That's the only reason [for tube stripes] I could come up with too. Maybe every trooper in a squad has a different amount of stripes, so they can recognize each other in situations where verbal/radio communication is impossible or undesirable.
One notion I had, but would need to dig through the OT pretty much frame by frame every time a Stormtrooper is on-screen and catalogue each helmet's context in a scene... If troopers normally have 10-13 depending on some factor, but commissioned officers wearing standard armor in the field have none. It'd have to be some non-critical information they convey -- but still relevant when in armor, and apparent in the variations of the garrison uniform.
- Term-of-service, but only if a trooper has "gone career", first marking being when they hit ten years, and counting up from there...
- Reverse term-of-service, counting down from, say, fifteen or twenty, and the poor guyes never make it below ten before they become casualties.
- Primary MOS -- such as, Infantry gets 13, heavy-weapons gets 12, melee and crowd-control gets 11, etc.
- Possibly even enlisted rating, starting from one end or the other, depending on prevalence of who has how many. If most have 13 stripes, I'd say that's Private, then 12 for PFC, 11 for Corporal, 10 for Sergeant... And that wouldn't be problematic in the field because the AR vision systems
in the helmet would flag all the troopers in your field of view with their operating numbers and ranks. Helmet markings would just be a redundant/backup visual indicator.
Or like that.
I actually like that feature (because the identification markings are just daft), and am planning to incorporate it myself. And I know all too well about dirt getting everywhere. It's a pain when cleaning real equipment, but when creating a prop, it's the perfect opportunity to add more weathering and dirt of course.
And another truism is that 'all contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder'; often the choice is for the cheapest option, not the best one. So I could imagine the Empire doing exactly that. Their doctrine of quantity over quality before, and during, the Rebellion Era certainly supports the notion...
I agree it does add that much more visual "excitement" to the prop, but I'm too keyed to functionality and consistency. I try to handwave as few OT artifacts off as "production errors" as possible, preferring to find some in-universe rationalization. Helmet/armor asymmetry is one thing I
do accept as an error-of-haste/not caring. Not talking about the different knees on a Stormtrooper. Mean more that one forearm has ten indents and the other has eleven, and Brian Muir never caught it until someone asked him just a couple years ago if he'd done it deliberately for some reason.
So is it possible the Emire has a huge stockpile of helmets with tube vents numbering from 0 to 13, to account for the existence of the on-screen variation in number in the OT? Yes. But what function do the vents serve that having more or fewer -- or none -- doesn't substantially enhance or impair performance? Is it possible they have huge bins in every garrison and base QM office for replacement swappable sensor units to pop in behind the traps and tears with sensor-window slits, and it's just part of their standard daily maintenance of their gear? Yes. But I'd question the cost-benefit analysis.
One thing I considered was maybe the tube stripes are just indents, not vents with backplates. Albeit crisply-detailed indents. And the number of indents varies, as the ones on the backs of the Scout Trooper helmets apparently vary. I beiefly entertained the notion that they all have 13 indents, but varying numbers get painted blue, but they're sharp enough and deep enough that the unpainted ones would still be shadowed and it'd be almost impossible to tell except from inches away whether you were seeing paint or shadow.
But I keep coming back to having to allow for the OT variation, and anything that so minimally impacts the functioning of the helmet that there'd be no battle-performance-measurable difference between no vents and thirteen vents isn't worth bothering to include at all, IMO. The lowest (or, more prosaically, second-lowest) bidder would more likely opt for no vents, as that requires the least amount of time, design stage or manufacturing stage, and time is money.
@
DynamicMenace, don't mean to sidebar things. I feel it
is at least somewhat germane, or I'd've taken it to PM or something. As I said, time is money, and I
do appreciate the effort spent on factoring physical tube vents into the design. It will save a lot of headache for those who want them as physical slits, and are easy enough to fill and smooth over for those who don't.
- - - Updated - - -
That's the only reason [for tube stripes] I could come up with too. Maybe every trooper in a squad has a different amount of stripes, so they can recognize each other in situations where verbal/radio communication is impossible or undesirable.
One notion I had, but would need to dig through the OT pretty much frame by frame every time a Stormtrooper is on-screen and catalogue each helmet's context in a scene... If troopers normally have 10-13 depending on some factor, but commissioned officers wearing standard armor in the field have none. It'd have to be some non-critical information they convey -- but still relevant when in armor, and apparent in the variations of the garrison uniform.
- Term-of-service, but only if a trooper has "gone career", first marking being when they hit ten years, and counting up from there...
- Reverse term-of-service, counting down from, say, fifteen or twenty, and the poor guyes never make it below ten before they become casualties.
- Primary MOS -- such as, Infantry gets 13, heavy-weapons gets 12, melee and crowd-control gets 11, etc.
- Possibly even enlisted rating, starting from one end or the other, depending on prevalence of who has how many. If most have 13 stripes, I'd say that's Private, then 12 for PFC, 11 for Corporal, 10 for Sergeant... And that wouldn't be problematic in the field because the AR vision systems
in the helmet would flag all the troopers in your field of view with their operating numbers and ranks. Helmet markings would just be a redundant/backup visual indicator.
Or like that.
I actually like that feature (because the identification markings are just daft), and am planning to incorporate it myself. And I know all too well about dirt getting everywhere. It's a pain when cleaning real equipment, but when creating a prop, it's the perfect opportunity to add more weathering and dirt of course.
And another truism is that 'all contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder'; often the choice is for the cheapest option, not the best one. So I could imagine the Empire doing exactly that. Their doctrine of quantity over quality before, and during, the Rebellion Era certainly supports the notion...
I agree it does add that much more visual "excitement" to the prop, but I'm too keyed to functionality and consistency. I try to handwave as few OT artifacts off as "production errors" as possible, preferring to find some in-universe rationalization. Helmet/armor asymmetry is one thing I
do accept as an error-of-haste/not caring. Not talking about the different knees on a Stormtrooper. Mean more that one forearm has ten indents and the other has eleven, and Brian Muir never caught it until someone asked him just a couple years ago if he'd done it deliberately for some reason.
So is it possible the Emire has a huge stockpile of helmets with tube vents numbering from 0 to 13, to account for the existence of the on-screen variation in number in the OT? Yes. But what function do the vents serve that having more or fewer -- or none -- doesn't substantially enhance or impair performance? Is it possible they have huge bins in every garrison and base QM office for replacement swappable sensor units to pop in behind the traps and tears with sensor-window slits, and it's just part of their standard daily maintenance of their gear? Yes. But I'd question the cost-benefit analysis.
One thing I considered was maybe the tube stripes are just indents, not vents with backplates. Albeit crisply-detailed indents. And the number of indents varies, as the ones on the backs of the Scout Trooper helmets apparently vary. I beiefly entertained the notion that they all have 13 indents, but varying numbers get painted blue, but they're sharp enough and deep enough that the unpainted ones would still be shadowed and it'd be almost impossible to tell except from inches away whether you were seeing paint or shadow.
But I keep coming back to having to allow for the OT variation, and anything that so minimally impacts the functioning of the helmet that there'd be no battle-performance-measurable difference between no vents and thirteen vents isn't worth bothering to include at all, IMO. The lowest (or, more prosaically, second-lowest) bidder would more likely opt for no vents, as that requires the least amount of time, design stage or manufacturing stage, and time is money.
@
DynamicMenace, don't mean to sidebar things. I feel it
is at least somewhat germane, or I'd've taken it to PM or something. As I said, time is money, and I
do appreciate the effort spent on factoring physical tube vents into the design. It will save a lot of headache for those who want them as physical slits, and are easy enough to fill and smooth over for those who don't.
[/I]