Okay so this is incredibly nit-picky I know, but as far as I know fighters don't generally use deflector shields (and usually not hyperdrives either, though X-Wings did) yet once I got to the 2nd tier of starship missions all of a sudden EVERY DAMN FIGHTER has a deflector shield. What? I am confused. I thought they were incredibly expensive and too resource intensive for most fighters... so why does the entire fleet of fighters have them? Someone explain!

To make the missions tougher to complete. Pretty sure that's the only reason they would

Rebel Alliance fighters had shields, thats what helped them overcome the sheer numbers of cheaper TIE based fighters they faced from the Empire.

 

Now in movies they werent so pronounced as in games and EU lore (in fact i sometimes got the impression that shields actually made incomming fire more dangerous in some scenes, those Y-wings in the trench run were decimated).

 

 

from a mechanics standpoint, it's a cheap and easy way to make missions more difficult. from a lore standpoint, it would have been nice if the fighters looked a tad different to show they were more advanced versions.

Rebel Alliance fighters had shields, thats what helped them overcome the sheer numbers of cheaper TIE based fighters they faced from the Empire.

 

Now in movies they werent so pronounced as in games and EU lore (in fact i sometimes got the impression that shields actually made incomming fire more dangerous in some scenes, those Y-wings in the trench run were decimated).

 

 

from a mechanics standpoint, it's a cheap and easy way to make missions more difficult. from a lore standpoint, it would have been nice if the fighters looked a tad different to show they were more advanced versions.

 

I expect bombers to have them considering their importance/size/scarcity/overall bulkiness, but little fighters with shields just seems goofy to me. Well whatever, diverting power to blasters three shots them anyway so I guess they have small/cheap shields anyway.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Progath

Depending on what exactly you consider lore...

 

Pretty much everything other then Tie Fighters and Tie Interceptors had shields on them. X-Wings, A-Wings, Y-Wings, B-Wings, Tie Advanced, Tie Defenders, Assault Shuttles, ect... All had shields.

 

Tie-Fighters were too small and expendable to bother putting shields in. They were sorta like the Japanese Zero, fast but very lightly armored.

Edited January 12, 2012 by VanorDM

Depending on what exactly you consider lore...

 

Pretty much everything other then Tie Fighters and Tie Interceptors had shields on them. X-Wings, A-Wings, Y-Wings, B-Wings, Tie Advanced, Tie Defenders, Assault Shuttles, ect... All had shields.

 

Tie-Fighters were too small and expendable to bother putting shields in. They were sorta like the Japanese Zero, fast but very lightly armored.

Fair point... I guess its hard to make the argument of, "well the X-Wings didn't look like they had shields when they got blown up in Episode IV" when we're talking about a game set in EU where it is apparently established that the Rebel fighters DID have shields.

 

That's the thing though. The REBELS had shields... and very few ships to equip those shields to. When I am on a mission to destroy 60 fighters it is odd that they all have deflector shields. Republic is wasting a lot of money imo.

When I am on a mission to destroy 60 fighters it is odd that they all have deflector shields.

 

Shields are standard options on most starships, kinda like a radio/CD player. In fact the odd thing was that Tie-Fighters didn't. They were designed without a shield because they were for all intents throwaway kamikaze type ships.

Shields are standard options on most starships, kinda like a radio/CD player. In fact the odd thing was that Tie-Fighters didn't. They were designed without a shield because they were for all intents throwaway kamikaze type ships.

Well I guess I never considered that TIE-fighters were the crappiest fighters in Star Wars history. No wonder Empire always gets boned in Battlefront II space battles.

They do have shields. The more unbelievable thing is how can a single freighter manage to destroy an entire destroyer... (looks at Exeutor)... oh crap. Edited January 12, 2012 by Idunhavaname

Fair point... I guess its hard to make the argument of, "well the X-Wings didn't look like they had shields when they got blown up in Episode IV" when we're talking about a game set in EU where it is apparently established that the Rebel fighters DID have shields.

 

 

It's already established in the movies that all rebel craft have shields. You'll recall a line spoken by one of the Y-Wing pilots during the Death Star battle in A New Hope: "Switching power to...FRONT, deflector shields". That's why they were probably picked off that easily. Switching power to frontal shields (in order to protect themselves from the anti-air turrets on the death star's surface) made them extremely vulnerable to the fast and agile TIE Fighters that came from the rear.

 

 

As far as the TIE Fighter is concerned (and the entire line of "movie" TIEs, meaning the TIE Fighter, Bomber and Interceptor) what they lacked in Shield they made up in maneuverability and speed. And numbers, apparently. That was the purpose of the TIE Fighter anyway: a cheap, fast and maneuverable air superiority fighter, that could deploy en masse from Star Destroyers and achieve victory through sheer force of numbers alone.

 

But I guess all that is 3 thousand years into the "future" so I'm getting a bit off-topic.

I mean do you want some challenge or like shooting fish in a barrell? just ignore the deflector shield effect if it bothers you.

Actually, during the trench run, while the turbolasers are firing the order is given "Switch all power to front deflector shields." As Vader and his wingmen enter the trench:

 

Gold Leader: The guns, they've stopped.

Gold 5: Stabilize your rear deflectors. Watch for enemy fighters.

 

Yes, in the movies, the deflector shields didn't seem to do much for the Rebel ships. Part of this can be attributed to the firepower and accuracy of the TIE Fighters, but part of it is just the fact that using CGI to show the deflector shields wasn't an option, and contrary to popular belief, Lucas isn't interested in adding CG to EVERY scene in the OT with the Special Editions. In The Phantom Menace, when Anakin's overheated N-1 Starfighter powers up, you can clearly see the deflector shield appearing around the ship, and you can even see the battle droid's blaster fire ricocheting off the shields moments later.

 

So yes, starfighter-scale deflector shield technology is commonplace in Star Wars. It's not even that expensive. TIE craft (Fighters, Bombers, Interceptors) didn't have it because they relied on speed and maneuverability, and were to some extent "expendable." Even the Eta-2 Actis Interceptors Anakin and Obi-Wan flew at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith didn't come equipped with shields, because Jedi pilots had such superior reflexes that the extra mass of adding a shield generator would have made the ship too clumsy for them to fly to its full potential. This level of agility made the fighter popular among non-Jedi Aces who could take advantage of it, and may have been part of the decision to excise shields from future Imperial craft.

They do have shields. The more unbelievable thing is how can a single freighter manage to destroy an entire destroyer... (looks at Exeutor)... oh crap.

 

If Executor had been in open space, there would have been time for secondary control systems to kick in and restore command to whoever was senior on the auxiliary bridge.

 

Unfortunately, there was this Death Star in the area that she managed to run into...

Unfortunately, OP, this is just a case of misunderstanding the lore, no offense.

 

Nearly all fighters have shields. TIE fighters are the only ships that didn't reliably have shields. Even if the ships in the movies didn't look like it, that was due to limitations of special effects. They mention setting shields to "double front" and similar.

 

The 90s Star Wars games (X-wing, TIE fighter, Vs., etc...) actually illustrate how it works pretty well.

 

In this game, as you level up and get more difficult missions, you're supposed to be fighting tougher competition. So of course the competition is going to be using tougher shielding.