Romulans in Combat

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 3:53 am

Im sure the reason is because people that are sneakie are generally considered to be unable to fight like regular people, however its not necessarily true.

[Tyler]

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 3:54 am

Last edited by Tyler on May 23rd, 2010, 3:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

I suggested that before.

I'm sure the Romulans wouldn't call themselves sneaky and underhanded.  They'd call themselves 'practical' or 'pragmatic'. 

They can say that until they're blue in the face, I can't see their neighbors buying it.

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 8:56 pm

build a tavara and research the marines, there you go it doesnt even drain crew from the tavara's pool.

It doesn't?  It seems to when I've used it....or it could be going down faster when under attack....idk.

The idea is likely that they've never been shown stronger than humans and lack the main reason for the Vulcans physical strength (their homeworlds gravity). I got nothing about where any low skill argument comes from, though.

Do they ever mention Romulus having higher gravity in any of the series?  The reason I ask is because they mention that Vulcan is higher gravity.  It is also mentioned that Romulans left Vulcan in search of a new home world because they don't agree with no emotion all logic philosophy.  But, and correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't that something like 4 or 5 centuries before humans discovered warp?  I don't recall any mention of Romulus having higher gravity....so I would think the strength advantage would be all but 100% bred out of their genes.

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 8:58 pm

Romulus is Earth-like, in both gravity and environment. That's why I normally discount their Vulcan roots.

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 9:02 pm

It doesn't?  It seems to when I've used it....or it could be going down faster when under attack....idk.

it doesnt since this patch, it used to. but now the tavara cant recrew in the field anymore.

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 9:08 pm

I was figuring something like that was why.  I don't play Rommies very often.

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 10:16 pm

As far as the gravity determines strength thing goes, I'm pretty sure the Vulcans on starfleet ships we see would be a lot weaker if the gravity was the reason for their strength. Astronauts in zero-g tend to lose lots of muscle and bone mass. Being that starfleet ships have Earth-like gravity, it would probably only take several months for them to lose their strength.

If it's genetics and the strength somehow remains even in extended periods in Earth-like gravity, then Romulans should have the same strength. They have only spent thousands of years away from Vulcan and there aren't really any huge evolutionary disadvantages to big muscles (except the amount of protein you need to sustain those, but they left Vulcan while it was at the societal development to build nukes and warp engines), so they'd have roughly the same strength. Evolution doesn't work very fast at taking away vestigial traits.

Either way, the writers of Star Trek tend not to care at all whether anything makes sense. Most likely they just forgot the ultra-strength thing about Vulcans and didn't notice or care enough to change the script.

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 10:26 pm

Need I remind you what 'evolution' is like in Trek? It has little in common with our concept of evolution.

Genesis, Threshold and Archer/Phlox commiting genocide in the name of evolution doesn't make it likely the Romulans did it properly. If they actually planned it (unconfirmed), they likely used standard Hollywood Evolution.

posted on May 24th, 2010, 2:06 am

Well, with weak linkage and other genetic phenomena, it is quite possible that genetically determined strength could be phenotypically plastic (meaning that if you don't grow up in a high-gravity world, you ain't gonna develop it). Likewise, since the initial Romulan population was small, there is a high likelihood that this condition could be due to founder effect and drift . There are many genetic mechanisms that - if Romulans are indeed weaker than Vulcans - could account for this. As the saying goes, truth is oft stranger than fiction.

posted on May 24th, 2010, 2:12 am

Well, if you want to continue discussing strange differences between Vulcans and Romulans, why is the Romulan Star Empire so big population-wise compared to Vulcan (and its colonies), when at the time of their exodus from Vulcan they were a smaller minority?

posted on May 24th, 2010, 2:14 am

Because they probably have sex more often than once every 7 years.

posted on May 24th, 2010, 2:16 am

We don't know what the population of either is do we? Population grows exponentially of course. At the turn of this century the world population was only 1,650,000,000.  :whistling: . Even if they only reproduce once every 7 years, we know that Vulcan/Romulan longevity is far more than a humans reproductive lifespan 

posted on May 24th, 2010, 4:29 am

Vulcans reproduce once every 7 years because of the Pon Farr only happens that often, which seems like something to help them survive. It would probably be a lot less without that emotional takeover.

The more emotional Romulans would likely have no need for the 7 year cycle.