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Technology has changed...


Wolfninjajedi

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It has, I really am getting rather annoyed with all these "tech hasn't changed in 3000 years" "why does everything look the same?" "Rabble, rabble, rabble" so I am here and making this thread about technology and how it has changed over the course of time. I will be going through each era from TOR to GCW and I will compare the technology as best as I can. Please note I will not be going through detailing every piece of tech, this will mostly probably be military hardware seeing as that is the foucs of pretty much all the movies and the story as a whole.

 

NOTE: Some tech isn't from the game, just in the general era of where the technology is.

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TOR era technology

 

1. Hammerhead Crusiers- These cruisers are able to make independent operations and was the workhorse of the Republic, it is armed with 4 dual heavy laser cannons, 2 turbo lasers, 2 quad lasers, 2 point defense cannons and 1 tractor beam. It has 4 ion engines and a 2.0 hyperdrive, it also carries 12 Aurek starfighters and 2 minstry class orbital shuttle aswell as various support craft.

 

2. Thranta class corvette- From the game they seemed to be armed with...9 turbolasers(speculations can't seem to remember exactly, if anyone knows tell me), with missile launchers.

 

3. Aurek class tactical starfighter- The primary republic starfighter used in the old sith wars, great galactic war, and new sith wars. Armed with 2 heavy laser cannons, 2 proton torpedo launchers with 6 torpedos also having a class 2 hyperdrive with shielding.

 

4. Republic Troop Transport- Just a large 4 legged troop transport, able to carry an entire platoon on the battlefield.

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Clone Wars era technology

 

1. Venator class Star Destroyer- A multi purpose ship, with 4 primary drive engines, 2 secondary and 2 tertiary engines. Armed with 8 dual heavy DBY-827 turbolaser turrets, 2 medium turbolasers, 52 point defense laser cannons, 6 tractor beams, 4 heavy proton torpedo tubes with 16 torpedos each. With shielding(equivalent to a victory 1 class star destroyer) and has a 1.0 hyperdrive with a class 15 backup. Carries 192 Alpha-3 V-wings or V-19 torrent starfighters, 36+ ARC-170s, 192 Eta-2 interceptors, 40 LAAT/i gunships, 24 military walkers, various shuttles and 1 pre-frabricated base.

 

2. Eta-2 interceptor- 2 twin ion engines, 2 laser cannons, secondary light ion cannons. Shields equipped and also has an astromech droid on board.

 

3. AT-TE- Heavy walkers, not only can transport an entire platoon of soldiers but also has great firepower making it a great asset in a full scale attack. Armed with 6 anti-personal laser cannons, 1 mass driver cannon also comes with an IM-6 medical droid and 2 AT-RTs.

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Empire(GCW era) technology

 

1. Imperial 1- class Star Destroyer- A warship serving as a command ship, carrier and destroyer. Equipped with 3 KDY- destroyer-1 ion engines and 4 Cygus Spaceworks Gemon-4 ion engines, also a KDY ISD-72x shield generator domes and a class 2.0 hyperdrive with an 8.0 backup. Armed with 6 heavy turbolasers, 2 dual heavy lasers, 2 quad lasers, 3 triple medium turrets, 60 Tiam & Bak XX-9 heavy turbolasers, 60 Borstel NK-7 ion cannons, 10 Phylon Q7 tractor beams.

 

Carries 48 TIE/In starfighters, 12 TIE/sa bombers, 12 TIE boarding craft, 8 Lambda shuttles, 15 Delta-class stormtrooper carries, 5 assault gunboats. 20 AT-AT walkers, 30 AT-ST walkers, 1 prefrabricated base. (NOTE: Did not put all of what an SD carries)

 

2. TIE fighter- SFS-ps4 twin ion engines, SFS-pw401 maneuvering jets, SFS L-s1 laser cannons.

 

3. AT-AT walker- heavy walker, able to transport 40 troops or more depending on internal configuration. Carries 5 speeder bikes, and can carry 2 AT-ST depending on internal config. Armed with 2 fire linked Tiam & Bak heavy laser cannons, 2 medium laser cannons.

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So there you have it folks, I know its long thats why I didn't put in a whole bunch of stuff but clearly technology has changed, especially warfare tech. You can mix and match whatever Old Republic fleet you want, and the Clone Wars era or Empire(GCW era) will flatten it outright no matter what.

 

The tech may not have changed drastically like were all thinking, or in looks but it has changed in function.

 

Function > Looks

Edited by Wolfninjajedi
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Yeah, but... You didn't really make any argument that the technology has improved. Whatsoever.

 

So I'd say the argument still stands that technology hasn't changed much at all. Unless you consider bigger ships a technological advancement? Even though bigger is almost always never better for military purposes.

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Yeah, but... You didn't really make any argument that the technology has improved. Whatsoever.

 

So I'd say the argument still stands that technology hasn't changed much at all. Unless you consider bigger ships a technological advancement? Even though bigger is almost always never better for military purposes.

 

It has improved, none of the TOR era ships have a secondary class hyperdrive, nor could carry half the stuff a Venator or Star Destroyer could. Little things have improved in technology. Walkers have too, the one up there for the TOR era only carries it doesn't have a multi function where it can lay down heavy firepower.

 

So yes technology has improved, not on a huge scale(which is what I said) but enough that it makes a difference.

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On the 'wiki' isn't the movies or anything. Hyperdrives are plot devices that conveniently put you where you need to be and break down when you need to stay there.

 

If it's never demonstrated that they do anything else but that, saying they've improved is just... I digress.

 

What people mean is that the technology isn't visibly, appreciably better. There's still huge battleships that can fight an entire planet by itself, ultra convenient instantaneous space travel, communication anywhere in the galaxy and light swords that can cut through anything.

 

Maybe it's listed as 'better' in a technical manual or some character makes an offhanded comment to that effect but it all boils down to the portrayal of the technology. Which has been essentially the same every time it's been put to film, paper or a graphics engine.

 

In contrast, the real world has seen in roughly a century of progress, a transition from horse drawn vehicles to internal combustion engines and numerous other even more advanced methods of locomotion, computers that have shrunk in size from hundreds of tons to mere ounces with almost incomprehensible leaps in processing power and communications that started with hand carried messages or primitive visual signals to wireless communications that can put you in touch with an individual on the other side of the planet nearly instantly without a single wire between you.

 

So understandably, people's perception of the growth of technology is somewhat dilated. We expect more to have happened in this universe in SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS.

 

To wit, the complaint stands. Get used to it.

Edited by PartVI
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On the 'wiki' isn't the movies or anything. Hyperdrives are plot devices that conveniently put you where you need to be and break down when you need to stay there.

 

If it's never demonstrated that they do anything else but that, saying they've improved is just... I digress.

 

What people mean is that the technology isn't visibly, appreciably better. There's still huge battleships that can fight an entire planet by itself, ultra convenient instantaneous space travel, communication anywhere in the galaxy and light swords that can cut through anything.

 

Maybe it's listed as 'better' in a technical manual or some character makes an offhanded comment to that effect but it all boils down to the portrayal of the technology. Which has been essentially the same every time it's been put to film, paper or a graphics engine.

 

In contrast, the real world has seen in roughly a century of progress, a transition from horse drawn vehicles to internal combustion engines and numerous other even more advanced methods of locomotion, computers that have shrunk in size from hundreds of tons to mere ounces with almost incomprehensible leaps in processing power and communications that started with hand carried messages or primitive visual signals to wireless communications that can put you in touch with an individual on the other side of the planet nearly instantly without a single wire between you.

 

So understandably, people's perception of the growth of technology is somewhat dilated. We expect more to have happened in this universe in SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS.

 

To wit, the complaint stands. Get used to it.

 

And what would you have change? Does the Star Wars universe need smaller computers? If you can already travel at the speed of light, what is there to improve? The only way weaponry can change is in design and utility like comparing muskets to assault rifles. When you've reached the pinnacle of technological advancement, you dont have much room for improvement aside from making current technology more efficient.

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In contrast, the real world has seen in roughly a century of progress, a transition from horse drawn vehicles to internal combustion engines and numerous other even more advanced methods of locomotion, computers that have shrunk in size from hundreds of tons to mere ounces with almost incomprehensible leaps in processing power and communications that started with hand carried messages or primitive visual signals to wireless communications that can put you in touch with an individual on the other side of the planet nearly instantly without a single wire between you.

 

So understandably, people's perception of the growth of technology is somewhat dilated. We expect more to have happened in this universe in SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS.

 

To wit, the complaint stands. Get used to it.

 

Respectfully, technology on earth has progressed rapidly over the past 100 years, because we're in a technological boom right now. However, for roughly 4500 years, technology was basically the same. A person in the dark ages lived with the same basic technology as an ancient Egyptian thousands of years before.

 

Our technological boom will eventually plateau, just as it probably did thousands of years earlier in Star Wars.

 

In short, it's not remotely unreasonable that in a galactic environment technology would stay roughly the same for 3000 years. The galaxy probably had rapid technological progress for a few hundred years after the advent of light-speed, but after that, it's perfectly logical that it would plateau. On earth, we went far longer than that without any significant progress.

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Respectfully, technology on earth has progressed rapidly over the past 100 years, because we're in a technological boom right now. However, for roughly 4500 years, technology was basically the same. A person in the dark ages lived with the same basic technology as an ancient Egyptian thousands of years before.

 

Our technological boom will eventually plateau, just as it probably did thousands of years earlier in Star Wars.

 

In short, it's not remotely unreasonable that in a galactic environment technology would stay roughly the same for 3000 years. The galaxy probably had rapid technological progress for a few hundred years after the advent of light-speed, but after that, it's perfectly logical that it would plateau. On earth, we went far longer than that without any significant progress.

 

Even if I accepted the idea that a technological society would plateau for thousands of years, which I don't, there's no way it would retain the same aesthetics and politics over that period of time.

 

Star Wars is retro futuristic, as was Star Trek before it. I'm glad they kept the same look and all, but it's not particularly realistic. It just doesn't have to be.

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Even if I accepted the idea that a technological society would plateau for thousands of years, which I don't, there's no way it would retain the same aesthetics and politics over that period of time.

 

Star Wars is retro futuristic, as was Star Trek before it. I'm glad they kept the same look and all, but it's not particularly realistic. It just doesn't have to be.

 

Before I retort, let me say that I'm just debating this for fun. We both agree it really doesn't matter. They did it to hold on to the feeling of Star Wars and, really, of all the things that might be a problem for our suspension of disbelief, this ranks pretty low.

 

That said, I think it's perfectly logical to accept the possibility that technology would have plateaued. Even with our rapid rate of progress, there are areas we aren't progressing. We still drive around in cars with internal combustion engines (which I still feel ripped off about; it's 2012... where's my hovercraft!). There are tons of other examples, but the fact is, we're living in an anomaly of history. In all of human history, the explosion of progression we're seeing is so recent that we can't make any assumptions. I'm not saying technology in that galaxy would definitely plateau, I'm just saying it's perfectly reasonable to accept that as a realistic possibility.

 

As for aesthetics, I completely disagree that there's "no way" it could happen. Today, we still have fashions that look exactly the same as the ancient Egyptians. We have cars that are - intentionally - identical to cars from the 1940's. Aesthetics have always been circular. I don't find that an impossibility in Star Wars.

 

And as for politics, I'm surprised you find that impossible. Our governments and political systems haven't really progressed since the advent of human civilization. We still use a Senate, something that existed for the Romans thousands of years ago. England has had a monarchy for centuries. And the argument that British royalty no longer has any real power actually supports the idea that it could exist in Star Wars, because that was pretty much the deal with the senate.

 

In short, I'm not saying progress in star wars is how it would be. I'm just saying - as rationalizations go - this one doesn't hurt my suspension of disbelief one bit. We are infants when it comes to progress. We have no idea how it would happen in a galaxy over the spans of thousands of years. To say one is less realistic than the other is just idle speculation.

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Of course, the most important reason technology is so similar in the TOR era is so it can still feel like Star Wars to the fans.

 

This I agree with. However, technology is sort of an accelerating thing and I believe it will go far beyond, with us at least, than what just about anyone can imagine. Think of the theory of a technological singularity. Where we, as a species, use our technology as a ramp up to our next evolutionary phase. Obviously hasn't happened yet in the Star Wars universe, despite huge periods of time with high technology being fairly commonplace.

 

 

As an example of the possible progression of technology is the Kardashev Scale. It speculates on the scale of power production/consumption by a civilization.

 

We're maybe a few hundred years from a Type I, which is using widespread hydrogen fusion to power itself, possibly antimatter-matter annihilation and the possibility of faster than light travel on it's way to Type II. Also note, assimilation into a possible technological singularity would be well underway.

 

A Type II would be able to harness the power of its entire sun, possibly 2,000-10,000 years in the future and with work in progress to harness other nearby stars in the same way.

 

A Type III civilization would literally be able to harness the output of an entire galaxy in anywhere from 100,000 to a few million years in the future. It would regard even the entire population of the Star Wars galaxy in much the way we might regard our hands right before washing them. And scour it of life as easily as we might clean the dirt from our fingers - without an iota of effort and even less thought.

 

That's how much technology can change. But, that stuff only works for actual science fiction and it's more or less agreed that Star Wars isn't -really- science fiction.

 

Doesn't change the fact that people are going to continue complaining despite every possible argument to the contrary. :p

Edited by PartVI
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Just to be a bit of a nerd. I don't know what weapons world war 3 will be fought with but world war 4 will be with sticks and stones. You bomb a city and cut it off from help and sooner or later its former Ipod using people will find themselves living like little house on the prairie.... horse drawn carriage and all. This pattern has already been established in star wars and tends to be a big motivation for questing, go raid the old weapon factory/starship/tomb... that whole star forge thing?

 

 

well...that's how I justify it anyway =D

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Remember Star Wars isn't a sci-fi setting, is a space fantasy. Questioning about technology would be like asking why in the Middle Earth Silmarillion character fights with steel swords rather than bronze ones, because that story happened thousand years before Lord of the Rings. Edited by Lareon
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Remember Star Wars isn't a sci-fi setting, is a space fantasy. Questioning about technology would be like asking why in the Middle Earth Silmarillion character fights with steel swords rather than bronze ones, because that story happened thousand years before Lord of the Rings.

 

I think people understand that part and this is more an exercise in justifying why that would be.

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My response is usually to think of the effects WAR has. I mean, even if their technology has peaked, there should be *some* advances or innovations/evolutions/revolutions now an then. Like a full color hologram communicator, for example, instead of the *same* blue holograms.

 

BUT when we consider the history of wars, we have no idea what kind of devastation/rebuilding process they have to go through. And things get forgotten or intentionally buried. I mean, how many quests have we played already where we have the option to blow up some computers so that technology doesn't fall in the wrong hands or something like that?

 

Just saying.

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  • 5 weeks later...
I don't care how you spin it, but the leap of 3k years and the lack of tech dev makes no sense. All these excuses just don't add up at all. Bioware simply was given a chance to go deep, and they went TOO deep, and now we have a weird situation with the SWU not making sense. Then again, who cares, because the prequels did the same thing.
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The tech may not have changed drastically like were all thinking, or in looks but it has changed in function.

Function > Looks

 

Maybe the technology has changed; but why hasn't the music? Our music in one nation changes more in one year than the entire galaxies has apparently changed in 3000.

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Maybe the technology has changed; but why hasn't the music? Our music in one nation changes more in one year than the entire galaxies has apparently changed in 3000.

 

Hm....well really to be fair we never really hear any different types of music, its either the cantina song or max reebo's band or the ewoks.

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My response is usually to think of the effects WAR has. I mean, even if their technology has peaked, there should be *some* advances or innovations/evolutions/revolutions now an then. Like a full color hologram communicator, for example, instead of the *same* blue holograms.

 

BUT when we consider the history of wars, we have no idea what kind of devastation/rebuilding process they have to go through. And things get forgotten or intentionally buried. I mean, how many quests have we played already where we have the option to blow up some computers so that technology doesn't fall in the wrong hands or something like that?

 

Just saying.

 

War accelerates technology; Peace causes it to rot.

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Back when I was young we had to carry batteries for our lightsabers! Damn whippersnappers!

 

 

Well guns and sabers in this era are a little larger than during the Civil War era.... so Ha!

 

Speaking of guns.... All our guns still fire the same kinda bullet as when they were first made.. same mechanics in essence right?

 

Who is to say a galaxy cannot remain the same technology wise?

 

Someone want to look at the Battletech universe and tell me how much that galactic civilization has progressed?

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i never heard anyone QQ about the tech in Kotor, actually i havent even seen trolls in the server Anchorhead mention anything about tech...majority sees it fine, my one complaint is that the trooper gear looks like clone trooper gear, thats it....im fine with BH gear because its based on mandalorian composite armor and the mandalorian war was recent
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Someone want to look at the Battletech universe and tell me how much that galactic civilization has progressed?

 

You sir, get my star of approval! :sy_lightside:

 

But in all seriousness, the way I see it, tech has pretty much peaked in the SWU around this time, Tech can't get SIGNIFICANTLY better but it can be improved upon here and there. Add more armor there, or hey doing THIS makes THIS better etc. No matter what, you eventually are going to hit that point where, meh, we have everything so why bother. Even the Death Star wasn't "new" it just had more lasers, 64 I think, that were forced into one beam, same tech, different use.

 

As to why things have the same names, Star Destroyers, I present this scenario to you:

 

"Hey Bob, I just finished the designs on the new ship today, what should we call it?"

"Well, Star Destroyer is taken so why don't we call it.....the Aluminum Falcon Class?"

"Bob, shut the **** up."

 

You see, when you make something as big, powerful, and frankly ****** as an Imperial II Class Star Destroyer, how can you NOT call it something like Star Destroyer?

 

Aesthetics? Eh, who gives a ****.

Edited by Menthro
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