1998 Site Updates
December 30, 1998
New toy! I created a brand-new planetary parameter calculator page, linked to the DeathStar page. Just plug in the diameter and surface gravity level of the planet, and this handy-dandy calculator will automatically calculate the planet's mass, volume, density, escape velocity, and of course, Death Star firepower lower and upper limits.
Revisions to the Federation propulsion page. In the impulse drive section, I added discussion of the 15,600 m/s "maximum delta-v" of Bajoran impulse fighters at sublight velocities, and how Federation capital ships must be somewhere below this level of sublight performance since fighters have been seen easily outmaneuvering capital ships. In the warp drive section, I added some more figures to the warp speed chart, some information regarding upgraded maximum speeds in the DS9 TM, and a discussion of "Relics" and "Once More Unto the Breach" as they relate to the ability of a large gravity well to disrupt warp fields. This demonstrates that interdictor cruisers should be effective for holding Federation starships at sublight.
Slight revisions to the space combat maneuvering pages. The 300 m/s typical relative velocities of dogfighting Federation starships is mentioned, based on various Dominion-war incidents as well as ST:FC. Please note that this does not really mean anything; SW dogfighting speeds usually appear to be in the same range. It is only discussed because of the never-ending, and rather irritating Federation cultist claims that Federation starships dogfight at relative velocities like 0.75c, 0.9c, etc. Anyone who watched ST:FC without a blindfold knows that this isn't the case.
In a recent, brief excursion into the newsgroups, I discovered some lunatic running around claiming that the TESB asteroids were actually not vapourized, and that it is "one-sided" to apply NDF theories to phasers but not turbolasers. Although I had assumed that the distinction was obvious for various reasons, I decided to put a brief justification for the distinction on the asteroid vapourization page.
Finally eliminated the annoying "this section still under construction" sections in the Imperial special-tech page, by fleshing out a lot of the unfinished sections.
Added new items to the Federation special-tech page: the self-replicating mines from DS9, the hunter/killer drones from Star Trek: Insurrection, the various funky Federation materials such as duranium, tritanium, uridium, etc., and of course, the popular android Data.
Revised the Federation ground combat page to discuss the overblown claims for phaser battery cell storage capacity.
Added a fourth chapter to the fanfic.
December 23, 1998
Added a site index page, after receiving a helpful suggestion from Aaron Parsons. The number of pages on this website has grown to the point that it is actually possible for someone to navigate the site several times and not discover numerous pages, so they have now all been listed in one place.
December 21, 1998
More minor style changes:
Replaced the left-frame Imperial logo-buttons with a new, brighter image kindly donated by Ethan Platten.
Narrowed the left-frame buttons to 80 pixels from 100, due to some reader comments that the left-frame was taking up too much space.
Rearranged some of the left-frame button graphics on a suggestion by Brian Young.
Updated my personal home page.
December 19, 1998
Style changes (let me know if you give the changes a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down!):
The frames were rearranged so that there are now frames at left and top, and the frame borders were removed.
New large Empire-logo buttons were created for the Introduction, Technology, and Tactics pages. They go in the left-side frame. A "Return to home page" button was also created, for the left-side frame.
The old button frame was moved from the bottom of the screen to the top.
All of the buttons were visually enhanced with JavaScript OnMouseOver highlights.
The no-frames page was revised to duplicate the above changes as much as possible (except for the JavaScript, of course).
The thumbnail graphics on the Imperial Propulsion, Deathstar Firepower, and Alderaan pages were rearranged into narrow, centred no-border tables.
All of the 800 pixel-wide images were reduced to 640 pixel width, to cut down on page size, bandwidth, and problems with narrow screen resolutions (the layout only looked good with the wide pixtures at 1024x768 or higher, and although I personally run 1024x768, many people don't).
Changed some of the images on the Imperial Propulsion page into small thumbnails (linked to the original full-size images) to speed up loading time.
Enlarged the canon rules discussion on my Introduction page.
Transplanted the contents of the Abbreviations and Legal pages into the Introduction page (in my opinion, neither page was going to be visited so often that it needed to have its own dedicated button-link on the main page).
Rearranged the science pages a little bit, and added a new Bad Science page. The new page discusses the horrors of Federation cultist "science", in which technobabble and snap judgements take the place of rational analysis, evidence, and the scientific method.
Added a third chapter to my fanfic.
November 29, 1998
Expanded the myths page, by adding a discussion of the following specific myths:
Phase-coherent energy beams are more powerful than phase-incoherent energy weapons.
Weapon "technology level" is more important than weapon energy yield.
My pace of page development is dropping off now, as my workload is starting to skyrocket at my real-life employer (someone is taking a month-long vacation to India and I have to cover for him) and the Christmas rush of family activities is soon to begin in earnest (once you get married you instantly double the number of interminable family occasions that you must attend). Updates will be relatively sparse during the month of December.
November 22, 1998
Added a quote to the Imperial shielding page, from Anakin Skywalker: The Story of Darth Vader, discussing the multi-megaton nature of asteroid impacts in the TESB Hoth asteroid field. The shield estimates have been revised accordingly, and by interesting coincidence, they now line up perfectly with the shield estimates based on the ROTJ battle.
Due to some reader requests, I have posted the first part of a continuation on the story of the USS Carolina and its ill-fated expedition into Imperial space.
Added mention of the TNG episode "Allegiance" to the Imperial shielding page (Data says the E-D can't survive being only 10 million km from a pulsar).
Added quotes from DS9 TM to the Federation industrial capacity page (describing the Federation's view of the miniscule DS9 station as "massive").
Added an addendum to the war campaign page.
Added discussion of DS2 construction (and how it necessitated rapid-fabrication technology) to the Imperial industry page.
Replaced turbolaser turret image on the turbolaser page, with a slightly higher resolution version.
Slightly reorganized Imperial propulsion page for faster loading.
November 15, 1998
My son Matthew celebrated his third birthday today! I know this isn't related to Star Wars or Star Trek, but it's my page :)
Added Rebel Dawn notes to the Imperial propulsion page, establishing 20 million g's acceleration and 0.07c speeds as lower limits.
Added mention of upgraded TIE fighters and interceptors to the Tactics page.
Added mention of Tyderium's quick hyperjump from ROTJ, to the Imperial FTL combat page. Also revised the dispersion tactic concept so that it would work in conjunction with the destruction of the subspace relay network.
Updated the campaign page, to include some new ideas and remove some redundant material.
November 8, 1998
Added a hyperdrive tactics page (SW FTL combat, in the Tactics area).
Added a list of requirements for a competing phaser operation theory, in the phaser page. This was done because ignorant Trekkies have been popping out alternative theories like hotcakes.
Added a "process analysis" discussion to the science page, to describe the reason rational people discuss results rather than process.
Revised the "philosophy" section of the science page, so that it truly discusses the philosophy of science rather than being a tirade against stupid Trek-isms.
Revised frontpage buttons with smaller graphics. The old graphics were much too big, and I couldn't fit them into a single row on a 640 pixel-wide screen. This way, I can fit more buttons onto the screen, so I added a new "myths" button and an e-mail button.
Added a new myths page. In it, I discuss the more extreme Federation cultist claims (eg. SW starfighters cannot exceed 100 m/s, SW can't make a warhead bigger than 1 kiloton, etc). Most people don't need to have this sort of thing spelled out for them, but there are certain mentally challenged people on the newsgroups who actually think such claims are reasonable.
October 31, 1998
Due to a recent exploration of the newsgroups, I have discovered that many posters do not understand the concepts used to derive the gravitational binding energy of a planet. Some Federation cultists even go so far as to deny the very concept of gravitational binding energy! For that reason, I am explaining why the gravitational binding energy of a planet is the minimum energy requirement for destroying it, in a special Death Star firepower page (which can also be reached from the turbolaser page).
As a result of the above work, and discussions with Curtis Saxton, I have corrected the old 1.3E32 joule DS lower limit to a more accurate 2.4E32 joules.
The 2.1E32 joule figure is a ridiculously conservative lower limit, so I also created an Alderaan page to demonstrate the evidence for the 1E38 joule figure.
October 23, 1998
Added new information to the turbolaser page based on Slave Ship (thanks to Ethan Platten). This new information further reinforces the gigaton-range energy estimates for heavy turbolaser cannons. Also added a short discussion of General Dodonna's ANH briefing.
Re-worded the turbolaser page to emphasize units of megatons or gigatons rather than joules. IMHO, megatons and gigatons have more meaning to most laypeople, so they are better units. The tech-summary page was similarly re-written to emphasize megatons and gigatons.
Re-worded the Imperial shielding page to emphasize units of megatons or gigatons rather than joules. Also added brief discussion of burst energy capabilities, and slightly updated the numbers (they were somewhat out of sync with the turbolaser page, which had been updated more recently).
Added new information to the Federation power page (fusion generator section), from DS9 TM regarding the TW-range fusion generators used on DS9 (thanks to Brian Young for the info). Also noted that at least half of the Federation's total power generation capacity must be fusion-based.
Added new information to the phaser pages, describing how the DS9 TM has completely vindicated my NDF theory and completely nullified the anti-NDF Trekkie claims that have dogged the NG's for so long (funny how some Trekkies are furiously backpedaling on the validity of the DS9 TM now that it is out and does not support their ludicrous claims).
Added new information regarding efficiency and quantum torpedoes to the Federation torpedo page. I also added a discussion of the ridiculous Federation cultist claims about the torpedo's kinetic energy being hundreds of times its warhead yield.
Added new information to the Imperial industry page, discussing the incident described in Slave Ship where a planet's entire oceans were drained dry and carried away by just one Imperial transport fleet. The energy requirement for this event is discussed in the Imperial power page.
Added mention of duplicators (from Han Solo and the Lost Legacy) to the Federation special-tech page, to remind readers that replicator technology is not unique to the Star Trek galaxy. Duplicators are just like replicators. Thanks to the mysterious figure who will only identify himself as Wedge Antilles for this tip!
Added some new tactical recommendations to the Imperial space combat maneuvering page. Thanks to Aaron Parson for ideas in this area.
Added a picture of the Imdaar Alpha cloaked base to the Imperial special-tech page. Thanks to Aaron Parson for the image, and the tip.
Fixed the frame definitions to make the button-frame take up less room on the screen.
October 10, 1998
Just picked up Star Trek: First Contact on DVD (it's an excellent DVD transfer; pick it up and discard those worthless VHS tapes!). As a result, I've added improved graphics on the Federation shielding page, the Federation phaser page, the Federation ground combat page, the Federation propulsion technology page, the Federation maneuvering tactics page, and the Federation torpedo page.
Re-wrote the Federation ground combat page to discuss the STFC phaser rifle.
Re-wrote the Federation power page. No real content changes; it was just too long-winded.
Re-wrote the Federation industry page, to discuss the fact that replicators do not eliminate the need for transport fleets.
October 4, 1998
Added special-technology pages for the Federation and the Empire. Finally, there is discussion of the Genesis Device, transporters, replicators, the Suncrusher, the Galaxy Gun, the World Devastators and Centrepoint Station, and more!
Added a quote from Spectre of the Past to the Imperial space-combat maneuvering page, establishing the ability of Imperial defensive targeting systems to easily track and destroy tiny proton torpedoes (this establishes a benchmark for the effectiveness of the targeting systems that Imperial starfighters must evade, thus establishing the maneuverability and speed of TIE starfighters).
Added mention of sensor-jamming and nerve-gas grenades as possible defensive tactics against Federation transporter-boarding actions, in the Federation boarding tactics page.
Added mention of the Caamas BDZ massacre (first mentioned in Spectre of the Past) to the Imperial shielding page, as a benchmark for the effectiveness of Imperial planetary shields (Caamas was invulnerable until its shields were dropped, but whoever was in orbit obviously had enough firepower for a BDZ since they executed the operation as soon as the shield dropped).
Added some more pictures to the armoured vehicle section of the Imperial ground combat page. Also revised and expanded the war-droid section with more comprehensive information on the heavy-assault standard, the X-1 Viper automadon from Dark Empire 2. Added brief mention of the fact that AT-AT walker firepower had been upgraded from blasters to turbolasers by the time of Dark Empire 2.
Added discussion of Star Destroyer deceleration to the Imperial propulsion page, which establishes that Star Destroyer acceleration is at least three times the accelerative capabilities of a Federation GCS (also made note that GCS acceleration is only ten times the acceleration of the Death Star, which is not very impressive considering the size discrepancy)
September 28, 1998
Added galactic map and travel-time chart to the Imperial propulsion page.
Finally finished up the armour portion of the Imperial ground combat page.
Added discussion of "A Matter of Time" to one of the phaser pages.
Added some evidence for multi-megaton proton torpedo yields to the Imperial torpedo page.
Added discussion of jamming to the Imperial sensor page.
Added discussion of transporters to the Federation ground combat page.
September 23, 1998
After receiving yet another ignorant comment about how a Federation phaser rifle's flat plate display can be equivalent to a scope if it is flipped up and embellished with pretty HUD decorations, I have added a description of the concept of parallax to my Federation ground combat page (for those who never attended high school science class). I have also added some discussions of more imaginary Federation ground combat technologies such as personal shields etc., and I switched to a smaller, lower-bandwidth image to speed up initial loading (if you click on the new stormtrooper picture you get the old stormtrooper picture). And finally, I added brief discussion of other Star Trek civilizations like the Borg and the Dominion (only in this page- it would be a very big project to discuss them in all of the pages).
I am messing around with frames on the main page. Please let me know if you don't like it- note that I don't do that silly "frames | noframes" trick- the page automatically uses frames if your browser supports them, and doesn't use them if your browser can't handle it. The effect is only being used to keep the buttons visible at all times- this page is not being turned into a flashy graphics-design showcase.
September 19, 1998
After hearing complaints about being too conservative (mostly from Trekkies who were outraged that I wasn't using the most optimistic available numbers), I have revised both the turbolaser and phaser firepower estimates. I have attempted to reconcile the infamous and bizarre discrepancies between the solar proximity incidents in "Descent Part 2" and "Relics" (they could survive for hours next to a star in "Relics" but only for a few minutes even with metaphasic shielding in "Descent Part 2").
I have added discussion of Base-Delta-Zero, the urban pacification incident at Gra Ploven, the EGWT's vague description of turbolaser energy output, and an expanded explanation of the infamous TESB asteroid vaporizations to the turbolaser page.
I have also revised the Federation shielding and Imperial shielding pages, again to be less conservative. In the case of the Imperial shielding page, I also added a note about how the "Rimrunner" civilian starship flew within 1000km of a neutron star in Rebel Dawn.
I have added a short story to briefly explain how the Empire regained control of the galaxy from the rebels, and to explain how the Empire came to know about the Federation's existence. This is not a quasi-masturbatory "my side kicks ass big-time" story like Graham Kennedy's boring technobabble stories; it's just supposed to describe how the current situation came to exist, in the format of a short story.
After hearing an unusually ignorant comment from a Trekkie who calls himself Elim Garak, I added a brief note to my Federation ground combat page about how the yellow viewscreen on top of a phaser rifle does not constitute an aiming scope.
September 7, 1998
Minor cosmetic changes in wording and some updated images in many of the Tech pages.
Finally added Federation ground combat and Imperial ground combat pages.
September 1, 1998
Finished force, energy, and power section in Science page, including discussion of Genesis Device.
August 31, 1998
Revised DS1 and DS2 diameter figures in Imperial Industry page to latest figures.
Minor revisions to general Science page- removed some redundant power discussions.
Small updates to Imperial Power page.
Added a resolution of conflicting verbal power estimates to Federation Power page.
Revised Federation Power page to be even more generous (SW power is so high that it doesn't matter anyway).
August 29, 1998
August 18, 1998
Minor updates; added comment field to KDY registration form and slightly updated Imperial power page.
August 16, 1998
Added Kuat Drive Yards starship warranty registation form to Imperial Propulsion section
August 14, 1998
Minor cosmetic changes again
Added Imperial Power page, and Nkllon shield-ship analysis
August 10, 1998
Minor cosmetic changes
August 9, 1998
Reorganized site again, to create some new section headings in the "Tactics" area.
Created a ground combat section, but didn't have time to fill it in.
August 8, 1998
Added motivational background ("reasons") page.
Minor cosmetic changes to colors and layouts.
August 7, 1998
Altered front-page title area to make the site's basic concept more obvious upon the first glance.
August 5, 1998
Slightly re-organized site to speed up the initial loading sequence.