Tweak one thing - DS9

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McAvoy
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Tweak one thing - DS9

Post by McAvoy »

I want to start a thing where we talk about if there is one minor thing you could tweak about a series, what would it be. It can't change how the series is handled during its run. But if you could change something about the series that is small, let's hear it.

With DS9 it is a little harder considering all of the characters get some sort of arc. Offhand having Bashir having to hide his enhanced nature would have been interesting. Imagine him doing saying something to the crew about about a problem and then he in private he fixes it easily. But plays it off.

Maybe have Jake play more reluctant to be Starfleet from day one. Or... Have Jake and Nog go in the same time with Jake leaving for other things...
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Re: Tweak one thing - DS9

Post by AlexMcpherson79 »

Make the Station design larger. That's pretty much the most obvious bug-bear I have. (Refer to comment I made in the TNG thread as I didn't know you'd also posted this one). Basically? It looks like only one big ship (as in, bigger than a shuttle) could even dock at any of the trios of pylon ports at a time, for two max - one on an upper port, one on a lower port.

The Runabouts should have been larger. maybe 50-metre two-deck ships. (Imagine the Raven at half the size, it still works!) with background characters as 'crew', with the runabouts as literall just, runabouts. this would allow for 'we go exploring' but not as a regular thing, like they're still clearly meant to be attached to a larger facility, they're brought in once the wormhole is discovered, and their combat capability is not nearly so obviously much lower than the main starfleet ships that they keep having to hold out for.
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Tinadrin Chelnor
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Re: Tweak one thing - DS9

Post by Tinadrin Chelnor »

Definitely a larger station, perhaps change the docking arms to face outward or something? Better to fit a full amount of ships.

I liked Graham's ideas for the Defiant (see his stuff in Art and Design, it's great stuff of his).

I am rerunning Deep Space 9 now (just started Season 3), so if I think of anything else, I'll let you know.
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Re: Tweak one thing - DS9

Post by McAvoy »

Tinadrin Chelnor wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:42 pm Definitely a larger station, perhaps change the docking arms to face outward or something? Better to fit a full amount of ships.

I liked Graham's ideas for the Defiant (see his stuff in Art and Design, it's great stuff of his).

I am rerunning Deep Space 9 now (just started Season 3), so if I think of anything else, I'll let you know.
Well a larger station would help with more ships. I'd keep the station arms the way they are just because the shield bubble makes more sense with them pointed inwards.

I am reluctant to make the station too big because the premise is a outpost on the frontier. Like a Old Western where DS9 is the town before moving on to the Great Wilderness.

I would at least do a throwaway line or even segment of an episode to explain how Starfleet officers can pay for non Starfleet items. Like how they can pay for drinks and food at Quarks. Could be something simple as having Quark trying to get as much as he can out of Starfleet officers with their unlimited budget. And remarking that Starfleet credit is useless outside of the Federation so might as well get much as he can. Sisko not making it a big deal because the Starfleet credit is just something officers have to use for those situations and is based on a unlimited resource Starfleet has or something.
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Re: Tweak one thing - DS9

Post by Tinadrin Chelnor »

This is true, hadn't considered the shield bubble.

I have always disliked the lack of currency in the Federation. I seem to recall mention of the Bank of Bolia, so it would seem that some Federation worlds retain currency, but there is simply not a Federation-wide standard. How do resort worlds like Risa make their money out of Starfleet officers with no money? I am not a capitalist, but I still see a necessity for some form of currency as a trading standard.

You are right about it being a frontier outpost of course, but at the same time it was supposedly in close proximity to Cardassia, so for them is was far more important prior to their departure.
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Re: Tweak one thing - DS9

Post by AlexMcpherson79 »

Yeah, it was both outpost AND an Ore Refinery AND ... etc etc. It doesn't have to be "OH MER GUDZ ITS HUUUUGE" like Starbase 74 (Spacedock upsized). Hell, the docking ports being at the END of the arms where the space between each arm is smallest is odd. Why not have the arm's being part of the Shield system, (instead of those dinky things sticking out from below the OPS section of the station, which isn't even in the middle).

Upsize the station so it's like, 3km diametre. The station is so large (yet internally small still, as a small percentage of its' "3-dimensions footprint" is actually occupied by station instead of open space) because the design itself was meant to be modular, quickly built for different purposes. The, cross-section area of the Docking ring has more space for Cargo and Industrial purposes, with massive adaptable mechanisms to connect to multiple docking ports of ships like the Cardassian Freighters for transfer of Cargo and Ores. But the Primary shield system of the station has emitters on the docking ring and arms. with a secondary backup shield on the habitat ring for the inner 'bubble' that protects the habitat ring and inward.
Instead, when scaled at current size, it just... looks like it wouldn't have the internal space to serve as the ore referineries for a planet-wide stripping of Bajor's resources, whilst also serving as a goddamn starbase for the cardassian military with sufficient cargo space to also store spare parts and maybe even construct ships if needed.]

At Least Babylon 5 gave the sense that their station was MEANT to handle the level of traffic as a diplomatic station - DS9's size doesn't give that. Where's the shuttlebays, the Danube (3 of them) can't be the stations ONLY assigned ships for starfleet use? Like... "Wut?!"
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Re: Tweak one thing - DS9

Post by Tinadrin Chelnor »

I love Babylon 5, a brilliant show.

I am sure Terok Nor could have been much better designed. Maybe Cardassians just have terrible designers, though I like the Galor quite a bit.

The design of the station leaves a considerable part of it's potential volume empty. I am sure they could come up with some logic behind it, but there should definitely have been more docking for small craft, shuttles and whatnot, and also for the ore freighters to transfer the cargo.

Thus, as you say, a 3 kilometre station would be better suited.
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Re: Tweak one thing - DS9

Post by Coalition »

One idea could be multiple smaller bubbles for DS9, to reflect that the Cardassians used more but smaller shield generators to provide protection. This way if a ship had a bad shield generator, the station could swap out one of its backups for the ship's generator, while the station would use its better technical crews to overhaul the ship's generator and repair it. For maintaining and repairing the station shields, it would be just swapping out a stored shield generator for an existing shield generator.

This way the Cardassians have a standardized shield design, using more copies as needed to protect larger ships/structures.

When protecting a station, the shield generator would be set to only project at X radius across Y degrees, compared to the OTL DS9 where the shield is a single bubble projected from a single point source. If multiple generators are used, that means they need to be emitting at various distances across different degrees (like plotting a sin(x) graph on polar coordinates)
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Re: Tweak one thing - DS9

Post by McAvoy »

There is always the consideration that Terok Nor and Empok Nor were designed that way due to the Cardassians are not exactly resource rich. Whereas the Federation has the resources to make the huge Starbase 74/Spacedock bases which are still pretty solid even with the top part being hollow.

There is nothing to not suggest that the rings could just be a solid saucer with the six arms coming out from it. But instead they made rings instead. That and up until Way of the Warrior, you really never got the impression that DS9 was a fortress or designed to be one.

To me it makes sense for the Nor class to be designed the way it is because they are basing it on the smaller Cardassian ships that would be docking there and not the larger Starfleet ships.
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