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First off, sorry if this has been posted here before!






Certainly got me interested in X-Wing again.

For being a light fan, this is the aspect of SW that gets me every time. What a cool project!

Yeah, saw this yesterday. Pretty awesome stuff!

While it's really cool, there were some continuity things that I found kind of funny.

1. It's a space battle; why are Stormtroopers running around and such? Why are there dudes messing around with AT-ATs?
2. The Star Destroyers eventually just lay into the Rebel ships and wipe them out. Given they pretty much had the element of surprise, why didn't they do this in the first place, without having to deploy fighters? I guess this could be explained by range issues, acquiring targeting solutions, generating power, etc... but still.

One of my friends pointed these out as straight errors: help me refute his claims! My refutations to him are next to the claims.
1. Tie Bombers/Fighters/Interceptors never fly in the same squadron. ---> I told him the pilots in the video may have initially deployed with their similar ship squadrons, but may be "elite" and formed their own ad hoc combined arms mini-squadron.
2. The rank on the Star Destroyer Captain is completely wrong. ---> His rank appears to be four red above, four blue below, which is indeed Captain rank in the Imperial Navy
3. Tie Bombers can't fire multiple missiles as depicted. ---> Tie Bombers can fire multiple munitions since they carry quite a few; cluster missiles are likely what we saw.
4. Things don't explode into fireballs in space, since there's no oxygen. (this is mostly true) ---> Uh, maybe the oxygen inside the craft would create some flame? Not sure on this one; never blown up anything in space.

1: I'm sure there are drills that troopers run in case of boarding actions etc. during an engagement, however unlikely they are. AT-ATs need maintenance, nothing worse than getting a leg cramp just as you are about to obliterate a rebel base.
2: It could probably be explained as adhering to tactical doctrine of the Empire. No need to get sloppy just because your opponent is worthless scum. Also rebel fighters/bombers are light speed capable so they are flying with the rest of the rebel group, even when surprised they'd be able to react quickly and potentially threaten the star destroyers. Ties need to be deployed immediately to deal with that.

Also, nerds, ugh.

 plastictrees wrote:
Also, nerds, ugh.

It's dismaying how often I find myself thinking this about fellow gamers and friends (and even more dismaying how often I am thinking it about myself).

 plastictrees wrote:
1:
Also, nerds, ugh.

You mean:

Kind of refreshing to see a fan project that doesn't have a kickstarter/indiegogo/patreon button waiting at the end of it.

This was really awesome! I saw quite a few Push The Limits in here

Eh, it's too anime for me, and I liked anime.

You could replace those fighters and characters with tropes from any anime out there and it would work. A lot of star wars is the ships, but making the helmets disappear and the pilots making the usual anime facial expressions and mugging for the screen felt less Imperial.

You even had ridiculous missiles.

But a good animation nonetheless.

 House Griffith wrote:

Spoiler:

Yeah, saw this yesterday. Pretty awesome stuff!

While it's really cool, there were some continuity things that I found kind of funny.

1. It's a space battle; why are Stormtroopers running around and such? Why are there dudes messing around with AT-ATs?
2. The Star Destroyers eventually just lay into the Rebel ships and wipe them out. Given they pretty much had the element of surprise, why didn't they do this in the first place, without having to deploy fighters? I guess this could be explained by range issues, acquiring targeting solutions, generating power, etc... but still.

One of my friends pointed these out as straight errors: help me refute his claims! My refutations to him are next to the claims.
1. Tie Bombers/Fighters/Interceptors never fly in the same squadron. ---> I told him the pilots in the video may have initially deployed with their similar ship squadrons, but may be "elite" and formed their own ad hoc combined arms mini-squadron.
2. The rank on the Star Destroyer Captain is completely wrong. ---> His rank appears to be four red above, four blue below, which is indeed Captain rank in the Imperial Navy
3. Tie Bombers can't fire multiple missiles as depicted. ---> Tie Bombers can fire multiple munitions since they carry quite a few; cluster missiles are likely what we saw.
4. Things don't explode into fireballs in space, since there's no oxygen. (this is mostly true) ---> Uh, maybe the oxygen inside the craft would create some flame? Not sure on this one; never blown up anything in space.

Your questions:
1) They would be stationed on the ship and as mentioned are likely scurrying about in preparation of any boarding/recovery operations that need to be carried out. The AT-ATs simply are stored near where the fighters are flying out en masse, and it's really just unfortunate that they draw your eye much more than the ships pouring out of the hangar. While they're not going to be used, they're still where they are (i.e. - near where they can be dropped easily).
2) They came in that far away due to the asteroids and concerns over the Rebel fighter screen. Come in too close, you run the risk of your (noticeably larger) ships colliding with the asteroids out of hyperspace which is probably very bad since it caused problems in normal space in the films. Imperial ships also need to deploy ALL their fighters after they exit their jump rather than the Rebels who can have a screen travel alongside their capital ships. Again, come in too close and the Rebels have local space superiority while your fighters are at their most vulnerable (anyone who played X-Wing knows that turkey shoot), and your own capital ships are right near the Rebel bombers. They had an Interdictor to prevent escape, so coming in at a longer-range was the correct tactical call to minimize risk to the fleet as a whole. Better to lose a squadron of TIE fighters than risk heavy damage to a Star Destroyer.

His questions:
1) They're not assigned to the same squadron, but the pilots of a given Star Destroyer's wing are going to know each other quite well. This would be encouraged as each ship has its own role, and missions could only be accomplished by acting in concert. Most sources agree on 72 fighters assigned to each Imperial-class Star Destroyer in varying amounts, and two were at that engagement.
2) Depending on which source you're consulting; there really isn't a ton of consistency on the matter so it's hard to say what is "correct" here. Other sources cite that combination as being a Rear Admiral, which would coincide with the size of the task force being employed. He also appears to have 2 code cylinders which align with "admiral" rank/command status.
3) Correct, those were cluster munitions. Now, they likely would not have been as effective as depicted where one bomber wipes out the better part of a squadron of shielded starfighters, but that's plot device weaponry in action at that point.
4) If there's flammable materials and oxygen they do. How does he think our actual spacecraft work in a vacuum? What's actually interesting is that fireballs are *exactly* what you get in space; the lack of gravity keeps the flame circling around the ignition point instead of the rising flames we're used to seeing. The quibble would have been you don't have *rapidly expanding* fireballs so much where the volume of the flame exceeds the volume of the original object by a huge degree. The cockpits and pressurized air escaping may cause small scale rushes of flame, but for the most part in zero gravity fire is kind of lazy and hangs out where it is until it's used up all the fuel. Aircraft fireballs on Earth expand that way because of the abundance of air and the influence of gravity; the fireballs in space would be much more sedate but very much observable and spherical. The fire as depicted on the capital ships would be more correct; they have air and gravity and thus it would behave more like terrestrial fire until the source of gravity was destroyed (which would make a really cool-looking transition).

Mmmmm...good old fashion nerditry

Nice enough animation, but it massively overvalues the Imperial capabilities. If you could just press a button on an Interdictor and dud the massive salvo of proton torpedoes about to cripple your ship (and enable the Rebels to escape) fighters would be almost useless against large ships. And in the Star Wars universe, the opposite is the case. Also, the dogfight capabilities of the different TIE classes is seriously overvalued. Heck, the slooooow bomber is dogfighting much more agile rebel ships and shooting them down. Nope.

I don't think that's true. The intent here is obviously to showcase a few TIE fighter ACES. Han Solo is able to twist and turn the falcon into maneuvers thought impossible - so it is with our elite bomber pilot, here.

I think the story here is also indicative of Imperial combat ability. We saw fights where Rebels got desperate and saved by heroics and hubris on the part of the Imperials (no escort for the Death Star when it went after the rebel base? No star destroyers? How many TIEs were really launched, couldn't it have been more?) allowed them victory.

I think in this video, we saw what the rebels were really up against: A ruthlessly efficient and well-equipped military that, if they weren't careful, would consistently overpower and destroy them.

Plus the animation was amazing.

Nah. The rebels main foe was a magical anti-proton torpedo Interdictor (it's from Empire at War, which contradicts all other EU on the Interdictor). All the dogfights would have been for nough if it had been destroyed. Also, the Bomber is a bus no matter who is piloting it. So, no. Shoddy work on the "factual" part.

Damn. Is it hard to go through life asserting that everyone else is just plain wrong no matter what?

The millennium falcon is a bus too. And Han does amazing things with it. So no, it makes sense to me that a GOOD pilot could still make it dance. Sorry you disagree, but my reasoning allows me to tho roughly enjoy the amazing artwork and story of a team of animators. Sorry you're so bitter. Please feel free to make your own animation featuring a tugboat bomber and an imperial interdictor with shoddy EM countermeasures. I'll watch it.

Stunning Animation and kudos for sooo much hard work.

Amazed people are so critical really.................its not like any of the actual 3 films stand up to any scrutiny

Oh gods no, they have several plot prolblems.. Which it never hurts pointing out and I am certainly not offended by I honestly think nerd culture needs to produce waaaaay more honest criticism than we do, we're being fed a lot of stuff we really shouldn't stomach and doing our best as a group to hold it down.

 Spellbound wrote:
Please feel free to make your own animation featuring a tugboat bomber and an imperial interdictor with shoddy EM countermeasures. I'll watch it.

It doesn't take a chef to tell good food from bad. And I am not sure I am the one coming off as bitter here. I am just critical over the plot, not the animation.

People like you are why we can't have nice things.

I didn't see a tie bomber dogfight, I saw one fly through an asteroid belt and then shoot some cluster missiles at some rebel pilots.

Besides, things like wings and yt1300s are bricks too, no one would say anything if it was either of those doing the same thing.

My only problem with the whole thing was the pilots giving each other thumbs up after the interceptor pilot gave them a plan. How do they see th thumbs up? Why were they looking away from the window?

I think I wanna play that music every time my tie swarm hits the field.