Everything Wrong with Star Wars' Vehicle Design: The Clone Wars

I sort of stopped caring for Star wars for a while, but diving back into the universe to research this video has been fun. I forgot how much fun the original Battlefront games were. I decided to cover the Clone wars because that's my favorite era in the universe.

I've said it before, but it would hurt to say it again; this series is not meant to say that the actual designs themselves are bad, or that the game is bad because of them. This series simply takes a look at fictional vehicles from a realistic standpoint for fun.

Check the channel "About" section for the link to the creator of my profile picture.

Songs used (in order from first to last):
Halo 3 - Sierra 117 (Infiltrate)
Halo 3 - The Storm (This is Our Land)
Halo 3: ODST - Rain (Deference for Darkness)

Reddit: /u/spookston

#starwars #clonewars

[Spookston]

Some things I wanted to talk about:
1. The AT-TE's armor may be all well and good for infantry based energy weapons, but not all weapons in the Star Wars universe are energy based. For example, the majority of the AAT's weapons are either kinetic or chemical, only the auxiliary guns are energy based.
2. I don't think the AT-TE could crouch to the side to allow the mass driver additional gun depression with how the middle leg articulates, but if it could, it would render the AT-TE either near or completely immobile. A much easier solution would be to simply make the mass driver turret bigger to allow the gun to depress more.
3. I noticed in the Clone Wars movie that the AT-TE seemed to dig into the cliff a bit, but I don't buy that as being plausible either. The prongs on the feet are much too smooth and shallow to hold any weight while climbing vertically.

[marcosbravo]

1:30
"So they could be deployed to planets without atmosphere"
Anakin Skywalker, who used them to board an enemy frigate: "I'm four parallel universes ahead of you"

[projectpitchfork]

Funfact: The AT-TE was used for attacking a ship of the seperatists in one episode of the Clone Wars.

[shakurasender]

4:57
"the main gun has no depression"


God i wish that were me.

[grunt]

I think the reason why the AAT has droid crew members instead of being a droid itself was because those tanks were in intended for organic crew members. Later in the war we some all droid vehicles like the gunship and the snail tank.

[megastarsport]

The AT-TE’s “toes” can be articulated into foot spikes like cleats to improve traction on slick terrain like smooth rock, which is what it uses to climb the cliff on Teth

[pakornwattanavrangkul]

The cockpit for the ATTE always irked me. Lore wise, the 'glass' in the cockpit is supposed to be just a transparent version of that of the hull but is always depicted as glass in any visual medium. Also the fact that the cockpit sticks out from the hull just made it a bigger target with the window being at 90 degrees in stead of slanted like the hull.

To fix it, I would suggest something like the droid tank with a small dome, moving the driver and commander back and removing the front troop compartment. Also never new why the gunner for the mass driver cannon could not just be remote controlled from within the hull of at least give the poor trooper a sliding cover to protect him.

[GRNbull]

“More droids for the infantry”
Bro they had literal quadrillions of em they are FINE

[patchmoulton]

Fun fact: There are indeed nukes in the Star Wars universe, though the faction that I can think of that actually used them would be the Mandalorians during the Old Republic era

[terran]

So, some counterpoints

1) The AAT does have a good amount of gun depression, as could be seen in Innocents Of Ryloth of Star Wars The Clone Wars Season 1, though to do this required angling the hull so the gun had space to do so.

2) The AAT in The Phantom Menace that Jar Jar hangs from had a "Booma" dropped into it, which seems to be able to stick to targets in addition to an EMP, potentially disabling more electronics that touch it. It's likely that the stuck Commander Droid touched some controls on his way down, and forced the anti gravity to angle to the side. Recoil is shown in TPM to cause the AAT to back up, but it can counteract the force to return to its original position. Overall this makes imbalance a moot issue, since we see it ably resolving it without fail.

3) The AT-RT's height is greatly justified by its top speed of 75kmh, which is only achieved because of those long legs. Wheels would be more stable, but sacrifice a lot of mobility, and especially a lot of ground clearance (they are shown to be able to jump over obstacles) which is a major advantage to have for the AT-RT as...

4) The AT-RT functions more closely to a self propelled gun than a motorcycle. We see the firepower of an AT-RT can destroy an AAT (Liberty on Ryloth) or light AFVs (Darkness on Umbara). It is very flexible in that role, similar to a jeep towed 37mm of WW2 when the guns were still effective.

Finally, just a small nitpick, 5) the AT-RTs do have advanced AI that makes them handle like animals. This is a bit of deep lore though, so if you didn't know then that's fine.

Overall though, I did enjoy this video. I hope you could do a video on Droid Fighters, Vultures are my personal favorite vehicles. I also hope you enjoyed making this video, since Star Wars has a rich universe to explore.

[ZETH_]

"The AATs turret doesnt have any depression"


Shows game footage of the gun aiming down.

[calum]

Im pretty sure in Star Wars Lore, the 'glass' canopy on the Walker is actually a form of clear steel. It's the same as they use on the windows of Starships.

[MDPToaster]

The ATTE’s armor isn’t weak, it uses STAR WARS MAGIC™ Energy Dispersing technology, meaning that the energy from blasts is dispersed throughout its hull and the damage is significantly reduced, allowing for thinner armor which reduces stress on its legs and the vehicles that transport it into battle.
Also the ATTE isn’t the main battle tank, that goes to the TX-130T fighter tank.

[alexkorman]

Command & Conquer would be great for this series.

[frenchsoldier]

About one of the flaws for the AT-TE, it has infantry turrets on the front and back

[MDPToaster]

Also B1-Battle droids aren’t the AAT commander/gunner that role was dedicated to the smarter 00M commander droid, which also piloted the tank as well.
Also those two turrets on the sides of the AAT are manned by those two droid gunners at either side of the tank. The pilot has two small front anti infantry blasters fixed to the hull at the very front.
The AAT isn’t made exclusively for the CIS like most of the CIS’s early forces, it wasn’t until the Middle of the Clone Wars when the CIS deployed its deadly droid machines such as the Buzz-Droids, Tri-fighters, and HMP gunships.
The AAT wasn’t exclusively made for the Trade Federation, as they were also sold to private defense forces and planetary militaries.

[MDPToaster]

In cannon, the AT-RT can crouch and jump pretty well.

[jcasoriousa]

Ya forgot to mention the ATTE could hold enough rations and air to last the whole crew and troops for up to 3 weeks. And the armor was very strong and good at dispersing energy when struck. Some flaws to the armor were the belly of the tank and the joints.

[dmdizzy]

"Why couldn't he be in an armoured compartment?"
Congratulations, you just reinvented the AT-ST.

[rylex]

You can easily make a sequel with how many vehicles that are in the clone wars.