Why do Borg vessels lack shields?

MetalHead · Post by **MetalHead** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 1:54 am

You're forgetting that the borg can spontaneously construct and deconstruct purpose built facilities in their vessels.

It may explain any size discrepancies between borg vessels of one class - ie sphere or cube. If they can regenerate their ship as easily as they did during Q Who? then I think that they can manage.

Post by **Teaos** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:33 am

Well there would be no reason to keep them all the same size. Build them as you need them.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:35 pm

In the comentary for the Borg episode of Enterprise the writer said he was going to make the Borg cubes and spheres capture enemy vessels and break down their ships to expand the Borg's. That would explain where they get all that extra matter to rebuild from but I personally didn't like the idea of a snowball effect Borg ship.

Post by **Teaos** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 1:48 am

I like it for repairing damage and minor modifications but I dont want for them to have a HUGE ship thats taken over several worlds.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:33 pm

Its possible they would not be able to supply power to such a large vessel.
From what we've seen, borg ships likely have a bit more power than other race's vessels. If they do break up enemy vessels and build up the cube from it, its possible they may not be able to use non-borg power sources or that they may not be powerfull enough. Also, they may not carry extra reactors or the parts to build them.

Post by **Teaos** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:33 am

Maybe the Borg have kick as replicators and are thus able to repair super fast and just about anything.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:21 am

Possible. I don't see any problem with that theory.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 5:56 pm

Truthfully, do the borg vessels we see even NEED shields?

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 7:04 pm

Bryan Moore wrote:Truthfully, do the borg vessels we see even NEED shields?

We saw the damage done to an unshielded cube by just three phaser blasts in "Q Who?" - several large craters blasted in the surface, and damage to 20% of the ship.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 8:36 pm

Truthfully, do the borg vessels we see even NEED shields?

Yes. Shields can prevent damage that would otherwise be caused. Even if the damage caused is minimal, it still needs to be repaired and could damage something important that could be needed for the ships survival.

Post by **Teaos** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:06 am

Also shields from natural ion storm and stuff.

Post by **Mikey** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:06 pm

Every other species seems to need at LEAST some form of navigational deflector to avoid impact with normal debris and space-borne matter at warp speeds. No matter how well a Borg ship is able to repair itself, hitting a rock at Warp 9.5 will inacpacitate a ship for some time, if not worse.

Post by **Teaos** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:16 pm

Hitting a rock at warp would totally destroy the ship. The amount of energy involved is huge.

Post by **Mikey** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:20 pm

I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt - you're supporting my point, I'm just trying to avoid any "we don't know Borg metallurgy" arguments.

Post by **Teaos** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:23 pm

We kinda do. We know how powerful the Galaxy class phasers are and we know how much of the Cube got vaporised in the first encounter. You could probably work out the metal strengh by that if you could be bothered. But then you could argue that they have assimilated new metal tech since then.