Monsters that are supposed to be scary but aren't

[Ivan2006]

When was it proven their shields don't deflect matter? That'd be a rather obvious flaw, wouldn't it? There are several types of shields in the Star Wars universe, some are susceptible to slow-moving projectiles, some aren't. I'm fairly certain Droideka shielding is among the latter.

I swear I´ve seen some Jedi sneak up on them from behind and stick their lightsaber through the shield in Clone Wars...

[҉]

Droidekas. They make them underpowered in most games. Didn't the clones have to use EMP grenades, and even multiple at that, to penetrate them?

Jet troopers are their counter in SWBF. Their EMP launchers make pretty short work of droidekas. They can 1-shot them without the shield, and it only takes two shots to bring it down. I don't know how many EMP grenades it takes other classes, because I can usually just shoot them with my DC-15 until they die. Droidekas are also so horrendously inaccurate that their chance of actually hitting you is virtually nil if you're not standing right in front of them.

In the movies, they're pretty well indestructible once they've got their shields up. I don't know whether they could be taken down with EMP grenades or not. Clones generally had to use heavy weapons to kill them, like the beam turrets on LAAT/i's at Geonosis.

SWBF isn't exactly a reliable source. Most of what's in there is for gameplay purposes.

But that's exactly what this thread is about. Things that aren't scary when translated to a different media. Droidekas are nerfed to hell in games because they're ridiculously OP otherwise.

I am not entirely sure how to take down a droideka effectively, but it has been seen that their shields are useless against matter, so a single grenade would already be enough if you manage to get it landing inside the shield.

When was it proven their shields don't deflect matter? That'd be a rather obvious flaw, wouldn't it? There are several types of shields in the Star Wars universe, some are susceptible to slow-moving projectiles, some aren't. I'm fairly certain Droideka shielding is among the latter.

They definitely stop matter, because they stop DC-17m sniper shots, which are physical projectiles. They're shown as being a bit less powerful in SW:TCW, too, because otherwise they would slaughter the clones and since the clones are characters now that can't be allowed, but I don't think the Jedi ever actually shoved a lightsaber through the shield. They tricked them into dropping the shields in the Clone Wars movie, but I think that's it. It should be noted here that lightsabers probably aren't normal matter, anyway, although they may be plasma.

[Ivan2006]

I am not entirely sure how to take down a droideka effectively, but it has been seen that their shields are useless against matter, so a single grenade would already be enough if you manage to get it landing inside the shield.

When was it proven their shields don't deflect matter? That'd be a rather obvious flaw, wouldn't it? There are several types of shields in the Star Wars universe, some are susceptible to slow-moving projectiles, some aren't. I'm fairly certain Droideka shielding is among the latter.

They definitely stop matter, because they stop DC-17m sniper shots, which are physical projectiles. They're shown as being a bit less powerful in SW:TCW, too, because otherwise they would slaughter the clones and since the clones are characters now that can't be allowed, but I don't think the Jedi ever actually shoved a lightsaber through the shield. They tricked them into dropping the shields in the Clone Wars movie, but I think that's it.
I consulted Wookiepedia and it indeed seems that matter is stopped by the shield, but that leads to another design flaw:
If you manage to push the Droideka against a wall, it´s shield would not be able to distinguish the wall from a blaster bolt ot lightsaber (hillarious, isn´t it?) and it would instafail due to too much power demand.
The same principe applies if the Droideka is pushed over.
Now aim for the ground below it!

[҉]

I consulted Wookiepedia and it indeed seems that matter is stopped by the shield, but that leads to another design flaw:
If you manage to push the Droideka against a wall, it´s shield would not be able to distinguish the wall from a blaster bolt ot lightsaber (hillarious, isn´t it?) and it would instafail due to too much power demand.
The same principe applies if the Droideka is pushed over.
Now aim for the ground below it!

That is indeed the case, and I'm pretty sure someone did that at some point, although I haven't been able to come up with the story. It takes more than just knocking them over or bumping them into something, though; that isn't enough force to overload the shield. I don't think it's really a design flaw per se, since droidekas aren't any more vulnerable to that than any other droid. If you crush battle droids, they die. The shield probably does help some, since without it droidekas are pretty fragile.

[Ivan2006]

Point is that Droideka shields are designed to deflect anything except the floor, causing it to almost instantly overload if touching anything by the side.
Throw-deployed landmines would be great, the Droideka would just walk onto it and bow up.
After all, they´re as dumb as regular B1s

[҉]

Point is that Droideka shields are designed to deflect anything except the floor, causing it to almost instantly overload if touching anything by the side.
Throw-deployed landmines would be great, the Droideka would just walk onto it and bow up.
After all, they´re as dumb as regular B1s

Huh? It overloads if you, like, drive a tank into it, but I do not believe that it overloads from just bumping into a wall or something like that. Those shields can absorb far more energy that would be released from something just touching it. If that were the case, you could easily kill a droideka by running up and punching its shields down.

There are droideka variants that carry their own brains instead of being controlled by a central computer the way B1s are. That kind is much more intelligent but also much more expensive, and given that they already cost some two hundred times as much as a B1 the more expensive models are rare.

[Chairman_Tiel]

If that were the case, you could easily kill a droideka by running up and punching its shields down.

The droid is exceptionally strong and its repeating blasters can be devastating. The easiest way to kill these pests is to run up to it and stab it with your vibroblade, as the design of the droid does not allow the blasters to swivel inward to shoot a target that is close to it.

Huh.

[҉]

So, having actually researched this, it turns out there are two essentially identical droideka variants that appear in the movies and TCW: the W-series and the Q-series. The W-series came first, and has somewhat enhanced blasters but less shield power, and tends to use its shield less as a result. The Q-series droideka was designed to correct this flaw, and had marginally less powerful blasters but a considerably stronger shield. The W-series appears in Episode II and most of TCW, and the Q-series appears in Episode III and other parts of TCW. This is why droidekas in II and most of TCW generally don't use their shields.

I will say that attempting to stab a droideka of any type strikes me as an exceptionally bad idea, of the 'Hey Bob, watch this!' variety that must be avoided at all costs.

An EDIT: There's also the P-series droideka, which is the variant in both Episode 1 and Republic Commando. I don't know what the difference between it and the W-series is.

[Ivan2006]

Well, I guess the shields would actually try to keep the wall from touching the shield any longer, so it would overload after a short time, but not instantly, you need to have it keep touching the wall.

[҉]

Well, I guess the shields would actually try to keep the wall from touching the shield any longer, so it would overload after a short time, but not instantly, you need to have it keep touching the wall.

I'm still not buying that. If the shields really overloaded just from something touching them, they couldn't walk over bumpy ground, because the bumps would overload the shield. They shields absorb energy, right, either the blaster or ion energy from blaster weapons or the kinetic energy from projectile weapons. Standing against a wall doesn't involve any energy. Again, if they were slammed into a wall by something like a tank, the shield might overload, but there's no way they could overload it just by walking into something.