and half-tracks with World War II technology do much better over anytype of terrain than those silly walkers (that look more silly than cool, anyway); and after PT we realize that the
Republic even had tracked fighting vehicles so why the silly backward animal based technology? Ewoks could never stop a Sherman Tank with a couple of logs, so AT-STs are clearly inferior to WWII American equipment! This is just a case of putting cool effects over military credibility and good storytelling.

 

I imagine that there's a message in all this:

That mass-produced and cheap stuff (like tie fighters) are a BAD thing.

It's like a little morality play against the evils of industrialization and bureaucracy.

Plus, they're the BAD guys, and they have to be defeated by the good guys eventually.

 

The Rebels outplayed the Empire. Simple as that.

 

The Empire is like the former Sovjet Union: quantity over quality.

 

To say the Empire favored quantity over quality is a mistake. The Empire fielded millions of starships during the Galactic Civil War and they were all superior to the Rebels. The Empire had superior forces in general, they just got outplayed.

Plus, it's not like the Rebels produced any of their own stuff. They had to steal ships and equipment from the Empire and other forces and companies.

 

Guess again pookie.
Two multi-ton logs colliding with the sides of a Sherman would pop it like a balloon.
The rolling logs would either crush or burry it.
The Sherman would have had serious issues with the inital rope trap as well.

Besides, you're comparison is invalid. The Serman was a war vehicel. The AT-ST is a scout vehicle. It's more intelligent to compare an AT-ST and a Jeep.

 

You do realize WWII happened 60 years ago, right? I doubt a Sherman can withstand laser fire. Maybe an Abbrams or Bradley, you know, something a little more modern. Next you'll be saying the TIE Fighters should have propellers.

 

Why does Microsoft develop software that is rubbish and doesn't work? Because they can.

 

The Empire should have used those giant wheeled tanks from ROTS at the battle of Hoth. They were quite fast, could take direct hits from tanks, and fired an impressive amount of rockets in one volley. And they looked like they could hold more troops than an Imperial Walker. Don't know how well they roll in the snow, though. The Empire sure would have been wise to use more of the gunships from AOTC and ROTS. One of those could have won the battle at Endor. It could hover, fly low, hold troops and speeders, fire missles and rockets, had three laser cannons and four of those composite beam bubbles. The scout walkers of the PT were also more practical for the type of work they were doing on Endor. Sure, the driver is exposed, but they are much faster than the OT scout walker, and the driver has much greater visibility.

 

Your arguement is on two levels. The first as to the quality of ATAT's, etc. I guess we could say that if the empire invented unstoppable machinery the story would've ended in ANH and been a pretty simple story. Bad guy invents weapon, kills good guys, the end. I think a good tip before watching a scifi movie (much less a fantasy) is that you're probably going to be able to find a flaw with the science. This can best be explained by the fact that none of it actually exists.

Secondly, I can assure you that if you asked George Lucas himself if the Empire was paying top notch to its employees the answer would be no. Part of the "imperial" idea of government is that people don't really have a choice as to where they work or how much they get paid. While most of the elements of SW are drawn from mythology and classical archetypes, etc. the empire is based on certain 20th century govt.s which gave the world unprecedented bloodshed. As a matter of fact if we look at what happens to countries when a govt. like the empire in SW takes over, we see the intelligentsia either leaves or is killed. This is part of the reason that the alliance finding a flaw on the original DS is not such a crazy idea. Many of the best scientists would have left the empire whenever the opportunity presented itself.

 

"Couldn't the Empire build caterpillar treads, I mean tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and half-tracks with World War II technology do much better over anytype of terrain than those silly walkers"

Nothing we have on Earth could have 1) made an atmospheric reentry, 2) covered the Hoth terrain as quickly, and 3) destroyed the shield generator as easily or as far away as the AT-ATs did.

"Ewoks could never stop a Sherman Tank with a couple of logs, so AT-STs are clearly inferior to WWII American equipment!"

Good luck getting the Sherman Tank through that kind of forest. The AT-ST's would have left it behind.

Not to mention the fact that focusing on one flaw doesn't automatically completely invalidate the vehicle as a whole. The Empire was expecting a small rebel group as their only resistance. They were not expecting a large furry army of animals who apparently can cut through 20+ trees and carry them dozens of feet in mere minutes. I guess you didn't notice how perfectly and convenientally the logs were placed right where the walkers were heading.

Don't blame the armor, when Lucas decides that the ewoks shall suddenly have super-human lumberjack skills and Force-like foresight.

"Guess again pookie.
Two multi-ton logs colliding with the sides of a Sherman would pop it like a balloon.
The rolling logs would either crush or burry it.
------------------
You do realize WWII happened 60 years ago, right? I doubt a Sherman can withstand laser fire. Maybe an Abbrams or Bradley, you know, something a little more modern. Next you'll be saying the TIE Fighters should have propellers."

Good. Some common sense still exists. Next, we'll start hearing that since a Death Star can be destroyed with a single shot (provided you can survive the trip), this also makes it a stupid idea.

 

But you don't know that. The films really don't elaborate on the going-ons in the empire. Therefore, much of that is an assumption based on the mythological and historical corrolaries in the films. All official Star Wars sources give a widely different description of the Empire, but if you want to stick to the films, we really can't ascertain anything.

 

very true, AT-ST is a scout jeep or a hummer

 

I'm not claiming to know the inner workings of a fictional empire, I'm just offering reasons why I think the original post's assumptions are not the likely m.o. of any generic dictatorship, especially one that is as evil as the one in SW. All we can do watching a movie is make assumptions based on what we know in our world, otherwise how would we know everyone in the SW galaxy wasn't happy with the empire. Maybe Alderaan was just a troublemaker. Maybe everyone enjoyed be run by a tyrannical empire and the best minds wanted to make sure that this continued. Or maybe the best minds would see evil for what it is and try not to contribute, any more than they were forced, to the advancement of the imperial war machine.

As far as sticking to the films, I think there are lots of examples as to the best and brightest minds not working for the empire.
In the original trilogy how many aliens and women do you see in the empire? Where do you think all the aliens and women from the Republic went? Do you think even if aliens and women are forced to work for the empire but not allowed to participate they're going to be trying their best to develop technology for an empire that excludes them?