Doesnt it seem strange that the further back you go in the star wars timeline the technology is more advanced?

 

I realise the reason for this is develepors have better creativity and resources and that if everything looked less advanced and awesome than it did in the original movies it would seem a little bland.

Edited January 3, 2012 by malevolunze

Yeah it's weird

If you need to justify it in-universe you might argue that culture and technology has sort of stagnated through Empire rule. Remember, the first movie started with the Empire 17 as the universal power or so. Also, the Death Star is obviously the most technologically advanced space station ever built (you also see the schematic in revenge of the sithi i remember) it just looks inferior due to the lack of resources you mention and a different sci-fi style back then. Edited January 3, 2012 by Sjax

If you need to justify it in-universe you might argue that culture and technology has sort of stagnated through Empire rule. Remember, the first movie started with the Empire 17 as the universal power or so. Also, the Death Star is obviously the most technologically advanced space station ever built (you also see the schematic in return of the jedi i remember) it just looks inferior due to the lack of resources you mention and a different sci-fi style back then.

 

This is how I've justified it. The republic was affluent and could afford to consider aesthetics in their starship designs. The Rebellion was poor and had to go for functionality over slinky curves.

 

Likewise, the Empire's requirements was that the technology looked intimidating, hence they based it on the old Sith Empire's sharp-angled capital ships and starfighters.

Function > Looks

 

Technology does not devolve over time, its just improved on and there are some tech that is better then what the OR era has, this includes but not limited to.

 

Kolto is replaced with Bacta

 

Droids become more advanced

 

War tech changes drastically and becomes a lot better

 

Just because of the tech of this era "looks" better does not mean it is better then the tech of the Clone Wars or GCW eras.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Wolfninjajedi

Function > Looks

 

Technology does not devolve over time, its just improved on and there are some tech that is better then what the OR era has, this includes but not limited to.

 

Kolto is replaced with Bacta

 

Droids become more advanced

 

War tech changes drastically and becomes a lot better

 

Just because of the tech of this era "looks" better does not mean it is better then the tech of the Clone Wars or GCW eras.

 

I believe there is a trope that defines this, but I have no time to search again for what it was called.

 

Nonetheless, nothing new is ever invented. Everything existed before and only needs to be rediscovered. As an example - the Infinite Empire and Rakata all had more advanced technology than what we have currently in our timeline for our characters. From the Consular storyline on Tython, those droids down in the bowels of those ruins had went without memory wipes and repairs for thousands of years. Far more progressed than what is currently built in our timeline.

 

The Jedi are trying to uncover forgotten knowledge from the neotikons. Some of that knowledge is just 300 years old. Yet - they were more powerful and advanced then than what they are now.

 

To be honest, I'm kinda tired of the entire "only the old is new" mindset of most of our entertainment media developers have these days. I'm having trouble remembering a movie, game or story where something was actually NEWLY invented that saved the day, rather than unearthed somehow from the ancient past.

 

I'm just glad that our real scientists have the ability to develop new technology out in the real world. Seriously, how many times can story writers abuse the, "it used to exist, we just forgot how to build/use/maintain it!" card.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Raeln

I believe there is a trope that defines this, but I have no time to search again for what it was called.

 

Nonetheless, nothing new is ever invented. Everything existed before and only needs to be rediscovered. As an example - the Infinite Empire and Rakata all had more advanced technology than what we have currently in our timeline for our characters. From the Consular storyline on Tython, those droids down in the bowels of those ruins had went without memory wipes and repairs for thousands of years. Far more progressed than what is currently built in our timeline.

 

The Jedi are trying to uncover forgotten knowledge from the neotikons. Some of that knowledge is just 300 years old. Yet - they were more powerful and advanced then than what they are now.

 

To be honest, I'm kinda tired of the entire "only the old is new" mindset of most of our entertainment media developers have these days. I'm having trouble remembering a movie, game or story where something was actually NEWLY invented that saved the day, rather than unearthed somehow from the ancient past.

 

I'm just glad that our real scientists have the ability to develop new technology out in the real world. Seriously, how many times can story writers abuse the, "it used to exist, we just forgot how to build/use/maintain it!" card.

 

You do realize that actually happens, right? A lot of technology was lost when Rome Fell apart because there was no longer the infrastructure needed to maintain it or train new experts,

The Old Republic takes place shortly after the Golden Age of the Republic. Everything that comes after is decline and stagnation, leading right up until the Empire.

Remember that you're seeing things built in a digital age based around movies made in the 70s. They didn't have the technology to make a cloaking effect. Also the storyline is that those things were banned after the Sith were defeated. If you keep reading the books of the expanded universe, many of them make a comeback. Many new technologies are also developed in the expanded universe.

 

One inconsistency with the expanded universe is that in one book, a ship from the time period of The Old Republic comes to the future and a Jedi's lightsaber is powered by an external battery pack connected via a power cord. But that wouldn't look very cool in a video game and would nearly impossible to visualize. It's also a more recent book and its not like Bioware would change the game to stay perfectly in line with the books. Hell before the prequel movies were made, the expanded universe had already established who Luke and Leia's mother was. Then they kind of threw that out as a "well that's who they thought it was and were wrong" and "HEY LOOK! R2 has a holorecording of their birth!"

You do realize that actually happens, right? A lot of technology was lost when Rome Fell apart because there was no longer the infrastructure needed to maintain it or train new experts,

 

In Star Wars / Final Fantasy / Wheel of Time / Lord of the Rings / Mass Effect / <insert a myriad of IPs here> - new technology seems to mostly be rediscovered old technology. There is very little brand new tech discovered. Wheel of Time is especially bad for this. Star Wars is getting pretty bad with so many things turning out to be exotech from the Rakata era [infinite Empire].

 

I'll eat my hat if you can prove the ancient Romans were using nuclear reactors. Well, I'll have to buy a hat first.

If you want to read about new discoveries saving the day, check out David Weber's Honor

Harrington books. As the series progresses over about 30 years stellar warfare, the Star Kingdom of Manticore came up with better and better military tech to defeat the larger People's Repulic of Haven. And none of it was discovering advanced alien tech (or tech from some previous golden age). It was all incremental improvements to existing technology.

I just assumed they keep bombing themselves back into the sixties. Most people don't really even understand how a light bulb works and could not just make one. happens here in the real world. If I squint I could convince myself they just keep blowing up the city of whoever invented HDTV each time it gets invented.

Doesnt it seem strange that the further back you go in the star wars timeline the technology is more advanced?

 

I realise the reason for this is develepors have better creativity and resources and that if everything looked less advanced and awesome than it did in the original movies it would seem a little bland.

 

Honestly, one of the first things I said to myself when i started playing was, "technology has not changed much in the thousands of years between SWTOR and the OT."

 

But there is a simple explanation - familiarity. If ships and uniforms and technology are radically different then it is no longer "Star Wars".

 

And as others have speculated there is a logical story based explanation too - at some point between TOR and the PT technologies were probably lost and rediscovered several times over.

Remember that you're seeing things built in a digital age based around movies made in the 70s. They didn't have the technology to make a cloaking effect. Also the storyline is that those things were banned after the Sith were defeated. If you keep reading the books of the expanded universe, many of them make a comeback. Many new technologies are also developed in the expanded universe.

 

One inconsistency with the expanded universe is that in one book, a ship from the time period of The Old Republic comes to the future and a Jedi's lightsaber is powered by an external battery pack connected via a power cord. But that wouldn't look very cool in a video game and would nearly impossible to visualize. It's also a more recent book and its not like Bioware would change the game to stay perfectly in line with the books. Hell before the prequel movies were made, the expanded universe had already established who Luke and Leia's mother was. Then they kind of threw that out as a "well that's who they thought it was and were wrong" and "HEY LOOK! R2 has a holorecording of their birth!"

 

They never identified Luke/Leia's mother. They thought it might have been one woman but it turned out to be false. By the time the prequels came out, even in the EU, they had no idea.

As for the ship from the past thing...I'm not familiar with the story but that tech did exist-~22k before this story iirc...around the time of the Exar Kun, I believe. Maybe before then.

There were MANY early EU stories set waaaay before this time frame.

This is actually easily explained, even in our own world there is a distinct example: Europe in the dark ages. Society and technology were much further advanced back in Rome in BC and early AD, but look forward 1000 years at the dark ages. There was a remarkable lack of previous technology, medicine and comforts. This lasted up until the renaissance and then of course the industrial age blew past what was once possible.

In Star Wars / Final Fantasy / Wheel of Time / Lord of the Rings / Mass Effect / <insert a myriad of IPs here> - new technology seems to mostly be rediscovered old technology. There is very little brand new tech discovered. Wheel of Time is especially bad for this. Star Wars is getting pretty bad with so many things turning out to be exotech from the Rakata era [infinite Empire].

 

I'll eat my hat if you can prove the ancient Romans were using nuclear reactors. Well, I'll have to buy a hat first.

 

I just wanted to point out that, while yes alot of "old tech" is more advanced (mostly due to the fact that men and women actually collaborated on "magical" creations at the time, which had been outlawed for the last millennia or whatever), Rand has been financing the research of novel technology such as rockets, steam engines, etc, that never existed in the old times when everyone relied on said magic.

 

The interesting thing about alot of these worlds is that magic seems to cause technological stagnation (or creates glass ceilings). When magic can do EVERYTHING, there is no incentive to innovate in any other way. The parallel of magic to star wars would be the fact the Rakata fueled everything with Dark Side force energy, which is generally discouraged by the "galaxy at large".

 

Considering droids already have sentience, ships already fly FTL, and Jedi can throw rocks with their mind.. what more can you want or do, without tapping the Dark Side to teleport you?