When trying to think of tech or science in my Star Wars story, I oftentimes ask myself. “Could it be done?” I look at all the science and tech that currently exists in canon and Legends and most of the time- I say “Definetely.” Even though we don’t see it; it’s probably their and certainly plausible. Shakdov thrusters? Never saw them but I’m sure Star Wars scientists could build an engine to move a star. Dyson spheres (which actually appeared in SWTOR) could be done; they would just be expensive and a waste of time to build. All genetic engineering feats can be accomplished based on what they have and any type of droid to do any function can be created. We don’t see an orgasm inducing drug (probably because it’s inappropriate), but their chemistry and desire to achieve it probably happened 100’s if not 1000’s of years before the New Republic. We don’t see everything but based on what we do see; it’s only logical that the other stuff also exists. Teleportation and time travel appeared in Legends and in Canon are only utilizable with the Force. I have to assume that in canon, they have been proven to be impossible to do scientifically or it exists in a lab and is not mainstream yet. The latter is probably what is true. Also anything to do with nanotechnology is probably child’s play and I’m sure that they are starting to go pico and femtotechnology. Intangibility is too controversial and I think remains to just be a force power. That being said.

What would be something of a challenge for a scientist to create or would be stumping them? That’s what I want my scientist to tackle. Something they have no base for and have to start literally from scratch and would be grasping at straws for.

Your promise of "Last thread like this" got me to click past the Ignore filter. I may regret responding, but here goes...

Non-unique droids that can use the Force. There have been some examples that touch upon it, and while it may not be truly impossible, it certainly comes close and is going to be very hard to pull off.

So here's the thing, science in Star Wars is frankly a bit wonky in terms of what is and isn't out there.

For instance, there's zero indication that nanotech is a thing (mostly because it wasn't really even a concept back in the 70's and early 80's when the original films were made), and yet they've got cybertechnology that is light years ahead of the replacements offered by today's cutting edge science.

That said, one aspect of science is to take an existing technology and radically improve it in such a fashion that those improvements become the new norm. After all, it's relatively rare that you get entirely new and unique scientific breakthroughs, especially in a society that's as generally technologically advanced as Star Wars; it's been joked that the nature of the tech in the setting hasn't really changed since the early days of the Old Republic, only that it's gotten more efficient as the millennia passed.

For instance, on the topic of cybertechnology, perhaps your scientist is trying to find a way to allow patients to have implants to replace missing limbs/organs but don't in turn make them subject to ionization effects while avoiding pushing the costs of those replacements through the roof. Or that having replacements don't put as much of a strain on the recipient's remaining biological systems, allowing for those unfortunates who've lost multiple limbs due to accident or disease to have those limbs replaced without as much risk of complications from overtaxing the patient's body.

One major technology that both the Rebels and Imperials have been searching for is an effective cloaking device that doesn't cost a fortune (Stygium crystals) or render the cloaked ship blind, and can be placed onto smaller vessels such as light freighters or even snubfighters. Imagine if the Rebels had effective cloaking devices on their snubfighters that didn't impact their own sensors; having Rebel fighters with hyperdrives is a big enough headache for the Imperial Navy, but fighters you can't detect until they're literally right on top of you would grey the hairs of even the most steel-willed naval officer.

Or perhaps your scientist is trying to find someway to drastically improve upon the core principles of droid brains, looking for a way to drastically improve their functionality that makes them even more adaptable without someone having to go in and reprogram the droid every time they want to reconfigure their skill matrices; in effect allow the droid to learn at an astounding rate, perhaps even achieving a degree of what could be deemed true sentience not unlike The Vision from the MCU.

Another sought-after goal is ways to further improve hyperspace travel times. The Falcon being able to go point-five past lightspeed makes it stand out as the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, but in Legends it took a fair bit of custom work and tinkering to get the Falcon's hyperspace profile slimmed down enough to allow it to travel at such speeds. Perhaps your scientist is trying to find a way to improve hyperdrive engines to the point they either make better use of coaxium or some other technobabble explanation to effectively push the default hyperdrive rating of commercial vessels from x2 to x1.5 or even x1, which would have tremendous impact on the galactic shipping industry as goods could now be shipped across the galaxy at faster rates, and perishable goods can travel even further before being at risk of spoiling.

1 hour ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

So here's the thing, science in Star Wars is frankly a bit wonky in terms of what is and isn't out there.

For instance, there's zero indication that nanotech is a thing (mostly because it wasn't really even a concept back in the 70's and early 80's when the original films were made), and yet they've got cybertechnology that is light years ahead of the replacements offered by today's cutting edge science.

That said, one aspect of science is to take an existing technology and radically improve it in such a fashion that those improvements become the new norm. After all, it's relatively rare that you get entirely new and unique scientific breakthroughs, especially in a society that's as generally technologically advanced as Star Wars; it's been joked that the nature of the tech in the setting hasn't really changed since the early days of the Old Republic, only that it's gotten more efficient as the millennia passed.

For instance, on the topic of cybertechnology, perhaps your scientist is trying to find a way to allow patients to have implants to replace missing limbs/organs but don't in turn make them subject to ionization effects while avoiding pushing the costs of those replacements through the roof. Or that having replacements don't put as much of a strain on the recipient's remaining biological systems, allowing for those unfortunates who've lost multiple limbs due to accident or disease to have those limbs replaced without as much risk of complications from overtaxing the patient's body.

One major technology that both the Rebels and Imperials have been searching for is an effective cloaking device that doesn't cost a fortune (Stygium crystals) or render the cloaked ship blind, and can be placed onto smaller vessels such as light freighters or even snubfighters. Imagine if the Rebels had effective cloaking devices on their snubfighters that didn't impact their own sensors; having Rebel fighters with hyperdrives is a big enough headache for the Imperial Navy, but fighters you can't detect until they're literally right on top of you would grey the hairs of even the most steel-willed naval officer.

Or perhaps your scientist is trying to find someway to drastically improve upon the core principles of droid brains, looking for a way to drastically improve their functionality that makes them even more adaptable without someone having to go in and reprogram the droid every time they want to reconfigure their skill matrices; in effect allow the droid to learn at an astounding rate, perhaps even achieving a degree of what could be deemed true sentience not unlike The Vision from the MCU.

Another sought-after goal is ways to further improve hyperspace travel times. The Falcon being able to go point-five past lightspeed makes it stand out as the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, but in Legends it took a fair bit of custom work and tinkering to get the Falcon's hyperspace profile slimmed down enough to allow it to travel at such speeds. Perhaps your scientist is trying to find a way to improve hyperdrive engines to the point they either make better use of coaxium or some other technobabble explanation to effectively push the default hyperdrive rating of commercial vessels from x2 to x1.5 or even x1, which would have tremendous impact on the galactic shipping industry as goods could now be shipped across the galaxy at faster rates, and perishable goods can travel even further before being at risk of spoiling.

Class 1 hyperdrive exist. Nanotech is mentioned in both Legends and the new Canon. It is mentioned in the book Master & Apprentice which takes place in 39 BBY. The learning droid brain is good but I think droids already do that. C-3PO learned to pilot in ROTS and protocol droids aren’t originall programmed to do that. 3PO learned it.

As for cloaking, I don’t think it’s that rare. Personal cloaking devices exist.

Thanks though

In an old WEG supplement (Graveyard of Alderaan) there was an experimental hyperspace portal that allowed individuals to travel between locations (think hyperspace stargate). Completely unheard of anywhere else in fluff from what I know. Like Donnovan's mention of hyperspace travel times, this could have a major impact on galactic travel and commerce.

Resurrect the dead is the obvious one. You can clone a twin, but that's not the original. Even with the force and preparation, the emperor's attempt resulted in rapidly decaying bodies. Project I71A made zombies.

Non-force based teleportation isn't something I've heard of in Star Wars, unless you count hyperspace.

Non-force based mind control that isn't implanted. Drugs and pheromones can make someone very open to persuasion, but I don't recall any instances of slapping mind control helmets, much less non-contact broadcasts, that gives total control.

Non-force based (noticing a trend?) mind reading. I'm sure neuroimaging exists to some degree in the GFFA, it can't that useful since it hasn't shown up in any interrogation scene I'm aware of.

As for droid learning: Per Saga Edition at the newest, all but the most basic droids (B1 battle droids, manual labor class five droids) are capable of learning. Problem is they tend to learn bad habits and bad attitudes more than anything useful, which is why mindwipes are considered normal.

20 minutes ago, NanashiAnon said:

Resurrect the dead is the obvious one. You can clone a twin, but that's not the original. Even with the force and preparation, the emperor's attempt resulted in rapidly decaying bodies. Project I71A made zombies.

Non-force based teleportation isn't something I've heard of in Star Wars, unless you count hyperspace.

Non-force based mind control that isn't implanted. Drugs and pheromones can make someone very open to persuasion, but I don't recall any instances of slapping mind control helmets, much less non-contact broadcasts, that gives total control.

Non-force based (noticing a trend?) mind reading. I'm sure neuroimaging exists to some degree in the GFFA, it can't that useful since it hasn't shown up in any interrogation scene I'm aware of.

As for droid learning: Per Saga Edition at the newest, all but the most basic droids (B1 battle droids, manual labor class five droids) are capable of learning. Problem is they tend to learn bad habits and bad attitudes more than anything useful, which is why mindwipes are considered normal.

Good catch on the droid learning. I didn’t know those stats. As for the rest;

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Teleporter

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Mind_control_device

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Reanimation_serum

Wookieepedia has an answer for virtually everything which makes my quest so hard.

Well teleportation at the least hasn't been done since before the Republic, so recreating it is possible.

Ah. Old Republic MMO. That's why I didn't know about it. Love the cut scenes, don't play the game. But them being Rakata makes sense.

You could go the transhuman route. Achieve immortality by moving consciousness from a biological form to digital/analog.

Or from one biological form/body to another. Maybe transferring your consciousness to a clone (or enhanced clone).

Instantaneous travel (stargate).

Zero point energy- basically a new infinite and powerful energy source.

3 hours ago, Jedi Ronin said:

You could go the transhuman route. Achieve immortality by moving consciousness from a biological form to digital/analog.

Or from one biological form/body to another. Maybe transferring your consciousness to a clone (or enhanced clone).

Instantaneous travel (stargate).

Zero point energy- basically a new infinite and powerful energy source.

Their was a guy who used Ssi-Ruuvi enetchment technology to transfer people into Human Replica Droids.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Human_replica_droid

Hypergates exist

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Hypergate

Zero point energy was experimental.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Zero-point_energy

Im giving up. This is impossible. 😡

Mortis is an example of science fiction; the three beings that took Obi-Wan and co were so beyond their comprehension that they weren't entirely sure what they experienced was truly correct.

Same with time travel, which is possible if you can access the walkaway between stars but otherwise is completely impossible without gaining some level of access to it.

Besides, I'm sure that one and all of these devices have seen play at some point within star wars history. The role of the GM is to introduce these elements in the narrative without seeming artibary and inorganic. For example, my GM brought in the Galaxy Gun to Jakku which effectively replaced the events in the aftermath books that he didn't like, which we took as our primary intention of intercepting as otherwise he could hold the entire galaxy to hostage. That scar on Jakku's surface? That was us firing the thing within a shield generator! Issue is, we found out last session that the ammo has been moved elsewhere to a secret site, so even this late in the game, the game is constantly changing. The situation is more then we expected. The Galaxy Gun had only been intended to be a weapon of last resort to destroy Jakku, but why? That is the mystery and what we find could be fundamentally, war changing.

One completely unique idea though; a person transferring their entire consciousness into a droid. At the moment, to my knowledge that simply doesn't exist, largely because droids are considered super inferior to organic life/they aren't programmed in the traditional sense. yet one droid had it's mind completely replaced by a human/Cybernetically enhanced hybrid.

Edit: Oh, they latter one exists. But, unless the players are the kind of nerds that read the EU and try and predict *everything*, I doubt they will see that one coming.

11 minutes ago, LordBritish said:

One completely unique idea though; a person transferring their entire consciousness into a droid. At the moment, to my knowledge that simply doesn't exist, largely because droids are considered super inferior to organic life/they aren't programmed in the traditional sense. yet one droid had it's mind completely replaced by a human/Cybernetically enhanced hybrid.

Or overwriting the consciousness of a Force-user with a droid's "mind" that runs on the biological hardware (and midi-chlorians!)...

Just now, HappyDaze said:

Or overwriting the consciousness of a Force-user with a droid's "mind" that runs on the biological hardware (and midi-chlorians!)...

Durrrnnn durrrnnn durrrnnn!

Well, it would require the droid to be advanced enough to acknowledge the force as a logical idea to be manipulated, but overcome that little barrier and oh boy, it would be like a personal sized train wreak! XD

OSHA style safety rules?

I kid.

Honestly, just reworking and reverse engineering Gree and Rakata tech, or stuff like Center Point station would be awesome.

On ‎6‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 2:14 AM, Leia Hourglass said:

Class 1 hyperdrive exist

Yes, but, say, small hyperspace-capable strikefighter struggle to carry one. Being able to put one on a bulk freighter without impacting its cargo capacity - or being able to put a Falcon-esque 0.5 drive on one - would, as noted, put a huge dent in the major costs to the galactic economy; shipping times.

On ‎6‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 12:44 AM, Leia Hourglass said:

Hypergates exist

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Hypergate

They do - but point-to-prepared-point. So they have a stargate, but not an Into Darkness -esque transporter.

14 hours ago, Raicheck said:

Honestly, just reworking and reverse engineering Gree and Rakata tech, or stuff like Center Point station would be awesome.

Indeed. The star forge basically allows you to mass-produce anything on whatever scale you require, with little or no external input (quite aside from its force-based properties).

That said, when you can have a planetary economy focused on a given product range, with either a droid workforce or an impressed organic workforce, the economies of scale that even mundane tech can make must be pretty ridiculous. Which I guess is why a star destroyer costs the Empire less in real terms than a carrier costs a nation on earth today.

On ‎6‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 3:01 PM, Leia Hourglass said:

When trying to think of tech or science in my Star Wars story, I oftentimes ask myself. “Could it be done?” I look at all the science and tech that currently exists in canon and Legends and most of the time- I say “Definetely.” Even though we don’t see it; it’s probably their and certainly plausible. Shakdov thrusters? Never saw them but I’m sure Star Wars scientists could build an engine to move a star. Dyson spheres (which actually appeared in SWTOR) could be done; they would just be expensive and a waste of time to build. All genetic engineering feats can be accomplished based on what they have and any type of droid to do any function can be created. We don’t see an orgasm inducing drug (probably because it’s inappropriate), but their chemistry and desire to achieve it probably happened 100’s if not 1000’s of years before the New Republic. We don’t see everything but based on what we do see; it’s only logical that the other stuff also exists. Teleportation and time travel appeared in Legends and in Canon are only utilizable with the Force. I have to assume that in canon, they have been proven to be impossible to do scientifically or it exists in a lab and is not mainstream yet. The latter is probably what is true. Also anything to do with nanotechnology is probably child’s play and I’m sure that they are starting to go pico and femtotechnology. Intangibility is too controversial and I think remains to just be a force power. That being said.

What would be something of a challenge for a scientist to create or would be stumping them?  That’s what I want my scientist to tackle. Something they have no base for and have to start literally from scratch and would be grasping at straws for.

Honestly I think your core issue is you're counting EVERYTHING in the most everything way possible.

With Star Wars you have to filter to what you're actually looking at, and what you do and don't count in the context of the story you're trying to tell.

So just one simple example: Teleportation.

Teleportation was something the Infinite Empire came up with sure, but that's also a specific time and place. So in the time of the Films, that's halfway between ancient history and crackpot legend.

Might as well say real-world anti-gravity is a thing because a translation of Timaeus said Atlantis totally had it. Maybe they did, but I doubt anyone at MIT would read that and just be all "oh, well I guess I won't bother then, some toga wear jerk already did it. His fault for not writing down how."

So by the time of the Empire, teleportation is something that could be a head scratcher and leave a scientist working pretty much from scratch on. Yeah he'd have lots of work on the theory of it from preceding scientists, but nothing practical and applied.

Even when you get into "Force" teleportation it gets messy. A big credited group that did that was the Aang-Ti. Even then it's a matter of what you buy as fact, and what's hooey. The Aang-Ti are notorious for not playing well with other in the first place, and certainly wouldn't just turn that info over. But moving on... they actually had that tacked onto them later by a totally different author with a different need, and figured they were a good candidate. Originally the Aang-Ti used hyperdrives just like everyone one else, they were just super mysterious.

So do you include everything? Or just the Original material? Even so, how would that keep the scientist at Coruscant U from experimenting? He's likely never even heard of the Aang-Ti, and they have no interest in talking to him anyway.

Even wookieepedia is a sticky wicket of it's own. While a wealth of information, it's still a Wiki. That leaves it with the problems that Wikis have, namely a handful of Otaku spend their days dictating what goes up, and what comes down. So even if you had a verified source of something or another, some neckbeard might decided "oh well Steve Grendel is a poopy writer and I don't like his take on Boba Fett's grandmother, so I'm going to edit the entry on the Carrack Class Cruiser like it's going out of style just to exclude Grendel's mention of how it's bridge is laid out." So, while good for broad strokes, it's not really reliable for accurate information.

Taking it further, you can also take existing tech, and push it beyond. The first Atomic bomb wasn't the first example of man-made controlled atomic fission. Enrico Fermi built the first functioning pile reactor years earlier. So they knew going in the power of the atom could be harnessed. But it took the best minds in the field years of work to actually A) Develop an atomic bomb, and B)Develop a plutonium bomb, allowing them to be mass produced so they could actually be deployed in a long-term sense. So there's possibly tech that "already exists" even in the time and place you're looking at, but can't do the thing the scientist actually wants to do with it.

Think of something like Farscape. Scorpius and the Peacekeepers KNEW wormholes existed, were reasonably certain they could be created and harnessed for use as a means of transportation, and a weapon, but had only the vaguest idea of actually how. They set up multiple secret bases, sunk billions of credits into it, and even then never actually figured it out. They made progress, and had it "demonstrated" for them, but they never actually got there.

So any of your listed "wonder techs" might technically exist in Star Wars... but just not in the way your scientist wants them to.

So really, you have to look not just at the Yes/No of the tech, but the when, who, what, and why.

On 6/7/2019 at 11:01 PM, Leia Hourglass said:

When trying to think of tech or science in my Star Wars story, I oftentimes ask myself. “Could it be done?” I look at all the science and tech that currently exists in canon and Legends and most of the time- I say “Definetely.” Even though we don’t see it; it’s probably their and certainly plausible. Shakdov thrusters? Never saw them but I’m sure Star Wars scientists could build an engine to move a star. Dyson spheres (which actually appeared in SWTOR) could be done; they would just be expensive and a waste of time to build. All genetic engineering feats can be accomplished based on what they have and any type of droid to do any function can be created. We don’t see an orgasm inducing drug (probably because it’s inappropriate), but their chemistry and desire to achieve it probably happened 100’s if not 1000’s of years before the New Republic. We don’t see everything but based on what we do see; it’s only logical that the other stuff also exists. Teleportation and time travel appeared in Legends and in Canon are only utilizable with the Force. I have to assume that in canon, they have been proven to be impossible to do scientifically or it exists in a lab and is not mainstream yet. The latter is probably what is true. Also anything to do with nanotechnology is probably child’s play and I’m sure that they are starting to go pico and femtotechnology. Intangibility is too controversial and I think remains to just be a force power. That being said.

What would be something of a challenge for a scientist to create or would be stumping them? That’s what I want my scientist to tackle. Something they have no base for and have to start literally from scratch and would be grasping at straws for.

Apparently, decent obstetric medicine is a complete mystery in Star Wars.

"Lost the will to live"? Bantha poodoo!

But hey, maybe a mad scientist midwife isn't what you're going for. I get it.

Jokes aside though, I think you might be touching on the answer to the question in your own initial post.

On 6/7/2019 at 11:01 PM, Leia Hourglass said:

they would just be expensive and a waste of time to build

Now, you were referring to Dyson spheres, but Star Wars has plenty of one off examples of amazing tech that isn't really practical on a larger scale. Now, the real groundbreaking discovery usually isn't inventing something new, but actually making it work. How about your groundbreaking scientist takes on of these one off techs and discovers a way to make it practical. For instance, it could be a archeo-technologist who's cracked the secret to how Gree Hypergates work, or discovered how to get rid of the flaw that made them impractical to use before. After all, for a technology to be revolutionary, it needs to be widespread.

Now, if you don't want the discovery to fundamentally change your Star Wars galaxy, I'd say it's perfectly fine to go the anticlimactic route, meaning that that one last little issue that needed to be worked out before going full scale, turns out to be a big crippling deal in the end. After everyone's finished killing each other to get hold of it, of course.