Damien Hailey
May 9, 2002:
But I noticed your remark about the ICS vs. the ESB asteroid field, particularly your line about why no one there has come to you about it. So, here I am. Maybe you can give me some answers that *don't* make the Empire look incompetent.
Perhaps you could give me a question that doesn't make you and your little friends look incompetent.
According to reports about the ICS (sorry, I'm broke. I can't get my hands on a copy myself yet), The turbolasers on a troop transport came out to be equivalent to 200 gigatons. While I think that's rediculously overinflated, I really have no problem with that(although I can hear some ASVS warsies wanking off to it from here).
Given the power of the Death Star and the fact that they are based on the same technology, anything less would be outlandish. Learn to accept it.
Then it went on to state that it's shields were in the multi-teraton range. This, I feel is past overinflated. Not because I'm a Trekkie(I'm not), but because of it's implications.
Perhaps you could first explain to me how you converted from watts (a unit of power, as given in the book) to teratons (a unit of energy, as thrown around in your spacebattles.com debates). You do know there's a difference between power and energy, don't you? Maybe you should try hanging out on ASVS for a while instead of spacebattles.com's "vs" forums. They'll straighten you out.
Basically, it would mean first that two transports can hammer away at each other for weeks and not suffer any damage. It also means that in order to take out a single transport, you would have to use *Heavy* turbolasers, which I'm not sure could even hit it, or have damn near the entire fleet pour all available firepower to take out a single transport. And if that was true, then apparently the Seperatists didn't have a chance in hell once they sent in the Clones (Okay, *someone* had to say it!).
See previous note. It is entirely possible to take down a troop transport without using an entire fleet's firepower, given the numbers in the book. Your failure to comprehend the obvious is not a valid argument.
Did you really think Curtis Saxton, a PhD astrophysicist, would just pull numbers out of thin air which are self-contradictory? The collective inability of the rabid B5 contingent on spacebattles.com's "vs" forums to distinguish between power and energy (a distinction they teach in high school), or to distinguish between physical impact protection and energy shielding is not my problem; it is your problem. You have people waltzing around there pretending to be science experts by spouting exotic jargon while tripping over their own feet on the most laughably elementary physics concepts; don't take things on their authority. Do some homework on your own, and then get back to me.
Then there's the infamous "Asteroid Impact" scene. Given the supposed Teraton-level shielding, I don't see how that asteroid field could've posed any danger to a Star Destroyer even if it powered through it at maximum combat speed, ignoring everything but Planet Killer-sized rocks.
Try doing some math on that. I'm tired of all these half-assed, half-baked qualitative assessments I get from fanboys via E-mail. Would it kill you to pick up a calculator and try some of these calcs before presuming the answer, and then expecting me to painstakingly walk you through the calculations you should have done before E-mailing me?
Some of the Warsies have offered explanations, chief among them being that the shields were down to recive Holonet transmissions from the Executor, and that the ISD in question had sustained damage from the Ion Cannon at Hoth, and both it's shield generators and turbolaser batteries weren't working at full capacity. But I think that even if the shields were at 1% capacity, and considering the fire they managed to put out, the still should've held out against what was at best a multi-megaton impact.
This is the best you could do? Someone points out that the bridge tower shields were probably down, so you answer that even at 1%, you feel they should have held? When shields are down, they're at ZERO percent! What part of this don't you understand?
At best I could figure out would be that the Particle Shields are extremely weak
"Extremely weak"? Relative to what? Star Trek, where Jem'Hadar fighters with orders of magnitude lower momentum than the TESB asteroid smashed their way clean through fresh, battle-ready, shielded Klingon warships in "Tears of the Prophets"? Babylon 5, where a miniscule Starfury crashed right through the dorsal fin of a Sharlin in "In the Beginning", also with far less momentum than the TESB asteroid? Please, enlighten me on what "extremely weak" means, and how you relate that to other sci-fi series.
or that they're right, and the Commander of that ISD was an idiot for going into that field with a not-even-combat-ready ship. To which they claim that Vader forced them to go in("Asteroids do not concern me"). But then that would make Anikin himself the fool for sending that one in, when he could've sent in another, less damaged ISD, or even sent in the Executor itself.
Here's a tip: when you analyze a film, it helps to watch it first. Vader did send in the Executor itself! And despite its enormous bulk and the staggering number of impacts it must have absorbed, it was completely undamaged. Same goes for the rest of the ships; they all came through the asteroid field without serious damage.
Only one ship out of his entire fleet sustained major damage, yet you categorically reject the notion that this ship was any different from the others. Why? Do you figure that it was the only ship that took a hit during their entire time in the asteroid field, despite its incredible density and the fact that the Falcon (a relatively miniscule target) was nearly pulverized flying through it?
So, assuming episode 3 doesn't shed some more light(i.e. proof) on the subject(and I don't want to wait that long, anyway), have you any better answers?
You act as though the answers already given by others are
inadequate, when your "rebuttals" are so far off the mark
as to be completely irrelevant. Try again.
Want more? OK,
just for fun, I'll give you a riddle to answer. There's a way that
the shields could have held firm against the rock, but it might still
have crashed into the tower. Can you figure out what I'm talking
about? Give it a try. See if you're up to it. Get your little friends
at spacebattles.com to help you out.
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