Something thats always bugged me about Star Wars - Light Sabers.

[Kunaak]

theres one thing about star wars that has always kinda ruined the movies, and in particular the games for me.
including "the old republic".

its light sabers and the variable "power" they seem to have, or lack.

in empire strikes back, luke gets his hand chopped off in a single slice, in the same fight, darth vader slices instantly through a metal pillar easily as thick as a tree.
then not a minute later, he hacks at luke, who dodges - and he hits a hand rail, and it only sparks, no slice through that metal handrail - yet he can slice through a metal pillar thats as thick as a tree just a minute earlier?

theres another scene later, where darth vader gets hit in the shoulders from a hack from luke, and it barely knicks his armor?


now fast forward to the intro for the old republic, and theres scenes where a guy is throwing huge metal items at some guy, and he is slicing through it as if it was tissue paper.

theres a ton of examples of this all over star wars movies and games, and its never made sense - if the light saber is suppose to be this all powerful weapon to be dreaded and respected - why does it sometimes come across as if was nothing more then a shiny stick?

to put it differently, if I was going into world war three, and my plattoon was handed a rifle, and they said, "sometimes it can kill a rhino in one shot, sometimes it shoots out cupcakes and rainbows".
I dont think I'd be too happy with that weapon...

so to me, the light saber has always seemed like the worst weapon someone could be using, cause if sometimes it would cut someone clean in half as if a hot knife going through butter - and another time, it might barely knick someones armor - seems kinda like a bad weapon to choose.

star wars is full of things I couldnt ever fully accept logically, like why do jedis seem to have this weird ability to have a 100% batting average when someones shooting "lasers" at them?
if someone handed you a bat, and said they were gonna shoot a machine gun at you, you will live, if you can just hit all the bullets out of the way - it starts to sound alittle dumb...
I can accept that "jedi are just that good".
I can even accept that "lasers" that move "about as fast a bow and arrow", dont make any sense.

but videogames is where it really starts to stop making sense.
run around in the old republic for a hour, you will see a thousand people hacking away on something with thier light sabers.... all doing little to no damage.

light sabers have always been the breaking point for me in star wars, cause thats when I just start to feel like they should just start to hand them out at raves, so those ravers can play with them, they seem to enjoy glow sticks, why not light sabers? they are obviously not that dangerous....

I am just being a smart ass, thinking this while running around in the old republic.

for the record, I do greatly enjoy the first 3 star wars movies, I had fun watching them as a kid, the I consider knights of the old republic one of the best PC games I ever played.

this new MMO, the old republic, its OK.
I dont see it as ground breaking, or anything I will play alot, I see it as a linear game, with too much emphisis on PVP, and a ton of hype. its gonna last just fine, but I dont think I am its target audience.

[Frag Maniac]

You make an obvious yet redundant point. Meaning there are FAR more things to nit pick about as far as lack of realism in ANY Star Wars story than mere unexplained variance in material vulnerability to light sabers. If nerds world wide, many well studied in science, can suspend disbelief long enough to overlook such minor details, I can only imagine what field you're in. No matter how educated you are, sci fi movies and games are not something one should over rationalize about. It only ruins any creativity they have in them, which is the main point of watching/playing them. Oddly this thread reminds me of the TV show Big Bang Theory. Part of what makes that show so funny at times is that despite Sheldon being a fairly brilliant scientist, at any given moment he'll fanatically obsess over characters and story details of Star Wars (and other sci fis) as if it's more important than his work.

[zanzabar]

2 things on it

1) light sabers are the same as samurai swords, they go through anything when the story calls for it.

2) the force lets them predict the future and lets them feel what others are going to do, so they can tell were the lasers will shoot if they know one will be coming, and with the force and lightsabers, the lightsaber is only dong what the jedi wants as its the will of the force and the force powers lightsabers.

and last even though its not to do with your problems, jedi are logical not good or bad by the nature of being jedi, and the same with sith but they are impulsive/emotional and could be good or bad, but in the star wars universe the sith are long died out and all that are sith are fallen jedi.

[badbaker`]

Don't forget the incest....

[Tao~]

Well, I discard reality when in fantasy. Besides, Lightsaber is the coolest thing in Star Wars (or may be next after Yoda's grammar )

[chinaguy]

Sorry to break the bad news to you, but Star Wars is only a story! Its not real, get over it and move on.

[zanzabar]

Sorry to break the bad news to you, but Star Wars is only a story! Its not real, get over it and move on.

your missing the point, we are nerding out, damn nerf herder

[DeltZ]

your missing the point, we are nerding out, damn nerf herder

lol :P


anyway back on topic.
Darth Vader's suit is known to be made resistant to lightsaber attacks.

Not much they can do about lightsaber power in games. 1 hit kill is slightly unfair/un fun. Don't really see a way around this

[zanzabar]

lol :P


anyway back on topic.
Darth Vader's suit is known to be made resistant to lightsaber attacks.

Not much they can do about lightsaber power in games. 1 hit kill is slightly unfair/un fun. Don't really see a way around this

unless u play battle front

[Frag Maniac]

I don't nerd out, but I do enjoy good nerd humor such as in the aforementioned The Big Bang Theory and the "Nerd Herd" of Chuck. I also get a kick out of the often humorous colloquialisms conjured up by the many fans of such sci fis.

After recalling gameplay in Jedi Outcast where an ore called Cortosis was mined for it's resistance to light sabers, I began researching it a bit. There's a site called "Wookieepedia" (don't ya just love that name), which elaborates on it a bit.

"Cortosis ore was a very rare, brittle, fibrous material whose conductive properties caused lightsabers to temporarily short out upon contact, although the wielder could solve this problem by turning the blade back on after a couple of seconds. This effect made cortosis a useful material for anti-lightsaber melee weapons, though with repeated strikes, a lightsaber could still cut through it. Cortosis, due to its heat and energy resistant properties, was also resistant to blaster fire."

Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cortosis

Oddly enough, the more conservatively named "Wikipedia" elaborates even more on the subject.

"Cortosis is a rare mineral from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. It is a somewhat fragile light grey, chalky rock that has the strange property of being impervious to both heat and energy. It is highly resistant to blaster bolts, and cortosis alloys are capable of resisting or even deactivating Lightsabers, the only mineral to do so other than phrik and beskar. The process of mining cortosis requires the use of hydraulic jacks, since its properties render plasma torches useless.[1]
Cortosis is first mentioned in the Timothy Zahn's The Hand of Thrawn duology, and gradually adopted into the EU canon in later works.
In The Hand of Thrawn duology, Cortosis is described as causing a feedback loop with a lightsaber by "shorting out" the blade, requiring it to be reactivated (but not damaging it permanently). In the duology, Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade are in fact able to cut their way through an outcropping of cortosis by hours of repeated lightsaber strokes and reactivations. Later they encounter guard droids with an armor made up of alternating layers of cortosis and blaster-proof armor. Many fans dispute the true nature of cortosis as both definitions have been included in established canon literature. The sources that describe it as "shorting out" the lightsaber blade also describe it as a brittle mineral; bladed weapons used a cortosis alloy to incorporate the mineral's lightsaber-blocking capabilities without its fragility.
In "Darth Bane: Path of Destruction" Darth Bane was born on the world of Apatros, the planet on which Cortosis is mined.
Cortosis is common in weaponry in the Star Wars universe. Many melee weapons are made with a "weave" of cortosis to fight lightsaber bearing enemies. In the ancient times of the Old Republic, during times of war with the Sith, it was common for fighters to carry cortosis-weave vibroblades and vibroswords, which could be used to fight Jedi and Dark Jedi in close-range combat. Sith in ancient times commonly carried a vibrosword rather than a lightsaber for two reasons, firstly, vibroblades would wound opponents in a more painful manner, due to the dicing way the vibroblades cut, secondly, vibriblade wounds are more prone to bleed-out, as the intense heat from lightsabers cauterizes any wound they make.
In the game Jedi Outcast, Galak Fyyar processes cortosis ore into a black armor that is used by his Shadowtroopers. He also builds a suit of power armor that he uses himself. It is unknown whether all cortosis ore deposits are capable of such processing; the ore Fyyar used was smuggled from Cloud City."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ances#Cortosis


Then it dawned on me. What if the mining of Cortosis came about AFTER that building was built where Vader collapsed one of it's pillars. The railings could have been installed at some later date as part of an upgrade that was more cost effective than rebuilding the entire core of the facility.

Damn it, you guys have sucked me into your nerd void!

[defect9]

cortosis sounds like it would make a horrible wc block material, but potentially a great insulation material.

[EniGmA1987]

I dont think the OP is thinking about this very logically. Sure you are supposed to just accept what you see ince it is science fiction and not based in reality, but even if we think logically about this there is a very valid explanation. Low density objects can be cut more easily, even in our real world this holds true in most cases. Some metals are very dense, some are flimsy. Thickness of material matters too. You say a lightsaber slashed through a railing easily but not armor. Lets think about that for a second. Railing = not made to be like armor, is thinner, made to be cheap, very low density, probably even hollow. Darth Vader armor: designed to stop weapons, very high density, made of material specifically designed to resist lightsabers, solid. Conclusion? Armor is stronger than a railing. If this bothers you, perhaps you are misunderstanding what a lightsaber is.

[Sparky]

lol :P


anyway back on topic.
Darth Vader's suit is known to be made resistant to lightsaber attacks.

Not much they can do about lightsaber power in games. 1 hit kill is slightly unfair/un fun. Don't really see a way around this

In the game Jedi Outcast you could turn on cheats (HelpUsObi 1 in the console) then enable realistic sabers (g_realisticsabercombat 3) which not only was 1 hit kill, but also severe dismemberment! They would slice through any character super easy. Like you said, it can remove some of the fun, but also makes it totally suck if the sith got you by surprise as it certainly worked both ways

[[XC] gomeler]

Man, the same thing was going through my mind as I was running around playing The Old Republic over the holidays. Sure, it was neat that my Darth Maul clone received a lightsaber around level 10 but it wasn't that neat when I was bashing on 4 legged critters on the next planet and nearly dying multiple times because my lightsaber was unable to slice through unarmored critters. I'd have preferred that they reserved lightsabers for late into the game and made them powerful weapons OR provided some sort of grounding to explain why some of the vibroswords I picked up were superior to my lightsaber. Could be something as easy as inventing a line about how weaker crystals yielded weak beams.

[N19h7m4r3]

Could be something as easy as inventing a line about how weaker crystals yielded weak beams.

I always thought that was the case, as it's also stated in the Expanded Universe.

Although I have to agree, lightsabers feel a little weak in the game, although I don't think many people would have liked if they were only reserved until the end.

[zanzabar]

Man, the same thing was going through my mind as I was running around playing The Old Republic over the holidays. Sure, it was neat that my Darth Maul clone received a lightsaber around level 10 but it wasn't that neat when I was bashing on 4 legged critters on the next planet and nearly dying multiple times because my lightsaber was unable to slice through unarmored critters. I'd have preferred that they reserved lightsabers for late into the game and made them powerful weapons OR provided some sort of grounding to explain why some of the vibroswords I picked up were superior to my lightsaber. Could be something as easy as inventing a line about how weaker crystals yielded weak beams.

u wont find anything better than that 1st lightsabler for a long time, the socketed gear normally has no base stats, and all the damage comes from the hit that u use in it and then your will power/strength.

SWTOR also went on the light saber is only as powerful as its wielder (on the inquisitor quest line from your ghost pal)