How about hangar pets become universal?

angrytarg · April 2018

Since the console limitation on T5 ships has been lifted with the recent Lockbox and ViL coming up (see Temporal Science Vessels, I don't know if it applies to others as well?) how about the arbitrary restriction of having certain hangar pets limited to one carrier? The Xindi pets can only be used on aquatic carriers, Stalker fighters only on the Atrox and Bird of Preys only on the Vo'Quv. Shouldn't any carrier, if able to slot the pet type (Fighter, Shuttle, Frigate) be able to use them once you purchase/win the ship in question?

arionisa · April 2018

Some limitations actually make sense. Breen consoles only useable on Breen ships for example. It would be logical for the Breen to design "all" their ships to be compatible with "all" of their consoles, even if the ship was not going to be actually put into service with that console installed.
However a Tholian ship, or Fed, or Rom, or any ship except a Breen ship, would not have been built to be compatible with that console and it would take someone like Montgomery Scott to have a snowballs chance of getting it to work in anything but a Breen ship. A current example along those lines is the automobile. Pretty much every auto made in the last few decades uses an engine control computer (console) to make the engine run. However a console from a Ford will not work in a Chevy, or Dodge, and darn sure won't work in a Honda, BMW, Mercedes etc

Hangar pest would be the same. A Breen designed hangar pet would be designed to interface perfectly with a Breen ship, but would not have the same interface as a Tholian, Fed, Rom etc and as such could not be used by those other ships. A current example there....a Russian plane made for Carrier use could easily be landed, stored and transported on a U.S. carrier. However the U.S. Carrier is not going to have any of the proper equipment to do anything with it other than let it sit and take up space. They could refuel it, but only with some effort as the special nozzles used for U.S. planes will not match up with the fuel port on a Russian plane. They darn sure would not be able to rearm it's weapons, interface with it's Avionics for mission programming, or make any repairs other than sheet metal as nothing they carry is compatible. The cannon rounds are a different caliber, the missiles have different mounting rails, and the computer interface, besides having drastically different connectors, uses a totally different programming language.

"Standard" equipment such as most weapons, engines shields etc, even though built by a different race, are going to be similar enough that swapping those around from one ship to another makes sense, even cross faction. A warp drive is a warp drive, make the correct connections to tell it what to do and it's not really any different than any other warp drive. Hangar pets being able to be swapped around within different hangar equipped ships of the same faction also makes sense. Even in current days, Allied Countries (such as Nato) build their equipment to be compatible with the other countries in the Alliance. Ammunition, weapons, even a large majority of parts are either the exact same or can be used as a direct replacement for the others.

The flip side of that coin. Just as happens in current times. Various factions/races would also deliberately design their equipment so that it could not be used by the enemy if they got their hands on it. Things as simple as using specially designed bolts/screws requiring a special tool for removal/replacement to make something difficult to take part or repair. Then things like complex internal circuitry that only works if connected to a precise and complex external circuit so that it will not work at all without that external circuit. No point in doing something like that to equipment or technology that everyone already has. However something that no one else has yet would be designed in such a way that if someone else got their hands on it, they wouldn't be able to make it work because that console will not work unless it is connected to that special external circuit that they didn't manage to nab.

TLDR: Each races "unique" equipment would logically be designed in such a way that it would only work when installed in their vehicles, whether it's a console or a hangar pet.

tom61sto · April 2018

I'm for Hangar pets becoming universal. Pretty much every logical point of contention has been subverted by at least one pet. Last one to fall is "It woudn't make sense to have a universal frigate", with the Tzen-tar giving us universal frigate pets.

@arionisa : Everything you list is pretty much a mild inconvenience at best within Star Trek, and bizarre to even consider when a STO ship can have piles of tech from not only other cultures, both allied and not, but tech from other quadrants and even timelines. Many of my ships have Starfleet 23rd century tech that is surprisingly capable (Dynamic Power Redist.), occasionally tech from an alternate 23rd Century (Kelvin Timeline consoles), Klingon lost tech (Sensor-Linked disruptors), Nasicaan consoles, technology from at least one Dyson Sphere, and even Borg... Being not able to put a hangar that I already have access to, which my Engineers would be able reverse-engineer at the bare minimum, into any ship with a hangar I wish is a bit odd.

arionisa · April 2018

It's not that I'm against it. I have hangar pets that I absolutely love but that can only be used on specific ships/Faction ships. While I would love for hangar pets and consoles to be universal, unless/until that happens I console myself by reasoning why I can't use my Romulan drones on my Heavy Escort Carrier, and why my Breen consoles can't be used on my Arbiter.

With twenty plus years (thirty counting my time as a Contractor after retirement) of working with the newest U.S. Army tech, and the ways it is specially designed to be unuseable by anyone but Allies without extensive reverse engineering, it is easy for me to rationalize.

I know, in STO, and in the the various series' and movies they always manage to use any Alien technology found if it furthers the plot line. Heck, they can run across a brand new species and yet they immediately figure out how to use/reprogram/repair/sabotage alien tech never seen before that day......unless the plot line requires them to not be able to figure it out that is.
Alien ship, and we aren't even sure who made it. No problem, assign people to the proper stations and go wipe out a whole Fleet of enemy ships anyway.
First visit to an Iconian ship with technology so far advanced from our that it's almost magic. no problem, we'll just access their consoles and shut down their power stations anyway even though we've never seen any of it before in our lives.
Travel through a gateway and end up on a sphere....ummm...I think this might be a transporter console but I better not mess with it cause I don't know how to work it.

angrytarg · April 2018

Plus even in-game cases of precedence exist. Tholian fighters are slot able by any carrier for instance and most universal consoles are also universal across factions and ships. Just the 2500 Zen ships and lockbox ships come with arbitrary restrictions, and then not even all of them.

arionisa · April 2018

not knowing which all pets/consoles etc are and are not universal, or even at least faction wide, I suspect that the true compatibility issue is strictly whether or not Cryptic thinks they will make more money having it limited, or having it universal.

I personally think they would sell more ships if they were universal. I would spend the Zen to buy a ship just for the hangar pets, or for a particular great console. However I'm not going to spend that money because I do not actually want that ship, I would never fly it after getting the ship trait from it and since I can't use the pets/console on any other ship, not buying it.

I'm sure there are a lot of people that do buy those particular ships and fly them. I'm also sure that there are a huge number of people that would buy those ships just to get the pets/console if they were universal.

In the meantime I just pretend that the plot line of this episode requires that my crew can't figure out how to use that particular piece of alien technology they are just plain not compatible with my other ships due to....something.

legendarylycan · July 2018

the drones are not locked to the scimitar; all the other romulan carriers that can slot frigates can use them too

(pay no attention to the fact that they only actually HAVE one other carrier that can slot frigates, that being the t'laru)

How about hangar pets become universal?

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