BC-304 vs. Imperial Star Destroyer

[Ouroboros]

Galactica ought to be a joke to any normal (i.e., superpowered/unrealistic) sci-fi ship.

Ought to be yes, but they had a little fun tossing around some gigantic nukes in their finale to.

It's funny how if you actually look at just the majority of the visual effects even well established and generally accepted to be "high tech" Sci-fi series like Star Trek and Star Wars really almost never show anything that looks remotely like a nuclear level blast. Stargate has a bit of an advantage in this regard because even though they very rarely ever show nuclear level blasts either (from things that aren't actual nukes anyway) they've at least got numerous characters quoting gigaton level weapon yeilds for the nukes directly in the actual series. That then at least gives you a general sense of what its going to take to make a militarily competitive weapon in their particular fantasy universe, as well as how easy it is to get to gigatons there, IE the 90s USAF can do it with just a bit of naquada and an existing fission warhead.

I think it's just largely a case of directors, writers and FX people not being able to get their head around the idea of an energy weapon or any non nuclear weapon that's as or even more powerful than a nuke. People are so used to thinking of nukes as some kind of ultimate weapon that it never dawns on them to depict them as anything other than massive explosions that always dwarf everything else weapon wise. Or more accurately it never dawns on them to apply that same sort of "reserved for nukes" representation to another weapon type that could easily contain more energy than the vast majority of, if not all real world nuclear weapons.

[Alterran1.]

The problem with the Super Star Destroyer's 1000 guns is not all of them will be able to fire on the Daedalus at once.

[tjoflojt]

well, first of all, due to the SSDs shape, and all "Star destroyers" shape (it's a wedge) they are able to focus all fire power directly forward, giving them the power to destroy a star system, thus the name "Star Destroyer". the SSD, would drain the 304 shields in one barrage (it has about 5000 ion cannons and turbolasers), thus crippeling it and most likley destroying it. the SSD itself has multiple shield generators (not emitters, generators), which makes it's shields more powerfull. but, a SSD is about 8 or 9 times the size of a regular ISD, which can by themselves destroy a star system. anyway you go, the 304 s toast.

[Alterran1.]

So what was the Death Star for?

The Star Destroyer is far from capable of destroying a planet.

[Lt. Col. Mcoy]

Destroy in the sense "pulverize," no. Destroy in the sense "slag," by all canon accounts, yes.

[RubberJesus]

So what was the Death Star for?

The Star Destroyer is far from capable of destroying a planet.

when he says destroy he means turn into an uninhabitable wasteland

[tjoflojt]

has been displayed in the game Knight of the Old Republic, where the Rakatan Star Destroyers (at the time a thousands of years old model, and the game is set about 3600 yrs before the movies) rained red and firery death over Taris

[Character]

Yea, notice though how those explosions were low kiloton level at best. Generaly i dont get where people are getting the rediculous gt/tt weapon figures from. Personaly, i havent seen anything that would suggest more than mid kt/low mt lvl firepower. Especialy so in the current clone war series, where the pathetic republican walkers, with their sub kiloton laasers do serious damage to separatist warships and stuff.
IMO, any 304 with APBWs would own a SD very easily, without APBWs it would depend on how many nukes can an sds shield take, but considering how asteroids are dangerous to SDs, even our pathetic railguns might do noticible daamage.

[tjoflojt]

yeah, about that... have we seen a 304 fly through a asteroid field? having huge rocks bump against your shields isn't the best way to keep them in shape.

[Buba uognarf]

yeah, about that... have we seen a 304 fly through a asteroid field? having huge rocks bump against your shields isn't the best way to keep them in shape.

We've seen Ori ships get rammed by a Ha'tak moving at ramming speed, I think that tops slow moving pieces of rock.

[tjoflojt]

well, thats what the ori shields were designed for. the only weapon that managed to pierce the shield was the APBW. sure, the APBW could probably get through an ISD shield with a shoot or two, but by that time, it would have about 500-1000 (or 5000+, if its a SSD) turbolaser and ion blasts heading for it. now, we have never seen a 304 survive a barrage of that magnitude. and even if the APBW did get through, there is no guarantee that it will couse secondary explotions, i which case it wouldn't do much damage

[Buba uognarf]

well, thats what the ori shields were designed for. the only weapon that managed to pierce the shield was the APBW. sure, the APBW could probably get through an ISD shield with a shoot or two, but by that time, it would have about 500-1000 turbolaser blasts heading for it.

Have we ever seen an ISD fire 500 shots in a the space of a couple of seconds? No we haven't.

We have no idea what the Ori shields were designed for, I doubt they were specifically designed to withstand large ships crashing into them.

[tjoflojt]

Have we ever seen an ISD fire 500 shots in a the space of a couple of seconds? No we haven't.

We have no idea what the Ori shields were designed for, I doubt they were specifically designed to withstand large ships crashing into them.

they have an outrageus amout of firepower, all of which can be directed forwards.

8 of these cannons (4 in pic):

Spoiler:

about 60 batteries like these (not this specificly)

Spoiler:

and some other stuff, like ion cannons and tractor beams

[Buba uognarf]

they have an outrageus amout of firepower, all of which can be directed forwards.

8 of these cannons (4 in pic):

Spoiler:

about 60 batteries like these (not this specificly)

Spoiler:

and some other stuff, like ion cannons and tractor beams

But its never been demonstrated that they can fire all of those weaons at once and direct them at a single target...

[morrismike]

Galactica ought to be a joke to any normal (i.e., superpowered/unrealistic) sci-fi ship.

The guns it was being pounded with in that last episode seemed a significant upgrade from the 304s rail guns. I'm not sure a brute force attack against a hatak or something like that would scratch their shields though.