Solving Space Combat Problems

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Solving Space Combat Problems

The Saxman
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Post by The Saxman » Sat Mar 17, 2018 7:23 pm

Saw this video on YouTube, as someone actually makes sense of some of the strange errata of Star Wars space combat:

Check it out.

The bit about fighters being able to penetrate deflector shields is the most interesting, and if you recall, WEG already established a difference between ray and particle shielding; the latter being extremely resource-intensive and often impractical.

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Mark_Farlander
Rebel Alliance
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Post by Mark_Farlander » Thu Mar 29, 2018 1:46 pm

Why do capital ships get so close to each other to exchange fire?
Turbolasers have a fairly low effective range against shielded targets, and we get a graphical representation of just what that range looks like.
As long as shields are up, the Raddus only needs to stay out of a relatively small bubble to stay safe.
Since I see only 1 holographic bubble on the bridge of the Mega-class Star Dreadnought Supremacy, I assume the same bubble also applies to the Nebulon-C escort frigate Anodyne. As a direct consequence the effective range of energy weaponry doesn't depend on the shield power of the target, and X-Wing Alliance does a very accurate job with this.
By the way, does this mean even a CR90 corvette could escape from an entire fleet of Star Destroyers if they had no tractor beams?
Now I understand why the CR90 corvette is also nicknamed "blockade runner".
Now of course shields are the deciding factor here. Without shields these ships would still be vulnerable at longer ranges.
The Millennium Falcon cannot shoot down that "out of range" unshielded TIE Fighter in Episode 4. Does this make sense?
Or was it a shielded prototype?
Shields in Star Wars seem to be effective against energy, but vulnerable to physical matter.
I assume he is referring to ray shields.
Does this mean a starship would be vulnerable to a nuclear warhead attack? Maybe not if the deflector shield is projected a few molecules above the hull plating. This is possible according to the Legends continuity, and this is also exactly how every single craft in X-Wing Alliance sets its shields.
There are not much info in the Canon universe yet.

Of course such a shield setting would also solve part of the "fighter problem", but it could also enlarge the energy weaponry "bubble range" of all the enemy starships. This drawback was obviously unacceptable both for the Executor in Episode 6, and the Raddus in Episode 8.
The Executor was fighting against 13 MC80 star cruisers during the Battle of Endor, and the Raddus was escaping from the Mega-class Star Dreadnought Supremacy and a fleet of 30 Resurgent-class Star Destroyers during the Attack on the Resistance fleet, therefore being vulnerable to a fighter attack was a very little price to pay for both these capital ships.
I don't judge tactics. The Battle is the best and only Judge.

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