/swg/ - Complete Technical Readout Edition

Threadly reminder that the prequels were full of good ideas and concepts, it was the execution that shitfucked up.

Try to think about that time when you rolled unusually well.

>good ideas
Midichlorians.

I never said ALL ideas were good.

A perfect example, the clone army
or more specifically how the Republic acquired the clone army

Ewan McGregor and Sir Christopher Lee fucking rocked those films, if only the other casting choices had pulled their weight.

There were ideas in the Prequels. Some were good, some were bad. Don't be a dummy.

The destroyers themselves are very nice, comparable to a providence or venator class. They have turbolaser batteries on the sides and concussion missile launchers in the front, meaning you're often using either one weapon type or the other. Their maneuverability is good though, so it's easy to catch multiple enemy ships in your crosshairs.

McGregor and Lee were horribly used.

The worst idea of all was the idea that making prequels was a good idea.
Someone needs to build a time machine and go back in time and shoot George Lucas as soon as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade wraps its production.

>Sir Christopher Lee fucking rocked those films
He didn't really have enough screen time to do so...

Which upcoming announced ship will have the biggest impact on Armada?

...

We were just coming off the high of the OT remaster release. And yeah, that poster DID elicit some serious feels. I sat in fucking line for EIGHT HOURS on opening day, between getting tickets and seats. You could've powered an ISD off my hype alone as I watched the opening crawl. And then... well, you know the rest.

Alright Veeky Forums, I need ideas- ideas for items that might be found in random safety deposit boxes in a bank vault on a mid-rim world. My players are about to pull off a bank heist and I want them to find some things besides the normal bags of credits.

Maybe some clone war relics?
Like a piece of clone trooper armor or something.

I was born in '95 and saw Episode 1 after the OT. I enjoyed it immensely at the time, but as I grew older, I realized it wasn't that great. I still have fond memories of it, but it's a guilty pleasure.

Episode I was pretty good the first 10-15 minutes up until Jar-jar was introduced. Not that he was the only bad thing, but after that point stuff just gets worse and worse.

92 here, I too enjoyed ep I at the time but I can honestly say I always preferred the OT and never found Jar-jar particularly funny.

A holocron.

If you like. I tend to prefer the more top down approach, but obviously everyone approachs worldbuilding differently.

I know what you mean. I payed 20 bucks in '99 to watch it in the Coronet Theater in San Francisco. Over 1300 seats, jam-packed with Star Wars nerds.
Fantastic experience, terrible movie.
Went back and did again for Episode 2.
Sadly, the theater closed by the time of Episode 3 and it's a retirement home now.
Modern chain cinemas just don't have the same zing as the grand movie houses of yore.

The Phantom Menace being a thing was a terrible idea. Should have started the prequel trilogy with Anakin at Luke's age

The thing I remember most about the prequels and EP1 specifically was the sound. That audio team was on point.

webmshare.com/play/qAXxQ

Starting off the Clone Wars at the end of the second movie and skipping immediately to the end was probably the worst sin of the prequels

Hey, at least TCW was good once Season 3 rolled around.

I feel like that's bad somehow
You shouldn't need an entire supplemental TV series to fix the issues of two movies

To be fair, TCW was George trying to apologize to the fans. He poured a huge amount of his own money into each episode.

>it's a prequals hate episode
This is not the appropriate venue for yet another round of this bullshit

True. Lets talk about what we liked in the prequels then.

I loved the aesthetic and the world building. The Galaxy seemed to be huge.

Better then another TFA hate episode

They're doing X-Wing at the Emerald Knights in Burbank today. Should I go down and look?

I should also mention that I think spaceship battles are dumb.

MOTHAFUKKEN N-1

Design team was on fucking point all throughout the prequels

'92, I had a very similar experience. I didn't quite realize how bad they were executed until I was older, but I still enjoy watching them just because it's a Star Wars experience and it reminds me of all the better Star Wars experiences I had. A guilty pleasure is a good way to describe it.

>I think spaceship battles are dumb
Then don't fucking go. Nobody is making you. If you love Star Wars, love the idea of playing Star Wars games, but hate space, play the RPG or Imperial Assault. Both are great.

McGregor was a good casting, and despite what people say I still think Hayden is a good actor with bad direction. He did the best he could, and Anakin's being a tragic bad guy was very believable through his body acting when he was on Mustafar.

I also think that whoever was in charge of the direction of Maul's animalistic pacing behind the energy shield being contrasted with Qui-Gon's meditation and Obi-Wan's taut excitement deserves a medal. Best "show, don't tell," of the three character's personalities in the entire film.

>not liking spaceship battles

I... I really can't understand your opinion or why you wouldn't like space, but man.... you do you. You be the you-est you who ever was you.

roly-poly bots

MAH NIGGA!

I'm '83, fuck you for reminding me I'm old.

It was rough walking out of the theater and being old enough to understand that it was a boring, poorly written mess, but still being young enough to try and rationalize that "George was rusty. He'll shake it off for the next one. It'll be better" it actually wasn't

On the other hand, growing up with the 90s EU was kind of glorious until it all came crashing down in 1999.

Eta-2's!

One of my Ideas for an Alternate Episode 1 involved Padawan Anakin getting into the cockpit of an N-1 and absolutely gushing over it before proceeding to escort the Queen's Cruiser through the blockade.

This guy (), and I got on to the '90s EU train kind of late. X-Wing was the first Star Wars EU I read, and I got my hands on the first book in about 2001-ish. What happened during '99?

LOOK AT THAT FUCKING CHROME, LOOK AT HOW THE ART OF THE PIECE EVOKES MOTHAFUKKEN FIFTIES AND SIXTIES SCI ART AND CAR ADS.

AND LOOK AT THOSE FUKKEN CLOUDS. THOSE ARE SOME HAPPY GODDAMN CLOUDS.

YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT SOME ROLY-POLY BOTS, LET'S TALK ABOUT SOME ROLY-POLY BOTS. LOOK AT THESE FUKKEN ADORABLE DEATHMACHINES. LOOK AT THEM.

Im a big fan of arc-dodgers, but the people I play X-wing with likes turret ships. Is there any effective way of flying ships like TIE Interceptors against turrets or do I need to get a meatier ship to counter that?

I want this in X-Wing.

They're releasing the prequel era Arc-170 and Leia piloted an N-1 in Shattered Empire so we could finally get her on the table.

God, I remember when we found out you could unlock it in Rogue Squadron on N64.

Man, I really want to play some more Star Wars RPG (we were doing AOR), but we have so many different games on our lists to play AND our GM is a bit of a tool.

That is literally the reason I bought the Expansion Pak.

I usually dislike how prequels always needlessly forces namedrops and references to characters of the original work that doesn't realy need or make sense to be there, but I actually really liked the whole jango-boba-clones deal: The clones were all based on the top bounty hunter of the time, and he kept one of the clones as a son that eventually became top bounty hunter himself.

You could do it in Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike too. Favorite Ship of all time.

those are some 90's-ass shoulderpads

So am I the only Scum player who really wishes we had more than one faction exclusive small based ship with more than 1 sheild? Even the Empire has more shit with better shielding.

Spess Hind was pretty cool

Spess Hind is still my favorite dropship in fiction.

Autothrusters, get that bonus when they fire out of Arc.

There's also no turret that runs at range 1-3, so if you can you can play with staying out of their range for turrets.

I agree on the world-building.

I actually really dig all of the non-movie stuff from the "prequel" era, especially the Clone Wars.

I'm still not completely sold on the concept or implementation (and especially the resolution) of the "Clone Wars", but the books/cartoons/series/games all did pretty incredible stuff with all of it.

While we're at it, FUKKEN CLONE COMMANDOS
youtube.com/watch?v=EnwXu0ZpySY

I liked Jango and the clones a whole lot

The Carrier variant was the shit and absolutely shares no similarities with the Valkyrie Sky Talon.

God, I love the LAARTy. When I was a kid, right after Episode 2 came out, me and my Friends would pretend to be part of the battle of Geonosis and run around with lightsabers and water guns and shit. One of my favorite parts was pretending to hang partway out of the ship and deflect blaster bolts with my saber while trying to climb back in.

Autothrusters and stack tokens

OK, but what about these tanks? Am I redeemed for liking these?

I also have a fear of flying if that helps.

>There's also no turret that runs at range 1-3

Except all these ships with 360-firing arc main weapons.

I really want to get into X-Wing, but I'm already deep into Armada and don't think I can support TWO bad miniatures habits on top of my usual board game acquisitions.

Part of it is just that X-Wing actually has local support, whereas Armada is me, whatever friends I can rope into it at the moment, and folks who are at least an hour's drive away.

That and I'd really love to run the Ghost and/or Outrider, and have those models.

Did you play The Clone Wars game for GameCube?

xbox, it was a bundle deal

I love how the entirety of their action is in silence and they're only using hand signals to communicate. Fucking operator as shit.

I'm not judging, man. I'm just saying I don't understand. I have a fear of heights, but I'd love to be able to pal around in an X-Wing.

Huh, it was for multiple consoles after all.

But yeah, the Fighter Tank was AWESOME.

Didn't realize it at the time, but West End Games lost the RPG license in 1998, the Bantam Spectra era ended and Del Rey published Vector Prime in October '99, and, well, Episode I hit and didn't even include Z-95 Headhunters. (I remember being pissed, since the first couple pages of the novelization MENTIONED headhunters and I stopped reading because I didn't want to be spoiled)

Star Wars was always about whoring out merchandise, but 1999 felt like a real change in the overall tone. There was still some good stuff that came out of the period after, but it felt more and more corporate and less about goofy fun.

I hate to say "you had to be there at the time" but subjectively, yeah, there was a shift.

Fuck that man. I wouldn't leave the ground. I don't care how big of a galaxy there is.

Fuck the AT-ATs though.

I can honestly say I can forgive the Prequels. But the Vong and everything that came after... That's just unforgivable.

You mean the AT-XT?

You mean the AT-TE?

Whoops, meant the A-AT. Those were the cause of most of my mission failures.

>most of the shadows are just formless blobs
My how times have changed

Oh, pretty much everything was solid in the prequels except for plot and script, and some examples of acting that you could blame on plot or script.

It's just a fucking huge problem. But there are plenty of good elements there.

The prequels are like, George Lucas was trying to bake a cake, and he got all his ingredients together, and then smashed them all in a bowl at the same time, and then dropped the mess on his counter and called it a day.

Looking at the recent posts, it shold have been "/swg/ - We got old edition"

In which case Authothrusters still works, as they have a printed firing arc, they just can shoot outside it.

Also, technically a Turret Primary Weapon is different from a Turret Secondary Weapon, since one is a feature of the ship and the other is an upgrade.

There's a very limited number of ships with 360 primary arcs, all of which to my recollection are Large - which is an entirely different beast from "I can't fight people using TLT or Autoblaster".

I just turned 21 mate. I ain't that old.

I dunno. I don't think I care for any of the prequel alien races, design-wise.

I'm 22 don't you sass me you whipper snapper

Before the movies, before his friendship with Han Solo, before the moustache Lando Calrissian is a talented young gambler trying to make his way in the galaxy and finds himself in the Oseon Centrality. By chance he wins a droid from an archeologist, but has to claim it in the Rafa system, famed for its valuable, life-extending Life Crystals. So he picks up the droid, the meek, starfish-shaped Vuffi Raa, and gets strongarmed by the local governor and a hammy Sorcerer of Tund named Rokur Gepta into searching for the famed Mindharp of Sharu.

Now, the Rafa system is known for its 1) Life Crystals, which are harvested from trees by penal labor and have the quality of sucking the mental energy out of people who spend most of their time around them, 2) the nine planets of the system are covered in huge, impenetrable, mysterious pentagonal pyramids left behind by the Sharu, who are basically Mass Effect Protheans in more ways than one, and 3) the Toka, which are a primitive, barely sentient species of wrinkled old humanoids who revere the ancient Sharu.

Anyway, ancient artifacts, corrupt local enforcers, the first real look at what the game of sabacc is like, ancient prophecies, and a trippy as hell journey into one of the Sharu pyramids round out most of the book. Its also really funny in a lot of places, since Lando stubbornly holds onto his high-class aspirations and tastes while being reluctantly pushed along an adventure he wants no part of on familiar YT-1300 freighter he won on a card game before the book started and has no interest in captaining.

Its also noteworthy, since Lando doesn't actually kill anybody the entire book.

Not essential tier like the Han Solo Adventures, but still recommended.

Personally I wouldn't go that far. His cinematography needed some very serious work. Almost all of his conversation scenes followed the tried-and-true medium shot to reverse medium shot to a close-up every now and again. The most complex his blocking got was characters occasionally standing up and moving stage left, and he never really experimented with his shots at all.

Also some sequences, like fight scenes or the EIII intro dogfight, take way too long.

>everything was solid in the prequels
Ehhh
>Nemodians speaking in bad engrish

I'm baking you up on this. The clones, the droids and the vehicles were on point but the aliens were at best okay.

Well, it might be that in the originals, there was no CGI, so he had to get creative instead of lazy.

Fair enough. I guess that at least the cinematography like that ages better than a lot of straight action movie stuff. I'm kind of a fan of the simple classic style and I think it suits Star Wars and Space Operas, but that's just like, my opinion man.

But I agree that there's a lot of wonky pacing throughout.

Really, I appreciate the prequels sort of just as a fascinating example of how to do good ideas wrong.

I'm 23 and all this prequel talk makes me feel old.

Arguably part of the script.

I sort of always imagined that the original draft has hilariously specific and racist instructions.