The Empire not being around 35 years later would be far stupider than having them still be a major antagonist.

Unless you are going for the hopeful Space Opera vibe that is Star Wars.

This is the same "Hard Sci Fi" versus "Space Opera" question again, this time not applied to Tech, but politics.

I doubt very many top officers in the Imperial Navy considered the Emperor a friendly figure. Surely not his right hand man, Vader. Lots of careers (and lives) ended by those two. The source and motivation for the fear that has gripped the Imperial Military (not to mention the civilian galaxy) is gone. Big changes could happen very quickly. Especially in Star Wars.

Personally I think the first pic is faithful to the original Storm Trooper look. The 2nd, I don't care for it as much, just opinion.

One could comment that a empire in decline may not have different armor at all, but its the movies and 30 years later... gotta do something new.

I will also throw out there, time and tech in Star Wars is kinda goofy... Tech is around for thousands of years like lightsabers blasters and ships. Things seem to progress but stay the same or at least similar. Tech advancement seems to move a lot slower in years, yet cannon does indicate changes in tech similar to real life especially with war ship invention and creation.

Basically at a certain point you just have to suspend believe and just enjoy the universe we all love.

I think its a bit like in times of peace stuff doesnt change much

when there are wars technology increases exponentially as each side has an arms race.

In the 'old republic' there was no need to make so many new starfighters etc

Real world analogy again. medical science tends to advance at ridiculous rates (and does weapons tech) during a war or the run up to an expected one.

wwi created 'plastic surgery' and saw us go from hot air baloons to 'gotha bombers' in 4 years

WWII pretty much changed medicine overnight, especially trauma treatment., we also went from horse drawn artillery to ICBM tech in six years

It looks cool I guess, even if it makes no sense. The original storm trooper helmet had a visor to protect the eyes and respirators. Intake on the bottom, exhale through the mouth like structure right above it (or at least, that's one way to imagine it). It was weird looking, but at least one could accept its purpose.

This though? Why extend the visor into a mouth shape? What possible function could that serve? Why would anybody make military helmets like that? Makes about as much sense as solar panels on a TIE fighter.

LOVE IT.

​LOVEIT​LOVEITLOVEIT​LOVEITLOVEIT!

That's absolutely f**king fantastic! It feels 30 years more advanced, and does not at all sacrifice toe well known Stormtrooper Aesthetic..!

That's f**king beautiful. What do you guys think?

Like the guy said, if you look closey the visor is the classic domed lense.. the black round the mouth is just paint like a 'bloodstripe' on a tie... looks good, has no function.

Actully like I was pointing out, the empire is huge, there's lots of good imps that like the imp life style, though it could change a bit, there's no reason those people would just up and stop being imps. GL after selling of SW and helping making ep7 haas said that the empire wouldn't have died right after ROTJ.

Also about the force, GL did make the force turn into germs, they show in the lore, including movies its still magical, the arkside is flatout unnatural when it comes to force abilities. Jedi except what they are capable of and what they are given, sith go beyond natural gifts and medi count. Its still a spiritual source hence force ghosts.

Like the guy said, if you look closey the visor is the classic domed lense.. the black round the mouth is just paint like a 'bloodstripe' on a tie... looks good, has no function.

This. I have no idea why everyone thinks that all that's black must be a visor. Nobody ever said that about the strip at the top of the classic helmet.

I dunno the helmet looks incredibly halo-esque to me. I'd you remove the white plate below the visor & make the whole area black it really resembles an ODST helmet from Halo 3 ODST.

I dunno the helmet looks incredibly halo-esque to me. I'd you remove the white plate below the visor & make the whole area black it really resembles an ODST helmet from Halo 3 ODST.

It REALLY doesn't. Like, at all.

Im on the fence about them. They do seem to me to be lacking something but i do like them more than the Clone trooper ones (though the fact that the Clone wars were not originally anything to do with clones, just a word Lucas liked, amuses me) but the similiarities between armour separated by thousands of years (and ships and weapons too) annoys the hell out of me.

It probably wouldnt bother me as much if they hadnt made a big deal about things like the ARC170 design tying the prequel/sequel aesthetics together. But since the pre pre pre pre pre prequel looks more like the sequel it is a bit daft.

I just hope JJ isnt fooling us after the overblown cg, flare,bad design, ludicrous plot fest that was the Trek reboot.

He says "We are going to do it old school'. But then changes it to say that he will use practical effects 'whenever possible That is what the director of Wrath of the Titans said.
When is it not possible to do practical fx? Douglas Trumbull made a far more real ubercity than Coruscant in Bladerunner using miniatures. Dykstra is still working and Colin Cantwell, Brian Johnson, Martin Bower, Steve Gawley, Lorne Peterson etc are all easily available on facebook.
Harryhausen may be sadly gone but Phil Tippett isnt and the stop motion velociraptors he did for Jurrasic Park looked better than the CG ones

If they do use practical fx and it works then this film could cause a rebirth in the industry in much the same way the original film did.

Keep in mind that while they have built a full size Falcon and a somewhat off looking X Wing that doesnt mean anything other than the movie sets will be nice. We have no idea if the X Wing will be an actual fighter design used in the film or just a background prop trucked out to get us all worked up like the early photos he released of the Hunchback Whale-prise that showed just enough to make it look like the old school constitution class.
Although having said that, i do think they should do different fighter designs for reasons i have rambled on about endlessly elsewhere on this board so will not repeat now *L*

Huge Star Wars fan, but I have to say im not a fan of the new helmet...first one look to Tron-ish...and not menacing enough...second one is so horrible im embarresed for the designer. That being said id almost be okay with the first if it was dark grey or black and was a sith trooper type.

I really dig the design.

It's all I can do not to stop the project I'm on and start roughing one out in foam, heh.

What's really exiting with regards to our game is that in this new future there is still a strong empire.

That makes me very hopeful for direct integration of the new movie material into the game (as opposed to yet another new game)

With this new helmet that black strip could be anything, sensors that feed data into the storm troopers sight sensor computer. Some kind of sensor detector all the above

I just want to see what TIE Fighter Pilots look like now.

I bet when Empire and Jedi came out there were a bunch of people grumbling about the snowtroopers and bikerscouts, but as a kid I loved them, and all the new ships and stuff they added. It will be the same this time around.

I bet when Empire and Jedi came out there were a bunch of people grumbling about the snowtroopers and bikerscouts, but as a kid I loved them, and all the new ships and stuff they added. It will be the same this time around.

People complained about that?

Wow, Some people truly ARE mad...

meh, I prefer the classic look.