What have you always wanted to see in a space battle?

[Kor]

Ships approaching from different planes and angles and actually staying that way instead of orienting themselves on the same plane.

This isn't the ocean on Earth. Space is three dimensional and ships have their own gravity. There is no reason for them to always be lined up and oriented the same way.

Kor

 

[Gov Kodos]

I'm trying to not go there any more. Quit sucking me back into that argument!

Hail, hail, fire and snow. Call the angel, we will go...

 

[Ithekro]

Ships approaching from different planes and angles and actually staying that way instead of orienting themselves on the same plane.

This isn't the ocean on Earth. Space is three dimensional and ships have their own gravity. There is no reason for them to always be lined up and oriented the same way.

Kor

Several artist have tried to make battles that follow that...they just can't They always need a horizon line for the image to make sense. I might be a thing us planet bound creatures need in out imagery, and for us to conceptualize things properly. And since most species in these battle are planetary based, they probably all think along similar lines since they should all be use to having a horizon of on form or another due to how planets are.

 

[Forbin]

I think somebody attached to the show once said that ships align to the same plane to be polite.
Even when they're shooting at each other!

 

[Nightdiamond]

It would have been cool to see a "sink the Bismark" style episode with that new big Dominion battleship they had. To see a fleet of Starfleet ships desperately trying to destroy this ship. And devote the entire episode to just this --no dramatic filler.


Or just have an entire episode devoted to a fleet battle. See the characters actually call these ships by their names.To see the attacks, the counter attacks. And to finally see what the new ships they designed could actually do. Again, no dramatic fillers, just a solid hour of seeing what a fleet battle looks like.

That would be coolness.

 

[Richard Baker]

The 'All God Things' Enterprise Refit flying in from below, firing the mega-phaser into the Klingon ship and then flying through the exploding wreckage- one of the best Trek scenes ever.

Breaking away from the 2D conventions would be a must- and using the ships combat abilities to the fullest extent instead of a couple of torps here, a couple of beams there.

The Akira Class has 15 torpedo launchers- have it warp in the middle of an enemy battle formation, fire everything it has in all direction and warp out before they can react. Star Trek has some amazing ship designs but the battles have always been shortchanged from their capabilities.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

A realistic space battle with Trek level tech would move too fast for the human eye to track so there has to be some kind of compromise just for TV. But we don't need as much of a dumbing down as we get in the show. Ships and projectiles need to move slowly enough and close enough together to see what's going on. But we can still have faster, more 3D movement which relies on a wide barrage of energy weapons and huge scattering of unmanned drones.

 

[Cyke101]

A realistic space battle with Trek level tech would move too fast for the human eye to track so there has to be some kind of compromise just for TV.

Yeah. Also that a "realistic" space battle would occur over hundreds of thousands of kilometers if we're going by the stats and ranges stated on the show, even we're not taking into account warp speed or even full impulse. So even just having two ships sharing the screen, merely floating in space firing at each other from relatively short ranges would be troublesome to depict. This is why Trek battles where two ships share the screen have typically been almost point blank exchanges between a few kilometers, even though they can easily strike from much farther away.

 

[publiusr]

I want to see a ramscoop doomsday machine

From Spinrad

So I really worked on it. I drew the thing. It had complicated tentacle things that had the laser or whatever on the tips. So the thing looked ambiguous; you wondered looking at it, “Is this alive or is it a robot?” - See more at: http://www.startrek.com/article/doomsday-more-with-norman-spinrad-part-1#sthash.qpMHY1dC.dpuf

I was thinking about asteroid mining--and I had this idea of a claw--and where the fingerprints go--conveyor treads--with a blasting head for "nails"

That might be what spinrad wanted.

Ironically--he got that with Narada

 

[malchya]

To never, ever hear anything approaching, "Initiate plan Kirk Epsilon."

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

^Huh? Do you mean you want people to formulate strategies on the fly, not merely have a maneuver trope code name to pull out of a hat and execute perfectly on the first try? Or is this a specific reference to a particular maneuver?

 

[Galileo7]

Klingon K'T'inga(s) battling Kirk's 1701-Refit/1701-A in a prolonged brutal battle. Not just the limited WOK simulator or TUC limited engagement.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Several artist have tried to make battles that follow that...they just can't They always need a horizon line for the image to make sense. I might be a thing us planet bound creatures need in out imagery, and for us to conceptualize things properly. And since most species in these battle are planetary based, they probably all think along similar lines since they should all be use to having a horizon of on form or another due to how planets are.

They are highly trained military officers, if anything they would be specifically trained to notice when their opponent has that natural horizon bias and exploit it. Hell, they might approach upside down for the sole purpose of making their enemy disoriented.

 

[TommyR01D]

I want to see a huge warship send of a volley of torpedoes against an puny little Oberth, only for the whole lot to miss because they flew through the gap in the middle.

 

[KyleRaynous]

This isn't the ocean on Earth. Space is three dimensional and ships have their own gravity. There is no reason for them to always be lined up and oriented the same way.

If you talk about DS9 (fleet battles), I'm sure the formations of the vessels were made in a simple way to facilitate the use of CGI. Overall, Sci-Fi series do this. Besides, better not to think too much about tactics, right?

As for me, I think TWOK always had the best complexity on a hand to hand battle. It wasn't just about phaser shots, torpedoes, etc. It had strategy, the use of external elements (the nebula and its effects on systems to match the conditions of both ships), even the silly prefix thing was welcomed. Of course, if we're only talking about a CGI animation, such elements are out of the table...

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Have you ever watched the battle animation in the menu of Star Trek Encounters? When you're trying to choose whether you want to play skirmish or one on one, etc, there's a shot of random enemy ships all firing on DS9 and it fires back, as well as other Federation ships defending.

 

[Smellmet]

Klingon K'T'inga(s) battling Kirk's 1701-Refit/1701-A in a prolonged brutal battle. Not just the limited WOK simulator or TUC limited engagement.

Oh hell yes. Something I always wanted to see. My two favourite ships going at it. Shame we never got to see it.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Standoff space combat with multiple semi-autonomous drones, missiles and PDCs as depicted in the minigame within the game "Mission Critical".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Critical_(video_game)#Gameplay

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Training missions at 1 hour 53 minutes (&t=113m); battle at 2 hours.

Rail guns -- unless stealth projectiles are used, perhaps too easy to dodge out of the way at long distance -- more useful against static targets? All lower tech than usually depicted in Trek, of course.

 

[Forbin]

Well, the problem with Trek (post-TOS) battle scenes is that the writers were liberal arts majors with no clue about military matters. Probably with the usual showbiz disdain for the military. So we were never going to see actual sensible battle tactics.

 

[Forbin]

It would have been cool to see a "sink the Bismark" style episode with that new big Dominion battleship they had. To see a fleet of Starfleet ships desperately trying to destroy this ship. And devote the entire episode to just this --no dramatic filler.


Or just have an entire episode devoted to a fleet battle. See the characters actually call these ships by their names.To see the attacks, the counter attacks. And to finally see what the new ships they designed could actually do. Again, no dramatic fillers, just a solid hour of seeing what a fleet battle looks like.

That would be coolness.

To tell ya the truth, all that without any character moments gets kind of boring. I started reading a series of military sci fi books a few years ago that was nothing but space battle after space battle. The characters did nothing but give and/or follow commands. We learned nothing of their personalities or personal lives. Just battles. I made it thru the first book, tried the second, and got bored to death halfway thru.