The Clone Wars: Incredible Vehicles (spoilers inbound!)

Thanks again! And thanks for the disclaimer.

 

Or even reactor size. Larger reactor means more power to the guns, even if there is the same number still.

 

What I always wondered why if warfare in Star Wars really only needed ?MORE POWER? why arn?t warships just battle spheres similar the death star with really big guns? But actually outfitted with batteries of relatively small guns and projectile weapons they use in barrages against each other and for anti-fighter defense.

There must be some clearly limiting factors of how much power you can actually channel through certain weapons and small weapons have to be a danger to big vessels, otherwise they wouldn?t use them on the big vessels themselves, and those on the other hand would not actually be outfitted with anti-fighter weapons.

 

The sphere-shape is taken by some cultures, notably the Yevetha and the militarized autonymous Core Ships during the CW.

Usually, most civilizations create shapes that serve a specific tactical purpose, either focusing firepower (dagger), shielding hangar bays (the Inexpugnable's hangars being in the center portion of the superstructure) or to launch fighters quickly (Quasar Fire-class carriers and Imperial escort carriers that have forward-facing launch bays).

Sometimes the hull also seem to facilitate larger-calibre guns that might have support systems or outright barrels that extend through parts of the ship (Munificent, Recusant, MC80 Liberty). The Liberty movie model is notable for this, with it's two forward gun ports sticking out of the main hull. The Tech Comm site has exhibition photos that show them in some detail. Really interesting.

The main hull is focused around the reactor core, or the multiple cores in some cases. There's auxiliary reactors and fuel silos. After all that, the ship's crew has to be accommodated for and then the complement of fighters and/or ground units. That's why I like the ICS books, to see how it all fits into the design. The latest Malevolence cross-section even showcases the ion cannon reactors and secondary generators separate from the ship's main reactor. That would be two reactors for the ion cannons and four secondary generators. Pretty impressive setup.
Of course, the reason the Death Stars weren't created long before was due to a lack in power generation tech for a vessel of their sizes. The DS interior is basically set up around the massive reactor core and its shaft. It's like the most basic shape a warship can have with all the supplementary reactors and generators, crew housings and defenses forming shells upon shells around the reactor core itself.

Makes me wonder what the Jenth-class hypermatter core is that was mentioned on the original Podcast back in 2008. Umak Leth said it could power a massive warship, which makes me wonder what it was powering at the time, a large, conventional warship or a massive freighter like the Lucrehulk-classes?

 

@ focusing firepower (dagger)

At which the ImpStar and Venator seem to kind of take a wrong approach because the actual model can only use the 2 of their visible ?big guns? in a forward direction, so would actually have to flank their enemies or ?angle up? at them to effectively use them. Which seems to imply that the small, far less visible guns spread across the forward hull are what actual should deliver the ships main firepower.

@ that's why I like the ICS books, to see how it all fits into the design.

Except for the carried ships which appear way to big in the ICS books :/


@ The latest Malevolence cross-section even showcases the ion cannon reactors and secondary generators separate from the ship's main reactor. That would be two reactors for the ion cannons and four secondary generators. Pretty impressive setup.


Most likely what saved Grivs life. If the Ion canons were hooked into the main reactor the ship would properly have gone the way of both Death Stars. ^^

 

That's why engineers love redundancy in safety equipments. If not part A, then part B, if not part B, then part C. etc...

Yes, I remember noticing the strange statement about the dagger-shape being brilliant for forward strikes...when all heavy guns line up behind each other.
The Sith battlecruisers of TOR actually have some side-by-side, so ship-designers apparently got dumber as the millennia went by.

 

Actually, the ISD can fire all the heavy turrets forward. Assuming there is no large "muzzle blast" they should be fine. A smart ISD commander would drop the nose a tad anyways, so the rear of the hangar bay can't be hit.

ISD Orth Views

 

Well, the whole "dipping down" movement just to fire all your batteries seem to be an unnecessary hindrance when the lore tries to get us to believe this isn't even necessary. I just wish some writers would just take a few minutes to check out the model shots before writing up stats. Remember the debacle with the WEG stats for the ISD-I vs. the actual model design? Eventually, the first ICS made the detailed model cross-section where the correct big guns were featured prominently and then DeAgostini's ISD issue combined the model guns with the WEG stats for both the I and II subclass. I don't know how they'll fit all of those inside the ship, but they have to because there's little room for them outside.

 

Nah, its because all the Republic and Sith Empire engineers built time machines and traveled to the Clone Wars and Galactic Civil War era to rip off, er, borrow designs which is why TOR ships make slightly more sense than the classic Imperial-class Star Destroyer.

When they first made the Star Destroyer, were they ever actually taking that much into account? I mean way back in the first Star Wars back in 19-something, but oh well, the coolness factor makes up for it anyway. Just too bad that means most other subsequent designs are drawn with much more detail than many OT-era designs (even the ICS can only do so much based on the movie design).

Which is why I like the Pellaeon-class design, with all the big guns clustered at the top and/or at the sides, as an obvious evolution/improvement of the Imperial-class design in an appropriate time period... compared to how its now sorta stars with first the Interdictor in KotOR then the Sith ships in TOR then the smaller Venators of the Clone Wars... then apparently the efficiency of the design "regresses" a bit with the Imperial-class.

Although unless the enemy ship is above a Star Destroyer, only so many guns can hit an enemy ship at once. Heck, I think in one novel a Mon Calamari cruiser is facing down an oncoming Super Star Destroyer and continually staying in front of it to keep it from jumping to hyperspace, and Zsinj comments Solo in the Mon Calamari cruiser can bring more firepower to bear at one time compared to him only being to use whichever guns can aim forward that much. Having that many guns on one ship is still very useful.

I don't own the book (no space to store it at the moment), but I remember the Malevolence had at least a secondary bridge and... a tertiary bridge too? Another cool thing about its design, being able to easily see where the other bridges are (if we ever get any future Mon Calamari designs, I'd like to see something like that, but considering how few new ships the good guys get, especially capital ships, I doubt it). Although the main bridge really is kind of exposed, but then most pilots (aside from the occasional Jedi) probably could never get close enough. And if something ever did happen to Grievous, its not like any droids at the other bridges could do anything to save the ship.

 

What irks me further about the WEG-era, is that they also neglected the clear gun-muzzles on the Liberty model, with charring alongside the barrel and all. Instead, the non-descript bulbs get to be turbolaser stations. What's funny is that the movie ships often have two very distinct design patterns for weaponry.
Smaller batteries and several large, forward-facing guns or launchers (Acclamator, MC80 Liberty, Munificent, Recusant), or those with a row of big guns on top (Venator, Imperial).
The larger movie ships (Lucrehulk, Executor) are a bit more variable, with the Lucrehulk starting out with quad-guns for anti-fighter duty and then getting long-range guns and heavy cannons in the CW. The Executor model has a lot of dots on the surface which might be like clusters of heavy turbolasers like the ISD-I heavy battery.

The Lucas-supervised tv show then has the Malevolence, which adds a little from side A and a little from side B. Two huge cannons and rows of big guns.

What's interesting about the Inexpugnable in KOTOR, is that it seems to have just a few guns on the surface, but each seems as big as the large twin turbolaser on the Munificent. That gun, in turn, was said to usually be attached to larger warships than the Munificent (ROTS:ICS), so might there be a retroactive tie-in? Wonder what kind of ship models they were made to go with originally?

Depends on the caliber and the power generation equipment. In SW, with all their energy-weaponry, having two ships with the same type of guns but the ships have different sizes and a different amount of guns, means the larger ship will have an advantage in recharging and supplying its guns than the smaller.

All they'd have to do, would be to hit the hyperspace button.