25 replies to this topic

[Casen]

http://starwars.wiki.../Torpedo_Sphere

Could be used for special orbital bombardments, or whatever.

I'm just gonna put this out there now and go to bed. Tell me what you guys think and brainstorm how it could be used.

[Kaleb Graff]

Interesting idea. It has real potential, but could be difficult to implement.

[anakinskysolo]

I don't like it. Waaay too overpowered.

[Kaleb Graff]

Depends. Did Phoenix leave the Death Star in? I haven't found out. The problem with special orbital bombardment is the fact that it would be hard to code. It's possible that when it's in orbit it allows bombardment through shields, but I don't know if it can be done.

[anakinskysolo]

No, the Death Star's out, and the torpedo sphere couldn't be for the Alliance, they never got their hands on one, and they were no fans of superweapons. And for the Empire... it would unbalance the game terribly, imagine a torpedo sphere with a SSD...

[Kaleb Graff]

I wasn't sure about the Death Star. Still, what I suggested wouldn't be of use in space combat. Their main role was to remove planetary shields.

[anakinskysolo]

Then it would be strange. To have a 500 proton torpedo launcher station and not use it in combat against other ships? No, it doesn't look fine to me. Anyway, what planetary shields are you attacking? The piece of junk that came with vanilla wouldn't be able to stop a turbolaser blast, much less 500 proton torpedo launchers. If there were REAL planetary shields, like those depicted in the novels, then it would be more plausible.

[Kaleb Graff]

The whole point of the torpedo sphere was to bring down planetary shields. It could only fire 50 torpedoes at a time at any given space target, and was basically the star wars equivalent of a heavy siege engine. It would be a good special bombardment vessel, but not much else.

[StormReavan]

As long as the rebels got something to balance that, the Empire is already WAY more powerful than the rebels in some areas, and orbital bombardments are definitely on the Empire's side.

[Kaleb Graff]

They would be pretty much useless except for bombardments. If planetary shields were improved, then the rebels would be much less vulnerable to bombardments. Also, I would like the rebel bombardment switched to turbolasers. Still, if the shields were better, then the sphere would be powerful. However it is expensive, and has a slow hyperdrive. The rebel countermeasure is to run away.

[TheEmpire]

No more superpowerful ships for the empire. They are already somewhat unbalanced and this would make it worse. Now if you added the viscount and this.....

[Kaleb Graff]

But it isn't a superweapon. It's just a very powerful orbital bombardment platform. It's balance depends on the shields in the land mod, but it is just a siege engine, despite outward appearances.

[anakinskysolo]

Again, the shield issue: It is a small shield that causes no problem to anyone. The torpedo sphere was intended to disable PLANETARY SHIELDS not that piece of crap that came with vanilla EAW. It is so ridiculous that anything apart from bombs can pass through it with out getting disintegrated! Since when shields discriminated between ships and bombs?

[Kaleb Graff]

I agree completely. Shields are too weak, and need to be upgraded. They also should be very rare and expensive. It would be interesting to make two types of shields, those like the one on Hoth, similar to the current model, and the other resembling that on Coruscant. Also, shouldn't sields block airspeeders and possibly even repulpulsor vehicles from passing?

[Clubby]

By making the shield passively impassable or by making the airspeeders crash to the ground in a flaming ball of panic?

Edited by Clubby, 02 April 2008 - 05:40 PM.

[TheEmpire]

or by making the airspeeders crash to the ground in a flaming ball of panic?

That would be fun... But you need to make them passable because then how would you destroy it? Unless you could make it that the shield could only take a amout of damage then be destroyed? I wonder if there is a way to do that?

[Kaleb Graff]

It should be impassible. I am pretty sure that somthing can pass through a planetary shield if it is in contact with the ground. This is why the Empire chose to use walkers instead of TIEs to attack Echo Base. Theoreticly, a speeder should crash, but we should think that the pilot is smarter then that.

[Pellean]

In the Young Jedi Knights Book 5 (I'm not sure how canonical these are), the planetary shield protecting the Praxeum Academy was one similar to that on Hoth, as it only covered a limited area of the planet's surface. There was a gap between the forest canopy and the shield that allowed a small team of TIEs to slip in and sabatoge the shield generators. Since having the shield make contact with the ground or a grounded object would be a massive power drain, it stands to reason that all sheilds are like this. This would make shields good against orbital bombardments, aireal attacks, and high-trajectory assult, the shielded region would only be vunlerable to ground assult (like Hoth). Full planetary shields litterally circumvent this problem by enveloping the entire world, making a virtually impregnable defence, although, as Thrawn showed us, these too are not infallible.

Edited by Pellean, 12 April 2008 - 05:24 AM.

[Casen]

I think we should make orbital bombardments a much more significant part of the game like you can perhaps order it to destroy a building(s) from orbit but also include planetary shields like in the movies so sometimes you'd have to send units down like they did at the Battle of Hoth.

Orbital Bombardment is more of an Imperial tactic so PERHAPS it could be exclusive to them...

[Pred the Penguin]

Rebels do orbital bombardment, too. They just usually lack the firepower to do it efficiently.