Base Delta Zero

[Khas]

And I need Asprin. Seriously. His posts make my brain hurt.

[Mike DiCenso]

Then don't read them, Khas. In fact, don't reply at all and you'll be so much happier.
-Mike

[Khas]

But there's a morbid curiosity in reading his posts.

[Mike DiCenso]

So is there in stabbing myself in the abdomen with a serrated knife to see what that feels like, but you don't see me doing, now do you? So stop hurting yourself or I'll have to call the authorities and have you restrained for your own good! ;-)
-Mike

[mojo]

you find yourself curious as to how it would feel to stick a serrated blade into your own body, yet he is the one who needs the help?

[Mith]

As a relative newcomer to the Trek/Wars debate (and someone entirely unqualified to participate in much of it), I was rather shocked when I first read about the Base Delta Zero order and the calculations derived from it. I apologize if this idea has been discussed before.

If a single Star Destroyer can "slag" the "entire surface" of a planet in "a single hour" (per st-v-sw) as many seem to believe enough to calculate ridiculous firepower figures, then what, exactly, was the point of building not one but two Death Stars?

You reached the first problem of this thread by assuming that the concept of BDZ such as 'sagging' should be considered literally. It is not. What they effectively meant was carpet bombing entire planets, which is well within their capabilities. Even at gigajoule level weaponry.

[Mr. Oragahn]

As a relative newcomer to the Trek/Wars debate (and someone entirely unqualified to participate in much of it), I was rather shocked when I first read about the Base Delta Zero order and the calculations derived from it. I apologize if this idea has been discussed before.

If a single Star Destroyer can "slag" the "entire surface" of a planet in "a single hour" (per st-v-sw) as many seem to believe enough to calculate ridiculous firepower figures, then what, exactly, was the point of building not one but two Death Stars?

Probably the difference between an overcooked steak and smoking ashes.

The thing people forget is that with the firepower given to starships by Wong, Saxton and their followers allows them to do more than burn the surface of a world. Remember that they deliver more energy than a KT dino killer event into one point. Think of something like the crater of Olympus Mons on Mars. With that kind of firepower, you will be sending massive amounts of matter into space. It doesn't matter if said matter will not completely break the pull of gravitation and will, one day, coalesce back into a planet. It simply is a ridiculous level of firepower that will violently peel away the surface of a world.
It also goes without saying that one single shot is more than enough to burn a world. The rest of the particles, lava and heat will finish burning the rest of the world.