Hey. No. You know Star Trek fans aren't allowed to have fun. We have to be solemn and contemplative when it comes to matters of beams or bolts and the speeds they travel.
Do you prefer Phaser beams or bolts?
- Thread starter ED-209
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Ironically they travel at the speed of fun.
Whole lotta splat going on in modern Trek. I love the beams that make shit disappear when you fire them. Now those are powerful! These pew-pew bolts are absolutely ridiculous.
I suppose "phase cannons" is a bit of a misnomer since they don't exactly hurl individual projectiles outward. Lord knows I wouldn't care to be targeted by a "photonic cannon"', however.
I suppose "phase cannons" is a bit of a misnomer since they don't exactly hurl individual projectiles outward. Lord knows I wouldn't care to be targeted by a "photonic cannon"', however.
I concur for practical tactical reasons. But it depends on the application & situation.
They can travel at SoL when the vessel isn't at Warp Speeds, but that's usually from emitters mounted on vessels in the Shuttle / StarShip class with larger reactors attached to them to propel the particles to Speed of Light.
I've never seen weapons travel at FTL unless the vessel they're emitting from is at Warp.
We've obviously seen Phasers and other non-light based Energy Weapons (The entire Disruptor family) travel at FAR slower speeds. The Defiant's Phaser Cannons, Klingon Bird of Prey's Wing-Tip mounted Disruptors. Most Phasers having a Beginning/Ending to their beam travel on screen.
Speed of DEW (Directed Energy Weapon) emission is end user controllable via the Computerized FCS (Fire Control System).
Since there is no "Free lunch" in physics, I'm pretty sure it'll cost them more energy to send the particles faster down-stream to the target. It's not a huge energy cost, but it should be noticeable to the overall energy cost to generate said particles for emission out of your Energy Weapons.
For hand held Energy Weapons, I'd keep the Directed Energy weapons speeds closer to modern day FireArms speeds.
At those speeds, for obvious energy cost reasons, VFX simplicity & familiarity, and similarity to current modern combat.
This way you only need to figure out how to dodge bullets for the stunt work.
Just look at what happened to Bejayzel when Seven turned her into "Chunky Salsa" on S1 of ST: Picard.
My favorite "pew pew" Starfleet weapons are the pre-Federation EM-33 pistols. I really wish they'd remained ENT's primary sidearm and we hadn't gotten phase pistols but at least they're in the continuity and still in use by MACOs and other Starfleet officers during that period.
The weapons in the DISCO MU were pretty badass.
Not a fan of the Dominion, period.
I just love the optically printed ones. Those beams were magnificent ray-gun quality.
Interesting.Not a fan of the Dominion, period.
I just love the optically printed ones. Those beams were magnificent ray-gun quality.
Because of this thread i watched TWOK, and it never clicked with me before, but my god those federation phases in this movie are torture device going by the screams of the poor scientist and Terrell, hell even the ceti eel screamed in agony before it went. Lol
Yeah, they do the peripheral nervous system no favors, those phasers. Ceti eel-squeal really puts it over the top.
Remember the time Beverly Crusher phaser drilled a hole through that menacing alien and we could see through him to the wall behind him?
They have a little Babylon 5 look to them
Now there could be a reason as to why the beams/bolts aren’t nearly instant…they aren’t laser beams but lasers themselves? A shaft/punch of superheated gas with the laser bouncing back and forth inside that bolt instead of a ruby. Soon as it hits an object..it hits/envelopes same…or something
They aren't LASERS (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation), ergo they're particle weapons of sorts that need to be accelerated, and if you want your particle weapons to go to "Speed of Light" traveling distance, they need to be accelerated to that speed, ergo it costs some amount of energy to accelerate your particles in your particle weapons (The content of which exotic particles doesn't really matter for the sake of argument).
Something Non-LASER based Particle Weapons Small Arms probably doesn't have the battery / energy output / Compact & Light weight man portable or wieldable equipment necessary to accomplish.
Something that is probably reserved for ShuttleCraft to StarShip sized weaponry due to the high energy requirements, larger & heavier equipment to pull off Particle Weapon emission near SoL muzzle speeds.
Once, probably 40 years or more ago, I was at a question and answer period during a convention. A child asked Dorothy Fonta how phaser beams could be used between spaceships travelling at warp speeds if phaser beams travel at the speed of light. And Fontana asked him who said that phaser beams only travel a the speed of light.
So at that moment that particular creator of TOS claimed that phaser beams use faster than light energy or particles. And of course the subspace spectrum mentioned in some TNG episodes implies that subspace radio uses faster than light radiation. And intense enough beams of faster than light radiation might make efective faster than light ray guns.
On the other hand, a writers guide for TNG claimed that phasers were almost usesless at warp drive and that photo torpedoes would be the usual weapon used while travelling at warp drim. This implies that phaser energyprobably traveled at the speed of light.
Indeed.
And this is what popped in to my head in my contemplations:
Putting a Calvin and Hobbes strip in a thread is always the right thing to do.
StarShips travel at the speed of light by moving the local space around them at FTL speeds by warping space with warp drive.
Yes, but from what I can tell, Subspace Radio is literally our modern day Radio Waves, shunted through subspace and received with transceivers that are listening in on Subspace for those specific Radio Waves.
When you send EM radiation in Subspace, it generally doesn't affect things in normal space.
The only particle in normal space that is FTL is Tachyons, which is normally associated with Time Travel.
Unless you plan on making a Tachyon Emitting pistol that sends whatever target it hits into another time & space.
Then I think you won't find any FTL particles that can be used as a standard DEW (Directed Energy Weapon).
I think phasers claimed massive range in Normal Space of "The maximum effective tactical range of ship's phasers is 300,000 kilometers." according to the ST:TNG Technical Manual is largely nerfed when you have to fight at FTL with Phasers due to the close range requirements.
Every battle at FTL that had Phasers were super close range, where you were literally close enough to peg the other ship with a baseball if you were standing in a space suit.
I think that I remember an episode of TNH where mention was made of the electromagnetic and subspace spectrums, implying that subspace radio was not just EM radiation sent through sublspace.
And of course there seems to be some kind of faster than light rader equivalent in Star Trek.
From what I can tell, the EM Spectrum is our natural EM Spectrum in normal space, just shunted through Subspace.
The major difference is that Subspace seems to have many different layers and isn't just one single layer. Ergo a Spectrum of Subspace.
Here's what Memory Alpha says about Subspace Communications
When you have FTL sensors, I wouldn't be surprised if their FTL RADAR works in similar ways.
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