what exactly are 'Evasive Manueavers'?
- Thread starter Clym
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I'd imagine a number of factors would constitute "evasive maneuvers", mostly being about how the ship in question is positioned relative to an opponent and their fields of fire.
It's hard to imagine literally "dodging" phaser fire at sub warp speeds, especially during the sort of close ranged combat we tend to see on screen. What is more likely is moving such that the enemy's weakest weapons are brought to bear, or ones that are currently reloading/recharging.
Torpedo fire is less clear as we have seen both directional and seeking types in canon. Again, literal avoidance of a particular torpedo seems to rely on unlikely reaction and sensing times, both for ships systems and the helmsman, but as you suggest random "jinking" maneuvers may well reduce the hit rates of projectiles.
I also imagine shield facings would be a factor, with maneuvering one's strongest/least drained shields to face the opponent.
I often think of starship combat in terms of boxing, where the times involved usually (not always) make attempting to react to each and every individual punch unrealistic. What you do is generally make yourself a difficult target by covering up, keeping mobile, moving in and out of punching range, shifting laterally to evade your opponents stronger shots and put them off balance chasing you, looking for predictable patterns and weaknesses in their style and ways to exploit them. Generally constantly trying to position oneself to a tactical advantage and avoid the greater percentage of threats.
It's hard to imagine literally "dodging" phaser fire at sub warp speeds, especially during the sort of close ranged combat we tend to see on screen. What is more likely is moving such that the enemy's weakest weapons are brought to bear, or ones that are currently reloading/recharging.
Torpedo fire is less clear as we have seen both directional and seeking types in canon. Again, literal avoidance of a particular torpedo seems to rely on unlikely reaction and sensing times, both for ships systems and the helmsman, but as you suggest random "jinking" maneuvers may well reduce the hit rates of projectiles.
I also imagine shield facings would be a factor, with maneuvering one's strongest/least drained shields to face the opponent.
I often think of starship combat in terms of boxing, where the times involved usually (not always) make attempting to react to each and every individual punch unrealistic. What you do is generally make yourself a difficult target by covering up, keeping mobile, moving in and out of punching range, shifting laterally to evade your opponents stronger shots and put them off balance chasing you, looking for predictable patterns and weaknesses in their style and ways to exploit them. Generally constantly trying to position oneself to a tactical advantage and avoid the greater percentage of threats.
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Moving so you don't get hit/the hit you get is minimised. It's a defensive command as opposed to attack.
The question that's been known to come up in the Movies forum is...what the hell is "stand by for evasive"?
In terms of informing the crew in non-seatbelt equipped ships, it literally means get yourself to battlestations and grab on to something that's bolted down, because the inertial dampeners are not going to be able to fully keep up with the ship's maneuvers.
In terms of preparing the ship itself, it probably involves dialing the inertial dampeners to maximum, locking down any loose equipment or furniture and fixtures that could injure people, and terminating any non-essential operations, especially embarking shuttlecraft, scientific experiments, or anything involving handling hazardous materials.
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Fair enough.
I always imagine evasive maneuvers as how the Defiant was flying around that big Klingon ship in Shattered Mirror and the phaser blasts keep missing, but I realise that might not work for the bigger ships.
Evasive Maneuvers:
"We plan on taking some evasive maneuvers but first I must check with Star Fleet to get permission and find out which evasive maneuvers they would recommend us do."
"stand by for evasive maneuvers" = "hold on to your butts."
Evasive manuovres are that conversation you have about the Christmas jumper with little starfleet deltas in, or that awful tie with the enterprise on the bottom that your mother or mother-in-law got you that year they came over to dinner.
Evasive manoeuvres pattern delta is when you cross your legs because you are fifteen and seven of nine has just shown up in VOY and your entire family is in the room watching it. Your more cunning uncle used pattern gamma and dropped his newspaper in his lap.
Women of course benefit from the Treaty of Algernon, and operate under a full cloak whenever Riker/Chakotay are displaying charms.
Of course the character choice is down to the individuals orientation and taste in character....many of us may use Attack Pattern Kira, where we hunch forward in our chair while crossing our legs to stare intently at the screen during her promenade clearance in Emissary.
Evasive manoeuvres pattern delta is when you cross your legs because you are fifteen and seven of nine has just shown up in VOY and your entire family is in the room watching it. Your more cunning uncle used pattern gamma and dropped his newspaper in his lap.
Women of course benefit from the Treaty of Algernon, and operate under a full cloak whenever Riker/Chakotay are displaying charms.
Of course the character choice is down to the individuals orientation and taste in character....many of us may use Attack Pattern Kira, where we hunch forward in our chair while crossing our legs to stare intently at the screen during her promenade clearance in Emissary.
Real world:
When a missile is fired at an airplane, a sensor goes off in the cockpit, alerting the pilot he's being shot at. He will immediately start a series of hard, tight turns in various directions, hoping that eventually, the missile's guidance system will lose its lock on his plane, and miss.
Like this:
When a missile is fired at an airplane, a sensor goes off in the cockpit, alerting the pilot he's being shot at. He will immediately start a series of hard, tight turns in various directions, hoping that eventually, the missile's guidance system will lose its lock on his plane, and miss.
Like this:
I've always just found the order to take evasive maneuvers a little silly in the first place.
Kirk: Take evasive maneuvers Mr sulu!
Sulu thinking: That's a way better plan. I was just going to sit still and hope hey miss somehow.
Kirk: Take evasive maneuvers Mr sulu!
Sulu thinking: That's a way better plan. I was just going to sit still and hope hey miss somehow.
That's pretty much the captains job though isn't it (and jj sulu leaves the brake on..so really needs the order) and evasive may not always be necessary or desired. If for instance you want to present an easier target in order to draw fire from another ship, or need to appear passive (after the Kronos 1 incident for instance) or just want to show the enemy that you aren't afraid of their weapons (Picard vs some laser beam toting numbnuts in...that episode over there)
A good officer follows orders after all, and the ship doesn't move unless a superior officer says so.
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