4 hours ago, gabe69velasquez said:

I was going to divide it into 3 shifts to make sense of it, but 36 sounds right to me if you consider a second shift of 36 to be sleeping, 72 total.

Or they could be part of the second wave in Lothal's atmosphere.

On 11/13/2017 at 7:59 PM, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

I always found most of the Antilles-Fel clan stories to be far too incestual, in the sense that they made the Galaxy feel suffocatingly small. We're in a galaxy of tens of thousands of habitable planets with innumerable sentient lifeforms, and the one person Soontir Fel falls in love with just happens to be his arch nemesis' (Wedge Antilles') sister? Even as good as the X-Wing/Wraith series of novels are taken to be, and they are rare highlights in an otherwise iffy Extended Universe, they have their cheesy moments like when Soontir's TIE Interceptor gets shot down and Wedge lands his X-Wing and the two literally have a fistfight as a dogfight rages on... ugh. It's also an almost fetishism that exists around minor characters like Boba, Wedge, and Soontir wherein they become gods unto the universe, and to me it just feels silly. Like, the more stories I read about Boba and Wedge and Soontir being SuperBeings, the less I find them cool and interesting because the mystery around them vanishes and their plot armor becomes heftier than Simon Pegg's Unkar Plutt costume. Both Soontir and Boba suffer from the fate of so many villains where writers become overly attached to them and turn them into heroes, at least for awhile (e.g. Sylar from Heroes, Ben from LOST, or Kallus/Maul from our very own Rebels ). Boba, some random mercenary dude who gets punked by a blind guy and eaten by a goddamned hole in the ground goes on to become the leader of the entire Mandalorian culture.... suuuuure. Soontir Fel, the Mary Sue of Imperial Pilots, goes on to have his descendants become the royal family of the Imperium, see: Emperor Roan Fel. These sorts of tiny incestual relationships where the same dozen named characters do everything in the universe over the course of thirty years and intermarry and become the leaders of their respective groups just makes the world of Star Wars--which is supposed to be an entire galaxy--just feel so darn small and insignificant, and it's really depressing to see Rebels do largely the same thing by making street-urchin Sabine the Mandalore. Which is why I think some of the best of the EU are things like "Tales from the Cantinna" or "Tales of the Bounty Hunters." A little bit of backstory or demystification is nice, but I don't want to know everything about everyone, and I don't want every character who looks cool to be an immortal god in the world, which is sadly what so often happens within the EU. Now, I'm not sure Disney's New Trilogy will do any better, but at least they slate is wiped clean so they have the possibility to do better.

TL;DR : there's nothing in particular wrong with the Fel Nuptial storyline, per se, but it's a great symbol of so many problems with the EU: (1) Making the galaxy feel small, (2) Fetishizing certain Mary Sue characters, e.g. Wedge, Boba, Soontir, etc., (3) Competent Villains Become Heroes, and (4) Everyone within the small pool of recurring characters becoming the leader of their respective peoples.

I have to say, I think that's actually one of the things that drew me to the X-Wing series, initially. To me, it felt like I was reading a side-story, and not following the main heroes. Even Wedge, as good as he was, seemed to struggle at times, and though his pilot skills were always remarkable, it was often some other squad-member's skill or ingenuity that saved the day. I'm not sure what the rest of EU did with him, because apart from X-Wing and the Thrawn trilogy, I've pretty much repressed all other EU memories, but he certainly didn't seem too bad to me.

11 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

What a load of arrogant codswallop.

Maybe Disney owning really IS the best thing, because if this attitude is what makes you a “fan” then, frankly, I will take the new Disney stuff (which both my 40 year old self and my 4 year old son loves) and all that comes.

Any joy I got from the old EU, and indeed, I had much, is eclipsed a hundred fold by the joy of seeing my son enjoy all these new stories Disney is providing.

Finally, the new canon has provided what I consider the BEST Star Wars story ever written; Lost Stars.

As much as I liked certain aspects of the EU, it was definitely a mess. There were some absolutely horrendous stories in there, and then there were some pretty good stories made less good because they were trying to remain consistent with the bad stories. In the end, there were still plenty of contradictions and cringe-worthy moments, as well as dozens of superweapons that all made Starkiller Base look utterly brilliant in comparison (thanks, Kevin!).

Really, Disney didn't have much choice but to Legendize the whole EU if they wanted any hope of consistency. They made the right call, and personally, I do like that they seem willing to bring back certain elements of the EU that people liked. They're not utterly throwing everything away; they're just setting it aside and seeing what can be worked in to actually fit.

You are absolutely right, we need a new unique EPT.

• Plot Armor

X-wing only

when defending if you are hit cancel all dice results. You cannot equip this card if your pilot skill is 6 or lower

-3 points

9 hours ago, T70 Driver said:

Or they could be part of the second wave in Lothal's atmosphere.

That was a very imperial navy response, wasn't it.

"Sir! The rebels have broken through!"

"Impressive. You can send in the next wave...."

[Cuts to bits of broken rebel ship falling out of the sky]

yeah. Hera’s good... but Poe does the same move better.

I might add... Hera closes the S-Foils to do a Cobra turn.... but it looks like Poe opens his to do the same... which one creates more "space drag"? I'm confused. Pablo help me

Are they KIDDING us?!! X-wings Have not, Do not, And will NEVER, Ever Shoot with their S-foils CLOSED!!

Sorry for the rant. (Nerd Rage)

4 hours ago, Lobokai said:

yeah. Hera’s good... but Poe does the same move better.

I might add... Hera closes the S-Foils to do a Cobra turn.... but it looks like Poe opens his to do the same... which one creates more "space drag"? I'm confused. Pablo help me

Speaking of changing the subject, does Finn still have a lightsaber? Are we going to find out that he can use the Force, too, or does he just prefer weapons that come with a substantial risk of self-injury?

(Sorry if this has already been discussed; this is my first time actually seeing an Episode VIII trailer.)

Pretty sure Poe is doing a move more akin to the K-Turn or Tallon Roll, and the movements of the stick actually sound a lot like the description of the Koiogran Turn. Throttle up, twist the stick, you end up heading the opposite direction with all momentum in the previous direction gone. It's basically a space Immelman.

On 11/13/2017 at 11:42 AM, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

Yet again we fail to see Star Destroyers launching anything close to 76 TIE Fighters, which further supports the view that the commonly-held 76 TIE compliment for Star Destroyers is grossly exaggerated from 'reality.'

On 11/14/2017 at 5:13 PM, T70 Driver said:

Or they could be part of the second wave in Lothal's atmosphere.

Pretty much this I'd say. The Rebels could have attacked from a multitude of angles which would have spread Thrawn's forces out in order to cover those areas. Instead, why not take a good chunk of your starfighter force and put it on patrol over the areas you KNOW the Rebels will want to hit? They don't have enough firepower to take out your fleet (you don't have enough fighters left to crash into tissue paper cruisers which will bank into Star Destroyers), and you get the element of surprise as the Rebels will believe that they're home free once they're past the blockade. Using the Star Destroyer's fighters instead of those based of Lothal also keeps enemy intelligence from reporting on/sabotaging planet-based fighters on the ground and you're not diverting local patrols.

Very Thrawnish if you ask me.

On 11/13/2017 at 4:56 PM, SEApocalypse said:

First. It's been a while that I read those novels, basically more than 20 years.
Second: Are your sure about it? Because I could have sworn that you can hit incoming TIEs in XvT at 2.5km, not a meter early. but 2.5 as max range. I might be totally wrong, I have not played intensively XvT since 20 years, so I just might mix up 1.5 and 2.5
Maybe it just because I could hit at 2500m in star citizen

1.5 for primary

2.5 for warheads

5.0 for warheads vs. capital ships (iirc)

On 11/14/2017 at 0:56 AM, SEApocalypse said:

First. It's been a while that I read those novels, basically more than 20 years.
Second: Are your sure about it? Because I could have sworn that you can hit incoming TIEs in XvT at 2.5km, not a meter early. but 2.5 as max range. I might be totally wrong, I have not played intensively XvT since 20 years, so I just might mix up 1.5 and 2.5
Maybe it just because I could hit at 2500m in star citizen

In the sims, lasers have a lifespan and a speed that makes them reach about 1650 meters from a static shooting position. The thing is that you rarely fire lasers standing still, but while moving. Your ship speed adds to the laser speed. But also, the other ship's speed might contribute if it comes in your direction since it reduces the distance between you and him over time, right?

So you can hit an enemy with strong lasers (weak ones don't reach as far) between 1.65 km to around 2 km depending on your speed, the target's speed and your relative vectors.

Warheads can be locked from 2.5 km away for small ship, or from 6 km away for capital ships. They can, however, reach much longer distances than that. You could dumbfire a torpedo and it would just travel forward for up to 1 minute before it run out of fuel, that should be enough to cover a distance of 12.6 km.

4 hours ago, flyboymb said:

Pretty much this I'd say. The Rebels could have attacked from a multitude of angles which would have spread Thrawn's forces out in order to cover those areas. Instead, why not take a good chunk of your starfighter force and put it on patrol over the areas you KNOW the Rebels will want to hit? They don't have enough firepower to take out your fleet (you don't have enough fighters left to crash into tissue paper cruisers which will bank into Star Destroyers), and you get the element of surprise as the Rebels will believe that they're home free once they're past the blockade. Using the Star Destroyer's fighters instead of those based of Lothal also keeps enemy intelligence from reporting on/sabotaging planet-based fighters on the ground and you're not diverting local patrols.

Very Thrawnish if you ask me.

Or simply competent, which does seem to be a bit lacking in Star Wars, so I don't think they're mutually exclusive.

I have a theory that people in the Star Wars universe just aren't very good at their jobs. This lets truly exceptional people really stand out because they're even better than the crowd.

I blame the general low level of competence on pervasive use of droids for almost every task and an apparent lack of literature. Most record keeping and communication seems to be kept in holographic form and is not widely accessible. There's consequently a real lack of institutional knowledge passed down from generation to generation, which is why the Clone armies used tactics akin to early WWI armies.