Lack of technological advancement between TOR and "A New Hope"

[LDSaint]

Is anyone else a little mystified as to why there is so little tech advancement between this era and the one from the films?

 

I mean, here on earth we've gone from horses and buggies to space shuttles in less than 100 years. We've created super weapons that make the Roman short sword seem laughable in comparison.

 

Aside from a few cosmetic changes, those in the old republic are using the same technology as those in the new, and they are 3,000 years apart!

 

Maybe this has been explained somewhere, but I haven't come across it yet.

 

Any insights?

[VanorDM]

A couple things.

 

There were over 2000 years of our history where everyone used more or less the same tools for that whole time frame. Swords, Shields, Bows, hammers, horse and cart, ect...

 

Also there is according to the official history of SW a Dark Ages period lasting around 1000 years, where the republic was effectively eliminated and there was very little going on other then basic survival. This ended around 1000 years prior ANH.

[CmdrAwesome]

Nevermind. Edited December 22, 2011 by CmdrAwesome

[Joesgetndown]

Yes, the technology is roughly the same. Maybe there is no where else to go? Technology has advacnced as much as it can. Or maybe the reliance on the Force is so high, they have no need to advance. Just like people did back in the day.

 

"Let's pray that our crops will succeed, as opposed to go out there and make them grow."

[ckbPolaris]

DEATH STAR says you're wrong

[TradewindNQ]

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a Jedi, I put away childish things.

 

 

Spake? wut?

 

Also you notice how nowhere in the universe has a toilet? I realized that the other day while on Tatooine...then thought "maybe Tatooine is just like a giant litter box"...I''m now on Alderaan.

Edited December 22, 2011 by TradewindNQ

[Rabekah]

OK they have an agenda to make it into a reskinned version of a New Hope in the past, fair enough, it is their artistic licence to work in a setting we love.

 

Lack of tech progress seems fair to me, there is a lot of turmoil in the SW setting to make a huge story universe. Any group that gets technologically advanced will become the target of some other faction wanting their edge.

 

It is shown that even in the Republic corporations for example they will run front operations at a loss while funding research programs. Something always messes it up, some other faction wanting their knowledge or to remove their advantage.

 

Once something is built and running for 100''s of years, 1000''s of years even the pool of knowledge dries up. No one needs to learn about it or be an expert in the field.

 

The galactic history of the Republic from the beginning of the old republic to the time of the new republic is only really a resurgence of mixed levels of technology after the peak of the Infinite Empire that had greater technology for a time. That even the Imperial designs of a New Hope are just recycled Sith mentality seems like great plotting in my opinion.

 

The Sith and Republic are locked in a tide of day and night, where Civilization and technology are built up and destroyed again in the conflict on a galactic scale.

Edited December 22, 2011 by Rabekah

[OorahDoc]

Maybe is all fairytale?? Maybe its a movie and a game? Maybe?

[MalakDawnfire]

I noticed this as well and thought it was a little strange to see speeders that looked exactly like the ones out of Return of the Jedi but it's not that far stretched to imagine there's some kind of technological limit in place that might prevent technology to be advanced quickly as in our world.

[Damatese]

This is Star WARS not Star TREK. If you want real science fiction-y stuff you go play startrek where the scientist are the main characters. This is Star Wars, a high fantasy realm. Real Science have no place here. We have technology and it just works. We have an engineer by the million and they will make our ship run no question asked. You don't need to know where your saber , ships and other things come from. Just accept the fact that it does.

[Tyranox]

I dont understand how there is an empire but it disappears and then palpatine makes another empire with the same logo and all?

[LordOfTheDance]

A lot of this has to do with Bioware's general Star Wars lore fail and lack of research before making their Star Wars titles.

 

Before Bioware mucked about in the Old Republic era things were different.

 

Inter-stellar travel existed but was incredibly slow. Lots of people still used swords, bows, and similar primitive technology despite having space travel. The Republic was not massive, corrupt, and left its own systems to govern themselves. The Jedi had families, marriages, the great Jedi teachers had many students.

 

Though energy weapons did exist they were somewhat more primitive and functioned much differently then blasters.

 

But all was abandoned so that everything could be 'iconic.'

 

Yet ironically we can't even play an unarmored Jedi, with a single lightsaber, who is primarily a melee combatant. Bounty Hunters can't use carbines. And the stormtroopers are good guys.

[Onyx]

I

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a Jedi, I put away childish things.

 

Spake? wut?

 

 

That would be King James Version ftw. In today's world we don't use "spake", but it was proper English at one time

[mrcon]

this is star wars not star trek. If you want real science fiction-y stuff you go play startrek where the scientist are the main characters. This is star wars, a high fantasy realm. Real science have no place here. We have technology and it just works. We have an engineer by the million and they will make our ship run no question asked. You don't need to know where your saber , ships and other things come from. Just accept the fact that it does.

get out of here you trekie!!!! Go spread your trek propaganda elsewhere.

[BrianDavion]

ok, go find a mideval man.. heck let's grab Mario, a member of a patrician familer in rennisence italy. show him a picture of an F-4. now show him a picture of a F-18E Super Hornet. ask him to detirmine what is more advanced.

 

 

ohh and fun fact! we made sure the F-4 was cleaned and polished while the F-18 has been scruffed up and dirtied!

[Anaesha]

As the saying goes "if it ain't broke don't fix it". The tech already being highly developed and useful doesn't need to change all that much.

[Asheris]

DEATH STAR says you're wrong

 

And yet we see at least two superweapons capable of mass destruction - one is killing a planet from the inside, the other one-shots entire fleets

[Vhaegrant]

First of all... marketing.

Yes I know it's a bit meta, bit there's no point releasing a Star Wars related product if you don't recognise it as being Star Wars

 

Second of all... tech plateau.

We happen to live in a remarkable time of swift technological discovery, largely due to the rolling effect of the industrial revolution and globalisation. But it has not always been so, and there is no reason to believe the pace of scientific discovery will continue.

 

Third of all... appeal to history.

Maybe this is fading but up until recently most new powers and governments made the attempt to link to icons from the past. From architecture to the use of battle standards the Roman and Greek influence has extended through cultures separated by millennia.

[Latherfal]

Because Bioware still wanted to have a familiar iconic Star Wars imagery present in their KotoR.

[Uvirith]

Maybe is all fairytale?? Maybe its a movie and a game? Maybe?

With that attitude towards fiction your imagination must be very limited, huh?

 

OnTopic:

Couple of reasons.

1.) According to the lore there is a long "Dark Ages"-Period, about a thousand years, just like with us. IF it wheren`t for our middleage and the opression of the catholic church, we would be 300 years more advanced today.

2.) The duality of Dark Side and Light Side in the StarWars-Universe is doomend to whipe itself out in an endless cycle. If you put all your efford in an unending struggle there is very little room for advancement outside of building more and more WMD´s

3.) Maybe they reached a dead end in technological advancement. I mean, they can already pretty much do everything (bionic limbs, robots, interstellar travel, cloning, lasertechnology....), what more is there to advance to.

[Drudenfusz]

Star Wars is basically a a fantasy story, an djust like in fantasy it has no technological advancement. It really doesn't need to, and who knows, maybe one day in the future our technological progress will also slow down or even come to an halt for a few mellenia.

[Tanro]

ANH ships and weapons are more powerful. But it seems that Hyperdrive tech hasnt advanced much.

 

But all those super weapons in the original trilogy and the post Jedi EU.

[DarthDymond]

Because Bioware still wanted to have a familiar iconic Star Wars imagery present in their KotoR.

Pretty much this. That being said, there are a few in-universe "reasons" that I personally find half-way decent:

 

1) Technological Plateau - until the younger races happen to figure out something akin to Rakata Teleporters, there just isn't anywhere else for tech to go, and that takes a quantum leap in development which just hasn't happened.

 

2) Technology is measured against itself - what constitutes a powerful blaster is measured against how powerful the available shields are. What counts as a fast ship is measured against what the average ship speed is. Put an 'A New Hope'-era Star Destroyer up against a TOR-era Harrower Dreadnaught and the Star Destroyer could take out the Dreadnaught in a single volley, while the Harrower's blasters would hardly affect the Star Destroyer's shields at all. Ignoring how similar the aesthetics are in Star Wars, you could compare it to a real-world match-up between a 1400s Chinese Treasure Ship (purported 450ft long) to a modern Daring-class Destroyer (500 ft long).

 

3) Dark Ages - A Republic Dark Age is part of the canon, and while I don't think any sources have gone into depth over what technological knowledge was lost or stagnated, it and other similar Dark Ages (possibly even including the 'fall' of the Republic and Empire that appear to be coming in KotFE) could account for a lack of progress.

Edited July 13, 2015 by DarthDymond

[OddballEasyEight]

I was gonna say that this has been discussed before, but then I realised this was the same thread but it had been necro'd.

[DarthDymond]

I was gonna say that this has been discussed before, but then I realised this was the same thread but it had been necro'd.

Hah, didn't even notice. It has definitely come up in more than a few different threads over the years, so seeing another one didn't strike me as odd.

Edited July 13, 2015 by DarthDymond