Star Trek Vs Modern Earth

[Duskofdead]

We've never seen any evidence of the latter, merely that it's a lot easier for a given type of weapon to damage them pre-adaptation than post-adaptation.

Sure we have. In "Dark Frontier", ships about to obliterate the Queen's fleet (which looked to be at minimum 3 ships, a diamond and two cubes, but could have been more) were stated to be "no longer a threat" the moment they adapted shields which were on the verge of complete failure. There was no statement that shields were holding "for now", or that the safety was temporary. They leisurely went about assimilation afterwards with seemingly no fear of the alien weapons.

[kostmayer]

I just misread this topic title as "Star Trek vs Middle Earth"

I should lay off the scotch this early in the evening.

[Mikey]

I just misread this topic title as "Star Trek vs Middle Earth"

I should lay off the scotch this early in the evening.

Or start earlier in the afternoon... or morning... It's always 5 o'clock SOMEWHERE.

[Captain Seafort]

Sure we have. In "Dark Frontier", ships about to obliterate the Queen's fleet (which looked to be at minimum 3 ships, a diamond and two cubes, but could have been more) were stated to be "no longer a threat" the moment they adapted shields which were on the verge of complete failure. There was no statement that shields were holding "for now", or that the safety was temporary. They leisurely went about assimilation afterwards with seemingly no fear of the alien weapons.

I was refering to your statement that "any level of firepower...won't do you any good after they've adapted." All Dark Frontier demonstrates is that after adaptation the Borg shields are sufficiently optimised that the ships they were facing were no longer a threat.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I thought that modulating the frequencies still only gets them a few more shots (per FC, etc.) Is it different for ship-to-ship combat?

And in BOTW, it seemed to work just fine and give them unlimited shots, IIRC. Man... *Shakes head*

[Duskofdead]

Sure we have. In "Dark Frontier", ships about to obliterate the Queen's fleet (which looked to be at minimum 3 ships, a diamond and two cubes, but could have been more) were stated to be "no longer a threat" the moment they adapted shields which were on the verge of complete failure. There was no statement that shields were holding "for now", or that the safety was temporary. They leisurely went about assimilation afterwards with seemingly no fear of the alien weapons.

I was refering to your statement that "any level of firepower...won't do you any good after they've adapted." All Dark Frontier demonstrates is that after adaptation the Borg shields are sufficiently optimised that the ships they were facing were no longer a threat.

I agree with you in this regard. But successful adaptation ramps up protection against a particular weapon so high that merely tweaking around with that same weapon's firepower a little isn't a very efficient strategy vs. the Borg. That's why I wish we'd seen more weapons diversification rather than simply upgrading phasers or adding more phaser arrays on newer designs. I think a "tomorrow's Defiant", so to speak, should be a platform fielding at minimum three different types of weapons. The easiest candidates seem to be phasers, disruptors and either a plasma or poleron based weapon.

[Captain Seafort]

I agree with you in this regard. But successful adaptation ramps up protection against a particular weapon so high that merely tweaking around with that same weapon's firepower a little isn't a very efficient strategy vs. the Borg.

Reed found it very effective in "Regeneration" - by doubling the yield of the phase pistols he was able to punch through Borg shields. There's also the possibility of concentrated fire to consider - it proved very effctive against the cube in FC.

[Duskofdead]

I agree with you in this regard. But successful adaptation ramps up protection against a particular weapon so high that merely tweaking around with that same weapon's firepower a little isn't a very efficient strategy vs. the Borg.

Reed found it very effective in "Regeneration" - by doubling the yield of the phase pistols he was able to punch through Borg shields. There's also the possibility of concentrated fire to consider - it proved very effctive against the cube in FC.

Those are workarounds in instances where you have to deal with adaptation. The Federation has a wealth of diverse types of technology at its disposal, always sticking with "phasers and photons" seems to be more of a flavor issue than an "in-universe makes most sense" issue to me.

[Mikey]

True, and phasers are "homegrown" Fed tech - Fed people are bound to be more inclined towards it AND more able with it.

[stitch626]

Also, some of the more destructive weapons are banned (ie, subspace weapons).

[Teaos]

Also the faxt that the Feds are expects at phasers but not disruptors. Unless we brough the tech off the klingons or someone we couldnt field powerful ones for quite awhile.

[Duskofdead]

Given the Federation's extensive experience repairing Klingon ships and even Romulan ones during the war, and working closely with them, I don't think making respectable disruptors is at all outside their capabilities. And besides, phasers are not monopolized by the Federation, it seems to be a fairly generic weapon that many societies use.

[Teaos]

Phasers pretty rare, most seem to use disruptors.

[Duskofdead]

Disruptors are also fairly common, but Cardassians were frequently stated to use phaser technology, the Romulans use it as well. (Section 31 using Bashir to try to get that head of the Tal Shiar to walk past a "phaser relay" and irradiate him, on Romulus.) A LOT of generic one-time races used phasers. Neither phasers nor disruptors were rare technology, they seemed fairly basic, the Klingons/Romulans/Federation have probably just refined their fielded versions of the weapons far beyond what smaller powers have.

At any rate, given what Starfleet has proved capable of doing engineering-wise, I don't believe it would be any daunting task to design a working disruptor. In fact I'd be shocked if they didn't have hundreds of schematics for different kinds of disruptors laying around after centuries of intermittent conflict with the Klingons and Romulans.

[Teaos]

Maybe there is some problem putting different weapons on one ship. Enery conversion or something which you need only do once normally you'd have to do multiple times.

That and it seems disruptors are larger for the same amount of kick.