9 minutes ago, AegisGrimm said:

Yeah, too bad they didn't put all that manufacturing capability into a few ships and wings of fighters around Starkiller Base.....

Hopefully the new "flying shipyard" will have a fleet along with it.

I mean... The good guys still need to win at the end of the day. I'm sure they will be on the back foot for this movie. Hopefully they can wrangle the Republic at large to start manufacturing some weapons and ships. I still hold out hope that episode 9 wont be as thematically similar to its ancestor as the 7 was and 8 seems to be.

34 minutes ago, codegnave said:

I still hold out hope that episode 9 wont be as thematically similar to its ancestor as the 7 was and 8 seems to be.

I wouldn't get them hopes up too much!

40 minutes ago, ElSee said:

I wouldn't get them hopes up too much!

I won't be sad if im wrong. I'll enjoy it either way. I just hope otherwise!

... more dumb uber big?

6 hours ago, codegnave said:

They have had nearly 30 years to centralize and mold this substantial section of space into exactly what they want. Its far fetched, sure. But its not out of the realm of possibility set by the star wars setting.

Not out of the realm of possibility of the modern world mate.

Look at China over the last 30 years, then scale it up to several planets + scifi + space-wizards. With enough cheap labour and an authoritarian government, you can move mountains.

In my head, the First Order found a Star Forge in the Unknown Regions, and I am probably just gonna overwrite whatever actually happens in Ep8/9 with that since I like it better.

14 hours ago, svelok said:

In my head, the First Order found a Star Forge in the Unknown Regions, and I am probably just gonna overwrite whatever actually happens in Ep8/9 with that since I like it better.

They are going to cannonize the Star Forge, but since they have to make everything bigger, it will be a Solar System Forge or something.

This is why I'm still invested in my Thrawn Trilogy books. Love the sequel trilogy and the Last Jedi will determine whether this new trology is amazing or terrible, but as of yet I find the Zahn books far more satisfying.

TFA was terrible, why would TLJ any better? Especially with what we know about it so far...

If TFA was "terrible" what does that make Episodes I-III?

Personally I like the concept. Of the Mega. The idea that the First Order is primarily a fleet-based faction is pretty cool to me. The Supremacy would make sense for that purpose. You would need a mobile shipyard, which is what it is. That name though...what the ****? It's a Supremacy-class as far as I'm concerned.

2 hours ago, Truthiness said:

If TFA was "terrible" what does that make Episodes I-III?

Personally I like the concept. Of the Mega. The idea that the First Order is primarily a fleet-based faction is pretty cool to me. The Supremacy would make sense for that purpose. You would need a mobile shipyard, which is what it is. That name though...what the ****? It's a Supremacy-class as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, I've pretty much warmed up to the Supremacy as well but still not hot about the 'Mega' classifation. Supremacy Class Star Destroyer sounds way better.

To be honest I LOVE RotS. Not much the novie which was cut short due cinematic reason but the book based on Lucas' oeiginal script. But then again I love the movie for several reasons too. I agree that AotC was bad but I couldn't find anything even remotely original or memorable about TFA other than the uncomfortable laughter in the cinema "Oh no... They didn't play THAT card AGAIN, did they?"

I will 100% concede the plot was unoriginal. It was done intentionally to give fans that Star Wars 'feel' again and serve as a reset. The dialogue and characters were what made it for me. We've got a great group of actors and characters going forward, which is what makes the overall plot structure forgivable to me. Talking with someone in the know, Disney has a 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' philosophy. They were incredibly nervous about Rogue One because it was such a huge departure. You could very much feel Kasdan's influence again on TFA as this was the best dialogue since Empire.

Ironically the inverse is what drives me crazy with the Prequels. What you step back and look at the overall plot structure, it's actually pretty good. However, the directing and the dialogue is so terrible, that you can't see the forest through the tree. I've said it else where, but the Revenge of the Sith novelization is the perfect example. The movie started strong but failed at the climax due to poor directing and dialogue. A few minor tweaks made the book incredible . It is seriously one of the absolute best Star Wars books written. And it's a freaking movie adaptation.

I will say they need an original plot structure for TLJ, though. It's pretty clear that the fans won't tolerate an ESB knock off. I'm hoping that with Rogue One as successful as it was, Disney gave Johnson room to breath. I'm not gonna get hung up on the size stuff (just watching the movie, can you even tell the Resurgent is that much bigger than an ISD? It's literally just numbers for nerds like us). After all, these are space Nazis. Of course, bigger is going to equal better =)

On 9/1/2017 at 2:40 AM, melminiatures said:

At least the ship design is "original" enough, but that size is ridiculous.

Particularly if we are talking about length since it is much wider than longer. It would be 240km wide.

This thing is wider than a Death Star.

I wouldn't be surprised if the 60km was actually the width rather than the length. Plenty of people just use "length" to mean the longest axis, after all.

And really, depending on your reference frame, or, in more Star Wars terms, "your point of view", that really would be the length!

5 minutes ago, Freeptop said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the 60km was actually the width rather than the length. Plenty of people just use "length" to mean the longest axis, after all.

And really, depending on your reference frame, or, in more Star Wars terms, "your point of view", that really would be the length!

It was confirmed by Pablo, it's indeed the width

On 9/1/2017 at 10:19 AM, Animewarsdude said:

I always thought the BB series was an astromech line, JJ Abrams I think said it was like the new R2 like that it was a better line (HAH!) and more amble to traverse spaces better than the R series. I've always had issues with them as an astromech line though, they only have six possible tools in their bodies with only four possibly being used at one time, and with the ball mechanic it really seems like it wouldn't be able to magnetize itself and move around making repairs to the outer hull impossible. If they were a therapy droid though it makes more sense then what I've seen so far.

Put a solenoid on the interior of the sphere, opposite the head, and it will easily be able to magnetically attach itself to a hull while still using the rolling of the sphere to move around.

As for the tools - well, both R2 and BB-8 have always been clearly made out of a TARDIS, since they somehow fit tools, motors, datatape readers, computing, etc all into a space that shouldn't be able to fit that much stuff in the first place. So I don't see why BB-8 can't simply hold multiple tools per compartment!

On 9/1/2017 at 0:17 PM, dangmalzone said:

https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/903624157853655040

Pablo confirms it's 60 km in wingspan. So 3.75ish Executors across.

I really need to learn to finish catching up on a thread before I comment on it... particularly after being away from the internet for a three-day weekend!

23 minutes ago, Freeptop said:

As for the tools - well, both R2 and BB-8 have always been clearly made out of a TARDIS, since they somehow fit tools, motors, datatape readers, computing, etc all into a space that shouldn't be able to fit that much stuff in the first place. So I don't see why BB-8 can't simply hold multiple tools per compartment!

Gotta disagree with this. Sure, when Star Wars first came out, R2-D2 was crazy!

But I can throw a couple multitools, a smart phone, a tablet, and a dremel set into a shoebox and do everything R2 can do. Heck, a printer/fax/multiple media reader device could probably fit in there too. With today's tech, BB8 and R2 would be mostly empty space...well, mostly battery, but there would be plenty of space for the batteries.

My issue with BB8 (who I like) vs R2 is accessibility of equipment. Equipment is stored behind various doors and ports. R2 has everything in front of him or coming out the rotating head. This means he can simply move up to the object he needs to work on and everything is right there....like a person with a tool belt on. BB8 however only has a couple tools available and aligned when interacting with an object, and he'd likely have to move in a sporadic pattern to end up with the correct panels aligns with the thing he's trying to interact with. Then when he needs a second tool that is located on another facing of his ball, he has to calculate a movement pattern so that he moves away from the object and performs a little droid dance to return to the same position but with the new tools available.

9 minutes ago, kmanweiss said:

Gotta disagree with this. Sure, when Star Wars first came out, R2-D2 was crazy!

But I can throw a couple multitools, a smart phone, a tablet, and a dremel set into a shoebox and do everything R2 can do. Heck, a printer/fax/multiple media reader device could probably fit in there too. With today's tech, BB8 and R2 would be mostly empty space...well, mostly battery, but there would be plenty of space for the batteries.

My issue with BB8 (who I like) vs R2 is accessibility of equipment. Equipment is stored behind various doors and ports. R2 has everything in front of him or coming out the rotating head. This means he can simply move up to the object he needs to work on and everything is right there....like a person with a tool belt on. BB8 however only has a couple tools available and aligned when interacting with an object, and he'd likely have to move in a sporadic pattern to end up with the correct panels aligns with the thing he's trying to interact with. Then when he needs a second tool that is located on another facing of his ball, he has to calculate a movement pattern so that he moves away from the object and performs a little droid dance to return to the same position but with the new tools available.

If you can retcon R2 by saying the tools can be rotated and raised/lowered, you can do the same with BB-8. The tools just get rotated to the nearest portal, and unlike R2, with the ability to open a hole hatch, BB-8 doesn't need the tool to match the size and shape of the opening, like R2's network-jack does, for example.

I also can't help but notice that you seem to be ignoring the leg-thrusters that R2 had in the prequels... can't say I blame you, but the precedent has been set for a long time that R2 has whatever he conveniently needs to have at the time. Seriously, a lightsaber ejector? I can only assume that was some sort of customization done by Luke... but did he take out the periscope in order to fit that in, or are there two long tubes that come down from the dome into the main body? So many questions... that I then ignore, because it's fun, and I don't really care

43 minutes ago, Freeptop said:

If you can retcon R2 by saying the tools can be rotated and raised/lowered, you can do the same with BB-8. The tools just get rotated to the nearest portal, and unlike R2, with the ability to open a hole hatch, BB-8 doesn't need the tool to match the size and shape of the opening, like R2's network-jack does, for example.

I also can't help but notice that you seem to be ignoring the leg-thrusters that R2 had in the prequels... can't say I blame you, but the precedent has been set for a long time that R2 has whatever he conveniently needs to have at the time. Seriously, a lightsaber ejector? I can only assume that was some sort of customization done by Luke... but did he take out the periscope in order to fit that in, or are there two long tubes that come down from the dome into the main body? So many questions... that I then ignore, because it's fun, and I don't really care

R2's parts and tools:

From what I remember at least in the old cannon the parts could be swapped out and replaced to be custom, so a person could have their droid be able to be tooled to whatever kind of work the person needs done more often. I think BB-8 will have some issues reaching some ports unless his tools can extend out a ways or I guess he can use his ropes to get himself into place even if that is inconvenient and a tad silly.

1 hour ago, Animewarsdude said:

R2's parts and tools:

From what I remember at least in the old cannon the parts could be swapped out and replaced to be custom, so a person could have their droid be able to be tooled to whatever kind of work the person needs done more often. I think BB-8 will have some issues reaching some ports unless his tools can extend out a ways or I guess he can use his ropes to get himself into place even if that is inconvenient and a tad silly.

Funny how that diagram doesn't seem to show how all that stuff fits in there while the third leg is retracted. I also like how three arms all fit into the one slot on the left-hand side (R2's left, that is), somehow don't interfere with each other's ability to operate, and somehow only take up a shallow compartment. That diagram does an awful lot of hand-waving to pretend that it works just fine while still ignoring quite a bit. The best fictional blueprints are always good at that

I'm fine with just figuring that BB-8's tools can reach out through telescoping or folding arms (not too different from how R2's do, really), and that the interior of the ball doesn't necessarily rotate the same as the exterior (in fact, it's likely it wouldn't in order to work in the first place - see how the Sphero toys work, for example).

I really don't mean to insult R2-D2, here. That droid was one of the reasons I ended up working in Robotics, after all! Considering some of the robots I've seen over the years, BB-8 seems like a perfectly reasonable progression to me.

Edit: I only just noticed - the saw is only shown from the side, but no port for it is labelled in the front view! That's rather convenient

7 hours ago, Visovics said:

It was confirmed by Pablo, it's indeed the width

Thank God. That makes it a little less obserd. I mean what did we say, based on the pic if it was 60km long. It's wingspan would be 240km. The mouse definitely would have compensation issues.

3.75 executors makes sense for a mobile shipyard. It would need to be big enough to house huge ships like the mandator.

Not sure I like the size yet but I'll wait to see it's role in the film and then decide my stance.

On 9/2/2017 at 5:13 PM, D503 said:

With enough cheap labour and an authoritarian government, you can move mountains.

Quite literally...
https://goo.gl/images/v9PXNE

On 9/2/2017 at 7:35 AM, Crabbok said:

It's fine for a movie, but we can't fit it in Armada... and that is precisely where the problem lies.

Fitting the Supremacy to Armada is like trying to jam a Star Destroyer into X-Wing. The Supremacy is an entirely different order of starship from everything that's in the universe before. It's a Strategic weapon, rather than a tactical one, better suited for Rebellion than any of the Tabletop games yet made.

On the matter of aesthetics, I actually like monsterously huge ships, so Supremacy has my approval. I just wish the First Order Dreadought was better designed.

Star wars is a lot like the inverse ninja rule, the bigger it gets the more useless it ends up.