What can a scientist in my Star Wars fan fic be working on?

[MaverickSawyer]

I agree that some degree of redesign is needed, but not as much as you'd think... boost the pilot's seat a little bit (say, 20-25 cm?), drop the droid down into its socket a little more and only pop it up when it needs to, and you've got a LOT more view even with the S-foils in their opened position, especially on the T-70s of the sequel trilogy. The second-gen X-wings are seriously compact, and the reduced profile of the s-foils and engines helps with visibility. Also, just reviewed the reference images of the T-70, and the canopy is significantly more open than the T-65B we're familiar with from the Original Trilogy.

The A-wing is more of an equivalent to the F-104... it's little more than a powerplant with a cockpit attached.  It's meant more for harassment, hit-and-run attacks, and reconnaissance than for getting into a prolonged turn fight. That's more of the X-wing's job, as it's noticeably more beefy both structurally and defensively.

 

Also... why not have ejection seats? I mean, if you look at the Trench Run in A New Hope, an X-wing that gets hit badly enough to blow up seems to take several seconds to fully explode. That's more than enough time to reach between your legs and yank the ejection handles, seal off your flight suit (provided you've got a sealed helmet), blow the canopy, and rocket you to a safe distance. And yeah, sealed helmets are actually a thing in Star Wars, even without going to the TIE pilots... In the new Resistance series, one of the characters flew with the New Republic up to a few months before the events of The Force Awakens, and his flight suit was equipped with a fully-enclosed helmet...

[DDE]

1 hour ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Also... why not have ejection seats? I mean, if you look at the Trench Run in A New Hope, an X-wing that gets hit badly enough to blow up seems to take several seconds to fully explode.

They have ejection seats, all of them - except the Y-Wing and its escape pod (ditto for TIE-derived late-Imperial Scimitar).

Also, those flight suits are forcefield-sealed anyway, per the old canon.

Edited February 21, 2019 by DDE

[MaverickSawyer]

And yet, we only see an election seat in action for the first time in canon in The Force Awakens. (I am familiar with the fact that Expanded Universe content does have ejection seats for fighters, but since that's of questionable status these days...)

[DDE]

13 minutes ago, MaverickSawyer said:

And yet, we only see an election seat in action for the first time in canon in The Force Awakens. (I am familiar with the fact that Expanded Universe content does have ejection seats for fighters, but since that's of questionable status these days...)

In action? Yes. But back in the very first movie Porkins was told to eject and he didn’t.

And that’s über-canon.

[MaverickSawyer]

38 minutes ago, DDE said:

In action? Yes. But back in the very first movie Porkins was told to eject and he didn’t.

And that’s über-canon.

Huh. I don't recall that, but I'll take your word for it.

[Superfluous J]

2 hours ago, DDE said:

In action? Yes. But back in the very first movie Porkins was told to eject and he didn’t.

And that’s über-canon.

I don't recall that either. I thought he was told to pull up, or out. I was under the distinct impression that he didn't want to run.

[DDE]

1 hour ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Huh. I don't recall that, but I'll take your word for it.

 

28 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

I don't recall that either. I thought he was told to pull up, or out. I was under the distinct impression that he didn't want to run.

Before that, he was told to eject. 1h 46m 45s, per my early-2000s DVD.

 

*vents fumes*

[MaverickSawyer]

Ah, that may explain it. The only version I've ever seen was the 1997 re-release, before Lucas really sunk his teeth into retconning the movies.

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

4 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

we only see an election seat in action for the first time in canon in The Force Awakens

Because empire. They don't elect the emperor.

Thw scientist can study ewoks to use them for chores and for meat and fur.

[Maximum7]

 I was down to 3 ideas. A Guided recirprocating deflector shield from someone on abovetopsecret forums, Synthetic coaxium from FFG forums and The Dynamics of an Asteroid Field on Sjgames. I decided against the shield because it was too wordy and could be a game changer. The coaxium I felt ruined the rarity of hyperfuel and the asteroid belt analyzation was good but their are likely billions of asteroid fields in the galaxy. Who the hell cares about plotting one.

Edited February 24, 2019 by Gargamel
Font

[Gargamel]

Please refrain from using huge fonts in glaring colors, it makes it difficult to load or read on some platforms.  Thank you. 

[StrandedonEarth]

Hmmm. There are planetary shields that disintegrate anything that hits them. How about fitting that type of shield onto a torpedo? It should cut through anything...

That probably fits into the category of hyperdrive ramming: why didn't they do that before?

[kerbiloid]

Inflatable balloons for space fighters, for better buoyancy.

Otherwise you need a forced Forced jedi to get your x-wing from the bog.

Edited February 24, 2019 by kerbiloid

[Maximum7]

I like the balloon thing on starfighters. Odd they don’t have them already. I found an idea in archeology. Thanks for all your help guys!!!

[DDE]

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Inflatable balloons for space fighters, for better buoyancy.

Amateur.

Tri-medium starfighters!

[kerbiloid]

6 minutes ago, DDE said:

Tri-medium starfighters!

Where were they when Yoda was pulling the Luke's fighter?

[DDE]

12 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Where were they when Yoda was pulling the Luke's fighter?

Bogged down in development.

[Superfluous J]

Just now, DDE said:

Bogged down in development.

Not a da-go-bah without someone making that joke.

[StrandedonEarth]

8 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Not a da-go-bah without someone making that joke.

[Guest]

Portal guns. Can't go wrong with portal guns, except if they're not the APSHPD

[KSK]

Since before the Clone Wars, biologists across the Galaxy have pondered the Qi-Gonn Conjecture. According to legend, a Jedi Master famously proposed that 'there was always a bigger fish'. Logic dictates that this cannot be correct - somewhere on all the known worlds, must be the biggest fish in the Galaxy. The question is... where?

And on a more serious note, is there any reason that this scientist has to be a physicist? Why not have them working on something biological? Improved (or cloned or engineered) Bacta for example. Does Bacta work on all species across the Galaxy? It seems unlikely. What happens if one culture has access to Bacta and a neighbouring culture does not? What happens if an experimental strain/formulation of Bacta goes wrong? Loads of material for story telling there.

 

 

[DDE]

1 hour ago, KSK said:

What happens if one culture has access to Bacta and a neighbouring culture does not?

War.

Canonically, even minor shipping interruptions have led to wars.

1 hour ago, KSK said:

Does Bacta work on all species across the Galaxy?

Seeing as how 90% are descendants of Homo sapiens sapiens (a species from Coruscant, or Corellia, or in one aborted novel of the EU, Earth), yes.

1 hour ago, KSK said:

Why not have them working on something biological?

Because you come way too close to violating the Space Opera Transhumanism Ban. Biotechnical research bad, cybernetics research even worse.

[kerbiloid]

Metallurgy and construction.

The scientist could work on stronger alloys or inner beams to prevent the biped tank from smashing with logs (logs, Carl! even the tanks of 1930s could run through the forest crashing the trees!), and the quadruped tank from strangling with a rope.

[DDE]

7 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

and the quadruped tank from strangling with a rope

That requires more external cameras, not stronger legs.

8 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

prevent the biped tank from smashing with logs

Start with stormtroopers and rocks.

[kerbiloid]

12 minutes ago, DDE said:

That requires more external cameras, not stronger legs.

Did you see s01e05 Empire Strikes Back?