What's Mass Shadow Generator?(Possible Spoilers)

[cim]

Greetings, Stormcloud.
I think that Warden's explanation is best as of now. While the idea you suggested is definitely interesting I don't think there is direct evidence of its validity (or invalidity for that matter since the silly game is so unfinished). I think that you might be mistinterpreting Vrook's and other jedis' concerns. I believe that "wehre the sith were striking from" phrase referred to the location of their Master, academies, bases of operation etc. I.e. what Kavar, Vrook, and the rest of the band were looking for is basically Malachor 5 and Korriban - the "enlightened" jedi masters didn't guess that relaitvely obvious fact.
If your main chr were told his past at the start of the game, it would not be hard to guess where the sith menace was originating from. This would be especially easy after Atton's and HK's stories about Revan which indicate that he trained assassination squads to hunt/convert jedi and Malachor 5 was his ultimate conversion machine through the power of the death fo thousands... That's my interpretation anyway.
I think that Bao Dur was upset about being part of 1) mass slaugther and of 2) Revan's plan. I am fairly confident that he regrets being at Malchor 5 in the first place as well as doing anythin there, including activation of the generator.

[Ripe]

Cim, I completly agree with you that writen versions of epizodes 4,5,6 are bad, but EU covers a lot more than just movies.
If you are interested I could suggest some really good books for you to read:
- Thrawn trilogy (Heir to Empire, Black Storm Rising, Last Comand)
- Jedi Academy trilogy
- I, Jedi - great insight into working of the force
- Thrawn doulogy (Spectre of the Past, Visions of the Future)
- New Jedi Order series (19 books) - excelent storyline, one that restored my faith in George Lucas and his ability to imagine a great storyline that is developed by several writers (it also bring together a lot of unfinised stuff from entire EU)

There are many others (at the begining of every NJO series book you can find a list of everything published) but above are the best. Depending on your personal interest you may want to find a X-Wing series books (I belive it's 8 to date), Han Solo trilogy (his early days, before epizode 4), Corelian trilogy (Han's "homeworld")...

[cim]

Ripe, first of all thanks for your unexpected reply.
Even though I am a speedreader (4-10pg/min depending on book. i.e. book/hour), that skill has only increased my "pickiness" about books - I never read anything that I do not consider to be worthy of my time (so sorry if this sounds arrogant ). Therefore, I would appreciate if you could isolate 1-3 books on SW that you believe to be exemplar of the series. If I (in my evershining glory ) find them comparable to the standards of sf I have set for the books I read, I will gladly consider the vast series you suggested.
Once again, thanks.

[Ripe]

I wrote it in order you should read them so start with Thrawn trilogy (both Trawn trilogy and doulogy are considered among the best SW novels by fans).

I'm not sure if you will find them comparable with sf standards you set for books you read, but you should find them comparable with SW storyline and feelings you get from watching the original trilogy.
Also IMHO it's major "villain" is one of (if not) the best bad guy(s) in entire SW universe.

Note: I thing that Trawn trilogy (Heir to Empire, Dark Force Rising, Last Comand) were the first EU novels writen and they introduce some characters that are by now considered equal to the movie characters and are used by many other authors.

[ILija_grOMOVNiK]

I don`t mean to kill everyone`s fun here, but most of STAR WARS stories (mostly in games) are not explained thouroughly simply because all these things might not be actually defined by books so game makers are forced to improvise (poorly) or they just don`t care as long as the game has nice graphics and is sells well

[Warden Brows]

The ships weren't cloaked, but they were hidden in that they were presumed destroyed. They were left as drifting hulks or buried wreckage. Out of sight and out of mind. This, then, was a hidden source of ships, since some could still be fixed. This is where the Ravager came from. They managed to partially repair it and reactivate its engines. In any battle, targeting a large ship's engines would be a common tactic, whether to prevent escape or just to disable the vessel. If that were the case here, then these ships could have just been stuck there with destroyed or just damaged engines, and they could escape if they were fixed. The video actually does clearly show the rear of a vessel very similar to the Ravager. It has the classic Star Destroyer outline, suggesting that there were others of similar type destroyed there. This could help explain where they scavenged the parts.

Now, another topic that's likely been floating around is that the Ravager bears an unmistakeable resemblance to a Victory Star Destroyer from the Star Wars games. We already know the Old Republic had them, although it is generally believed they were Clone Wars era. Best guess is that the overall Star Destroyer type design was not new, however. Technology rarely changes in Star Wars except to improve upon existing designs, with the exception of a few of the Emperor's superweapons, and even those made wide use of existing technology. It is very likely, then, that the basic wedge-shaped capital ship had been around a long time, especially since the shape makes sense from a firing arc perspective. You can consider the Ravager to be an early Star Destroyer, and a very close relative to the Victory.

[FiOth]

Before we get completely out of topic and turn this discussion into a "the best book to read" conversation let me pose a question to you and see if anything comes out.In the LS ending the Ebon Hawk escapes Malachor in the end.How is this possible if it falls in the chasm earlier?You might say that it escapes the gravity of the planet in some way but I believe this is faulty because the FMV showing this fall is called "the death of the Ebon Hawk".So what is your opinio?In the DS ending it makes sense because the Exile takes control of the Trayus Academy and everyone else dies but in the LS ending...well.As we can all understand the scenario got quite messed up by cutting out all those scenes and quests but I believe that the truth about several facts will come out in KOTOR III.I believe this to be a trilogy of some kind after all.

[Ripe]

Well we all presume Exile come to Malachor alone but there is no evidence to that, in fact since we know that G0T0, Remote and Mira are there we could presume that at least some other party members are around. So it could be that Atton and Bao-Dur managed to repair Ebon Hawk enough to leave planet before activation of Mass Shadow Generator (Handmaiden/Disciple, Mandalore and Visas could be injured in the crash and out of action and from removed parts we know that HK-47 settle G0T0-Remote confrontation).

[stormcloud]

What we know for sure is the ebon hawk falls into the chasm and it escapes from the chasm.

It is quite possible there is a large cave or a void or empty space in the chasm where Atton? just turned the ship around and flew out to rescue the exile and fly away just before the planet explodes, et al.

[Warden Brows]

Best guess is that they just hit the antigravs or retrorockets and stopped the fall. Not too tough to do, as in the Nar Shadaa landing we clearly see there's rockets mounted on the underside of the Hawk, much like the Millenium Falcon's landing at Bespin. I'm sure the ship got a little more dinged up but survival is at least believable. Gravity on the planet's surface isn't that bad given that people are able to walk and droids are able to float. Now, knowing that HK-47 killed Goto, a good question is whether he managed to get back to the ship or whether he died on the planet. I'd be kind of sad to see our favorite assassin droid die that way (he has to be one of the best comic relief characters in any game), but if he did, at least he was doing something noble.

[Darth Zenemij]

Well think of it this way, if you are a dark sider, ALL your'e party dies, The ebon hawk falls in to the ore of malachor v and no one escapes, Thereis little possibility that the exile escapes.

[Dezzie_64]

Mass Shadow Generator.... I'm not one for physics really, I dropped it because my teacher isn't any good but I still do alot of reading.
Anyway I got to thinking about how the mass shadow generator might work. Physicists (god bless 'em) have theorised about a certain type of, and I quote, "Dark Matter" perhaps this Mass Shadow Generator manages to pull large quantities of this Dark Matter to around Malachor V. Now Dark Matter produces no forms of radiation making it next to impossible to detect and can create large amounts of gravity, especially in large quantities. If the Mass Shadow Generator simply pulled dark matter to Malachor V it could make it next to impossible to detect the planet and hence hide the sith movements there. The increase in the gravity would cause the planet to shift as seen in the game and would eventually hold the dark matter in its place. I expect that a reactivation of the MSG may cause the Dark Matter to spread back out and hence allowing the planet to fall apart as seen in the LS ending.

On the note of the Ebon Hawk, Atton, Bao-dur and anyone else who happens to think they may be useful on board that ship, probably got around to fixing it while the player is off on yet another psychotic mission. I'm still not entirely sure why the player can't just leave things for somebody else to handle. Enough of my opinion though. Knowing Bao-dur he probably realised that the Ebon Hawk was relatively stuck in it's place and if he's as smart as i'd think he is, got Atton to repair the ships system, set up some mines outside the camera's view which when detonated allowed the Ebon Hawk to fall down the chasm. Shortly afterwards (once our attention was back on the mass-murdering player) engaged the ships system so that it wouldn't fall to their doom.

My opinion though.

[FiOth]

I guess this is all fan fiction guys...there has to be some "official" explenation about these things...something about the script that is really the answer to this question...but all things taken out considered the,script got quite messed up...bad thing to mess up a good scenario just to be able to hit stores on time...

[Ripe]

Well Warden Brows explanation in this tread could be considerd "official" because Interdictor Cruisers that use "Mass Shadow Generators" to pull ships out of hyperspace are mentioned and used in many SW novels and other materials (Encyclopedia, Ship Guide...), so we may asume that this was an early process in creating that technology which had it's wide use during Empire and Ner Republic Era.

[Alcina]

I've resurrected this thread with a related query rather than start a new one, as I think that's the preferred policy of the Mods here?

I'm puzzled by something GOTO tells the remote on Malachor, that the Exile 'would not wish...the Sith artefacts...damaged'. I assume by this he means that he wants the Trayus Academy intact. But why should activating the MSG again damage it? After all it wasn't damaged the last time the MSg was activated...