Topic: Opinion for Gaming

[[UFP]Exeter]

Interesting concept.  We almost achieve that as you do not use them both at once.  Do go to long range you view a long range map area (sectors).  But worth some thought

[Captain Adam]

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[[UFP]Exeter]

all this discussion is giving me ideas, exactly what we need.

[Captain Adam]

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[Starfox1701]

Ithink a combo of the BC system where we have warp, impulse and reserve power but use the SFC where you can preset what major systems get priority in order too. Well come up with our own list of major systems and be able to set them.

[Lieutenant_Q]

I'm OK with having Warp in the game, I want Warp in the game.  But there needs to be a ramp up period.  Most of the ships systems are powered from the Warp Core, shifting all that power from defensive and offensive systems to the Nacelles to start traveling Faster Than Light would take time and hamstring the ship until it actually hit Warp Speed.

So... hypothetically speaking.  I'm in an Intrepid Class Starship for the moment, and I see that D'Deridex class Warbird decloak.  It out guns me, it probably even got the jump on me.  I can do one of two things, I can engage Warp immediately, and pray that the gunners on the Warbird are lousy, or I can take a defensive posture, and try to flee at impulse until I can get to a point where I feel safe enough to Warp Away.  I'm not going to trust the blind luck of "Luck-less" Romulans, I raise my shields and hit full impulse.  Fortunately, I do have Aft Torpedoes, so I can keep them at bay.  Now, when the time comes to Warp, I hit the button, and starts the following sequence.  Each step should take anywhere from 10 to 15 seconds. (and it can be adjusted based on playtesting)

1. Warp Drive Engaged
2. Power to Weapons cut off (Phasers can still fire from Capacitors, but Capacitors will no longer recharge) (And yes Capacitors were on screen in ST:II.  When Kirk called for Yellow alert, Sulu powered up the Phaser Capacitor)
3. Power to Shield Reinforcement cut off.  (Shields still operate at normal levels)
4. Power shunted to Nacelles.
5. Ship Accelerates to Full Impulse at base Acceleration Speed.  (If already at Full Impulse, skip this step and move to Step 6)
6. Accelerate to Warp 1. (At this point in time the Warp Field is forming, so Acceleration speed should increase exponentially)
7. Ship reaches Warp 1.

Something similar should occur whenever you wanted to do a Warp Turn.  (Use the Warp Drive to lower the Mass of your ship to make the turn faster.)  But once you get to step four, since you aren't trying to warp away, the field forms and immediately allows you to reduce your turn mode.  (You still can't turn on a dime, but you can turn much faster for as long as you want to be defenseless)

Anyways... that's how I'd do it.  I suppose you could even have a "Hot Rod Mode"  Where you try to halfway it between the two, at the expense of damaging your Nacelles.

[Javora]

The Warp debate is going on in two different threads.  IMHO I would try to find a way to merge the two threads.  Until then I'm going to re-post here what I wrote in the other thread to try and keep on the same page.


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My suggestion is to use the "Warp Button" as a forfeit mission option while in a mission.  Sort of like leaving the map in SFC 2/OP.  That way we can have plasma, missiles, etc and bring the fighting style back to SFC 2/OP which IMHO worked best.  This also removes some of the issues programming and while playing as you don't have to deal with what someone stated "jumping bean" players.

This way keeps the warp terminology in the Star Trek game while keeping used for what we repeatedly saw on screen...  as a way to retreat.
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[Captain Adam]

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[Starfox1701]

I see only on problem Q, Going to warp won't cut power to weapons unless the ship is way over gunned or is underpowered. This is because of the way canon power systems work. Both the impulse and warp drive have EPS power taps that collect the free electrons from the respective drive plasma streams. Since neither drive uses the electrons low end warp speed would still leave plenty of electrons for the "main energizers" to recover. It is only the high warp where the Matter/Antimatter ratio is 1:1 that main power is only used for propulsion.

[[UFP]Exeter]

Consider, TMP, phasers were re routed through the warp engines for more power.

Therefore warp engine power is online, but no engaged.

But to accommodate the Picard Manuever, there needs to be a quick jump ahead warp.  The Hot Rod mode.  Limitation, short distance, short burst.  Can damage warp engines

Then the regular warp and I like Q's suggestion.

[Czar Mohab]

I see only on problem Q, Going to warp won't cut power to weapons unless the ship is way over gunned or is underpowered. This is because of the way canon power systems work. Both the impulse and warp drive have EPS power taps that collect the free electrons from the respective drive plasma streams. Since neither drive uses the electrons low end warp speed would still leave plenty of electrons for the "main energizers" to recover. It is only the high warp where the Matter/Antimatter ratio is 1:1 that main power is only used for propulsion.

I only fully disagree with your last sentence (the rest makes sense), and I see your point of view and where you are coming from on the whole. From a non-Trek but science-y point of view, matter and antimatter should only ever mix at 1:1. Its simply because one antimatter would react with one matter. For use in a MAM engine, the only usable (for energy production) ratio would remain 1:1 even if the input ratio was set to something else, such as 4:3. The remaining, unused portion of the ratio would go on, effectively wasted and potentially disastrous should the unused portion be antimatter.

See Antimatter

Now, in Trek canon:

Hyperspace physics test - among others, it featured a trick question: "If the matter and antimatter tanks on a Galaxy-class starship are nine-tenths depleted, calculate the intermix ratio necessary to reach a starbase one hundred light years away at warp factor 8." It was a trick question because there is only one matter/antimatter intermix ratio, that being one to one

See Starfleet Academy entrance exam and TNG: Coming of Age

And back on topic:

Q: at 10 seconds for each step that puts you at one minute and ten seconds to reach warp one. Honestly I would think that the first 5 steps would be simultaneous, and the entire process taking 10-15 seconds to get to step 6 (while the field is forming the ship can use the field to accelerate to and beyond full impulse - which kind of makes 5 become "using either impulse or warp", hastening the process). The entire event should take no longer than 20 seconds - a minute to get to warp 1 seems excessive. A lot can happen in a minute...

I agree with the warp turn (it should do something energy-wise) however the ship could still make quick turns using exhaust vectoring from the impulse manifolds, including setting 1/2 of the impulse engines to "go backwards" (ex.: port ahead full, starboard back full), thus mitigating the "bad" effects of using a warp turn.

Others: Klingon Academy did warping correctly, imho. In-system warps were performed at warp 1 (energy, if available, was automatically allocated for this) allowing the ship to get where it needed to go quickly, including "out of trouble". Out-system warps were performed at whatever your ship could do based on damage, energy, etc. and that was that. In either event, since power to do the warp had to come from somewhere, systems would require being shut down to free up the power. Unless you had a vessel with enough to spare for in-system warps.

Heck, KA did a lot right. Except make a sequel.

The Czar

[[UFP]Exeter]

I only fully disagree with your last sentence (the rest makes sense), and I see your point of view and where you are coming from on the whole. From a non-Trek but science-y point of view, matter and antimatter should only ever mix at 1:1. Its simply because one antimatter would react with one matter. For use in a MAM engine, the only usable (for energy production) ratio would remain 1:1 even if the input ratio was set to something else, such as 4:3. The remaining, unused portion of the ratio would go on, effectively wasted and potentially disastrous should the unused portion be antimatter.

One of the laws of physics I do not intend to break.

Q: at 10 seconds for each step that puts you at one minute and ten seconds to reach warp one. Honestly I would think that the first 5 steps would be simultaneous, and the entire process taking 10-15 seconds to get to step 6 (while the field is forming the ship can use the field to accelerate to and beyond full impulse - which kind of makes 5 become "using either impulse or warp", hastening the process). The entire event should take no longer than 20 seconds - a minute to get to warp 1 seems excessive. A lot can happen in a minute...

For the in system warp, a few seconds.  For the system warp, 10 seconds, maybe

[Captain Adam]

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[Captain Adam]

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[[UFP]Exeter]

I am trying to determine the time based on the actual occurrence.  I will check the picard maneuver today.  And hunt for a full scene of warp engagement also.

[Lieutenant_Q]

That's just it, though, it NEEDS to be longer.  Otherwise we have the SFC3 warp in/warp out maneuvers that made the game pretty much an arcade game.  I'd also like a cool-down period for the Nacelles, where they have to be inactive, maybe for up to 5 minutes, before they can be used again safely. (You can risk it, at the expense of Nacelle Damage, just like an HET failure, although I wouldn't make it a ship wide system failure)  While maybe a minute-ten is too long, I think even 30 seconds is too short.  That is something will have to be play-tested to death.  Another thing that I wanted to see in SFC3, I even had asked Mr. Ferrel at the time, was to make Nacelles hittable, and if they take even a little bit of damage, it greatly affects your ability to Warp.  If the damage is moderate, you can't use the Nacelle at all.  A big problem for 1 or 2 Nacelle Ships, 3 or 4 Nacelle Ships could try to re-balance to make up for the damaged Nacelle, but you weren't going anywhere very fast down a Nacelle.

The reasoning behind taking power from the systems is that there has to be some downside to going to Warp, most of the time you're using it to disengage, its rare that you're actually using it to maneuver around the battle zone.  One other item regarding Torpedoes though.  Canon has Torpedoes as physical objects that need to be reloaded, although almost every Star Trek game has them as something that simply requires power.  (A Final Unity, The Rebel Universe and Bridge Commander are the only ones that comes to mind that actually kept track of how many Torpedoes the Enterprise (or the ship in general) had left.)  If they are handled as physical objects here, then of course they can be available for use at Warp, since there's no power requirements outside of the power used to launch the Torpedo to begin with, which could be pulled from various sources, Aux Power, Batteries, etc.

[Age]

It is to bad you can't beam to other ships or planets.It would also be nice if the Klinks BoP wings folded.

Phasers don't work at warp speeds only torpedos do.

[Lieutenant_Q]

Phasers don't work at warp speeds only torpedos do.

That's never been canon.  There's plenty of instances where ships fire Phasers while at Warp.  TOS was full of it.  But even TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT have scenes where it did happen. 

[[UFP]Exeter]

That's never been canon.  There's plenty of instances where ships fire Phasers while at Warp.  TOS was full of it.  But even TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT have scenes where it did happen.

True, however, warp engines do impact phasers.  TMP

[Starfox1701]

Phaser range is severely degrade at warp speed because the warp field causes accelerated nadion annihilation in the beam rendering it ineffective over a much shorter distance than at sublight.