Land craft and shields

[Nexus6]

I always wondered why most land craft ( like AT/AT's ) seem to have a complete lack of sheilds. I used to think it had something to do with being inside of an atmosphere but as episode 1 shows shields work just fine in those conditions.

Does any one know why land based vehicles have no shields while all ships (and some planets) do have them.

[Marcus Telcontar]

The Empire thought shield were for wimps.

Good question actually.

[JMK]

Maybe they figured there was no land weapon the rebels could have that would warrant them installing shields on any of their land craft? Meaning they weren't going to go through the trouble of shielding every vehicle if the rebels didn't have any weapons that could damage them anyway.

Another idea: Yes we did see shields on the ground in the phantom menace, but those shields were all on vehicles / formations that weren't moving so the shield could stay in one place. It was the same with the destroyer droids, they only had their shields on once they had stopped moving. If something is going to move while having shields engaged, maybe it needs to completely encircle the object it's shielding. Just some thoughts, I'm probably wrong.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

In Empire Strikes Back the Rebels were being assaulted by the AT-AT's, and even though the land based vehicles were not shielded, they were impervious to the attacks. The hull plating was too strong...so in that case, perhaps it was just assumed that they didn't need shielding.

Why the Rebel speeders didn't have shields - who knows? TIEs don't have shields either, do they?

[darth_mcbain]

TIEs don't have shields either, do they?

Not that I'm aware of - they certainly are destroyed easily enough in the movies. And while it isn't canon or anything, the games I've played never have shields for TIEs.

[Morgan Evanar]

Mainline TIE Fighters, Bombers and Interceptors lack shield generators. But they are much more manuverable than anything but an A-Wing.

AT-ATs don't need shields, because they have stupid amounts of armor. One of the things the armor does is dissapate a blaster bolt when it hits, so the whole side basically takes the blast.

I'm not certain, but I don't think shields work very well in an atmosphere.

[JMK]

Unless made by the Gungans. ;)
No, TIE's don't have shields as the Empire tries to win through sheer numbers.

[Morgan Evanar]

Bonus for making stuff cheaper ;)
Originally posted by JMK
Unless made by the Gungans. ;) The Gugan shields behave very differently from what we've observed in Eps IV-VI.

[JMK]

They the type of shields that block energy bolts, but not objects right? There's particle shields and......?

[Marcus Telcontar]

Magnetic shields, particle shields and ray shields. The Death Star's ports were ray shielded but not particled for example.

I think one of the things that has to be rememebred is that the Galaxy went backwards in technology after the Clone Wars. Where are the real laser guns, for starters as shown by AOTC? Or the heavy repeating rifles? Or the other cool shiznit?

I believe shields work perfectly well in atmo, but one thing I cant recall is seeing a shield on when somethign moved in atmo apart from the Gungan personal shields. The fact that high speed and energy bolts are stopped, but low speed droids go through remind me strongly of Dune shield tech.

Now if a Las-gun intersects a hot shield and cuases a thermo nuclear explosion, the Herbert family should sue for copyright.

Edit - hang on, I do recall one instance of a shielded object moving in atmo. Anakin's N-1 in the droid control ship. I do recall soemwhere in the EU something about shields said to be not being quite as effective on X-Wings in atmo.

[JediBoricua]

The Empire have always been cheap bastards.

[Morgan Evanar]

I think one of the things that has to be rememebred is that the Galaxy went backwards in technology after the Clone Wars. Where are the real laser guns, for starters as shown by AOTC? Or the heavy repeating rifles? Or the other cool shiznit? AFAIK, wasn't blaster technology improved and made lasers obsolete? I do think that starfighter manuevering and engine tech deffinately improved. Incom Z95 Headhunters are Clone War era tech, no? The X-Wing (or Incom T65a) eats one alive, not even to mention the A-Wing.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
AFAIK, wasn't blaster technology improved and made lasers obsolete? I do think that starfighter manuevering and engine tech deffinately improved. Incom Z95 Headhunters are Clone War era tech, no? The X-Wing (or Incom T65a) eats one alive, not even to mention the A-Wing.

Just to switch for a earth eg for a sec, The Caternham Super 7 (lotus knock off) has absolutly no tech and it's suspension design dates to the 60's. Yet, it would whip the living crap out of anything without wings on a circuit. The latest electornic systems still pale to what this thing delivers.

I think a lot of tech designs get lazy, depending on technology too much. A well thought out design, not necessarily a high tech one is what I thought the X and A wings were, much like the Super 7. The tech got into the B-wing AFAIK.

As for lasers, I honestly dont know, there doesnt seem to be a hell of a lot of info on them. All I can really see is that they were much heavier on power cpnsumption.

I do recall somewhere on SW.com, Lucas did state that technology stagnated in the Empire, which explained why things looked cruddy and low tech compared to TPM.

[Morgan Evanar]

The X-Wing is just a solid multi-role fighter. You are correct in the fact that there isn't anything extrodinary about it, except it is very well put together. However, the A-Wing could be well represented by something like a JDM Lancer Evo, IMO. I think it had a better sensor suite than the X-Wing, in a much smaller package. The engines and powerplant are supposed to be phenomenal, if more finicky about abuse (read: taking damage) than the X-Wing's.

The same sort of thing happend in the Battletech universe, only the stanation went on for several hundred years. I'd really like to see how some of the stuff from the Clone Wars era stands up spec-wise next to the Rebellion era.

[Marcus Telcontar]

The A-Wing, come to think of it, looks a lot like the Jedi Star Fighter. Maybe it's a knock off design?

Be that as it may, I really dont know much about the A-wing apart from it's basically two oversized motors with a pilot, twin blaster cannon and a computer. Pretty sure your right about how well the A-Wing takes damage.

Hard to say what's better, also given that the quote was in TPM there hadnt been a full scale war in 1000 years. The design aspects accelerate greatly in war, so my guess is that Clone era was definatly more high tech, Rebellion era was just plain better designed. That issue may need to be addressed in EpIII

[JMK]

I find the biggest similarity between Jedi Starfighter and A-Wing is the color scheme, they're the same only reversed. The Jedi Starfighter has the stripe of white up the middle with the 2 sides being a red color. The A-wing is 2 white sides with the red stripe.

[Morgan Evanar]

The shape and the cockpit isn't a giveaway either?

[JMK]

Cockpit in appearance, sure, but not location, and the overall shape isn't as similar as you'd think:

http://cgi.theforce.net/theforce/multimedia/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Images/Classic_Trilogy/Starships/A-Wing&image=a-wing.jpg&img=&tt=

http://cgi.theforce.net/theforce/multimedia/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Images/Episode_2/Starships/Jedi_Starfighter&image=zoo-jedi_starfighter01.jpg&img=16&tt=

The Jedi starfighter's engine are in a totally different spot than the A-Wing, and given that the engines take up such a huge portion of the small A-Wing, they say alot for its design. If you completely changed the way the coloring is laid out on the A-Wing the connection would be almost totally lost. Also, look at the nose of both ships, they're totally different. The A-Wing is flat and has more curves to it than the Jedi ship. It's all subjective, so whatever...

[Pierce Tondry]

Jedi Starfighters were meant to look like A-Wings from the beginning. That's not a coincidence; they wanted it to tie-in.

[JMK]

Yes, and IMO they got that tie-in with the color scheme. What else looks so similar? Fine, they're both wedge shaped, the Jedi Starfighter more than the A-Wing.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The A-Wing had to come from somewhere. You're seeing the evolution of the A-Wing.

[Sith Lord]

The TIE/in fighters did not have shields, secondary weapons, or even life support systems so they could surpass the arts of manuverability and most of all: speed. By elimanting these systems it gave them room in the small orb like pod for extra power generators to keep the craft running, and even sometimes to add additional weapons.

But, the Tie Defender, was an exceptional T.I.E model with 2 shield generators, 2 ion cannons, and a whopping 4 laser cannons. They were used by the most elite pilots, and your saying to yourself, "why don't they use these!?" Well because each Tie Defender fighter costed 300,000 Credits, and you know how the Empire is about money.


As to the A-Wing theory, I agree, as in the Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels its manufactorer is the Alliance. It never gave any background information of it, so it is plausible that the Jedi Starfighter is it's predassasor.(sp)

Luke skywalker and Wedge Antilles both used the A-Wings for the first time in the Ison Corridor Ambush incident, where a Rebel frigate and a convoy of Rebel Transports were under attack by Imperial forces. Both pilots used the A-Wings, because they were faster, and they needed speed.

The A-Wing is most likely a cut down, modified, and UPGRADED Jedi Starfighter. If you do remeber Obi-Wan had to use the Hyperspace ring for the fighter to achieve Hyperspace speed, the A-Wing had Hyperspace generators.

[chrisc]

I thin k You Guys are thinking about this to much

[JMK]

I think some grammar is in order.... ;)

[Charley]

Cost / benefit analysis. The empire uses an attrition strategy, and thus they really don't need to use shields.

As for the Gungan shields, I do believe they are low-velocity permeable, similar to the personal shielding in Dune, which I thought was a great touch. The droid army cut loose with energy and projectile weapons, but both were repelled easily. IMO, its gotta be the velocity of the approach.

[March Kalas]

About the A-Wing.

I will refer back to the Correllian Corvette and that red Old Republic Diplimatic transport at the beggining of episode I (forgot what that thing is called). Anyway, the basic design for that Old Republic ship (which looked pretty cool) was derived from some old concept art for the Corvette. The same is probably so for the Jedi Starfighter and the A-Wing. The jedi starfighter was probably made off of some old concept art for the A-Wing.

But the evolution of the A-Wing from the Jedi Starfighter might me correct.