Hey guys!

I was curious to see if anyone had any feedback to give on the random planet generator. Any glitches or issues with the site?

As well, at some point in the near future I’m going to attempt changing the format of the mobile site. I also have a “miscellaneous” category in the works that would give out a random fact about the planet—any suggestions?

On the bridge(?) of larger starships what are the seats/stations called? And what are some of the functions? I’m also wondering when would a ship warrant a name vs just be referred to it by it’s make and model? How do call signs work? It seems like it’s function is to facilitate communication but it’s not clear how they get assigned (thinking of that scene in Rogue One) and that they may or may not be related to the ship’s name?

As larger ships need more personnel to function fully, they usually have bridges with a number of console stations as opposed to a cockpit. The layout of the bridge and what specific stations will be on it will depend on the ship and its capabilities; the most famous of them would of course be the typical Star Destroyer’s bridge, featuring a central command walkway with two crew pits on either side. 

Unfortunately, as I have just discovered after a surprising amount of digging, the different stations don’t seem to ever be properly defined, for a specific ship or as a general rule. I can tell you that a typical bridge will have communications, navigation and astrogation stations. On warships, the bridge will have stations for gunners. On ships with tractor beams, such as Star Destroyers, there will be people on the bridge able to operate them, possibly with the support of other people working nearer the tractor beams (it is unclear exactly how these are controlled). In Lost Stars there is a scene where an Imperial bridge officer gives navigational assistance to TIE fighters attempting to fly through an asteroid field, directing them to change course when needed; hence, there are officers capable of accessing tracking and sensor data. 

Whether all these functions are carried out by different officers at separate stations is a bit unclear. According to the one diagram I managed to find of an Imperial bridge (from an old d20 sourcebook), weapons and communications are actually taken care of in separate areas, outside the crew pit. This doesn’t seem to be the case in new canon, but I believe that weapons, communications, navigation and astrogation would still have their own dedicated console stations, because they are more specialized and complex tasks. This specific subject isn’t well covered, so you’ve got plenty of freedom to interpret as you will. 

As for names: generally, larger ships will get names, starfighters will not. Naming a ship is a sign of personalization, so names as opposed to designations are much more common among private spacers and organizations that allow a degree of attachment to the ships. The Rebels, for example, named a lot of their ships, and referred to them by that name, with the exception of the starfighters. The Imperials named only significant ships, ones where a name would add to the ship’s intimidation factor: capital ships, flagships, and ships used personally (often exclusively) by high-ranking officers. Small ships other than starfighters – gunships, shuttles, etc. – don’t usually get names. If a ship is owned personally by someone, it almost always gets a name; this means tramp freighters, yachts, re-purposed/stolen military vessels, and the like. Basically, just use your judgement; if the ship is unique and important, it probably needs a name. 

In almost every case, if the ship has a name then the pilot/captain/crew will not have call signs. Call signs are usually given to the pilot of a one-person ship, typically a starfighter flying as part of a squadron. They are assigned based on the pilot’s squadron, and often follow a numerical pattern: Red Squadron might consist of the pilots Red One, Red Two, Red Three, Red Four, etc. Hence, every pilot gets a unique name that also identifies their squadron. This was common practice in the Alliance and New Republic, and though call signs also followed this pattern in the Grand Army it seems that the clone pilots often preferred to call each other by name. Imperial call signs followed very specific guidelines, so here is the article on that. If a communications officer needed to give instructions to a ship with multiple crewmembers (a capital ship, a freighter, a Star Destroyer, etc.) then that ship would usually be addressed by its name or designation, whatever is commonly accepted or known, and the captain/commanding officer would relay instructions to the relevant crewmembers.

I hope that helps! That’s a lot of information to get through, so feel free to ask for clarification on anything!

~ Jacen

What Do I Call That Ship, Anyway? – A Guide To Ship Classification

Ever wondered the
difference between a battlecruiser and a battleship, or debated whether your
vessel is a light, medium, or heavy freighter? The Star Wars universe is
absolutely full of all sorts of wonderful starships, but there are so many
terms and classifications for them that it can get awfully confusing sometimes!
This post is intended as a non-exhaustive guide to describing some common ships’
various classifications in your writing, both military and civilian.

The rest is under the
cut. Sorry for the long post, mobile users!

Capital Ships

A capital ship is defined
as any armed military starship with a length greater than 100 meters, typically
designed for fleet warfare. The Anaxes War College System, established during
the Clone Wars and used by the successive governments, divided capital ships
into seven main classifications:

  • Corvette: 100-200 meters in length
  • Frigate: 200-400 meters
  • Cruiser: 400-600 meters
    • Light
      cruiser      : 350-400 meters (sometimes interchangeable with frigates)
    • Medium cruiser:
      400-500 meters
  • Heavy cruiser: 600-1000 meters
  • Star Destroyer: 1000-2000 meters
  • Battlecruiser: 2000-5000 meters
  • Dreadnaught: 5000+ meters

Sometimes, depending
on its armament and typical role in a battle, a ship could be moved up or down
a classification. The Carrack-class
light cruiser, for example, was sometimes considered a cruiser despite technically
being a frigate at 350 meters long. The Secutor-class
Star Destroyer was classified as a Star Destroyer even though it was 2200
meters long, because its role as a carrier ship meant that it had a light
armament that was atypical of battlecruisers. (Note that Star Destroyer as a
classification was separate from the specific term Star Destroyer originally used
by Kuat Drive Yards to describe their own ships. By the time of the Clone Wars,
many capital ships not manufactured by KDY were also referred to as Star
Destroyers.)

Some other terms were
also used to describe capital ships:

  • Battleship: a general name used for large
    capital ships, often Star Destroyer-sized and above. They were well-armed and
    shielded, and took either an active role in combat or a “peacekeeping” role.
  • Warship: often synonymous with battleship, but
    sometimes used as a specific class, comparable to a frigate or a cruiser.
  • Battlecruiser (informal): a large,
    heavily-armoured capital ship that was not considered a battleship, made for destroying
    other capital ships. Alternately, a vessel designated “battlecruiser” due to
    differing naming customs, while serving the role of another class of ship.
  • Flagship: the primary command ship in a fleet,
    usually the largest or most powerful vessel.
  • Carrier: a starship designed primarily to carry
    smaller starships and fighters into battle. While dedicated carriers usually
    had few weapons and weaker shielding, others could serve a dual purpose as
    carriers and battleships.
  • Interdictor vessel: a starship with the ability
    to generate a gravity well and pull vessels out of hyperspace. Interdictors could
    belong to varying capital ship classes, ranging from frigates to Star
    Destroyers.
  • Super Star Destroyer: a ship with the typical dagger-shaped
    profile of a Star Destroyer that falls into the size category of battlecruiser
    or dreadnaught.
  • Superdreadnaught: a little-used term for a very
    large dreadnaught. The Eye of Palpatine,
    at 19 kilometers in length, was considered a superdreadnaught.
image

(The Supremacy, a 60-kilometer wide Mega-class Star Dreadnaught, could be
called a superdreadnaught)

Starfighters

A starfighter is a
small, maneuverable ship used in space or atmosphere battles. There are several
different kinds of ships commonly considered starfighters:

  • Snubfighter: a fighter carrying a crew of one
    or two people, typically equipped with laser or blaster weaponry, missiles or
    torpedoes, and a hyperdrive. The infamous X-wing starfighter is a snubfighter.
  • Bomber: a fighter designed for combat against
    well-armoured targets such as capital ships, space stations, and buildings. They
    carried projectile weapons such as proton bombs, concussion missiles, proton
    torpedoes and thermal detonators, often in addition to energy weapons, and were
    generally escorted by more maneuverable starfighters or support craft like
    frigates.
  • Interceptor: a particularly fast and maneuverable
    starfighter, designed to combat enemy fighters and bombers. They lacked heavy
    armour and ordnance payloads, and sometimes a hyperdrive, in the interest of
    making the fighter as fast as possible.
  • Atmospheric fighter: a starfighter specialized
    for flight in atmosphere, such as the TIE striker.
image

(A few models of classic starfighters)

Sometimes, larger
ships were also considered starfighters. Certain transports, shuttles, and
light freighters—generally, ones that have a heavy armament in relation to
their size as well as decent maneuverability—could be lumped into this
category. In addition, the term starfighter could (but does not always) include
the following:

  • Gunship: a general designation for small troop
    deployment and attack carriers. They were usually equipped with heavy weaponry
    and armour, allowing them to survive and fight through a battle long enough to
    deliver or pick up troops and supplies. They could serve as escorts to larger
    ships, and some were designed to carry large ground-based vehicles like the
    AT-TE onto a battlefield. Sometimes, small capital ships were referred to as
    gunships.
  • Blastboat: a small starship built for combat,
    fast enough to intercept other ships and serve as a patrol craft but strong
    enough to survive encounters with well-armed and armoured opponents. They tended
    to fall between starfighters and capital ships in terms of function, size and
    armament, but some, such as the GAT-12 Skipray Blastboat, were considered heavy
    starfighters.
  • Airspeeder: though a starfighter is almost
    always capable of space combat, the term can sometimes be applied to certain
    low-altitude airspeeders.
image

(Republic LAAT-series
gunships were heavily used throughout the Clone Wars and beyond)

Freighters

A freighter is any
spacecraft used to transport freight or cargo. Sometimes interchangeably called
a cargo ship or barge. Freighters were often arranged into several loose
categories depending on their size/capacity and function, though these classes
could be highly variable.

  • Light freighter: a ship used for small cargo
    operations. Many light freighters were equipped with weapons and a decent
    hyperdrive, and were capable of holding their own in combat. They tended to
    measure around 30 meters in length, but could be larger or smaller, and
    commonly had a cargo capacity of about 50-100 metric tons. The Ghost and the Millennium Falcon were both light freighters.
  • Medium freighter: an ambiguous class of
    freighter. A medium freighter could be anywhere from around 30 meters in length
    to a couple hundred, and tended to have a cargo capacity of several hundred
    tons. Some medium freighters are also considered bulk freighters, and some function
    as container ships.
  • Heavy freighter: an ambiguous class used to
    describe a freighter with a larger cargo capacity than the light freighter.
    Whether a ship is considered a light, medium or heavy freighter depends on the
    manufacturer and series; there is no set definition. There are heavy freighters
    ranging in length from 50 to several hundred meters, and in cargo capacity from
    only 150 tons to over 50,000. Heavy freighter is often used interchangeably
    with bulk freighter.
  • Super freighter: a term used to describe a very
    large freighter or a freighter with a very large capacity. The Cargo Empress-class super freighter was
    one example, with a length of 110 meters and a capacity of 50,000 tons.
  • Bulk freighter: a freighter used in commercial
    shipping operations to carry bulk loads. Usually considered either a medium or
    heavy freighter, and often capable of carrying tens of thousands of tons.
  • Container ship: freighters used to haul large
    numbers of crates and containers, sometimes carried on the outside of the ship.
    Hundreds of thousands of tons of cargo could be carried on a container ship,
    but they were very costly to operate.
  • Drone freighter: an unmanned freighter,
    requiring no crew.
  • Tramp freighter: an unaffiliated ship operated
    by an independent captain.
  • Freight liner: an affiliated ship with
    established and scheduled ports of call.
image

(The class four
container transport, also called an Imperial cargo ship, was a container ship capable of carrying up to 210 large cargo containers)

Other Terms

  • Transport/space transport/starferry: a starship
    that carried cargo or passengers from one location to another, or a vessel that
    performs this same function. Freighters, passenger liners, troop transports,
    and even ground vehicles such as AT-ATs all fit into this classification.
  • Shuttle/shuttlecraft: a small vessel used to
    transport personnel, usually through space, between a planet and a ship in
    orbit, or between two ships.
  • Yacht: a starship (or aquatic ship) used for
    recreational purposes. They were usually about the size of light freighters, but
    could get as large as small capital ships, and tended to be expensive.
  • Scout vessel: a starship used for scientific/commercial
    exploration or for military reconnaissance.
  • System patrol craft: a combat-capable starship
    intended to operate within a star system. They acted both as planetary
    defence/customs and as a first line of defence, and though they usually lacked
    hyperdrives many were considered small capital ships and were capable of skirmishing
    with other capital ships as large as frigates.
  • Boarding craft: a vessel used for boarding enemy
    ships and space stations, sometimes also a kind of shuttle.
  • Assault ship: a general term used to describe
    capital ships and starfighters intended for offensive action.
  • Consular ship: a diplomatic vessel.
    Alternately, any vessel officially used by a member of the Imperial Senate.
  • Courier: a fast ship built for delivery of
    urgent cargo and passengers.
  • Hospital ship: a medical spacecraft of varying
    size, often accompanying a military fleet into battle. More on hospital ships here.
  • Medical frigate: a ship used for medical
    support during battles. They often didn’t fit the size guidelines of other
    frigates, ranging from 35 meters to two kilometers. 
  • Communications/comm ship: a naval vessel fitted
    with extra transceivers to help communication between fleet elements and
    military headquarters.
  • Tug: a starship fitted with tractor beams, used
    to move or guide ships, structures, or cargo containers.
  • Space station: a structure built for use in
    orbit or deep space, often intended for habitation or research purposes or as
    orbiting docks. While they were usually immobile, some military space stations
    such as the Death Star had engines and hyperdrives, making them starships as
    well.

And, of course, if you
need to know the type/classification of a specific starship, you can always
check out its Wookieepedia page or shoot me an ask! Good luck with your writing!

~ Jacen

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propheticfire:

COMPLETE LIST OF NAMED CLONE TROOPERS
Organized by Unit
*updated 8/23/18*

Ever needed to know who served under Jedi Master Luminara Unduli? Trying to name an oc and don’t want to repeat a name? Use this handy guide! I went through the list on Clone Trooper Wiki and organized everyone. Many of these names do not have verifiable links, but if it was a name and it was on the list, I included it.

Some notes:
An *asterisk in front of a name denotes a group leader of some sort.

(Sorry about the pictures. There’s no way I could have formatted this on tumblr. And be sure and click through to the original permalink! Because things may have been updated since this has been in circulation.)

I believe I’ve reblogged this in the past, so here’s the updated version

Source: propheticfire

gffa:

Star Wars: Lightsabers – A Guide To Weapons of The Force by Pablo Hidalgo

ANATOMY OF A LIGHTSABER notes of interest:
(NOTE:  This is the 2018 version, so this is a canon reference book.)

  • A true lightsaber cannot be assembled by a machine, only those sensitive to the Force can construct one.
  • “Once the energy is focused, it leaves the handle from a positively charged energy lens inside the blade emitter.  The beam is trapped inside an energy field created by the kyber crystal, which bends the beam back towards a negatively charged high-energy flux aperture in the emitter.  To an observer, it looks like the blade simply stops growing, but this loop of energy creates the lightsaber’s distinctive hum as well as the spinning effect in the blade’s movements, making the weapon difficult to control for those without training.”
  • (This is probably what makes the blades so bouncy against each other, because they’re–as someone once described them–a bit like energy chainsaws, in the way that they’re a loop going around and around, rather than a steady beam.)
  • “A lightsaber is an extention of a Jedi’s Force awareness.  Becasue Jedi let the Force guide their selection of the crystal, the vibration the crystal creates in the lightsaber blade helps Jedi center themselves and find balance in the Force.”
  • MYTH:  Only a Jedi or a Sith can wield a lightsaber.
    FACT:  "Anyone could pick up a lightsaber and use it, but lightsabers are extremely difficult to wield. Those used to swinging solid swords often find using a weightless blade a challenge–one that can have dangerous consequences.  Only through rigorous training and enhanced senses through the Force can a Jedi use a lightsaber to its full potential.“
  • “Training lightsabers emit low-intensity blades that cannot cut and are not lethal.  Contact with a training blade will only sting or numb an opponent; however these blades do convey an accurate sensation of holding a real lightsaber.”
  • “Most lightsabers incorporate a pressure activation lever that causes it to power down if dropped.  They may also have a ‘lock’ switch that keeps the blade active, so a Jedi can throw a lightsaber some distance and guide its path through the Force.”
  • “Beyond its use as a weapon or an instrument of meditation, a lightsaber is a practical tool.  Given enough time, a lightsaber can cut through most substances.  Even shield-rated blast doors will melt after extended exposure to a lightsaber blade, making it nearly impossible to imprison an armed Jedi Knight.  Most Jedi will not risk slicing through bulkhead walls or high-energy force fields, though, because cutting into such a powerful source could be explosive.”
  • MYTH:  A lightsaber can cut through anything.  
    FACT:  The key to creating a solid weapon that can clash with a lightsaber blade is not the metal used in construction but rather the energy the metal conducts.  Energy transmitted across a metal blade or polearm can foritfy a weapon so it can block a lightsaber blade.  The electrostaffs of the MagnaGuard droids or the energized weapons of Supreme Leader Snoke’s Praetorian Guards, for example, pose a challenge to even trained lightsaber combatants.“
  • “Standard lightsabers and water don’t mix.  While some protective measures do exist, such as flashback waterseals, lighting a lightsaber underwater can be a problem.  The weapon may boil the surrounding water, spinning turbulance and making it difficult to control.  Should a Jedi become submerged in water during the course of an assignment, he or she had best make sure the lightsaber is prepared for such a journey.”
  • “A Jedi who loses a lightsaber often builds another.  In times of great need–such as the emergency of the Clone Wars–the Order kept replacement lightsabers for Jedi to use while they built a new one.”
  • “Above all, Jedi must keep track of their lightsabers.  Should a lightsaber fall into the hands of an unpracticed or dishonorable person, it will almost always lead to tragedy.”
Source: gffa

Medpac info and diagrams (from The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology). Transcript under the cut. 

“Medpacs are emergency medical kits used in the field to treat minor injuries and stabilize badly injured patients until they can be taken to advanced medical facilities. These inexpensive kits cost only about a hundred credits each but carry a wide variety of medicines and emergency-care tools. Internal diagnostic computers offer the user complete descriptions of essential procedures, and so persons with no medical training can use them effectively.

“The Chiewab GLiS (General Life-Sustaining) is a basic medpac and carries supplies for treating contusions, broken bones, burns, and traumatic injuries. Its computer can store treatment procedures for one species at a time – typically humans – although program modules can be purchased for thousands of other species. Its limited diagnostic scanner allows the user to monitor a patient’s vital signs constantly. 

“Standard medicines include coagulants to stop bleeding, healing salves and sterilizers used to treat burns, and antiseptic irrigation bulbs and disinfectant pads that cleanse wounds and prevent infections. Small bacta patches can be applied to promote the healing of traumatized tissues. Stim-shots and adrenaline boosters keep the patient alert and prevent him or her from going into shock, while painkillers and localized nerve anesthetics reduce discomfort. General-use antibiotics, countertoxins, and immunity boosters can be used to treat patients subjected to poisons, animal venoms, diseases, and infectious microbes, thus stabilizing a patient until he or she arrives at a health facility where more potent countertoxins can be administered.

“All medicines can be applied through patches or painlessly injected with a spray hypo. The GLiS also has a bone stabilizer and several spray splints that immobilize and protect broken bones; when the patient arrives at a hospital, bone fusers can repair the damage completely.

“More advanced and expensive medpacs such as the BioTech FastFlesh are designed for use by trained medics and include a much larger assortment of medicines. These medpacs are excellent for battlefield use, offering multiple spray splints, large supplies of stimulants and body boosters, and advanced synthe-nutrient replicators that sustain patients with vital nutrients. Specialized medicines can counter the effects of radiation, biological poisons, and nerve agents. The FastFlesh medpac also includes a canister of chromostring, which offers deeper penetration of healing agents without causing nerve damage. This medpac has several instruments for emergency field surgery, including a sonic scalpel, a laser cauterizer, and nerve and tissue regenerators. 

“The FastFlesh diagnostic computer’s database covers five hundred different species and is linked to the unit’s remote scanner and a sample analyzer that can identify poisons, toxins, and unknown compounds. The computer automatically stores a record of the patient’s condition for later reference. This medpac costs five hundred credits and is widely used by emergency-care technicians, including many New Republic medics.”

What medical treatments are there outside bacta? My plot requires an incredibly risky escape w someone near death. Would realistic medicine work instead? What are those binders/cuffs (triangular?) called, like in the 2017 Maul comics on the padawan? And finally, what is imperial protocol for bounties/tracking someone down? Thank you in advance!

It really depends on the specific injuries that the person has sustained. A good starting place, if you haven’t already checked it out, might be the medical terms section of my vocab list here. There’s a bunch of equipment and medicine listed there other than bacta, although bacta is normally a staple of medical treatment and is used in many other products. 

If your character is bleeding to death, bacta will probably not be a first step in their treatment/stabilization. Although I don’t know what piece of equipment you’re referring to in the comics (you’re welcome to submit/message me a picture, if you like) I would guess that it may be some sort of tourniquet. Some tourniquets (such as the SGB-543) could apply micro-repulsor fields in specific places to stop internal bleeding, as opposed to various other bandages, coagulants and cauterizers, which stopped external bleeding. Depending on the exact type of wound, different methods would be used to do this; there are circumstances where cauterization is not appropriate, for example, and tourniquets are not necessarily always a good idea, especially if they must be improvised. I’m not a real-life medical expert, though, so you may want to take a look through @scriptmedic‘s blog, since they have answered questions on the topic. 

If there is no significant bleeding (e.g., in the case of a lightsaber wound) but the character is still in critical condition, they would usually be kept in a bacta tank. Bacta is used as sort of a cure-all because it helps regenerate damaged cells, but it takes time to work and the character may need additional life support while they heal. Transporting someone in this sort of condition would be very risky, but could be made possible for short periods of time (for instance, until they got to a ship with a medbay) if there’s a medpac or medkit on hand. Since many ships, even small ones, could be fitted with decent medbays including a medical droid and/or diagnostic computer, that may be a good first stop for your characters. You can find a bit more detail on that in this post. 

As for real-life medicine, there’s no reason you can’t revert to more simple, low-tech treatments in a pinch. However, many of these simpler treatments have different names or alternative versions in-universe, so taking a look through the vocab list and Wookieepedia may help. 

Though they did have their own investigators with jurisdiction spanning most of the galaxy, when trying to track someone down the Empire was often known to employ bounty hunters. All of these sorts of investigations were carried out by the Imperial Office of Criminal Investigations. There’s a lot of information there, so I would suggest reading through that. Take special note of the Imperial Enforcement DataCore and the Imperial Peace-Keeping Certificates; this should all give you an idea of how the Empire does business with registered and unregistered bounty hunters. 

I hope that helps! If you’ve got any follow-up questions, feel free to ask!

~ Jacen