Originally posted by: Rebel11_38...According to Imperial sources, the first Death Star took too long to construct, exceeding Palpatine's every deadline.
It was built in orbit around the prison world Despayre. Labor for the construction was taken at will from the prison below. When the first Death Star was completed, Tarkin ordered the superlaser tested on the planet Despayre itself. Needless to say, this initial test exceeded even Tarkin's wildest dreams. This is one reason that i am sticking to what is in the "movie" universe and not any EU or other sources. According to the conference room scene Tarkin states that the station is not yet operation and also Tarkin states that they would test the Death Stars destructive powers on Alderaan, so that backstory in the Unofficial Encyclopedia completely contradicts what we know about the Death Star from ANH.
I don't really want to use a known planet for the first Death Star shots. My idea is that it would be in a hidden system where the rebels would not find it. If it was orbiting one of the planets from the PT then it would stand out as a planet that we already know.
I'm not sure that having the planet blue would necessarily confuse people into thinking its Alderaan while watching the complete movie. After all if you look at Alderaan & Yavin 4 they look very similar but we know that they are not the same world. And also Tarkin orders them to set a course for Alderaan so it is determined that it isn't Alderaan. I've altered the blue colour & darkened it slighly but altering it any more towards a different tint just doesn't look right to my eyes. It needs to be in the blue spectrum due to the neutral colours due to the orbiting ships & station. Green is the only other colour that doesn't look too bad but with both Alderaan & Yavin 4 being Green planets then blue is the only colour (apart from an ice planet but thats already been covered by Hoth.lol) that is left. Or is it....... maybe not......
Originally posted by: dumb_kid
What about a rocky planet with minimal atmosphere... it would be dominately grey tones with maybe dark purple highlights. I think this would work on many levels.
I do like that idea, i'd just need to find a really good plate that i could use.
Originally posted by: dumb_kid
If you'd like, I can see what I can come up with... there was guy who had a website with a lot of really good planet maps.. his name was 3d-Duckboy/diabloblanco17 but it seems as if his site has gone away but I downloaded the maps many moons ago. Let me know if you are interested.