Think of Siege of Lothal as a 2-part special, inbetween both seasons. Similar to how Doctor Who does it's Christmas Specials.

And I fear Disney won't EVER do Thrawn. He is too beloved, and there would be so much backlash from ever critic saying "Thrawn would NEVER have done THAT", or "Thrawn would have seen through that ruse easily".... he is on a pedastal so high than few could dare portray him to the satisfaction of the masses.

I think Disney will do Thrawn. And I think that when they do him, he will be better than he ever was before.

Ideally, that means current Zahn doesn't write him.

The walkers at least drew a bead when they got close enough and messed it up plenty.... Also had a Rousing re-enactment of every submarine movie ever, but the TIE's... that's just terrible. Like, from that angle, with that less cover it should be impossible for them to miss.

You're certainly not wrong.

And I will admit, for sure, that hitting anything in an AT-AT is actually pretty damned hard.

Apparently, you folks haven't seen me roll red dice.. The lack of hitting is about right.

They could have vehicle deflector shields of since kind. Be fair now.

Friendly reminder that tie fighters have ****-tier atmospheric performance

One thing I noticed at the end of the most recent episode is that Rex was sporting his signature twin pistols when he met up with Ahsoka on the CR-90. I'm hoping that he gets his gear cleaned up to how it looked in TCW.

"Friendly reminder that tie fighters have ****-tier atmospheric performance" - Wilhelm Screamer

It's the ion engine:

With my usual MassEffectFTL/AntigravMassReduction/SolarPoweredIonEngine argument the ion engine is well over 100% efficient in space. You turn it on, lower your mass to near-zero with Easygrav™ , and boom: you're going from zero to equal your thrust velocity in as fast as your inertial dampeners will allow.

However, in-atmosphere there is drag (There's no getting around all that mass. *comedy drum beat*): and while the thrust velocity from an ion engine is high and very efficient in space, the force is low, and even with mass-reduction a little air resistance could decimate your top speed.

It's the ion engine:

Really? Because I would have assumed it was the way they have the aerodynamic profile of a billboard.

It's the ion engine:

Really? Because I would have assumed it was the way they have the aerodynamic profile of a billboard.

You're missing the point. Most of the ships in Star Wars have bad aerodynamics.

The reason it matters more for a TIE than a regular fighter is because it has an ion engine rather than a more conventional starship drive.

The Millennium Falcon has the profile of a waffle iron but still manages to do zips and zags in the air that would make a jet pilot envious because the main drive and repulsor systems are powerful enough to brute-force it through the air.

A solar-powered ion stream is just too gentle to overpower the massive air resistance caused by the fighter's fuselage in the same way as say, an X-wing or a Firespray.

We call that aerodynamic resistance drag (Because the friction is not unlike what is experienced when dragging an object over the ground.), and that's what I was talking about in my previous post.

I accept that TIE's lose a lot of their ability in atmo. This is a well known thing, TIE's suck in atmo. For me that goes all the way back to the Stele chronicles. Yes. I've read the stele chronicles. I only shaved 2 days ago, and that made my neckbeard grow to gandalf like proportions.

I don't care though. That cover. That angle. That target. I could have bullseyed that from 4 times the range. 8 Even.

That TIE could have been wobblin' like a goblin (bonus internet points for first person to name the correct reference) with a solar panel about to fly off, and I still would have hit it at least twice out of all of that.

Also ATAT's I never had a problem aiming with, given their heavy blasters have blast radii I've found that the general direction was often good enough...

F-117

+1 Internetz to you.

I miss the f-19 flight sim, even if it wasn't a real stealth fighter (it was a good guess for the time and made an awesome model kit).

TIEs have been non-optimal in atmosphere since the early days of the WEG RPG, and Brian Daly touched on the subject in Han Solo at Stars End with the IRD fighters being slowed down in atmosphere, especially compared to the Mark I Z-95s the outlaw techs were flying. It's fun to see that third party model makers have speculated that the IRD and TIE shared a common design.

To get back on topic (sort of), does any one think that Rebels might bring the Corporate Sector into the new canon?

To get back on topic (sort of), does any one think that Rebels might bring the Corporate Sector into the new canon?

The Tarkin novel's already done that:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Corporate_Sector/Canon

Possibly James Luceno, having worked with Brian Daley in the past (on Robotech I think?) is a big fan of his work and thus recanonizes his stuff at every available opportunity.

Do TIEs still have poor maneovreability in atmosphere? Rebels did show us a TIE flying sideways.

It was using it's landing repulsors to VTOL rather than truly fly.

Man, AT-ATs must cost alot.

29 points a piece, and then 1 academy TIE.

The Rebels had a more expensive list though, Ghost+phantom = 50 (roughly)

AT-TE: about 40 points then, and then each commander about 3 points a piece in upgrades.

There's no way the AT-TE costs more than an AT-AT. The AT-TE just has a lot of expensive Crew upgrades.

It's a fat turret though.

It's a fat turret though.

Yeah, but it's a Fat Turret that moves like a GR-75.

Clearly handles like a huge, as the ATAT did not instacrush it. FP3 front + hardpoint slot compared to the ATATs FP4 or 5 forwards.

ATAT probably had like 10 hull points, and 2 reinforce both sides.

ATTE probably 8 hull, 1 reinforce.

It was using it's landing repulsors to VTOL rather than truly fly.

It amazes me how few people recognize this.

It was using it's landing repulsors to VTOL rather than truly fly.

It amazes me how few people recognize this.

Yeah... me too.

The poor performance of ties in atmosphere comes from a pack of shields. Ships with shields can project shields into an aerodynamic shape.

In regards to the "lander repulsolifts" and the capabilities of TIEs in atmosphere, where does it specifically say it is bad? While not optimized for atmosphere and definitely not aerodynamic, but so few star wars ships are. I get that the shape of the TIE can be a hindrance, but look how fast speederbikes can go. Even the Falcon can be seen flying really well in atmosphere - the same as space.

This is all about the TIE missing a ground, large and slow target, that had the main characters of the show on it - the real reason it was not hit. Not to mention two force users that were seen deflecting vehicle weapons at them.