Where would I find an Imperial Tech timeline?!

[cynanbloodbane]

I am attempting to put together a campaign that could last from Order 66 to the Battle of Endor, but I was wondering if there is a timeline for when Imperial Ships were introduced, or became obsolete? I understand I may just have to make this from scratch.

[shootingwomprats]

Order 66 19 BBY, Battle of Endor 4 ABY.
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Don Diestler
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[cynanbloodbane]

I know I'm looking at a 23 year spread. I'm more interested in when the Imperial Class SD was first introduced, when the Venerator SD was completely phased out, when the Tie fighter was introduced and when the V-wing Fighter was phased out.
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"Yes because killing the guy you always planned on usurping and killing anyways in order to save your own kid, totally atones for murdering a roomful of innocent trusting children." The Brain

[shootingwomprats]

As canon is all over the board, that's going to be a bit difficult.

If you keep the Clone Wars involved, it's pretty safe to say that there are Venerators still in service, even after Endor. I'm sure they're bargain bin ships by the time the Vics hit the scene, so they'll probably be in PDFs, pirate forces, or mercenary groups.

I'd say the Vics came out shortly after Order 66, and probably were Venerator conversions. So let's say they were out at 19 BBY. ImpStars were probably within five years of that, so we'll go with a healthy 14 BBY. The TIE series would have been developed around that time as well, so we'll keep with the same 14 BBY.

Now the Republic hardware was going to be tossed quickly to herald the coming of the New Order. You're going to see massive mothballing efforts and fire sales to get rid of it all. So there's going to be criminal elements, planetary governments, and other sorts gobbling all that up. The last V-Wings probably stopped production within two years after Order 66, so that would make it 17 BBY.
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Don Diestler
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The D6 Podcast
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[cynanbloodbane]

Ok, that makes good sense, but was there something in between v-wings mothballed in 17 BBY & TIEs introduced in 14 BBY that I missed.
I was looking for a transitional fighter on wookipedia but could'nt find one.
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"Yes because killing the guy you always planned on usurping and killing anyways in order to save your own kid, totally atones for murdering a roomful of innocent trusting children." The Brain

[shootingwomprats]

Keep in mind that V-Wings probably were still in service, but no new ones were made.
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Don Diestler
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The D6 Podcast
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[Whill]

[Kytross]

Star Destroyers are very expensive to operate, the Venator more than most because it functioned mostly as a carrier, carrying about 500 stuntfighters and walkers and assault ships and landing craft. So keeping a Venator effective meant keeping its fighters running as well as ship upkeep.

Starting with the VicStar, the new more efficient power system in Star Destroyers was employed, allowing stronger shields, both ray and particle, and more turbolasers. From the VicStar on, the stronger defense meant snubfighters were no longer a threat. And there are significantly more turbolasers on a VicStar than on a Venator. A Vicstar carried only 24 stuntfighters. An ImpStar only 72.

The decision to go to only TIE Fighters was made after the Clone Wars. Now that snub fighters were no longer a serious threat to CapShips the decision was made to strip them down to pure interceptors, no shields, no hyperdrives, produce them as cheaply as possible and most Imperial officers considered their only useful role to be the elimination of other stuntfighters.

Jan Dodonna and Adar Talon disagreed, arguing that stuntfighters should be diverse to handle missions that required more finesse then a capitol ship could provide. This is reflected in the real life argument of movement warfare verses static warfare. Those terms may not be right. Google OODA Loops. Very interesting stuff.

Anyway, the timeline for VicStars was created before Ep3 came out, back when we all assumed the Clone Wars would exceed 3 years. Right now there doesn't seem to be enough time for everything that happens on the Wookieepedia page for VicStars.

[aegisflashfire]

I tend to assume that new hardware gets rolled out to the high priority parts of the fleet first. Thus Vader's fleet and the Death Star were mostly using cutting edge equipment.

Low priority sectors and parts of the galaxy, as well as the fringe are much much slower to receive newer equipment. Thus the empire may well be using Clone Wars ships on the outer rim.

cf. EP 1. "I've outrun imperial starships before, not the local bulk cruisers, I'm talking about the big Corellian ships."

cf. "Looks like an Imperial Cruiser. Our passengers must be hotter than I thought."

The presence of even 1 Star Destroyer in the system is a hint to Han that his passengers are a big deal. This indicates to me that ISD's (or SD's of any kind) are few and far between in the outer rim.
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[cynanbloodbane]

Yes, I was looking for canon, or EU canon as the case may be. I have spent quite a bit of time on Wookieepedia looking for dates but most only show era.

My plan is to attempt a long run campaign that starts at the end of the clone wars and concludes at the battle of Endor. To that end I was trying to establish a timeline of the actual hardware of the Imperial Fleet.

If wookieepedia is as close as I am going to get, I will extrapolate from there. So far I have Venerator SDs as the bulk of the fleet, Vic SDs as new rare ships and an ISD or two as a prototypes. Filling the Star Dreadnaught class at that time is the Mandator & Mandator II and the Arquitens-class light cruiser will pull duty as early customs ships and pirate hunter. V-wings will provide the bulk of the fighter squadrens in 19 BBY.
Now I'm just trying to set dates for the slow transformation of this fleet into the fleet seen at the Battle of Endor.
I know the SSDs were in production during the battle of Yavin, and that there was a previous SSD design a few years before. (That prototype SSD was destroyed during construction.) The Cap ships at least give me an idea of when to start making the switch. With the fighter wright-ups the timeline is much more vague.
Aside from tech, I was interested in how the Imperial Inquisition was formed. Wookieepedia states that some were turned Jedi, but not all. This was always on my wish list of things I wish SWTCW had tackled. Inquisitors would have been at their most useful in the years immediately following Order 66, but unless there is some training area prior to then all he is going to have is dark jedi.
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"Yes because killing the guy you always planned on usurping and killing anyways in order to save your own kid, totally atones for murdering a roomful of innocent trusting children." The Brain

[DougRed4]

[Kytross]

Bulk cruisers are bulk freighters retrofitted as cruisers. They're the uglies of capital ships. They are usually low on ray and particle shields with a decent number of turbolasers. At least, that's what I remember from the old encyclopedia and the rebel alliance sourcebook.

Galleons are warships specifically designed to fight and haul freight.

Cyan, I'm running a campaign around the same time period. My plan is to bring out the Vicstars after Vader's attack on Mustafar. TIE fighters will appear The next year. Don't tell my players, but I am planning a mission for them to steal the TIE fighter plans or a prototype.

VicStars will replace the Acclamator an Venator classes which will mostly be decommissioned and retrofitted as new Star Destroyers. The Venator is almost 1200 meters. Retrofitting it ti the Imperial design would be cheaper and faster than fresh production and would explain the omnipresense of the ImpStars in the galaxy.

That's my take on that.

I think Inquisitors come from the ranks of Jefi who didn't make padawan. Those force sensitive are generally not as powerful as those who go on to become jedi. In the Old Republic these people joined the agricorp or other republic programs and used their abilities to help in non-martial ways. Some sources say Palpatine slaughtered them, but I could see him harvesting them to do his will across the galaxy. Those that could be turned to the darkside.

I'd cap their force powers at 3D, most of them at 1D-2D. Vader and the Emperor are not looking for threats to their own power.

Again, my take on the situation. Use it if you like.

[cynanbloodbane]

Well that is a great explanation for where all the low power darkside adapts came from. My issue is that between training and indoctrination, this group would take years to institute and even longer to trust with the autonomy needed to hunt down force adapts, let alone rogue Jedi. As I stated earlier, inquisiters would be most useful in the years following order 66. Good old papa Palipatine had a 20 year plan for everything else, so I find it hard to believe that the inquisition was a "Hay Lord Vader, I had this killer idea come to me in the bath last night... an Imperial Inquisition... What do you think?" moment. Besides the Inquisitor in the Coruscant Nights series referenced his own master an inquisitor.
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"Yes because killing the guy you always planned on usurping and killing anyways in order to save your own kid, totally atones for murdering a roomful of innocent trusting children." The Brain

[Kytross]

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jedi_Service_Corps

Maybe Dooku had already started a class before that infamous night above Coruscant. Approach the jedi rejects carefully, offer them a chance to serve the Republic in a clandestine way and convince them what they're doing is good and right, establishing a new order in the galaxy.

Who knows how long the Emperor was corrupting inquisitors? Dooku seemed quite practiced when he spoke to Obi on Geonosis, his story well rehearsed. It would have been easy. A famous Jedi Master like Dooku coming to a rejected jedi in the service corps and asking for their help. If Mace Windu considered Dooku above reproach then hiw much more respect would a rejected Jedi feel. This was their chance to really serve the Republic, to finally make good on their training, to show everyone who ever doubted them.

This is pretty good stuff for just something I thought of in passing.

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EDIT: Apparently this idea was covered in a book I didn't read and is canonical. Well, was canonical, who knows with the new Disney version.

I just read to the bottom of the article. I had looked it up to see the other names of the corps besides agriculture.

[cynanbloodbane]

Cool. What book!

This is a sweet idea, I already planned on sending the group to Dooku's citadel on an information retrivial mission in one of the early adventures. If they show up and it is an Inquisition academy... well lets just say I may need to scotch guard the chairs around my gaming table.
_________________
"Yes because killing the guy you always planned on usurping and killing anyways in order to save your own kid, totally atones for murdering a roomful of innocent trusting children." The Brain