MagesKickass Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Frequently, when someone brings up a Star Wars video game with lightsabers, someone will say "But in that, the lightsabers are just really big glowsticks! Actual lightsabers can cut through anything! etc. etc." But what if in actuality, the strength/quality of the lightsaber and the strength/quality of whatever it was cutting through effected it? So if a lightsaber was of low quality, or the target was of high quality, or something along those lines, when the lightsaber passed through it, it would just to an amount of heat damage? I haven't read too many comics or novels or any other extended universe that states otherwise about this, but couldn't this explain why in video games, lightsabers aren't as good as they are in the movies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanorDM Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 They aren't as good in games as they are in movies for one simple reason. Game play balance. If you made a game with sabers being as good as they were in the movies, the game would likely suffer. So they come up with things to tone down over powered weaopns, such as cortosis weave that is a substance that can actually block a light saber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfninjajedi Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 (edited) The JK series(and TFU 2), is really as close as you can get to an actual lightsaber in how it can cut through anything. Cutting up stormtroopers is fun! Edited March 12, 2012 by Wolfninjajedi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelousWang Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 (edited) A Lightsaber is only a strong as the force behind it. A weakling wielding a Lightsaber cannot cut through as strong an object as a stronger person (well not nearly as quickly anyway). If you watch the clone wars you'll see Kenobi and Asoka take anywhere from 10-30 seconds to cut through doors (Qui-Gon couldn't manage to get through a blast door in Ep1), however Anakin and his much stronger robotic arm cuts easily through doors in under 10 seconds and can cut through blast doors. However as stated above gameplay mechanics/balance is much often more likely the reason game designers don;t allow Lightsabers to cut through anything. Edited March 12, 2012 by AngelousWang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valsdad Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 A Lightsaber is only a strong as the force behind it. Han Solo cuts open taun taun... Your move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikModi Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 (edited) First, Han is not exactly a physical slouch. Second, tauntaun skin is not a hard material. Even with significant force behind it, a lightsaber does not cut through everything automatically. Witness: Qui-Gon vs. Blast Door, TPM Several non-chopped Geonosians, AotC Anakin and Obi-Wan not cutting through several pieces of scenery during their final duel, most obviously Obi-Wan pinning Anakin's lightsaber against an ordinary computer console, RotS. Several uncut railings and Vader's shoulder, ESB. Several non-chopped Jabba underlings, RotJ. Several more uncut railings, and even I believe a similar weapon bind, RotJ. Edited March 12, 2012 by ErikModi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfninjajedi Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 (edited) Well for Vader's shoulder, his suit was pretty much made to survive anything save for Sidious's lighting. Edited March 12, 2012 by Wolfninjajedi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toonimator Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 A Lightsaber is only a strong as the force behind it. A weakling wielding a Lightsaber cannot cut through as strong an object as a stronger person (well not nearly as quickly anyway). If you watch the clone wars you'll see Kenobi and Asoka take anywhere from 10-30 seconds to cut through doors (Qui-Gon couldn't manage to get through a blast door in Ep1), however Anakin and his much stronger robotic arm cuts easily through doors in under 10 seconds and can cut through blast doors. However as stated above gameplay mechanics/balance is much often more likely the reason game designers don;t allow Lightsabers to cut through anything. Wouldn't Anakin's robotic arm only help him open pickle jars? He didn't lose his ENTIRE arm, just his forearm. Cutting through doors, the force (read: not "the Force") comes from his upper body strength, channeled primarily through his shoulder & upper arm muscles... not his forearm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelousWang Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 (edited) Han Solo cuts open taun taun... Your move. Force as in physical force (muscle strength), not Force as in the Force. Wouldn't Anakin's robotic arm only help him open pickle jars? He didn't lose his ENTIRE arm, just his forearm. Cutting through doors, the force (read: not "the Force") comes from his upper body strength, channeled primarily through his shoulder & upper arm muscles... not his forearm. No in the EU it describes how Anakin/Vader learns to use his mechanical wrists to produce power/force, rather than his upper-body strength. Which is why he become physically stronger, Ep 3 after loosing his arm in Ep 2 and then when he becomes Vader he become even more physically dominating despite loosing much of his own muscle strength and movement. Edited March 12, 2012 by AngelousWang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westraz Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 first off lightsabers cant cut anything, for peet sake they can't cut supper dense rancor bone! there is a list so long of things lightsabers can't cut it's sooo long lol! 2 off it be boring if LS could just cut and there for kill anything in one hit would it not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morticoccus Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Force as in physical force (muscle strength), not Force as in the Force. In order to make that argument you'd need a lightsaber with an internal spark trigger, like the one that imperial guy I can never remember the name of has in Crystal Star. Otherwise anyone can use a lightsaber, most just arn't very good at it. Also, a lightsaber is basically a plasma blade inside an EM bottle made from concentric rings of force, it inflicts damage when a physical object is pushed through the outer field and comes into contact with the superheated gas contained within. This essentially means that anything that the blade touches is hit by concentrated plasma, like a more high tech variant of the heat jet created by a modern armor piercing rocket. As such, cutting power would be determined by the heat resistance of the material cut, this also means that thicker materials will take more time (and presumably energy) to cut than thinner ones. The lightsaber resistance of cortosis weave probably comes from an ability inherent to the material to interfere with the energy field around the blade, as well as resistance to extreme heat. However if this hypothesis was true then blades hitting cortosis weave would basically explode into a ball of incandescent flame as the plasma expanded, so once again it is probably a case of physics giving way to storytelling pyrotechnics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikModi Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 In order to make that argument you'd need a lightsaber with an internal spark trigger, like the one that imperial guy I can never remember the name of has in Crystal Star. Otherwise anyone can use a lightsaber, most just arn't very good at it. Anyone CAN use a lightsaber. The point he was making is that the more physical force, muscular strength, kinetic energy you put behind a lightsaber, the more effectively it will cut a given material. Take two equally hard substances and two equal lightsabers, with the only variable being the physical force behind the blade. The one with more physical force will cut faster than the one with less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morticoccus Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 (edited) Anyone CAN use a lightsaber. The point he was making is that the more physical force, muscular strength, kinetic energy you put behind a lightsaber, the more effectively it will cut a given material. Take two equally hard substances and two equal lightsabers, with the only variable being the physical force behind the blade. The one with more physical force will cut faster than the one with less. Actually no. If you push the lightsaber faster than it can melt the material you are trying to cut, you will end up with a slash of melted metal and the lightsaber eating a hole at the bottom. It is less like a solid blade and more like a blowtorch, which is also why rapid cuts against resistant materials only leave scorches or shallow cuts in them even though you are striking them with the entire length of the blade, as witnessed in the movies. Edited March 12, 2012 by Morticoccus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelousWang Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 (edited) It is less like a solid blade and more like a blowtorch, which is also why rapid cuts against resistant materials only leave scorches or shallow cuts in them even though you are striking them with the entire length of the blade, as witnessed in the movies. It's not like blow torch (well it is and it isn't), the Plasma in the blade is on a centrifugal loop it radiates up the center and down the sides (well there are no side, down the shell would be more appropriate). This very obvious is you in TFU if you use compressed crystal, but you can't see it on standard Lightsaber. Unlike blow torch were the energy is just released. As such only the plasma on sides/shell is used when touching the blade, however if you force the blade into something you create interaction between sides and center of the plasma loop (more force, more interaction) which causes the more plasma to come into contact with the touching surface quicker (more plasma faster burning), therefore destroying object quicker. Theoretically you could use an entire lightsabers plasma up in blow if you hit the thing hard enough. As such the Lightsaber work like a sword and like a blow torch combination (both physical force and combustion rate). And that is why it's so damn deadly. Edited March 12, 2012 by AngelousWang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrentMC Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 The term psychotic comes to mind. I'm a bit curious, since lightsabers have no basis in the real world, why pseudophysics and speculation is being wielded as weapons in arguments about how lightsabers work. It's funny how heated up you people get... Let's try this: the first one of you that builds a functional lightsaber should simply test it and tell us what it did. How about that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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