posted
The defiant is the first ship to have phasors in the form of pulses? What is the advantage of this and i'd like some more info on the fact that they are set to automatically rotate their modulation (that keeps the enemy's shields from adapting, right?)
And all you that read only posts in this forum please jump to the ds9 forum and read the "USS Valiant and shields in ds9 ($$$$$)" topic and tell me your opinion about it, and don't forget about this...
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OK there is no basis for this - but I just feel that this larger version peregrine - or the maquis fighter - as its known as was maybe a precursor/prelim design for the Defiant... what maybe they based their ideas off to begin the Defiant project after the E-D's encounter...
The bridge is sort of in the same position There are those weapons ports either side... the little pincer things sticking out in the picture above or in the Defiant the little Triangles... which in the DS9TM are called sensors - but we've seen several times weapons being fired from there...
The grill thing around the front of the little saucer section on the peregrine above - might be a deflector dish/strip - or even a phaser strip?
The nacelles - in both are close to the body... the Impulse engines are both at the back...
same 'body' shape too - if you took of the wings...
Maybe the Peregrine above - was used during the Cardassian Wars - maybe thats why the Maquis have them - they are old unused ships...
plus inside the panelling - is reminiscent of late Excelsior/E-B signage or even E-C signage/panelling... you know the blue/green colour scheme...
Andrew
------------------ "All the lonely people, where do they all come from" - Eleanor Rigby, The Beatles.
posted
The Maquis ship certainly looks like an older vessel, and it does feature enough "fixed" weaponry that it probably served in a military role during its heyday. I doubt the Maquis could have retrofitted the two aft torpedo launchers, or the big wingtip guns. OTOH, it doesn't look like any Starfleet vessel we have ever seen, although the inboard warp engines are very similar to those of the small courier/interceptor ship that some also like to call the Peregrine. OTOH, inboard warp engines often mark a civilian vessel.
Perhaps this could be some sort of an older police vessel? Its semi-aerodynamic shape suggests landing capability, which would come in handy for a police cutter, and the somewhat heavy-sounding torpedo armament could be because the ship was intended to double as local defence vessel in times of war.
But I doubt the Defiant is related to this too closely. The latter ship supposedly was intended as a platform for superweapons from the beginning, at first utilizing an available surveyor hullform (the "pathfinder ship"/Nova class) but then moving towards greater armoring and compactness. I guess the Maquis ship hull could have been an initial starting point just as well, since the end result bore no similarity to the beginnings anyway. But the Maquis ship seems way too small to have been of use.
What could be the modern successor to the Maquis ship, if it is a police vessel? We never saw ships of this category in TOS era, either.
posted
As for pulsed phasers, I do think they are just for frequency modulation. And that's probably a purely anti-Borg application that provides no marked advantage against conventional opponents, since no other ships have been refitted with this type of weapon.
Pulsed firing could in theory mean higher momentary power, if average power was "concentrated" in these pulses (but only a *momentary* advantage would be gained, since *average* power would still be dictated by the powerplant of the ship). The intervals between pulses could be used for cooling, too, enabling a small ship to carry more powerful emitters - a constantly operating unit of similar power might simply fry the firing vessel.
The Defiants are not the only ships firing pulses, though. At least the TOS-era Mirandas did - witness STII, where Khan blasts away with those rollbar-mounted cannon at what one could call a pulse mode (this is before both sides lose most of their power, so low power levels cannot be the reason for pulsed fire). The DS9 Tech Manual calls those rollbar guns "pulse phasers" in its Miranda entry, although I wouldn't trust that book too much on ship specs.
posted
I doubt that the Maquis raider has anything to do with the Defiant but I believe that when Eddington attacked the Defiant with the raider, those wing guns fired phaser pulses, not a continuous stream.
------------------ "A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
posted
No, it's continous streams allright. When Eddington shoots down the cardassian transport ship for Sisko to rescue, the raider fires phaser-strings in one-second-intervals, probably because the phaser-cache dries out quickly, and needs a pause to go up again. Afterall, it's a small ship. But the phaser-string travels so slow in this particular episode so that the beginning of the load is still in mid-space when the end leaves the phaser-muzzle, thus creating a very thin and long phaser-PULSE.
posted
About the Reliant's phasers in STII... I've never found them to be much different to the Enterprise's, and IMHO, indicative of fleetwide phasers at the time. Perhaps at that point in time phasers worked better if you set them like antilock brakes, to draw one whacked analogy, but later tech has allowed for prolonged blasts.
------------------ The above post was mulled-over, composed, and posted during time Tom would have better spent on his plethora of homework and homework-related exercises. Now don't you feel special?
[This message has been edited by The_Tom (edited January 21, 2000).]
posted
About the Maquis raider/Defiant connection - my assumptions were based on similiarities in the shape and design... can't anyone ELSE see the similarities between these two ships - I mean I did point a few of them out! Its better than just saying - "oh I think the Maquis raider is the earlier Defiant..." with no explanations... plus I'm not saying that it is a direct precursor - I'm saying there are a LOT of design similarities between the two ships... remember GR's technology unchained idea... why doesn't anyone ever remember that...
Andrew
------------------ "...it might be easier to study ancient societies from distant orbit than it might be to sit next to the Guardian of Forever with a tricorder." - Baloo, January 2000
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