2 minutes ago, Koing907 said:

Like I said. The only time we see the racer craft is when they're racing in the atmosphere. There is a shot of some unidentified craft, a shuttle/transport and some smaller ones. So they might use actual military fighters when in space, doing militia things.

Check the press releases. The actual racing ships are listed as part of the squadron.

9 hours ago, mithril2098 said:

you realize some of the best Fighters in WW2 were developed off Air Racers right? Supermarine Spitfire was designed using features and lessons learned from Schneider Trophy races. the Bf109 was designed using air races as a cover, and also using lessons learned from Air Races (using the Bf108, which was similar in design to the Bf109 but had a side by side cockpit and different engine) and actually competed in several international ones in switzerland after the fighter started production.

pretty much all the 'modern' fighters when ww2 started were based off Air Racers and the lessons learned from the many air racing tourney's of the 20's and 30's. either directly or from copying elements of other nation's fighters. air racing requires speed, agility, and responsiveness.. which are the three main aspects that make a fighter exceptional in combat.

Developed off of. The racers obviously have tech from and are inspired by fighter craft. The TIE thing is a straight up modification of a TIE chassis for racing. But like I said, they might just be airspeeders. Yoink out the hyperdrive to save weight/mass, reduce the power to the shields for more engine power, etc... Beef up the sublight engines and repulsorlifts.

Hey, I might be wrong. I'm just pointing out that what I saw in the trailer is consistent with the racers being airspeeders.

4 minutes ago, SabineKey said:

Check the press releases. The actual racing ships are listed as part of the squadron.

I did. Got a link to the one that says that?

10 hours ago, Koing907 said:

I don't know that at all. Performance racing craft would very likely not be very useful for military purposes. Like bringing an F1 racer to a tank battle... They do have guns, but the guns might be ions for slowing down other race craft.

Then tell me this.

Why the **** does a planetary craft need an Astromech? They wouldn't. Astromechs are for two things- in flight maintenance and storing/calculating hyperspace coordinates and jumps. That's their primary purpose, hence "Astro" mech.

7 minutes ago, Koing907 said:

Like I said. The only time we see the racer craft is when they're racing in the atmosphere. There is a shot of some unidentified craft, a shuttle/transport and some smaller ones. So they might use actual military fighters when in space, doing militia things.

You assume they have military fighters at their disposal. And that a TIE Fighter would have its ability to go into space removed for... Some reason.

5 minutes ago, Captain Lackwit said:

Then tell me this.

Why the **** does a planetary craft need an Astromech? They wouldn't. Astromechs are for two things- in flight maintenance and storing/calculating hyperspace coordinates and jumps. That's their primary purpose, hence "Astro" mech.

Maintenance could actually be quite useful. Also, in the X-Wing novels, astromechs were used for much more, such as managing a lot of the systems at a basic level while the pilot is focused on flying. Sure, there are probably physical controls the pilot could use, but saying, "Hey, R3, open a secure channel to base," probably requires a little less concentration when things are getting hot.

10 minutes ago, Captain Lackwit said:

Then tell me this.

Why the **** does a planetary craft need an Astromech? They wouldn't. Astromechs are for two things- in flight maintenance and storing/calculating hyperspace coordinates and jumps. That's their primary purpose, hence "Astro" mech.

You assume they have military fighters at their disposal. And that a TIE Fighter would have its ability to go into space removed for... Some reason.

For in-flight maintenance.

1 minute ago, JJ48 said:

Maintenance could actually be quite useful. Also, in the X-Wing novels, astromechs were used for much more, such as managing a lot of the systems at a basic level while the pilot is focused on flying. Sure, there are probably physical controls the pilot could use, but saying, "Hey, R3, open a secure channel to base," probably requires a little less concentration when things are getting hot.

Sure but... There's no reason these fully functional ships would have to be ground-bound.

I just do not understand the logic behind that. The artists spent loads of time making starships intrinsic to the characters. Why ditch such personal items for generic military fighters?

That makes no sense at all.

1 minute ago, JJ48 said:

Maintenance could actually be quite useful. Also, in the X-Wing novels, astromechs were used for much more, such as managing a lot of the systems at a basic level while the pilot is focused on flying. Sure, there are probably physical controls the pilot could use, but saying, "Hey, R3, open a secure channel to base," probably requires a little less concentration when things are getting hot.

Yep. R2 famously in the very first movie was busy doing field repairs on Luke's X-Wing during the trench run.

5 minutes ago, Koing907 said:

I did. Got a link to the one that says that?

Looking through, but I’m not seeing it as concrete as I though it was. But you can see at least in this video the racers in combat scenarios.

https://www.starwars.com/news/meet-the-aces-in-a-new-star-wars-resistance-featurette

That plus the lack of any mention of secondary fighting craft for the Aces still makes me confident that their racers also pull guard duty.

4 minutes ago, Captain Lackwit said:

Sure but... There's no reason these fully functional ships would have to be ground-bound.

I just do not understand the logic behind that. The artists spent loads of time making starships intrinsic to the characters. Why ditch such personal items for generic military fighters?

That makes no sense at all.

Tone. A race is a flashy, flamboyant thing, with advertising stickers on the ships, and an audience to entertain. Once the get into an actual mission in space, they switch to more practical ships. The difference between a professional wrestler and a US Marine. both fight, but in very different ways, and for different goals.

More importantly, if they're Spies, then their being racers is very likely their cover. Flying a combat mission in their racers would blow that cover.

3 minutes ago, Captain Lackwit said:

Sure but... There's no reason these fully functional ships would have to be ground-bound.

I just do not understand the logic behind that. The artists spent loads of time making starships intrinsic to the characters. Why ditch such personal items for generic military fighters?

That makes no sense at all.

Oh, I'm not arguing that. I'm just saying that whether they are or not, droids can be useful.

1 minute ago, Koing907 said:

Tone. A race is a flashy, flamboyant thing, with advertising stickers on the ships, and an audience to entertain. Once the get into an actual mission in space, they switch to more practical ships. The difference between a professional wrestler and a US Marine. both fight, but in very different ways, and for different goals.

Isn't that why we have superheroes? Get the utility of real soldiers and the entertaining flamboyance of wrestlers?

Actually, the names make me think of some team like Power Rangers. Maybe the ships can link together into a giant mech, or something.

4 minutes ago, Koing907 said:

More importantly, if they're Spies, then their being racers is very likely their cover. Flying a combat mission in their racers would blow that cover.

Hasn't only ONE character been stated to be a spy so far?

Just now, JJ48 said:

Actually, the names make me think of some team like Power Rangers. Maybe the ships can link together into a giant mech, or something.

That would be something.

2 minutes ago, Ixidor said:

Hasn't only ONE character been stated to be a spy so far?

Is there? Man, I'm not a Lucasfilm rep.

3 minutes ago, Koing907 said:

Is there? Man, I'm not a Lucasfilm rep.

My understanding is the rest of them are just people who live and work on the refueling station. In one of the previews, the guy leading the team that Kaz (the spy) is assigned to straight up says he doesn't want anything to do with the spying. I think the rest of the pilots are just racers/defenders of the station (their home).

They might be sympathetic to the Resistance or join the Resistance (or the FO for that matter) at a later point, I'm just thinking about where the previews seem to indicate everyone is at the start of the show.

5 hours ago, Koing907 said:

Tone. A race is a flashy, flamboyant thing, with advertising stickers on the ships, and an audience to entertain. Once the get into an actual mission in space, they switch to more practical ships. The difference between a professional wrestler and a US Marine. both fight, but in very different ways, and for different goals.

What you say does make some sense, but, there are a number of points that I feel invalidate this view.

Firstly, and this is from an animation standpoint; if you go to all the effort to design, build and animate ships, unique ones at that, for each racer, that is a LOT of work. They will likely use them for multiple situations.

Secondly, the star wars universe is one where civilian ships carry weapons on them - the Millenium Falcon for example had these in both incarnations (Han and Lando ownership). The technology and capability for ships to go into space is VERY accessible to everyone.

There are also races in the current canon that require plotting hyper jumps to complete them.

The ships in star wars are not just machines.. they are characters in their own right. I would akin them more to a character from a western movies horse than say, a fighter jet. They are beloved and an extension of the character, and likely the characters will be in space at some point.

1 hour ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

What you say does make some sense, but, there are a number of points that I feel invalidate this view.

Firstly, and this is from an animation standpoint; if you go to all the effort to design, build and animate ships, unique ones at that, for each racer, that is a LOT of work. They will likely use them for multiple situations.

Secondly, the star wars universe is one where civilian ships carry weapons on them - the Millenium Falcon for example had these in both incarnations (Han and Lando ownership). The technology and capability for ships to go into space is VERY accessible to everyone.

There are also races in the current canon that require plotting hyper jumps to complete them.

The ships in star wars are not just machines.. they are characters in their own right. I would akin them more to a character from a western movies horse than say, a fighter jet. They are beloved and an extension of the character, and likely the characters will be in space at some point.

All valid points.

For your second point, we know that there are armed airspeeders. Not every vehicle has to go into space.

We'll know for sure when the show comes out.

Another thought, the newest trailer shows swoop/speeder bikes racing. If it is thus established that the aces also drive these in a racing capacity - conjecture of course, it could be chasing raiders/pirates - but then we have a surface racing craft as well as the multi-role starfighters.

If we think about the timeline leak (6months prior to TFA) the series needs to have exits. Should the First Order destroy or capture the colossus, the heroes (the aces) need to escape. Plot wise, the aces jumping to lightspeed and fighting/forming their own resistance cell while the episodic movies happen makes sense.

The idea that these likely hangar queen starfighters need maintenance, ammo, fuel, etc also provides story fodder, while keeping the idea behind the name of the show and the driving visual focus.

From a Star Wars storytelling standpoint, I can't think of a reason that would be more important than making these ships starfighters.

4 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

The ships in star wars are not just machines.. they are characters in their own right. I would akin them more to a character from a western movies horse than say, a fighter jet. They are beloved and an extension of the character, and likely the characters will be in space at some point.

Eh, I'd say that applies to droids, certainly, but I don't really see how the ships can be considered characters. Maybe the Falcon, but even that one seems rather iffy to me.

4 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

What you say does make some sense, but, there are a number of points that I feel invalidate this view.

Firstly, and this is from an animation standpoint; if you go to all the effort to design, build and animate ships, unique ones at that, for each racer, that is a LOT of work. They will likely use them for multiple situations.

Secondly, the star wars universe is one where civilian ships carry weapons on them - the Millenium Falcon for example had these in both incarnations (Han and Lando ownership). The technology and capability for ships to go into space is VERY accessible to everyone.

There are also races in the current canon that require plotting hyper jumps to complete them.

The ships in star wars are not just machines.. they are characters in their own right. I would akin them more to a character from a western movies horse than say, a fighter jet. They are beloved and an extension of the character, and likely the characters will be in space at some point.

Counterpoint here, as counterintuitive as it may be.

The newer films have very clearly shown that space travel is actually very heavily restricted by The Empire. If you're actually a privateer, you're probably very well off or doing something illegal. After all, every time in Rebels we saw a transport visit a world under Imperial control, they ALWAYS had to get clearance to land and had to verify who they were. What's more, both Luke and Ezra had never left their homeworlds, and the Lothal Spaceport was clearly very heavily Imperial Controlled.

But you're DEAD ON about starships being characters.

2 hours ago, JJ48 said:

Eh, I'd say that applies to droids, certainly, but I don't really see how the ships can be considered characters. Maybe the Falcon, but even that one seems rather iffy to me.

Luke's X-Wing in Legends got a quasi-character status. If I remember correctly, it's computer systems weren't purged like most X-Wings were as SOP, meaning R2-D2 could start it up faster, but it played havoc on anyone else, including maintenance, trying to use the systems.

Another way to look at it is as an extension of the character that uses it. The Falcon has character because of the devotion people like Han, Lando, and Chewie give it. They pour their blood, sweat, and tears into it, giving it more weight and character than a simple means of transportation. All of these racing ships are custom "fitted" for their pilots, making them extensions of them. They've also put a lot into those ships, making them more than a simple stock snub fighter.

9 minutes ago, SabineKey said:

Luke's X-Wing in Legends got a quasi-character status. If I remember correctly, it's computer systems weren't purged like most X-Wings were as SOP, meaning R2-D2 could start it up faster, but it played havoc on anyone else, including maintenance, trying to use the systems.

Another way to look at it is as an extension of the character that uses it. The Falcon has character because of the devotion people like Han, Lando, and Chewie give it. They pour they're blood, sweat, and tears into it, giving it more weight and character than a simple means of transportation. All of these racing ships are custom "fitted" for their pilots, making them extensions of them. They've also put a lot into those ships, making them more than a simple stock snub fighter.

The jeryrigged central computer on the Falcon contributed to some of its eccentricities. In Legends Han had hard wired three droid brains together to make it. They didn't like each other much iirc.

21 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

The jeryrigged central computer on the Falcon contributed to some of its eccentricities. In Legends Han had hard wired three droid brains together to make it. They didn't like each other much iirc.

With the new Canon version having a similar situation (though just one droid brain) with the nav computer.

10 minutes ago, SabineKey said:

With the new Canon version having a similar situation (though just one droid brain) with the nav computer.

Still a bit of uncovered ground between Solo and ANH, so there is still time for L3-37 to gain some company.