Seems to me that there are only so many directions a ship moving at impulse power can go in. Does anyone know how many there are and what the actual maneuvers involve (roughly speaking). What is the most commonly used maneuver. Evasive maneuver omega six was used by Paris a few times I think Was the maneuver invented by Picard (where it jumps to warp in a small space) an evasive maneuver
I don't know that there's a set number; I'm sure there are several that are used more often than others, but I've always interpreted evasive maneuvers (and attack maneuvers) as being similar to diagramming plays in football and basketball--in theory, any type of maneuver designed to help a ship elude another vessel could be considered a form of evasion. Specific situations (i.e., near a planet vs open space) might call for certain types of maneuvers that wouldn't work under different circumstances. Specific types of ships may be capable of more maneuvers than other types (because of superior speed, shields or weapons). --Sran
Evasive maneuvers would depend on the capabilities of individual ships, I would guess. What might work for a Constitution class might not work for a Sovereign. There may not be a standardized list of maneuvers by code name. I always suspected various maneuvers were defined and authorized for use by a ship's captain.
Given how slow battles in the Star Trek universe seem to be, they never made much sense to me anyway...
42. Attack pattern Alpha seems to be a popular one. But like many things there are as many patterns as the plot needs there to be, and of course some patterns might have been renamed over the years.
It would make sense for there to be a lot of "attack" maneuvers because you're in control so you can decide any number of things you might want to do but surely there is a limit to evasive maneuvers since you're on the defensive. It would stand to reason that the pilot is familiar with all (if not most) evasive maneuvers so he can quickly assess the best option (or submit to the captain's choice of evasive maneuver) If ships are coming in and attacking from the right then presumably it make sense to employ an evasive maneuver that moves the ship to the left.....yes? Is jumping to warp "evasive maneuver alpha one"? As someone already mentioned, because impulse power is actually quite slow, the evasive maneuvers seem essentially ineffective (i've noticed most ships continue to get shot after evasive maneuvers are made).....so it's purely an exercise in increasing your chances by maybe 2% or something Dunno...it's interesting though
I assume the code names don't refer to anything terribly specific but instead are general descriptions, with the details of how to execute them left up to the flight controller.
Evasive Pattern Captain Obvious: When main power and weapons are out. And your facing an opponent that can only fire in one direction. Move out of the way. Then beam aboard a phaser on overload.
I like that one. In Enterprises episode 'E2' they were also using the Transporter to yank critical parts out of the other ship. I think the commands for evasive maneuvers sometimes are classic/historic (the Picard Maneuver) or unique to the command crew. The Captain predetermines with the Conn certain code words meaning certain maneuvers ("Riker 3") and the Conn understands that to mean arc to port and rotate the ship's axis 90 degrees... They function like calling out football plays before the snap. What it does really do is simplify the movie- instead of a string of commands to move the ship in battle, they just give a command code and we see what the SFX team decide which cool maneuver for the ship to make in post production editing...
^^ Some strings of commands used in TOS just didn't make any sense. A classic example in "Elaan of Troyus" when Kirk orders Sulu to cut in warp power and pivot the ship at Warp 2. WTF? The ship would just be rotating on it's vertical axis. Not actually going anywhere yet. Now if Kirk was ordering the ship to come about 180 degrees on a parabolic course to engage the enemy that just passed him that would make sense. But that's not what Kirk said.
Well, there's the evasive move you should have started before and now it's too late and you're taking damage, and there's the evasive move you started just in time to narrowly escape taking damage, and that's about it.