Star Trek Earth vs Nature's Fury

[mlsnoopy]

It's called the Inverse Square Rule (IIRC). The larger an area you spread something out, the more power you'll need to keep it at the same strength. Shielding something the size of Earth would require a ridiculously high amount of power.

Aren't ST shields gravity based, as I remember in the gravity law their is no surface only distance.

[Duskofdead]

I was not really advocating Earth had to have a shield, somehow Alderaan and all kinds of off topic things came up about the Star Wars EU. I just think that some form of shielding over Starfleet HQ is the most reasonable explanation for the type of damage we saw (it doesn't really look like any direct hits scored, even a few should have levelled the site.) And then the more I thought about it, the more I thought that having any important installation on a planet is really stupid if you can't defend it whatsoever except by ships. The Dominion shields its planet bound important military installations, so we know it's possible to do.

[Sionnach Glic]

Aren't ST shields gravity based, as I remember in the gravity law their is no surface only distance.

What's this from?

I was not really advocating Earth had to have a shield, somehow Alderaan and all kinds of off topic things came up about the Star Wars EU. I just think that some form of shielding over Starfleet HQ is the most reasonable explanation for the type of damage we saw (it doesn't really look like any direct hits scored, even a few should have levelled the site.) And then the more I thought about it, the more I thought that having any important installation on a planet is really stupid if you can't defend it whatsoever except by ships. The Dominion shields its planet bound important military installations, so we know it's possible to do.

I think the explaination that the Breen's weapons just suck works fine, along with the fact that they were probably too busy defending against whatever defences Starfleet had in place to commence a total bombardment. That way, it removes the problem of having to introduce an unknown factor.

Also, where did we see Dominion planets with shields?

[Monroe]

I think the bottom line is the writers lack of talent when it comes to picturing the kind of destruction orbital bombardment would cause.

[Duskofdead]

Also, where did we see Dominion planets with shields?

You misread me, I didn't say the planets had shields, I said their military installations on planets or asteroids had shields. The Ketrecel White facility, the Trelka V starbase that Martok led a raid on had shields and was on a planet, etc.

[Sionnach Glic]

Ah, my apologies, I misread what you posted.

[Duskofdead]

Ah, my apologies, I misread what you posted.

It's quite alright it's hardly the first time, after all this thread does include people debating Alderaan.

[Mikey]

We can't say for certain that shield strength would follow the square of the inverse of the area - you're thinking of the decrease in gravitic force vs. distance. However, common sense does dictate that enlarging a shield area at a given input would decrease the yield. Building, even city block - I don't see a problem fro 'Trek tech; planet - that's a problem.

[Captain Seafort]

It's also mentioned in canon that increasing the radius of shield reduces its effectiveness - the E-nil burnt out its dillithium crystals shielding Harry Mudd's ship in "Mudd's Women", and the E-D strained its shields somewhat to extend them 5 km to encompase Jarok's ship in "The Defector".

With regards to the effectivness of shields (and this also has implications for the ground combat thread) the E-nil could have easily punched through the theatre shield seen in "Whom Gods Destroy". The problem was that it would have inflicted widespread devastation on the surface, killing those the wishd to rescue.

[Teaos]

and the E-D strained its shields somewhat to extend them 5 km to encompase Jarok's ship in "The Defector".

If the E-D can make its shield that large you should be able to power a planet shield. Every city/town has to funnel a percent of their power to the shield.

[Mikey]

But bearing in mind the examples that Seafort just gave, that would likely have to be an outrageously large percentage to have a halfway-effective shield of that size.

[Tsukiyumi]

I think theatre shields and shielding of individual structures would be the most logical implementation.

[Duskofdead]

Agreed. There's virtually no point in placing anything of any importance on a planet if there is no capability of at least local, ground-based shield defenses. Even the most well defended system would be vulnerable to even a single torpedo hitting the surface.