why doesnt starfleet adopt other weapons systems?

posted on September 6th, 2009, 2:31 am

it seems to me that in the world of energy weapons phasers are the most utilitarian but the least effective as far as weapon systems go.  why doesnt starfeet adopt the polaron beams from the dominion or borg weapons since starfleet has extensive technical knowledge on them.  hell why not put some disruptors on their ships.  they can keep some phasers for backup but why not switch to something with more bite to it.

i realize they developed pulse phasers but that was only during ds9 and it appears that the defiant is the only ship to use them in the series.

its almost as if starfleet doesnt want to admit that they are inferior to other weapons.

posted on September 6th, 2009, 2:53 am

Who said phasers were least effective? Its an Energy weapon... much like the disruptor and polaron beam or compressor beam. The strength is based on the power output of the host vessel and it's capability of pushing that power through the phaser arrays.

In addition, disruptors and the other beam type weapons rely on emitters or cannons which can sometimes only face in one direction limiting firing arc whereas phaser strips offer more multi-directional targeting capabilities. That's effective to me...

[firewarrior1705]

posted on September 6th, 2009, 9:23 am

Last edited by firewarrior1705 on September 6th, 2009, 9:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

actually, phasers are by far the most effective of all energy weapons. They only appear weak because Starfleet ussually emplies them as a means to disable an enemy ship rather than destroy it, so when they fire they do it at a low yield. When set to full power they can be devastating, remember the Ent D when they first met the borg with 2 shots they severely crippled the cube or in DS9 where the Lakota inflicted serious damage on the Defiant.

Phasers are also more energy effective because their emitters can be linked to one another, making the phaser arrays of fed starships quite impressive weapons. Disruptors on the other hand can't be linked and therefore have to use a lot more power to inflict the same amount of damage. That is why disruptors have 2 firing modes, beam for usage against enemy armored hulls (like in Way of the warrior) and pulse for weakening enemy shields. And as quaddmgtech said, they have a much narrow fire arc and therefore require more emitters to be placed on the hull, increasing the power demand.

Hope this enlightens yo

posted on September 6th, 2009, 2:44 pm

Actually i agree about the power of the phasers but they have the most powerful torpedoes in quantum torpedoes.

But the souvorin and starbases have type 12 phasers and there are very few main weapons that can match that from any species .... but why the hell do the starbases in fleet ops fire pulse phasers.... that's not right.

posted on September 6th, 2009, 2:57 pm

but why the hell do the starbases in fleet ops fire pulse phasers.... that's not right.

good question ... i agree that this is not right

posted on September 6th, 2009, 3:10 pm

maybe becuse the starbase mostly defends you in early game against destroyers, so pulses are more effective

posted on September 6th, 2009, 3:23 pm

they do fire phasers and voleys of quantum torps when upgraded

posted on September 8th, 2009, 2:26 pm

Personally, I think that everyone else solved the problem of limited torpedo shots, the Rommies with plasma, the Borg have graviton emmiters, and the Dominion basically just 'pulse' a weapon that makes their torpedo. The Cardassians do the same thing.

The Federation on the other hand use actual shells that they can run out of but everyone else can still fire as long as there is energy flowing in their ship's circuits.

posted on September 8th, 2009, 2:35 pm

No other race use shells to contain the warhead of their torpedoes? How could Romulans have 7000 plasma torpedoes stored on Bajoran moon? Didn't the Jem'hadar fire some sort of torpedoes to Defiant, that didn't go off?

The idea of the torpedo is to have some way to deliver a powerful warhead to its target, and I can't see how that is possible without torpedo shells.

posted on September 8th, 2009, 4:25 pm

all the other races have torpedoes, and torpedoes must be kept in a casing or else the matter and antimatter would have no storage room until the torpedo hits the target.

posted on September 8th, 2009, 4:27 pm

That's the ones who actually use Matter/Antimatter weapons, like the Federation and (most likely) Klingons. Other races likely use them to contain Engine and Targeting systems.

posted on September 8th, 2009, 9:31 pm

Yup, exactly as Zebh said, we know that canonly the Klingons, Federation, Romulans, and Dominion all have casings for their torpedoes--just to name the top factions (don't know about the Borg... I'd assume so if just for Tyler's point

Torpedoes are not dumbfire in StarTrek, so they must have a self contained targeting and engine system... which necessitates the existence of casings.

posted on September 9th, 2009, 12:22 am

Sorry to be a stick in the mud, but I don't really see the merits of comparing/debating about fictional weapon systems...

posted on September 9th, 2009, 12:55 pm

There is no merit to much of the discussion here, yet it happens anyway. That is what forums are for...

posted on September 10th, 2009, 12:51 am

There is no merit to much of the discussion here, yet it happens anyway. That is what forums are for...

Good point!