Star Wars Technical Dorkery:
I'm currently running a pbp Star Wars game using Star Wars World. Among other things, this means I'm reading up -- once again! -- on the ridiculous sizes of star wars ships.
an Imperial Star Destroyer II (ISD, throughout) is 1.6 kilometers long, carries 50 heavy turbolasers, 50 turbolasers, 50 heavy ion cannons, 50 ion cannons, and 72 star fighters. It has a crew of 37,000+, and a battalion of troops. The star fighters are all TIE class, of various specialties.
A Mon Cal Cruiser (like Home One -- Admiral "its a trap!" Ackbar's ship) is 700 meters long, carries 36 turbolasers, 36 ion cannons, and 120 star fighters. It has a crew of 5,000, and about a thousand troops. The star fighters are all "wing" class, such as x-wing, y-wing, and the b-wing.
The Star Destroyer, with its weak carrier ability and massive gun batteries, is effectively a battleship (or, really, a destroyer): a well armed and armored ship that emphasizes direct weaponry.
The Mon Cal Cruise, with its massive carrier ability and lesser guns, is effective a carrier: a less armored and armored ship that emphasizes projection of force.
And that's a really important cultural distinction between the rebel alliance and the empire: The Empire wants direct C&C from a heavily defended base, with minimal room for either exceptionalism or failure. With 37,000 crew, you have redundancies -- no one is really important.
The Mon Cal ship is the opposite -- stressing the individual capabilities of its starfighters. The rebel starfighters are superior in nearly every respect to the imperial ones. While the ISD uses starfighters as a point defense system, the rebel X-wing, A-wing, and B-wing are craft capable of challenging capital ships.
And that's the difference, isn't it? The rebellion is focused on individuals and the rights and capabilities thereof, while the Empire is a system that continues to churn out more and more powerful individual super weapons.
This post brought to you by thinking too much about star wars.
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Oh, and for comparision:
ReplyDeleteThe Nimitz class aircraft carrier, the primary super carriers of the US, are about 1,000 feet long, carry a few missle systems, and have 85-90 aircraft. And a crew of about 5,000.
The USS Iowa (retired), was 800 feet long, carry a few planes, and have ridiculously large guns. And a crew of less than 3,000.
What do all those people do on a star destroyer?
o_o
ReplyDeleteWhat is that look, Whitney Delaglio ?
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of capacitors to change.
ReplyDeleteA LOT.
It also doesn't help that Vader likes to force choke his officers to death. Sooner or later Janitorial Technician #341 is going to be promoted to admiral.
ReplyDeleteShip stuff much like car stuff just goes right over my head XD
ReplyDeleteI one time heard a This American Life about a navy-woman who changes the vending machines on an aircraft carrier. Since then I've been wanting to see a sci-fi version of that so hard.
ReplyDeleteTravis Scott Yeah, that goes to Order versus Individuality. I've very much considered an RPG that goes off the rails at Empire, having the Imperial Officers deciding to take out both Vader and the Emperor -- for the good of the Empire, we've got to get rid of the wizards that disrupt things!
ReplyDeleteWell, don't forget that every Star Destroyer has at its core a mini mall, complete with theater, tapas bar, and nail salon. With 37,000 people, the size of a mid-sized town, they spawn a whole service sector unto themselves! ;)
ReplyDeleteWhitney Delaglio I hear that. In our game, these are so big as to be settings by themselves.
ReplyDeleteRobert Bohl That needs to happen.
ReplyDeleteJosh Roby I know, right? In some of the better expanded universe, we find there's a "luxury entertainment suite" on board star destroyers for visiting admirals.
ReplyDeleteSuper fun post, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete