Timeline Setting

I was wondering when the events described in the compendium took place exactly and what year is it currently in the DJB

The stuff about the Emperor writing his books took place during the empire and the descriptions of the past GMs took place a few years ago (our time) when the club was active. As for the year, I don't recall ever seeing a set year for any of the events in the movies, it's always described either pre-ANH or post-Endor. If I remember correctly, the DJB is placed a little after the Thrawn series. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though.

The stuff about the Emperor writing his books took place during the empire and the descriptions of the past GMs took place a few years ago (our time) when the club was active.  As for the year, I don't recall ever seeing a set year for any of the events in the movies, it's always described either pre-ANH or post-Endor.  If I remember correctly, the DJB is placed a little after the Thrawn series.  Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though.



Yeah the general time measure meant used is BBY (Before Battle of Yavin) & ABY (After Battle of Yavin) if im not mistaken. So thats what i was refering to by timeline

At last point, we would be around 5-6 years after RotJ, but this will probably change after a more definite history/timeline is made

I believe we're now somewhere around 6-9 years after Endor (I can't remember exactly when the official events occured [its either 6 ABY or 6 ABE].

In simple terms... we're a year or so after Luke Skywalker has rebuilt his Jedi Academy going by the length of time the DB has existed for and the year when the timeline first started.

I know this is off th the subject of Timeline, but how come it took the empire 20 years to build the first Death Star, then only like 5 or 6 to build the second, even though it wasn't finished if they built it at that speed it would only take 2 or 3 more years.

I know this is off th the subject of Timeline, but how come it took the empire 20 years to build the first Death Star, then only like 5 or 6 to build the second, even though it wasn't finished if they built it at that speed it would only take 2 or 3 more years.



That's the way constructiuon of stuff is. It normally takes like 10x longer to build the first one. Think about the first computer. It took decades to develop it. Now we can build 100s an hour. The first build is always a lot of trial and error and can take a lot longer.

That -- and wasn';t there a book written where they had a incomplete prototype death star hidden somewhere?

Jac

In the Jedi Academy Trilogy, they had the "prototype" Death Star that was built in the Maw Installation. Since the prototype was described as being a smaller version of the real DS, with basically only a functining superlaser and external skeleton, the shot we saw doesn't really refute that.

So you can just say that was the prototype, the real one ws probably started soon afterwards, and as Jac said, it took awhile since it was the first one. (also, the funds needed to build such a monstrosity probably had to be funneled in slowly, so as to not alarm the Senators. To build the second one, Palpatine didn't have a Senate to worry about any longer).

Sorry but I havn't read the hundreds of star wars books that are out there, so thank you for correcting me.

I thought that... though then I considered the following excuses:

1. Nothing says DS2 wasn't already in production at the Battle of Yavin. It may have already been half complete when the first one got blown up.
2. Nothing says the DS in ROTS is the same one as the Battle of Yavin, that may have been a prototype, or anything.
3. DS2 wasn't finished in ROTJ. If you look at the DS in ROTS the gun part of it looks like its almost finished- in 2 to 3 years of construction. It might just be the shell of the DS that takes a long time to build, and the shell wasn't complete for the DS2.
4. Nothing says DS1 wasn't completed years before the Battle of Yavin. They might have had it sitting around blasting asteroids for a decade before they brought it to blow up Alderaan.

Its sci-fi... theres always an excuse.

Well, if you consider how freakin big the Death Stars are, its no wonder it could have taken so long to build. Remember when Vader first got to the second one and the commander was like "The Emperor asks the impossible" they could have had people working around the clock for two to three years and its still barely half built. Watch RotJ again and take a look at some of the scenes where a shuttle is coming in to land in the bay. The superstructure around the bay is still somewhat exposed, and if I'm not mistaken, there's a trooper or two standing by a turbolaser turrent. That should give you some sense of scope as to how large the Death Stars are.

Also, the Executor crashed into the second one and it was dwarfed by it.

Another possible excuse:

5. DS2 may have been completely hollow for all we know. DS1 was literally like a whole planet with a city sprawling all around the outside. For all we know DS2 was just a gun with an empty egg shell around it to speed up production.

No way they would have to build the power source at the middle + when the falcon was flying through there was some what of a hollow space but that was nothing compared to the actual size + if it was really that hollow than when the executer crashed into it it it woudn't have exploded or if it did it would have taken half of it with it. I think the idea of a second one already in production sounds much more plausible.

Well if you look at cross sectional drawings of the Death Stars they are actually quite hollow... the implication given is that the only reason they're so big is because you need a giant reactor in the middle and then a really, really, really, really long particle accelerator to accelerate the superlaser. The book Darksaber is probably the best example of this... the function part of the Death Star is just meant to be a tube. The moon shell around it is just for show.

If it was hollow then why didn't the "shell" collapse as the Executer crashed into it. Thats like putting a knife into an egg.

If it was hollow then why didn't the "shell" collapse as the Executer crashed into it. Thats like putting a knife into an egg.



In the case of something so massive, "hollow" takes on new meaning. The actual shell of the DS2 was probably quite thick, just the very "core" of it would be hollow

the shell could have been several kms thick seeing as from what I know the second death star was 120km in diameter

Exactly.

The shell was still thick even if the core was hollow. Plus the shell was essentially just a giant ball of armor plating to protect the reactor at the center of the Death Star. It was *designed* to sustain lots and lots of damage so the core was never exposed. The Executor, while big, was tiny in contrast to the Death Star. It would have been similar to driving a knife into a titanium ball. Sure, the knife is going to buckle, sure the titanium ball might be hollow, but the knife still isn't going to do a lot of damage.

You forget that the executor wasn't a tie fighter, Look at the world trade centers the airliners were big but not bigger than the building, but they still destroyed them

In addition to all that is above - My thought on why it took 20 years for DS1 and less than 5 for DS2 is this:

DS1 was "new" technology. I'm sure they spent a lot of time working out problems. DS2 would have been much easier to build since the plans were far more refined by that point.

Thats what GM Jac said, and I agreed with that.

You forget that the executor wasn't a tie fighter, Look at the world trade centers the airliners were big but not bigger than the building, but they still destroyed them




The Twin Towers werent capable of taking those size of planes. So yes, they werew destroyed. The ships, on the other hand, were capable of taking so much damage that they would still be functionable after the event happened.

The world trade centers were mostly hollow buildings made from ordinary materials like concrete, stone, brick etc and were not much thicker than the planes themselves.

The Death Star surface was a like a giant nuclear bunker and was tens of kilometers thicker than the Executor. Even at 17.6 km long the Executor was a tiny blade of grass compared to the sheer size of the Death Star.

Bad example then, well guess your right, i forfit the arguement *dies*