Okay, if you think any of these might be remotely true, and you don't want to know, don't click. Otherwise, take with salty grain:

http://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/2nyd64/rumor_potential_4chan_episode_vii_leak_possible

I have to say, if these are true, it sounds like a good story and I'm enthused. I especially like the apparent rationale behind the future-history, and Luke's apparent role.

Yeah, I read those too... However I gotta say it seems like it could just as easily be someone making guesses to go with the concept art and trailer... It could be that this is all true of course but I got suspicious at the point it said "R2 and 3PO are the only comic relief characters" while the trailer basically implied differently (at least to me) with the roller droid.

I guess well see on May 1st when trailer 2 gets its release! Can't wait for that!

Assuming this is true - and lord knows if it is or not (bookmarks for future), I find this interesting:

• Disney has apparently interfered in several matters regarding the film. That, coupled with "oversights", is causing Abrams great stress; Spoiler Man describes him as looking "10 years older every time we see him" and having no love lost for Disney at this point.

possible spoilers if the link is accurate.

I really like it. Like a lot.

I hope the ships designs sticking to the older style doesn't mean that all we'll see are slight tweaks to ship models from the OT. The idea of a 30+ year long war and both sides having no new models of warships and fighters just upgrades of 30 year old designs is ludicrous IMO.

Thirty years ago is 1984. The US has been involved in some sort of conflict for a majority of those years:

Main Battle Tank: M1. Entered service in 1980.

Primary Fighters: F15 and F16. Entered service in 1976 and 1978.

BUT I would still love to see some new stuff in Episode 7.

Yeah but I think of the Star Wars conflicts as being more on the World War I or II scale. Yeah the older models would still be in service and widely used but there would be newer models coming out much more rapidly then they do today as well as well.

Yeah but I think of the Star Wars conflicts as being more on the World War I or II scale. Yeah the older models would still be in service and widely used but there would be newer models coming out much more rapidly then they do today as well as well.

Not every system. The M2 is still around because it's great. The M1911 is still around because it's great. A lot of what was used in the beginning of WW2 was crap and that's why it was replaced during the war. The USS Midway served 50 years. The current class of CVNs are envisioned to have 50 year life spans.

Again I never said the older stuff would be retired but I seriously doubt either side decided that what they had in the Return of the Jedi era was the peak of starfighter and warship design and ordered their ship R&D and design staffs to focus solely on upgrading the current models and never develop new ones.

Also many of the capital ship models we saw in use at Endor were designs that 20 years old or older then which would make them 50 year old designs by the sequels. I can easily see them still being in service. I can not imagine there having been no new models developed in the three decade gap.

Newer doesn't automatically mean better, and a great deal of our newer systems are the results of the defense industry using a boogeyman to push products that have no real benefit. Don't use the example of current defense procurement as a model for smart strategy. Aircraft design has hit a wall which is the squishy pilot in the cockpit, you can use the current new boogeyman to justify absurd financial outlays but at the end of the day what tactical aircraft do hasn't really advanced, it's typically the avionics and weapons hung on them that are the real upgrades. No need for a new airframe if you build one with a mind to be upgraded. Of course if you're a defense company trying to sell new expensive toys that's not a real smart financial strategy in regards to corporate longevity. That has zero to do with combat effectiveness though and absolutely nothing to do with judicious use of resources during war time.

Don't try to use the real world to make a point. We're talking about a galaxy where technology has barely changed over many thousands of years. Ships, equipment, droids, all have stayed much the same in the Star Wars galaxy.

Right because military spacecraft inventories didn't undergo massive changes in the 19 years between ROTS and ANH. Oh wait they did. The only fighter we saw introduced in the PT era which is still widely seen in the OT movies is the Y-Wing. Everything else in both the Alliance and Imperial on screen fighter inventories were new models designed either between the trilogies or between movies within the OT, and most of the on screen capital ships were new models as well, with the exceptions of the Imperial Star Destroyers which were new in 19 BBY and the CR90 Corvettes.

The idea that the same models of ships and fighters remain in use for thousands of years is strictly EU and even in the EU examples the models in question are few and far between plus no longer top of the line models after thousands of years.

And the gap between the OT and the sequels is 50 percent longer than the gap between the PT and OT. Plus the galaxy is apparently in a constant state of war in that period so the idea that no new fighter or warship models have been introduces is IMO ludicrous.

I like many of the OT ship designs but that doesn't mean that I think updates of OT ship designs should be all that we see in the new movies.

They were still using X-wings at the battle of Endor.

Just because they started using A-wings and B-wings doesn't mean they had advanced significantly or at a rapid rate.

The B-wing in particular isn't really a significant step forward because its a very very expensive fighter. You get more bang for your buck by getting a bunch of X-wings instead.

Also, for all we have to go on, the B-wing could have been around for years by the time the battle of Yavin happened. Its just the Alliance didn't have the funds to run them in the numbers they needed. So they went with X-wings and Y-wings.

When you have 100 pilots, you'll want to have enough ships for them all to fly. Plus extras in case of losses.

If going with B-wings means some of your pilots don't have ships and you don't have replacement fighters, then its better to downgrade.

Because things like fighters and other ships are quite expensive, it makes no sense to pay 150,000 credits for a new fighter when you could simply take your old fighter and slap 50,000 credits worth of upgrades on it to make it just as usable as the new shiny. Especially if you are in a state of constant warfare and don't have a peacetime lull to spend on changes.

I don't think an A-Wing had much room for upgrades without having to expand the frame. And don't forget that in wartime you are going to have to replace a lot of hulls rather then being able to repair and upgrade them. Can anyone think of any wars involving navies and airforces being used by both sides, with the ships and aircraft being manufactured by the combatant powers that lasted more then 2 or 3 years without any new warship and fighter models being introduced?

I don't think an A-Wing had much room for upgrades without having to expand the frame. And don't forget that in wartime you are going to have to replace a lot of hulls rather then being able to repair and upgrade them. Can anyone think of any wars involving navies and airforces being used by both sides, with the ships and aircraft being manufactured by the combatant powers that lasted more then 2 or 3 years without any new warship and fighter models being introduced?

A-1 Sky Raider, developed and introduced in spring of 1945 for a WW2 USN request, the model served 27 years through nearly the conclusion of US involvement in the early 70s. Lotsa talk during the last 13 years of fighting in Afghanistan it would be have been a great plane to still have for the kind of fighting going on. There was an effort to bring a combat turboprop back into service with some of the newer offerings as an ideal platform.

True but there were lots of new fighter and attack craft models introduced during the period that the A-1 was in service.

I'm clearly not being clear enough and I'm sorry for that.

I have absolutely no problem with upgraded versions of OT ship designs appearing in the sequels. Or even some of the designs that were being used in the OT era still being in use. What I would have a problem with is if all of the ships we see whatever the protagonist forces call themselves and the Empire using in the sequels are OT era designs or upgrades of OT era designs and there are no new fighter or warship models appearing in the sequels

I'm also not being clear enough, maybe both sides in Star Wars aren't stupid, and they aren't wasting R&D money and resources to replace designs that don't need replacing, unlike the bought off, brain dead politicians and flag officers in the US.

The only reason we saw and will see new things is because it is cool. We've all seen x-wings and ties from the OT, so when they did the PT they added new ships for visuals all in the name of it being 20-30 years earlier. And many of the ships in the PT looked like they were better in performance (or at least as good) as any ship in the OT. But we did get to see new ships because we were dealing with Naboo ships, Jedi ships and Sith ships. And we are getting "new" x-wings in that the design being used in the new movie(s) are a nod to the McQuarrie originals, hence why they have the rounded intakes and exhaust ports. And I am sure we will see actual new ship designs because...cool.

I'm also not being clear enough, maybe both sides in Star Wars aren't stupid, and they aren't wasting R&D money and resources to replace designs that don't need replacing, unlike the bought off, brain dead politicians and flag officers in the US.

We saw four Imperial fighter designs in the OT that I recall, And every Imperial capital ship we saw was a battleship or battleship/carrier hybrid. Even if you throw in the Republic designs from TCW and PT that just gives you another battleship/carrier hybrid, an assault transport, a couple of gunboat/patrol boat size escort ships, and a cargo/medical frigate. No midsize warships whatsoever other then the assault transport.

The rebels were a bit better off capship wise getting a corvette, escort frigate, medium transport, and some battleship/carrier hybrids. But claiming there is no room at all for new models in either faction's fighter force or capital ship force makeup make no sense IMO.

From what I know of military history, a lot of breakthroughs in technology were made on the battlefield when the tools at hand didn't do their job. Case in point - when during WW I advances in artillery had caused the infantry to become bogged down in trenches, unable to move an inch, grenades were invented (now that I think of it, the trenches were a new invention too. As was mustard gas. Flamethrowers. You get the idea.)

Conversely, if the tools at hand are very good at doing their job, they will not be phased out for a long time - mainly because of people actively resisting that change (as well as logistical reasons.)

1: As I mentioned even if the OT models are the best at filling their roles there are still plenty of roles which new designs could fill.

2: If the part about the early Mon Cal warships, everything pre-MC90 in the EU,basically requiring Mon Calamari bridge crews and if memory serves engineering crews stands the odds on the New Republic not having new models in the battleship range are slim for two reasons IMO. First is that having to have every New Republic battleship bridge crew need to be the same species or pair of species drastically limits your manpower pool for manning those ships and second it could easily be turned into an anti-New Republic propaganda weapon.

Real life example:

F-18 hornet vs. F-18E super hornet.

these are very different aircraft despite having a visually similar airframe. Just because the new X-wings look a lot like the old ones doesn't mean that it's not a significant advancement. In the EU a faster version (as fast as an A-wing) was developed shortly after endor. In (i think) the joiner king there was a mention of a "chase X" which I think is a fast version. There were stealth-X and XJ X-wings during the NJO and the NJ was basically an original x-wing on steroids (in terms of being able to dish out and absorb punishment). So I wouldn't be surprised if these new x-wings are the next level of awesome despite having a similar appearance to the old ones.

True but in the EU the designers of the X-Wing also invented the E-Wing a few years after Endor, and the corporation that made the Y-Wing developed the K-Wing short range heavy bomber, which was closer to a short range Arc-170 then it was to a Y-Wing IMO. And there were some new TIE models developed as well as shipwrights more known for capships or civilian craft then fighters creating new models.

And cap ship wise there were new designs that were successors to pretty much every capital ship model we saw the rebels use its just for some reason many of the EU authors didn't use them in their stories.

The Corellian Buccaneer was a design to fill the CR90's military role as was the older CR92a.

The MC90 and Nebula class Star Destroyers both filled the MC80's role.

Corona Line Frigate and the Sacheen light escort were both intended to fill the Nebulon-B's role.

None of them completely replaced the designs that filled those roles before them but there were clearly new designs being created both during the EU GCW and in its aftermath.

Real life example:

F-18 hornet vs. F-18E super hornet.

these are very different aircraft despite having a visually similar airframe. Just because the new X-wings look a lot like the old ones doesn't mean that it's not a significant advancement. In the EU a faster version (as fast as an A-wing) was developed shortly after endor. In (i think) the joiner king there was a mention of a "chase X" which I think is a fast version. There were stealth-X and XJ X-wings during the NJO and the NJ was basically an original x-wing on steroids (in terms of being able to dish out and absorb punishment). So I wouldn't be surprised if these new x-wings are the next level of awesome despite having a similar appearance to the old ones.

Better example

The F-15 production line is set to end in 2019, 47 years after the type's first flight.

Real life example:

F-18 hornet vs. F-18E super hornet.

these are very different aircraft despite having a visually similar airframe. Just because the new X-wings look a lot like the old ones doesn't mean that it's not a significant advancement. In the EU a faster version (as fast as an A-wing) was developed shortly after endor. In (i think) the joiner king there was a mention of a "chase X" which I think is a fast version. There were stealth-X and XJ X-wings during the NJO and the NJ was basically an original x-wing on steroids (in terms of being able to dish out and absorb punishment). So I wouldn't be surprised if these new x-wings are the next level of awesome despite having a similar appearance to the old ones.

Better example

The F-15 production line is set to end in 2019, 47 years after the type's first flight.

Right but development and deployment of new fighter models didn't cease once the F-15 entered production only to resume once F-15 production ended or was scheduled to end. The F-16, F/A-18, F-22. and F-35 models are just a few fighter models developed while production of the F-15 continued.