The Prometheus - rather unnecessary bling

[Captain_Nick]

Just saw Message in a Bottle for the first time. Love a good Doctor ep.

Why did Starfleet think that a starship that breaks up into pieces during battle was a good idea. So it can attack from three different directions at once, big deal. They should have taken all that time and money and invested it in shields that don't collapse to 28% after one hit. Or maybe photon torpedoes that hit their intended targets, or phasers that can damage Romulan ships.

'Ooooh look at my ship, it's so cool, it breaks up into pieces'

Sik mate!

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Just because science can do X doesn't mean they can take all the money and brainpower spent learning how to do X and magically do Y with it.

 

[Captain_Nick]

You're kidding.

Slightly better weapons systems are harder to develop than a ship that breaks into pieces and does synchronised battle acrobatics? No

The Prometheus was a show off piece, nothing more. Bling!

 

[Captain_Nick]

Voyagers shields are more powerful than the Prometheus. They usually only collapse to 50% or thereabouts after the first hit.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I think you have Prometheus envy. It's really not that big you know.

 

[Saga]

The Prometheus is cool, don't be hatin'. Besides, Starfleet didn't spend any money on Prometheus.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

It was to one up the Enterprise D which could break into 2 pieces... only 1 of which was the warship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWuYgm2G8CA

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWuYgm2G8CA[/yt]

 

[T'Girl]

The US military has fire-teams composed of four soldiers, obviously they should have fire-teams with just one really big soldier.

 

[Captain_Nick]

A better analogy would be that of a fire soldier who's arms and legs can break off and attack and how unneccesary that is.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I always looked at the Prometheus as being an experiment. I think it's even possible that if the design goes into mass production, subsequent Prometheus-class ships may not feature the MVAM if Starfleet decides its better just to have a high-speed cruiser.

IMO, Starfleet could just build more smaller starships (slightly smaller than the Defiant-class) that could engage enemy forces from multiple vectors.

 

[Saul]

Well it's kinda a good point. Why not just build 3 ships instead of having one that will need time to break into 3 before it can attack. Common sense aside it's rather cool. What I found interesting was that it didn't really need a crew. Just set your attack pattern and let it do all the hard work.

 

[The Badger]

Don't forget that, in addition to MVAM, the Prometheus is also said to be faster than anything else in the Fleet. Perhaps the multiple warp systems are responsible for this, and to build a single ship with that speed would require three sets of engines anyway.

Perhaps then, rather than one ship that can split into three, the Prometheus can be seen as three ships that can combine into one. In effect, a small fleet that can join together for exceptional speed and range, making it ideal for rapid response to emerging situations.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

You could be hitting all different sides of a single ship at once, it was obviously more of an attack vessel meant to overwhelm with force than settle in for the long battle. Imagine if there was a Prometheus class in the Nemesis battle/

 

[C.E. Evans]

Of course, if one segment of the ship is destroyed or damaged beyond the point of repair, then you're stuck with two-thirds of a starship until a new segment is built.

 

[F. King Daniel]

A better analogy would be that of a fire soldier who's arms and legs can break off and attack and how unneccesary that is.

I take it you've never seen the animated Star Trek episode "Bem"?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I always found the Prometheus-Class to be somewhat pointless. Separating into three smaller sections seems unnecessarily complicated--why not send in half a dozen Defiant's instead? Pulse phasers, quantum torpedoes, easily upgraded with ablative armour, small silhouette to hit, can be operated with only a crew of 40 (probably less if need be). Or if you want multiple attackers from various angles, invest in starfighters.

 

[Saul]

Don't forget that, in addition to MVAM, the Prometheus is also said to be faster than anything else in the Fleet. Perhaps the multiple warp systems are responsible for this, and to build a single ship with that speed would require three sets of engines anyway.

Perhaps then, rather than one ship that can split into three, the Prometheus can be seen as three ships that can combine into one. In effect, a small fleet that can join together for exceptional speed and range, making it ideal for rapid response to emerging situations.

Which sounds a bit like Power rangers, combining all the Zords makes them more powerful.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Don't forget that, in addition to MVAM, the Prometheus is also said to be faster than anything else in the Fleet. Perhaps the multiple warp systems are responsible for this, and to build a single ship with that speed would require three sets of engines anyway.

Perhaps then, rather than one ship that can split into three, the Prometheus can be seen as three ships that can combine into one. In effect, a small fleet that can join together for exceptional speed and range, making it ideal for rapid response to emerging situations.

Interesting point. I've never seen it from this perspective. Good thinking!

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Don't forget that, in addition to MVAM, the Prometheus is also said to be faster than anything else in the Fleet. Perhaps the multiple warp systems are responsible for this, and to build a single ship with that speed would require three sets of engines anyway.

Perhaps then, rather than one ship that can split into three, the Prometheus can be seen as three ships that can combine into one. In effect, a small fleet that can join together for exceptional speed and range, making it ideal for rapid response to emerging situations.

Interesting point. I've never seen it from this perspective. Good thinking!

That is an interesting point.

Though with warp drive, I always think its more about endurance rather than speed. Seeing as how warp 10 is "unattainable" (or transforms you into mutant newts) unless the scale is changed, the ship that can hit and maintain warp 9.9 for longer would be better.

But thats just my thoughts.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Don't forget that, in addition to MVAM, the Prometheus is also said to be faster than anything else in the Fleet. Perhaps the multiple warp systems are responsible for this, and to build a single ship with that speed would require three sets of engines anyway.

Perhaps then, rather than one ship that can split into three, the Prometheus can be seen as three ships that can combine into one. In effect, a small fleet that can join together for exceptional speed and range, making it ideal for rapid response to emerging situations.

Interesting point. I've never seen it from this perspective. Good thinking!

That is an interesting point.

Though with warp drive, I always think its more about endurance rather than speed. Seeing as how warp 10 is "unattainable" (or transforms you into mutant newts) unless the scale is changed, the ship that can hit and maintain warp 9.9 for longer would be better.

But thats just my thoughts.

Yeah, I don't think it's a case of more warp cores mean faster speeds, but rather how efficient the engines are in general (regardless of the number of cores or nacelles). By 2389, there probably are ships even faster than the Prometheus-class now.