Borg and Trek Weaponry

[Jimboa22]

This question was posed in a forum I frequent and no answer has been given so far, so I thought I would pose it here since there are far more Trek aficionados here.

The Borg drones are tough opponents due to their ability to adapt to Trek standard weapons (like phasers and whatnot). So, this begs the question: why don't Federation ships keep a cache of projectile weaponry on board their ships in case they encounter Borg drones? Seems to me that shotguns, magnums, handguns, M60's, and other weapons that operate based on tearing the target to pieces with bits of metal will be far more effective than energy weapons that will *at best* get off a few shots before becoming worthless.

This question is especially glaring in Star Trek: First Contact. Picard knew what was going on in his ship; you'd think that he would grab some "primitive" weapons that would be more effective against Borg than phasers and phase rifles. I know the Borg have body armor, but there are armor-piercing rounds and body armor doesn't make you bullet-proof.

Besides, they don't seem to have any head protection...

 

[Deks]

The whole idea of Borg drones armor not being bullet proof is stupid in it's own.
They body armor of the drones consists of materials that can withstand virtually anything, and is able to project a forcefield among other things ... and you're telling me that primitive weapons would have an effect on them ?
No.
Picard if anything knew the Borg were adaptable, so why not replicate a primitive projectile gun in the process to fight them ?
Answer: because the Borg would adapt eventually and it wouldn't make a difference ... however, with energy weapons you get to modify them much better in comparison to the primitive ones which might just get you alive out of a situation

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Yeah, I think the Borg would quickly adapt to bullets once they encountered them.

Of course, the Borg are as vulnerable as the plot, so who knows?

 

[Jimboa22]

The whole idea of Borg drones armor not being bullet proof is stupid in it's own.
They body armor of the drones consists of materials that can withstand virtually anything, and is able to project a forcefield among other things ... and you're telling me that primitive weapons would have an effect on them ?
No.
Picard if anything knew the Borg were adaptable, so why not replicate a primitive projectile gun in the process to fight them ?
Answer: because the Borg would adapt eventually and it wouldn't make a difference ... however, with energy weapons you get to modify them much better in comparison to the primitive ones which might just get you alive out of a situation

If I'm not mistaken, Trek canon specifically states that the energy adapters Borgs have only adapt to energy weapons. Plus, Picard let loose on a couple of Borg with a Tommy Gun, which according to the rules he programmed made it pretty much the real thing.

Borg drones cannot ignore the laws of physics. The guns we have today can shred metal structures to bits and pieces in seconds - to say that a Borg drone's armor can withstand any artillary thrown at it is idiotic. True, the armor a drone has can make it a tough nut to crack, but given enough punishment, a drone will die. A little metal plating doesn't make you invincible. There is no such thing as "bullet proof," only degrees of resistance to conventional firearms any given object can handle - if you let loose on a drone with, say, an M-60 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M60_machine_gun), it's eventually going to die. No amount of armor can prevent the sheer physical force of hundreds of very large bullets from tearing off limbs, legs, tearing apart metal, etc. There's also a little thing called armor-piercing rounds, specifically designed to cut through and render armor useless.

Plus, their head is an extremely vulnerable target, devoid of any armor. If you shoot a drone in the face with a magnum, no technobabble will prevent its head from coming clean off. You saying that no conventional weaponry could harm a Borg shows that you have a shocking ignorance of how devastating "primitive" firearms can be.

 

[Deks]

Oh please.
We are talking about a race that was supposed to have been around for thousands of years.
The thought of the body armor the Borg have not being resistant to bullets is quite frankly idiotic because you cannot compare something as primitive we use today to what they use.
That's one thing, and for the other, a Borg drone is able to project a forcefield.
If the writers would simply add a bit of intelligence into it all, no primitive weapon similar to what is used today would be able to harm them, period.

Granted that shooting them in the head or exposed areas could slow them down, but not using forcefields in any environment that could make them lose some drones is utterly illogical.

 

[Jimboa22]

Oh please.
We are talking about a race that was supposed to have been around for thousands of years.
The thought of the body armor the Borg have not being resistant to bullets is quite frankly idiotic because you cannot compare something as primitive we use today to what they use.
That's one thing, and for the other, a Borg drone is able to project a forcefield.
If the writers would simply add a bit of intelligence into it all, no primitive weapon similar to what is used today would be able to harm them, period.

Granted that shooting them in the head or exposed areas could slow them down, but not using forcefields in any environment that could make them lose some drones is utterly illogical.

Idiotic? Picard Tomy-Gunned down a couple of drones on the holodeck using protocal measures that made the gun work the same way a period Tommy Gun would. It doesn't matter how old the race is - they are about the same size of a human being, and thus have a limitation to how effectively that armor will protect them. For example, the bigger an object is, the more difficult it is to destroy, and thus the more armor will be able to protect it. For something the size of a Borg drone, it won't take that much physical force to simply destroy one; I.E. a weapon that is able to tear a tank to shreds would easily have a greater effect on a smaller object like a drone. And I didn't say they wouldn't be resistant to bullets. I said that they would be more vulnerable to bullets than those crappy energy weapons that work for one or two shots before being worthless.

Also, your arrogance is astounding. Just because something is primitive doesn't mean it's ineffective. Modern guns may not have the technology level that phasers have, but the fact remains that physical damage still has a great deal of impact.

When have the Borg ever used personal force fields you describe? I've never seen them use such a device in any canon episode. Also, their body armor wasn't enough to stop a bladed weapon from severing limbs. Plus, do you have any idea at the resources that would be required to give every single Borg drone (of which there are trillions) armor thck enough to withstand a barrage of armor-piercing rounds?

The Borg are physically tougher than your average human being, but they're not the unstoppable juggernauts that you're making them out to be. Nothing shown on the show suggests that; hell, individual drones have been shown to be taken out in hand-to-hand combat! And like I said, guns and firearms may be primitive, but they're also exceedingly effective at destruction. You just waving them off because they don't have flashy special effects like a phaser does is what is illogical.

 

[Timo]

If I'm not mistaken, Trek canon specifically states that the energy adapters Borgs have only adapt to energy weapons.

Nope.

Plus, Picard let loose on a couple of Borg with a Tommy Gun, which according to the rules he programmed made it pretty much the real thing.

Which proves what? One can always kill a couple of Borg with weapon X, be it a submachine gun, a phaser, a laser, or a knife. Then they adapt.

...they are about the same size of a human being, and thus have a limitation to how effectively that armor will protect them.

This most definitely isn't a law of physics. And certainly not when speaking of Trek forcefield technology.

Plus, do you have any idea at the resources that would be required to give every single Borg drone (of which there are trillions) armor thck enough to withstand a barrage of armor-piercing rounds?

No doubt trivially small. As compared with everything else the Borg do, that is.

But surely the Borg wouldn't be using primitive physical armor, not when forcefields are available and most definitely highly effective against kinetic threats.

You do have a point here, though (without realizing it). The individual Borg Drone apparently does not carry the needless ballast of every conceivable survival measure against every conceivable threat. Instead, the basic Drone is highly vulnerable to all types of weaponry - but by succumbing to such weaponry, it allows the next Drone to adapt and become invulnerable.

There is no weapon type that has consistently fared well against the Borg. On the other hand, there are few weapon types that would not work on the Borg initially. Even the standard hand phaser always works on the first few Drones in a given firefight, quite regardless of the fact that the Borg Collective has fought many such firefights in its long history (billions, probably). Naturally the Tommy-gun would work for the first few shots, too.

And like I said, guns and firearms may be primitive, but they're also exceedingly effective at destruction. You just waving them off because they don't have flashy special effects like a phaser does is what is illogical.

No, we're waving them off because they have done nothing to deserve the glory you want to give them, against onscreen evidence.

And guns aren't "exceedingly effective" at destruction when compared with phasers. They are better than bows and arrows, to be sure, but the phaser of Star Trek obviously is the superior weapon in all respects save for one: vulnerability to magical "power-draining fields".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jimboa22]

You guys remind me of the Jaffa in SG1 who stubbornly refuse to use human weapons against the Replicators and they become shocked when their staff weapons and zats don't even slow the mechanical bugs down.

If I'm not mistaken, Trek canon specifically states that the energy adapters Borgs have only adapt to energy weapons.

Nope.

Yep. That green "force field" isn't a force field - it's an energy absorbtion device, which means that if you're using energy weapons against it, then it will eventually find the frequency and adapt to harmlessly absorb phase weaponry. It does not do anything against physical objects, nor does it stop physical attacks such as swords (like the ones Klingons like to use), hand-to-hand combat, or getting hit by actual physical objects, like bullets.

The only drone that has ever displayed the ability to create personal force fields was the special one that grew from a freak accident with The Doctor's holographic emmiter. Normal drones existing in the time of Picard don't have that kind of tech.

Which proves what? One can always kill a couple of Borg with weapon X, be it a submachine gun, a phaser, a laser, or a knife. Then they adapt.

They only adapt to energy weapons, specifically by finding the frequency of the weapon being used against them and adjusting their personal energy absorbtion devices. They're not going to "adapt" to getting clubbed over the head, for example.

This most definitely isn't a law of physics. And certainly not when speaking of Trek forcefield technology.

Again you speak of these mythical forcefields. Drones don't have magical force fields that they can project wherever they want; the force fields used on Borg ships are security measures that are built into the ship itself, not used by drones.

No doubt trivially small. As compared with everything else the Borg do, that is.

But surely the Borg wouldn't be using primitive physical armor, not when forcefields are available and most definitely highly effective against kinetic threats.

Again, the force fields that don't exist?

There is no weapon type that has consistently fared well against the Borg.

Yes there is: melee weapons always work against the Borg. The Borg are stronger than most of their opponents, but the simple fact is that hitting them with physical objects always works. Not well, mind you, but no one who has ever used melee, hand-to-hand tactics against a drone has been stopped by their trademark green energy absorber. Projectile weaponry works on the same principle of physical objects colliding with objects, just at significantly higher speeds with significantly greater effect.

No, we're waving them off because they have done nothing to deserve the glory you want to give them, against onscreen evidence.

They'd work a lot better than those phasers you're so fond of. You use the right tool for the right job; in the case of the Borg, you use projectile weaponry because they can't be stopped by an energy absorber.

And guns aren't "exceedingly effective" at destruction when compared with phasers. They are better than bows and arrows, to be sure, but the phaser of Star Trek obviously is the superior weapon in all respects save for one: vulnerability to magical "power-draining fields".

Timo Saloniemi

Right...phasers are superior because they give you unlimited ammo and they give you options for what you want to do to your opponent (stun or kill). Projectile weapons are limited by the need for ammo replentishment, and the fact that if you use a gun on your opponent, you're going to do him either serious harm or cause death.

But if you're up against a species that specifically adapts to your energy-based weapons, then it's time to use something more effective. By the way, more advanced =/= better. Case in point? Those force fields they use in Federation prisons. Yes, it's very smart to use a method of imprisonment that vanishes the second you get a power outage (/sarcasm).

 

[Timo]

That green "force field" isn't a force field - it's an energy absorbtion device, which means that if you're using energy weapons against it, then it will eventually find the frequency and adapt to harmlessly absorb phase weaponry. It does not do anything against physical objects, nor does it stop physical attacks such as swords (like the ones Klingons like to use), hand-to-hand combat, or getting hit by actual physical objects, like bullets.

Heh. You are free to believe in the above, but please refrain from calling it "canon specifically states" and thus making an ass of yourself.

The only drone that has ever displayed the ability to create personal force fields was the special one that grew from a freak accident with The Doctor's holographic emmiter.

Har har. The very second Borg Drone shown, the one that intruded the Enterprise engineering in "Q Who?" after its predecessor had been gunned down, already sported the trademark faceted, transparent, phaser-stopping forcefield. The same field also prevented anybody from physically harrassing the Drone as it completed its scouting mission.

They only adapt to energy weapons, specifically by finding the frequency of the weapon being used against them and adjusting their personal energy absorbtion devices. They're not going to "adapt" to getting clubbed over the head, for example.

Bullshit again. They readily adapted e.g. to photon torpedoes, which are simple kaboom devices. Which is no wonder, because standard Starfleet forcefield shields protecting the hero starships already very blatantly display the ability to resist conventional kabooms, or physical intrusions. The Borg just fine-tune that concept (and possibly add a bit of brute force, too).

It should be admitted that the Borg use a wide variety of fields to deal with varying threats. In "BoBW", their Cube had a field that prevented transporting but didn't drain energy. In various other episodes, including the later moments of the introductory "Q Who?", the Cubes have sported fields that stop phasers and photon torpedoes. They also wield a number of different weapons - a shield-draining pulse in that apparently doesn't do much other damage, a cutting laser, a tractor beam that also adversely affects shields, a "conventional-looking" energy bolt gun that causes kaboom on Montana turf and concrete bunkers, and so forth. It's difficult to know what to expect of the Borg at any given time - the only constant is that after a while of adaptation, the Borg will be wielding the tools most suited for countering the threat of the moment.

Again you speak of these mythical forcefields.

Insofar as Star Trek is a myth, yes. You should watch the show some day. It's pretty good.

..melee weapons always work against the Borg.

Not markedly better than any other type of weapon. You manage to take out a handful, and then they adapt. (Not necessarily technologically, but simply by adopting a new tactic. Such as in ST:FC, where Worf's attempts at battering his opponents with a phaser butt soon grow hopeless.)

Case in point? Those force fields they use in Federation prisons.

AKA the anti-kinetic-attack, anti-melee forcefield defense. Yes, a case in point indeed.

Wholly agreed that whenever dealing with the Borg, it's always time to try something new. So once you've tried a Tommy-gun, you'd better not try it again.

Wholly agreed also that projectile guns and phasers have different strong and weak points. However, in terms of destructive effect, the weakest hand phaser seems to defeat the most powerful projectile handgun imaginable, which is what my last comments referred to.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[ticktock]

The whole idea of Borg drones armor not being bullet proof is stupid in it's own.
They body armor of the drones consists of materials that can withstand virtually anything, and is able to project a forcefield among other things ... and you're telling me that primitive weapons would have an effect on them ?
No.
Picard if anything knew the Borg were adaptable, so why not replicate a primitive projectile gun in the process to fight them ?
Answer: because the Borg would adapt eventually and it wouldn't make a difference ... however, with energy weapons you get to modify them much better in comparison to the primitive ones which might just get you alive out of a situation

Adapt to a hand grenade?

no.

Force field or no you cannot adapt to concussion.

example you are in a lift.

the cable snaps at 1000 feet up.

lift hits bottom.

you are still dead even though the lift is made of solid steel and remains intact.

you internal organs will be pulp.

do you see?

 

[Timo]

Force field or no you cannot adapt to concussion.

Sure you can. All you need to defeat is Newton's laws of motion. And it's explicit in Star Trek that their technology allows for exactly that.

Tractor beams are a good example of technology that looks like a flashy, VFX-based towing cable, but in fact acts in a completely different manner, there being no Newtonian reaction to the action. Cancelling of inertia is standard fare for various Trek devices, too. And the old Mythbuster pearl, "you can't throw your opponent through the window with a shotgun blast", is also busted thanks to Treknology - see the flying Klingon in ST3 for starters...

Overall, it's sort of funny that one would argue that forcefields can only stop "energy" weapons and must be powerless against projectile ones. In the real world, we know perfectly well how to use a forcefield to stop a projectile: all we need is a gadaful lot of that field, be it electric or magnetic in primary nature, and off the incoming bullet spirals. In contrast, we don't have the faintest idea of how to stop a laser with such a field.

(However, if we could create a strong gravitic field, it would be a very good defense against both projectiles and EM radiation such as lasers. And Trek is very good with artificial gravity, that much we know. Backstage sources such as the TNG Tech Manual explicitly credit the power of starship shields to gravitic trickery, portraying the shields as "gravitons" suspended in a "subspace trench" of some sort.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[ticktock]

Force field or no you cannot adapt to concussion.

Sure you can. All you need to defeat is Newton's laws of motion. And it's explicit in Star Trek that their technology allows for exactly that.

Tractor beams are a good example of technology that looks like a flashy, VFX-based towing cable, but in fact acts in a completely different manner, there being no Newtonian reaction to the action. Cancelling of inertia is standard fare for various Trek devices, too. And the old Mythbuster pearl, "you can't throw your opponent through the window with a shotgun blast", is also busted thanks to Treknology - see the flying Klingon in ST3 for starters...

Overall, it's sort of funny that one would argue that forcefields can only stop "energy" weapons and must be powerless against projectile ones. In the real world, we know perfectly well how to use a forcefield to stop a projectile: all we need is a gadaful lot of that field, be it electric or magnetic in primary nature, and off the incoming bullet spirals. In contrast, we don't have the faintest idea of how to stop a laser with such a field.

(However, if we could create a strong gravitic field, it would be a very good defense against both projectiles and EM radiation such as lasers. And Trek is very good with artificial gravity, that much we know. Backstage sources such as the TNG Tech Manual explicitly credit the power of starship shields to gravitic trickery, portraying the shields as "gravitons" suspended in a "subspace trench" of some sort.)

Timo Saloniemi

only for starships.

 

[Delta1]

If I'm not mistaken, Trek canon specifically states that the energy adapters Borgs have only adapt to energy weapons. Plus, Picard let loose on a couple of Borg with a Tommy Gun, which according to the rules he programmed made it pretty much the real thing.

Most of this has been addressed already, so I'll just point out that you're assuming an awful lot about how Picard (or, more likely, codemonkeys at id Games) programmed the Tommy gun. You don't know whether it was an accurately-replicated Thompson submachinegun with ammunition, or if it fired blanks while the holodeck replicated bullets in midflight with user-defined ballistics, or if there was no projectile at all and the damage was caused by hitscan tractor beams. I favor the second option--the user has the thrill of firing a realistic model of the gun, while the holodeck replicates harmless Nerf balls along the Tommy gun's trajectory. Turn off the safeties, and your Nerf balls can become armor-penetrating unobtanium slugs.

 

[Timo]

In the end, one is still left to wonder why Picard went the Rube Goldberg route in acquiring this weapon. Sure, he was unarmed (his hand phaser had just become worthless) and separated from his crew, but he was stranded aboard his own starship. Surely there should have been a wealth of options for rearming himself.

That he picked a preexisting holosimulation (with all the unnecessary fluff) suggests that he also picked a readymade weapon, having neither the time nor the resources to modify it.

All the above speculation about how such a readymade holo-gun would work seems valid, then, and it would indeed make the most sense if the gun were "faked" as much as possible, for player safety, rather than meticuously replicated to function like the real deal. Whether removal of safeties from such a fakery would then result in a "standardly lethal" submachine gun, or perhaps some exotically behaving contraption, is subject to argument...

Personally, I feel Picard went for the holodeck because he could think of no other readily available source of exotic weaponry close to him. And he picked the projectile gun because he was familiar with it. He would have wanted a ranged weapon, so the epee he was also skilled with was out of the question. But he wouldn't know the sharp end of an arrow from the feathered one, as "Qpid" shows, so assorted bows (while quite lethal) would be out as well. And we have no reason to assume he would be skilled in any other specific type of ranged weapon in the holo-arsenal, either. The Tommy-gun just came very naturally for the character.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Timo]

...only for starships.

And shuttles. And turbolifts. And, as ST5:TFF would have us believe, gravitic boots.

In the Trek universe, Newton is dead and the Borg Drones have as much right as anybody else to dance on his grave. We know that they don't budge when hit with the blast of a phaser, not if their personal forcefields are up. And we have no reason to assume that a phaser would deliver less kinetic energy than a Tommy-gun.

That's a classic problem in this sort of discussion: what sort of magic does the "energy weapon" phaser really represent? Some like to think of it as a wussy ray of light that only harms its target through some peculiar pseudo-physical process that can be turned off by countermeasure X. But whenever we see phasers hit their unshielded targets, they clearly pack the kinetic punch of a military rifle, or more. Often enough, they send their victims sprawling backwards as if pulled by wires (which, of course, is what really happens on stage) - something that the said military rifle would be hard pressed to cause, and also something that would send the operator of the rifle flying backwards as well unless well braced. Phasers appear to be superior kinetic weapons in that respect!

Okay, perhaps the terminology needs a bit of fine-tuning. Perhaps only a projectile gun should be called "kinetic", and the undeniable mechanical kick that the phaser hit gives is more akin to the kick given by exploding bullets, a type of attack not necessarily considered "kinetic" in today's terms. But this has little bearing on the end result: in order to withstand phaser beams, the Borg necessarily have to be able to take a massive kinetic hit without budging. What chance, then, does a pitiful .45 pistol round flying at subsonic speeds stand, when the Drones are witnessed shrugging off a kinetic effect readily comparable to the hit of an uranium slug from a .50 cal anti-armor rifle?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jimboa22]

The Borg in Q Who must have been a freak, or a special case, because the force field that was in operation was never used again. If the Borg truly could adapt to anything under the sun, they would long be immune to melee attacks before the events of ST:FC, or any sort of physical harm. Since they can still be attacked in hand-to-hand combat, it's very safe to assume that drones do not have personal force fields unless they are specifically given them for scouting missions like in Q Who.

As for them shrugging off constant head battering in ST:FC, that was because Worf was tiring out, not because they were "adapting" to getting hammered in the head.

Also, your assertation that phasers are superior because they don't kick is idiotic - light, or energy, is not a physical force and does not "kick." Those on the recieving end, on the other hand, are recieving a powerful concentrated burst of energy so sure they would get flung back. But Phasers are not more powerful than projectile weapons because of this - look at the aftermath of fights in any Trek episodes - the walls have a few scorch marks, but nothing more. If it were a fight with projectile weapons, there would be chunks of wall missing, perhaps entire sections of wall torn apart. Yes, I know the Trek walls are made out of metal, but that's what projectile weapons do - bullets can tear metal to shreds. Anyone who watches "Future Weapons" or any other show on Discovery channel about military weapons has a healthy respect for how powerful modern weaponry really is. Also, what the hell are photon tordepos supposed to be as far as explosive yield? Because PT's aren't even half as powerful as our modern nukes are, and I would have to assume that in the future, nuclear weapons will only get more powerful instead of less.

Why don't the Borg get kicked back when shot by phasers? Because their suit absorbs it whole - hell, once a drone adapts to a phaser, shooting it might even make it stronger since they're basically taking the energy from the weapon and absorbing it.

 

[Blueicus]

Remember that Worf built a crude forcefield that deflected holographic-safety-protocol-off bullets in A Fistful of Datas, similar to the tommy gun bullets in FC.

 

[Jimboa22]

Remember that Worf built a crude forcefield that deflected holographic-safety-protocol-off bullets in A Fistful of Datas, similar to the tommy gun bullets in FC.

Again, why don't they deploy such technology more often? Seems to me that "invincible to everything" personal forcefields would come in handy more than just one episode. Also, I would assume that there would be limitations to such tech, as the more force a force field has to deflect, the more power it must eat up to maintain it.

 

[Deks]

When Voyager came into range of U.S.S. Raven's homing beacon, it activated 7 of 9's nanoprobes which began to multiply and she felt compelled to reach the source of the signal.
On her route to the shuttlebay, she was fired at by the security detail with phasers which had 0 effect since she had Borg shields (forcefield) around her body.
She also used it to go through a level 9 forcefield in a scene after that (or was it before ...) ... anyway, she was also kicked back a bit by phaser fire.
And of course if the forcefield absorbs the incoming energy they won't budge.
Although, in several episodes, they were kicked back slightly even after fully absorbing the phaser beam.

All in all, in the long run, how exactly can you modify a projectile weapon to behave differently in comparison to a phaser beam or pulse ?
An energy weapon you can modify a heck of a lot on the spot giving you a possible edge to escape a tight situation ... how exactly do you do such quick changes to a projectile weapon ?
On the run, you can't.
You can even set your phaser or riffle on overload.
Can you do the same with a projectile gun ?
Unless it has it's own energy matrix or battery that can be overloaded (and take out a whole building with it) then it cannot be done.

 

[Jimboa22]

When Voyager came into range of U.S.S. Raven's homing beacon, it activated 7 of 9's nanoprobes which began to multiply and she felt compelled to reach the source of the signal.
On her route to the shuttlebay, she was fired at by the security detail with phasers which had 0 effect since she had Borg shields (forcefield) around her body.
She also used it to go through a level 9 forcefield in a scene after that (or was it before ...) ... anyway, she was also kicked back a bit by phaser fire.
And of course if the forcefield absorbs the incoming energy they won't budge.
Although, in several episodes, they were kicked back slightly even after fully absorbing the phaser beam.

That's only once they've just adapted to it. In every episode where Borg were fought, the first few shots kill them outright, then the next few shots stun them or knock them back for a few seconds, but then every shot after that doesn't even make them flinch. It's because it takes them a bit to get used to the energy frequency, but once they are fully adapted, the energy weapon won't even make them budge.

With weapons based on physical force, there's nothing to adapt to - a bullet, for example, doesn't have a "frequency," so their energy absorbers can't help them. Star Trek, however, never attempts to utilize simple solutions to a problem - the more complicated the solution, the more techno-babble utilized, the better (or at least, that's how the writers seem to think). Like I mentioned a few posts above, the photon torpedo, for example, is based on some very advanced tech, but the results they produce are less effective than some of the non-nuclear missles are capable of today. The weakest, lowest yielding nukes we have today, for example, do a significantly greater amount of damage than the PT's do. But the show will never utilize nukes because the technology behind them doesn't *SEEM* as advanced nor does it sound as cool to the viewer (what sounds cooler and more geek-tastic? "photon torpedo" or "nuke"? Yep, photon torpedo, so that's what they use).