posted
It's been shown that the Miranda can get along just fine without the rollbar, yes. I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say, but we've never seen a different module there that I recall. Even the supposed impulse engines were just, as far as I know, the rear tubes of the launcher lit like an engine.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Look, they have shown that they can fly fine without one and with some other weird objects connected at the sides (Saratoga). What gives you the impression that a second impulse engine is not feasible? It's probably not that hard to gut out the pod and place impulse engines inside to make her faster or whatever. If you think it's because the pylons are too small to allow for some connections to power them, well how does the torpedoes and pahsers mounted on the roll bar get powered?
I haven't seen the pictures in awhile. I am not arguing that there are in fact impulse engines in the pcitrues we see, I am arguing for the fact it is possible.
-------------------- Matrix If you say so If you want so Then do so
Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
The impulse engines could even have their own power source installed with them; it wouldn't be as powerful as a main reactor but it wouldn't need to be. One question though; why install them in the first place? (well, apart from to make the ship go faster obviously). Why would a Miranda need to go faster?
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
Oh yes, the Galaxies were just tearing up the place speed-wise in SofA.
quote: i also theorize the nacelles had some type of moving part apparatus depending on what kind of power situation they were in.. is as good an explanation as any, i guess
Okay. Now explain why the bridge module kept changing sizes, why the deflector dish kept changing sizes, and why spikes appeared and disappeared from the fronts of the nacelles.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
EdipisReks
Ex-Member
posted
quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: Oh yes, the Galaxies were just tearing up the place speed-wise in SofA.
quote: i also theorize the nacelles had some type of moving part apparatus depending on what kind of power situation they were in.. is as good an explanation as any, i guess
Okay. Now explain why the bridge module kept changing sizes, why the deflector dish kept changing sizes, and why spikes appeared and disappeared from the fronts of the nacelles.
magic? because the great bird of the galaxy decreed it? you might as well ask how voyager managed to stay so pretty during its little jaunt in the delta quadrant.
IP: Logged
posted
The dish was just a big umbrella anyway. One of the easiest objects to design for variable diameter. "Long-range scans, Mr Spock." "Aye, sir. Refocusing main FTL sensors by adjusting reflector geometry. Retracting focus boom." "I asked for long-range scans, not a bloody operator's manual!" The same goes for the rods sticking out of the ramscoops. And luckily, we don't have to explain the change in bridge profile, since that doesn't show up in the mixed stock material.
It would seem to me that the greatest weakness of an old starship type in fleet action would be its lack of speed. If the ship has weak weapons, no matter: it still has weapons that increase the fleet's overall firepower. If it has weak shields, no matter: it dies a little sooner than other ships, but still increases the fleet's overall resilience to fire by offering another shielded target. But if it has weak engines, it *slows down the entire fleet*.
Speed in actual combat would not matter very much. Impulse speed during the dash from a supposed "warp threshold" to the planet you are striking at is crucial to your surprise factor. (Warp speed during the deployment run from the starbase to the target system would also be crucial to surprise value, if not for the fact that the Dominion can observe all fleet movements across interstellar ranges with ease. So you can only achieve limited tactical surprise in-system, not interstellar surprise.)
posted
As much as I want to lay into really anal need to to give a real reason for EVERY SFX goof rather than just saying 'they fucked up', I'll leave it for now and go back to the Galaxy thing.
Didn't Geordi say in "Relics" that impulse technology has remained largely unchanged in 70 years?
Impulse technology seems to be to be a bit of a dead end. The ships can't go faster than 1/4 light speed, they accellerate pretty rapidly anyway. All impulse engines seem pretty equal. When doing maneovours, do the ships just use their impulse engines, or do thrusters come into play? Seems to be that they'd be more important in a battle.
Two things that do bug me. Kirk's "Warp point oh five" in TMP. That can be argued though as saying that Starfleet hadn't established an impulse limit of .25c. But that leeds to the other problem. If the reason starships don't go faster than 1/4 lightspeed is because if time dilation effects, isn't it pretty amazing that every civilised species seems to do the same thing?
And if you're in a battle, why would you care about time dialation anyway? Why not (assuming that you can't go to warp) just crank it up to .99c? Thanks to time dialation, not only will you be really fast, but you'll arrive far quicker than it would appear to your ship.
quote: They had all three impulse engines running. This could be why the Mirandas had an extra impulse engine.
According to the tech manual, at full impulse the Galaxy class has always had all three engines running. This is not a new thing.
And I meant generally. Look at the shot where the Galaxies open fire on the Galor-class ships. They're moving pretty slowly. In fact, the only real time we see Galaxies moving with any speed is when Sisko first engaged the fleet, and even then all the ships are moving together (and at a speed that you wouldn't describe as "blisteringly fast" either).
I'm with Simon. A rear torpedo launcher seems much more useful, strategically, than an extra impulse engines.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
The problem with having impulse engines in the Miranda torpedo pod isn't the power supply; its the amount of torque the engines would generate on the support struts. The mounts on the pod appear able to handle the small amount of recoil torpedo launches would generate, but they don't look anywhere near being strong enough to keep the pod from being torn off the hull by an impulse engine mount running at normal power levels. And if you're not going to run it at normal power levels, why put an engine in the pod in the first place?
BTW, PsyLiam, the tech manual does not say that all three impulse engines are running when a Galaxy is at full impulse. It says "High impulse operations, specifically above 0.75c, may require added power from the Saucer Module engines." And Geordi's line in "Relics" was that impulse engine design hadn't changed much in the past 200 years, IIRC.
-------------------- The difference between genius and idiocy? Genius has its limits.
Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged
posted
Hmm. That would seem to imply that at full impulse (or in emergencies) they DO travel faster than .025c.
Crazy.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
By a factor of ten, to be precise.
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Thinking about it, I don't suppose time dialation would be much of a problem over the small time span of a big ship fight. And I doubt that most of the ships would have even gotten up to full speed, what with all the manourvering they had to do.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Maximum Impulse: .75c Full Impulse: .25c Half Impulse: .125c Quarter Impulse: .0625
---As for limited speed in fleet action, I would think that all ships are capable of at least Warp 9 in 2370's... I don't think they would try to push anything above that.
As mentioned elsewhere, the Impulse Engine [the Fusion generator] has not changed in 200 years from it's basic design. But there is an added mechanism, the Space-Time Driver Coil which is only ~55 years old by 2370's. --- I feel that the Space-Time Driver Coil, is a new mechanism, but it's function is not new. Before the Ambassador Class they used the Warp Field Coils to produce a symmetrical X millicochrane subspace field that reduced ship's mass and thus made it easier to move. [The only reason to use a Driver Coil is to reduce wear and tear on the field coils.]
Yadda, yadda, yadda---
-------------------- Later, J _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ The Last Person to post in the late Voyager Forum. Bashing both Voyager, Enterprise, and "The Bun" in one glorious post.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
