Latinum-plated D'Kora

posted on February 13th, 2011, 10:30 pm

nanites are expensive yes, but following from my numbers argument above, i doubt there is enough privately owned latinum to coat a dkora.

if u drop down to partially coating then it becomes feasible. so it could have some silver/gold panels.

these would still present a bullseye target for business opponents though, wipe out your money by shooting your ship

The numbers would be easier to follow if we knew how much they'd actually get for them. Without knowing that, we don't know if they could get enough to pull it off without caring about losing the stuff on the hull. If they really did get so much that plating the ship and buying multiple (no doubt expensive) casino ship is possible, the stuff on the hull would likely be small potatoes compared to what they got and later earn from the casinoes.

Considering wealth, showing-off said wealth and business is the Ferengi culture and religion, giving them the benefit of the doubt wouldn't be an hard to understand as if it were another race that said it.

Besides, how many in Star Trek really care about flying a large bulls-eye?

posted on February 13th, 2011, 10:32 pm

Plus, you could just replicate latinum... and gold... and then combine the two 

posted on February 13th, 2011, 10:38 pm

I thought the reason latinum was valuable was because it couldn't be eficantly replicated.  Much like dilithium, however it can be replicated if needed.

If latinum could be replicated it would have no value at all. 

posted on February 13th, 2011, 10:54 pm

Ah right, forgot suspension of disbelief 

posted on February 13th, 2011, 11:28 pm

Ah right, forgot suspension of disbelief 

lolol

also solar power seems to be ignored. why not sit some solar collectors near random stars that dont have colonised/colonisable planets? take all that energy and replicate stuff that can make portable energy.

posted on February 13th, 2011, 11:33 pm

Solar panel-plated Starships?

posted on February 13th, 2011, 11:42 pm

i was talking about stations near stars to collect power, but yeah, why not have ships sit near stars for some power. voyager flew between binary pulsars or stars or something once, in the ep where the advanced people were sticking crap in their heads and making janeway angrier.

presumably with shields they could get somewhat close and turn solar energy into more power than it takes to keep the radiation from killing them.

posted on February 14th, 2011, 8:45 pm

Solar panels wouldn't provide very much power compared to what Star Trek uses. Might produce enuff for a few neighborhoods, but Star Trek needs to react matter and antimattter for pretty much everything except lighting and basic sublight propulsion.
Shields probably absorb shitloads of power more than solar panels can gather.

This is like the TIE fighter problem. Even if all the surface area of a TIE fighter was covered in solar panels and the whole surface area was in direct sunlight, there wouldn't be enuff power to accelerate as quickly as they do (yes, ion engines do exist in the real world...and they accelerate from 0 to 60 in days using modern solar panels) and shoot.
Of course, they could just use the panels to help recharge a little so their battery life is extended, but charging batteries by sitting in space is not practical for time reasons. Voyager would be there for months next to a star with their shields down just to get enuff to maybe fire phasers once.


Solar Stations might work, if turning matter into antimatter with technobabble (and storing antimatter) doesn't take a whole lot of energy. Oh and space is big, no need to bother putting them in non-colonized solar systems, unless the collectors are enormous (depends how much energy needed to turn matter into antimatter.)

posted on February 14th, 2011, 8:57 pm

well seeing as janeway flew between two star like things with shields dead, they can get pretty close to stars. solar power doesnt exactly match m/a reactions in a fixed time, but over time it can add up. that is how stations would work.

also everything on the ship except warp drives have been run on the fusion reactors after a warp core ejection.

obviously they wouldnt charge batteries they would replicate fuel of some sort with the free solar power.

and big collectors are feasible as someone built a dyson sphere. ideally a star could be surrounded by solar collectors. in colonised/colonisable systems that wouldnt work, maybe smaller collectors would though. stars last a very long time, so the energy needed to replicate the bits could be replaced by the star.

posted on February 14th, 2011, 9:12 pm

That civilization was on crack or something. There is no reason to build a Dyson Sphere when you can make antimatter.
Or maybe they had enormous egos so they built it just to be dicks to another civilization.

She barely survived that, and one of the alien ships exploded. That's something you need plot armor to survive. Most of the Federation doesn't have plot armor. And for the time problems I meant ships only.

Replication energy would be enormous, that's why I said the stations should change existing matter to antimatter rather than replicate antimatter. Voyager might make antimatter, but why not just use the antimatter made to provide energy to make more antimatter? There is no need for the solar power really.
And if replication energy isn't enormous, then just replicate antimatter. Problem solved.


As for fusion reactors, Star Trek uses Tim Taylor Technology. More power=more effect. Fusion reactors won't last very long (since the Tim Taylor Technology means that they're using maximum safe m/a reaction power at all times when using phasers or warp drive, and they need to shoot or go places every week.) Fusion reactors are temporary for a reason.

posted on February 14th, 2011, 9:20 pm

Whoever built that Dyson Sphere definitely had something not working right; how could a race so advanced and resource rich they could complete something like that not notice the star they picked was fucked up?

posted on February 14th, 2011, 9:27 pm

Whoever built that Dyson Sphere definitely had something not working right; how could a race so advanced and resource rich they could complete something like that not notice the star they picked was fucked up?

Unless of course the species that built it did so billions of years previously 

posted on February 14th, 2011, 9:31 pm

Never mentioned when it became unstable. Q probably did it when it was finished, since it's so easy to blame him for everything.