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The REAL reason why starfleet doesn't field a "gas" homing torpedo

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited March 2011 in Ten Forward
Myth: The gas homing torpedo in ST6 was real.
Fact: The real reason why Chang's ship got detected was cause Chang was flying a B'rel retrofit, and one of his officers turn on the hazard emitters while cloaked.

---if you don't know about the inside joke, please feel free to use a B'lolrel in pvp---

This is why that "pwnage" torpedo doesn't exist as part of Starfleet's regular arsenal, despite the fact that potential enemies like the klings and rommies employ cloak on nearly all their ships.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Rofl.

    Good stuff

    Please fix the b'rel cloak. A regular battle cloak would be just fine. As it is, it nerfs the ship. It's not enhanced at all!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Am I the only one who thinks these "explanations" for plot resolutions are just a little half baked?

    Hazard emitters? We're the writers of ST six even familiar with the term?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Am I the only one who thinks these "explanations" for plot resolutions are just a little half baked?

    Hazard emitters? We're the writers of ST six even familiar with the term?

    It is a badly placed loosely veiled 'Fix the cloak' thread. gx4th knows better than this.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    gx4th wrote: »
    Myth: The gas homing torpedo in ST6 was real.
    Fact: The real reason why Chang's ship got detected was cause Chang was flying a B'rel retrofit, and one of his officers turn on the hazard emitters while cloaked.

    ---if you don't know about the inside joke, please feel free to use a B'lolrel in pvp---

    This is why that "pwnage" torpedo doesn't exist as part of Starfleet's regular arsenal, despite the fact that potential enemies like the klings and rommies employ cloak on nearly all their ships.

    So that's why those torps are always finding me......

    :eek:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    It doesn't exist in other incarnations of Trek set after the events of TUC... because:

    Engineers determined that any sort of "less than perfect cloak" would leak something... be it plasma or subspace gooberonic particles or babblemetric waves.. Firing while cloaked fell out of favor when it became clear that Federation technology could pick up the very slight distortions or "muzzle flash" from firing and also detect any plasma leakage from the engine exhaust ports.

    This mainly applied to Klingon ships with their "dirty" reactors and less-efficient impulse engines.

    Romulan ships on the other hand had the advantage of using a nearly closed energy system (quantum singularity AKA "very tiny black hole") for power. By collecting and directing all exhaust emissions and feeding them back to the black hole the Romulans were able to create "near perfect cloaks." As the technology levels improved they were able to collect more and more emissions and recycle them... allowing the Romulans to build bigger and more powerful ships.

    This came at a high cost however... singularity core engines were difficult to produce and proved to be very dangerous in the event of a catastrophic failure... even more so than a runaway matter-antimatter accident.




    ...
    ...

    I provided this technobabble to my RPG game a few years back when one of the players brought this up. The technology is known in later generations but it's an obsolete trick only useful as a trivia point or against less advanced foes.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I'm just not able to get into the imagi-physics of sci fi stuff. If these were real spaceships and real cloaking devices I'd probably be glued to any technical manual I could find.

    Not trying to judge. I imagine its fun for some to delve into the possibilities. I just get bored with it myself.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I provide technobabble for people who want to avoid the whole "how does it work" side of things.

    Frankly puzzling out Star Trek is how I ended up becoming an engineer. First it was figuring out how the TV show stuff worked when I was 5-6 years old... then "fixing" stuff around the house... and eventually they told me I could make a living "figuring out how stuff works."

    It's what I do. :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I provide technobabble for people who want to avoid the whole "how does it work" side of things.

    Frankly puzzling out Star Trek is how I ended up becoming an engineer. First it was figuring out how the TV show stuff worked when I was 5-6 years old... then "fixing" stuff around the house... and eventually they told me I could make a living "figuring out how stuff works."

    It's what I do. :)

    Except in the Tenforward-A Rpg thread. :(

    *Try to cram some extra guilt into it, but it backfires making him feel guilty instead.*
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Except in the Tenforward-A Rpg thread. :(

    *Try to cram some extra guilt into it, but it backfires making him feel guilty instead.*

    I'm waiting for an opening. Always wanted to play a potted fern.

    When the time is right I'll make my post. ;)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Considering the now wholesale usage of Thalaron on the Romulan front, you should all count yourself lucky that we can even detect them at all given that according to Nemesis it can be used to create a perfect cloak.

    A little hiccup caused by a fire suppression system should be not but a flash in the pan.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Lol, they moved this to 10f. I'd originally typed it in gen forums. The brel's THE bird of prey, and yet its enhanced cloak is the only reason most pvpers don't fly it. You would think the fire while cloak feature is Great? Eh... Hazard emitters while cloaked and other loleries are great.
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