General Discussion

[zenrat]

I was going to say if it has dragons then it's fantasy...
...until I remembered Anne Mccaffery's dragon book series which (spoiler alert) turned out to be sci fi in the end.


Christina Robson writes a nice mix of elves, demons, magic, and cyborgs.  Sci Fi or Fantasy?  Who cares, they are a good read.

[seadude]

"Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Sci-Fi is the improbable made possible." - Rod Serling

"Science fiction is something that could happen - but you usually wouldn't want it to. Fantasy is something that couldn't happen - though you often only wish that it could." - Arthur C. Clarke

I like those. Very useful descriptors, thanks.

Forgot to add one more. And this is one of my favorites.    "Science Fiction has a tendency of becoming Science FACT."

[tahsin]

A veritable walking coffin for its unfortunate occupants, especially as it could be tripped up by someone with a ball of string😂.

It DID look uber cool though...

...was obviously never going to work well, within the "rules" of the world in which it exists. It's been said by Star Wars designers and artists that the AT-AT is a terror weapon, not a weapon for fighting near-peer adversaries. It's designed to terrify primitive populations with it's "dinosaur monster" looks as much as it's firepower.

Real life reason: Elephants in combat.

Cinematic affairs: During the founding of American Zoetrope Coppola and Lucas briefly discussed getting the rights to The Lord of the Rings.

In verse: After reading some 9 Thrawn books with some others as well one can say taking a defended planet in Star Wars involves maybe 3 ways. The problem being the shields.

Orbital Bombarment by a fleet which takes too long, risks even the whole planetary ecosystem, most likely to damage or destroy anything of economic value.

Commando team to knock out the shields so that the fleet can threaten precision shooting.

Ground attack. As on Hoth, to destroy part of the shields. According to lore the shield on Hoth limited aerial performance hence TIE fighters could not attack. Snow speeders are not small, they are optimized to fight under the shield. Contrary to years of general knowledge they are not weakly armed. In all the internet, you will possibly only find Fractalsponge of highly detailed Stardestroyer depictions to suggest that the AT-ATs are shielded themselves. X-Wings destroying  AT-ATs is a computer game addition, in Rouge One the cargo variants had no shields installed if you accept this logic.

The legs are necessary to penetrate the particular kind of the shield in operation. Presumably much more powerful than the one the Gungans had in the field in the Phantom Menace. That one involved the Trade Federation hovertanks to drive in and shoot the dynosaur mounted projectors. If l remember that scene in its entirity. AT-AT is a top level peer to peer weapon system optimised to attack the nodes of shields to let more nimble parts of the Imperial armoury into action.

[Weaver]

The legs are necessary to penetrate the particular kind of the shield in operation. Presumably much more powerful than the one the Gungans had in the field in the Phantom Menace. That one involved the Trade Federation hovertanks to drive in and shoot the dynosaur mounted projectors. If l remember that scene in its entirity. AT-AT is a top level peer to peer weapon system optimised to attack the nodes of shields to let more nimble parts of the Imperial armoury into action.

In that case, why make it stupidly tall and thin, so that it can fall over? Why not make it short and wide, more like a spider than an elephant, so that it's more stable.

[tahsin]

Legolas destroying the Olephaunt. Saw the movie multiple times on TV. Read the book only once. Can't remember if the book has Legolas using his sword to cut the belt that secures the combat platform. Skywalker gets up very high by  personal winch, lightsabers the way in, throws in a grenade. If George Lucas is limited in writing he still knows the visual impact of a good scene.

The Seperatists in clone wars had multiple types of spider droids, many of them small sensible ones. And a big one to match the AT-AT. It is the curvature of the planet and the horizon. Can't tell if an half high AT-AT on Hoth would have to approach within 9 or 10 kilometers of the generators when the fullsize could fire over (I think) 17 kilometers.

[Wardukw]

Weaver to give ya an idea about the difference in walkers ...the AT-AT is  22.2 m (73 ft) tall .
The walker which the First Order uses is the AT-M6
which stands at 36.18 meters (118.7 ft) tall.

The reason for there heights are not only to give a serious height advantage in a fight but to walk above trees In forested areas ..overwatch ...also it gives the Empire the ability to have bases mounted high off the ground making em harder to sneak up on as,seen in Return of the Jedi when Luke was dropped off to his dad ..Vader ..sorry ..spoiler alert 😆

[Wardukw]

7 days ago until the fun begins..it's gonna be a long 7 days .

[PR19_Kit]

And I STILL haven't figured what to build.

Or even if I'm GOING to build anything for it, I've got enough on my plate, and in my head, already! 

[Wardukw]

And I STILL haven't figured what to build.

Or even if I'm GOING to build anything for it, I've got enough on my plate, and in my head, already! 

Funnily Kit I've had two builds in mind for this GB the moment this GB was made official yet I had a bugger of a time figuring out something for the Polar GB   

[Old Wombat]

And I STILL haven't figured what to build.

Or even if I'm GOING to build anything for it, I've got enough on my plate, and in my head, already! 

Funnily Kit I've had two builds in mind for this GB the moment this GB was made official yet I had a bugger of a time figuring out something for the Polar GB 

That's 'coz you come up with a lot of Bad ideas!  

[scooter]

 

[kerick]

LOL!!!!    😂

[Wardukw]

And I STILL haven't figured what to build.

Or even if I'm GOING to build anything for it, I've got enough on my plate, and in my head, already! 

Funnily Kit I've had two builds in mind for this GB the moment this GB was made official yet I had a bugger of a time figuring out something for the Polar GB 

That's 'coz you come up with a lot of Bad ideas!  

Yeah ...ain't it cool 😎   
Pretty sure there's alot more to follow too 

[scooter]

The K-Class submarine.  Non-nuclear steam turbine powered subs, probably the worst idea.

[McColm]

Would the 6 wheeled Tyrrell racing car be considered as a bad idea?