You know I always wondered at the colouring of the laser weapons in Star Wars.

On one hand we see that the colour of your lasers is kinda important. Vader has a red lightsaber, while Ben has a blue one, Luke too, and later his is green. Vaders is always red though. Red is for badguys, Vader is the badguy and he has a red lasersword and good guys usually have blue, or sometimes green. Heck, even Stormtroopers fire red laser blasts! So, red is for badguys and goodguys green or blue. Okay, got it.

But wait! TIE fighters fire green lasers and X-Wings fire red ones? WTF? I thought this stuff was important! Why change it up now? Does it matter what colour laser weapons people are firing? Doesn't it matter to show clearly who the badguys are and who the goodguys are? Is that important? Does it matter who is good and who is bad?

... Darth Vader was a terrible person, but he wasn't always that way. In the end he did what no one else could and defeated the evil Emperor.

I actually kind of always thought the same thing about the lasers.

That feels so much like a retcon...

Well, yes, but it makes sense. Look at the TIE Interceptor: the chin cannons are there.

Most TIEs have those two things there.

There is no consistent description of what those two "nipples" are.

In the TIE Fighter they are cannons.

In the TIE Defender they are warhead launchers.

In the TIE Advanced they are either cannons or... lights?

The TIE Bomber doesn't have those nipples. From where does it shoot its lasers?

Because there is not better explanation, I would take the one given in the TIE Fighter game. In the TIE Interceptor, they are warhead launchers.

Even when the standard load is zero most of the time, sometimes TIE Interceptors were equipped with a special load of 8 missiles. Perhaps that would explain why we see it shooting red "things" in that scene. They aren't lasers, but missiles looking like "red comets" (just like those from the A-Wings and Falcon in the same movie).

I remember that the Data Room in the old X-Wing game depicted the laser cannons of the Tie Bomber being mounted vertically, right in the middle of the hull, between the ordnance pod and the pilot module.

Something really strange.

The problem is that even in the rendered scenes of Tie Fighter (or x-wing) there is no similarity among the models.

Take the scene in which Tie Defenders are stored inside a Cargo Ferry, as an example. They look all stretched in lenght while the actual model itself is way shorter.

The TIE Bomber doesn't have those nipples. From where does it shoot its lasers?

I think the Bomber's two lasers are between the cockpit and the bomb/missile tube. If you look closely there are two circles, one on top of the other, in the bottom center. That seems like it should be the lasers, since there's no other place for them.

The TIE Bomber doesn't have those nipples. From where does it shoot its lasers?

I think the Bomber's two lasers are between the cockpit and the bomb/missile tube. If you look closely there are two circles, one on top of the other, in the bottom center. That seems like it should be the lasers, since there's no other place for them.

It seems it shoots from the panels! At least in the PC game.

There's no perspective in space because nothing's on a solid surface you can't tell where one thing is in relation to another.

Well, you can tell that the corvette is closer to the camera than the frigate because you can see it. Meaning that it is either really small, or the frigate really big.

Even if the corvette is "touching" the frigate, it looks about 10 times smaller than it should be.

In space you just can't tell if an objects 10 feet away or 100, anyone who's learnt about art will tell you the same, to have perspective you need other objects in the foreground and background to get a sense of scale, in space you don't have that.

There's no perspective in space because nothing's on a solid surface you can't tell where one thing is in relation to another.

Well, you can tell that the corvette is closer to the camera than the frigate because you can see it. Meaning that it is either really small, or the frigate really big.

Even if the corvette is "touching" the frigate, it looks about 10 times smaller than it should be.

In space you just can't tell if an objects 10 feet away or 100, anyone who's learnt about art will tell you the same, to have perspective you need other objects in the foreground and background to get a sense of scale, in space you don't have that.

Yes, but as he says you have two objects one of which is definitely closer to you than the other because if it was behind the other then it would be entirely hidden by the other object. We don't know how much closer it is, but we do know that it's closer.

The different color of Blaster and Laser (which in the SW Universe are in facto Plasma weapons) shots is mainly explained by the quality of the Tibanna gas which is used.

Red -> Low Quality

Green -> Good Quality

Hand blasters and vehicle weapons are so commonly powerful enough compared to their enemies to geht their job done with low Quality gas.

But on capital ships the Empire wants to have more punch and this is using high Quality gas.

The Alliance simply can't afford food quality and thus shoots red lasers.

The different color of Blaster and Laser (which in the SW Universe are in facto Plasma weapons) shots is mainly explained by the quality of the Tibanna gas which is used.

Red -> Low Quality

Green -> Good Quality

Hand blasters and vehicle weapons are so commonly powerful enough compared to their enemies to geht their job done with low Quality gas.

But on capital ships the Empire wants to have more punch and this is using high Quality gas.

The Alliance simply can't afford food quality and thus shoots red lasers.

I like that explanation a lot.

The different color of Blaster and Laser (which in the SW Universe are in facto Plasma weapons) shots is mainly explained by the quality of the Tibanna gas which is used.

Red -> Low Quality

Green -> Good Quality

Source?

And where do blue and yellow come from (clonetroopers, Mandos)? We know Naboo have green hand blasters at least, despite being one of the least militarized planets around.

The Tibanna Gas explanation is the one I'd heard before, but of course it's all just fluff made up by somebody after the event, it clearly was never planned.

Also, if the gas used in a TIE Fighter is so much better than that in a Y-Wing or A-Wing why do they have the same attack value?

And why in the x-wing series do "green" lasers do 25% less damage?

Double post my bad.

TIE Fighters don't actually make that noise in space, that's just a sound produced by the Falcon in order to assist with gunnery.

The Tibanna Gas explanation is the one I'd heard before, but of course it's all just fluff made up by somebody after the event, it clearly was never planned.

Also, if the gas used in a TIE Fighter is so much better than that in a Y-Wing or A-Wing why do they have the same attack value?

And why in the x-wing series do "green" lasers do 25% less damage?

Because the Rebellion set their campaign to "Easy". If only the Imperials had figured out that most powerful of all superweapons: the Game Difficulty Setting!

Because there is not better explanation, I would take the one given in the TIE Fighter game. In the TIE Interceptor, they are warhead launchers.

Even when the standard load is zero most of the time, sometimes TIE Interceptors were equipped with a special load of 8 missiles. Perhaps that would explain why we see it shooting red "things" in that scene. They aren't lasers, but missiles looking like "red comets" (just like those from the A-Wings and Falcon in the same movie).

There is a better explanation:

The Tibanna Gas explanation is the one I'd heard before, but of course it's all just fluff made up by somebody after the event, it clearly was never planned.

Yes, that's made up fluff.

Also, if the gas used in a TIE Fighter is so much better than that in a Y-Wing or A-Wing why do they have the same attack value?

That's a simplification of the games. Each laser model should have a different damage (and there are several laser types - for instance, those of the TIE Advanced are much more powerful than those of a regular TIE Fighter), but this game obviously can't use fractional attack red dice.

And why in the x-wing series do "green" lasers do 25% less damage?

Transfer more energy to Weapons.

The different color of Blaster and Laser (which in the SW Universe are in facto Plasma weapons) shots is mainly explained by the quality of the Tibanna gas which is used.

Red -> Low Quality

Green -> Good Quality

Source?

And where do blue and yellow come from (clonetroopers, Mandos)? We know Naboo have green hand blasters at least, despite being one of the least militarized planets around.

Essential Guide to warfare.

Other colors could be other degrees of quality or - in case of the Clonetroopers - an added Ion effect.

And beeing one of the least militarized planets doesn't mean Naboo makes bad weapons or buys low cost ammo.

The Tibanna Gas explanation is the one I'd heard before, but of course it's all just fluff made up by somebody after the event, it clearly was never planned.

Also, if the gas used in a TIE Fighter is so much better than that in a Y-Wing or A-Wing why do they have the same attack value?

What do you mean by made up fluff?

Regarding the attack value: Maybe the Empire uses high quality gas to compensate for weak lighweight guns. In the vain of: Lighter guns with good ammo = normal guns with inferior ammo.

Essential Guide to warfare.

Place cite precise text and page number. I've got that book and never spotted anything like that.

And why in the x-wing series do "green" lasers do 25% less damage?

Transfer more energy to Weapons.

Please, please do not do me the disservice of ever assuming I don't know how to keep my lasers supercharged.

Seriously though, on a shot to shot comparison in XVT give it a test some time.

Stay on targ... ehm, topic. GUNBOAT.

..fluff made up by somebody after the event, it clearly was never planned...

What do you mean by made up fluff?

I mean it is fluff that was made up after the event rather than something planned before the effects were ever made.

After a quick look - the book says blaster gas colour is dependent on both the gas type and the crystal focusing the bolt. Doesn't say anything about green bolts being associated with higher-quality gas though.