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Yes, I understand you point, (and the caution was cute! .

That said, pausing a moment to consider the “What If…”

Five standard photon torpedoes (at 2 warp energy points each, )would require 10 warp energy points (2*5=10). Full standard Overloads, thus (6*5=30) warp energy points.

If, just grasping for a straw here, you used a GSC hull (because the GSC has more internal SSD boxes than a CA) and you ***could*** build a BC(L) saucer with 5 Photons…

Well, imputing the warp power requirements, and a normal GW era movement rate of 22 hexes per SFB turn, (22+30=52 warp points) minimum.

Let us assume that house keeping (life support+shields+active fire control.). Harder since we have not defined everything, and we are limited to a size class 3 hull, hummm.

Well, nice exercise.

This monster should be saved for the Scary Ships Contest.

Funny, the power of a B-10 Battleship squeezed into a large Cruiser hull, with a DNL alpha strike.

Should sell like hotcakes or hot dogs with all the fixings!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 19, 2025 - 05:52 pm: Edit

Five photons is called "breaking the game". You might as well throw out all engineering sense and do anything you want. Have fun, but don't bring it here.

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Thursday, June 19, 2025 - 01:49 pm: Edit

Alan, I've read your recent questions and have a different take on things.

First, even though the Federation has a more robust economy to afford R&D, R&D usually discovers more about what doesn't work than what does work. Thomas Edison is said to have made about 1000 unsuccessful experiments before finally inventing a long-lasting light bulb. An in SFU example is the B-10 for which is said, "Ultimately, the completed B10s would have about six thousand tons of metal framework that they did not really need, but which was too expensive to remove."

Second, money isn't always the answer or a consideration. During WWII, as a reductio ad absurdem argument, the US economically could have afforded to deploy squadrons of F-35s.

Then there's a third argument that R&D made in one direction finds a use in another. It just may be that technology gained in PF research was useful in the production of the Z-YC and TADSC.

All three of these reasons also work for the X-Tech subject as well.


Mike Grafton, The tankers of WWII would not universally agree that the 76mm gun was superior to the 75mm gun. The shell of the 76mm lost about 50% of its explosive capacity in order to make it robust enough to be fired from the cannon.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Friday, June 20, 2025 - 03:18 pm: Edit

John,

The discussions seem kind of OBE ("Overtaken By Events", not "Order of the British Empire", because that would be silly...) since SVC has expressed that he is not interested in either an "improved F-18" or first generation X-ships that are not based on standard-tech hull designs. But I will give the brief answer that I think your points, while true, are probably "neutral" regarding whether an improved F-18 or a new-design X-ship ought to exist. It does not seem (to me) that they support either the contention that such ships should exist, or the contention that they should not.

I could give some specific examples if you want. But really this seems to be a dead horse.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, May 04, 2026 - 10:08 am: Edit

The Drex Unity is comprised of self-operating, self-replicating, thoroughly-intelligent robots (the Drexari who originally built them no being longer involved in even their own gov't, let alone anything else). Indeed, the Drexari almost never leave their own homes, let alone board Drex warships. So, the questions is: why are Drex warships required to pay for life support?

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Monday, May 04, 2026 - 10:12 am: Edit

Keep their USB devices charged up.

By Patrick Sledge (Decius) on Monday, May 04, 2026 - 12:41 pm: Edit

It possible that they're designed to operate most efficiently in a certain temperature range that the 'life support' maintains.

It's possible that having an atmosphere of some sort to allow heat transfer by convection is still desirable for cooling, and a system is needed to circulate it.

It's possible there are other vital systems which are more energy intensive on a ship run entirely by robots (Networking infrastructure?), that requires roughly the same amount of energy as a ship full of organics needs to keep its occupants breathing.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, May 04, 2026 - 02:31 pm: Edit

The Drexari do not continually inhabit their ships, but do (DO) on occasion ride along, perhaps for the experience of being shot at so that they do not succumb to boredom. There are clearly other reasons why a Drexari might choose to ride in a ship. In any case, the Drex robots are programmed to maintain life support so that any such Drexari is not discomfited having to wait for the life support to be brought up to comfortable standards before they board the ship.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, May 04, 2026 - 09:32 pm: Edit

On a side note: while most Drex fast patrol ship variants are designed never to carry a Drexari aboard, there is a distinct life support chamber aboard Drex recovery PFs. But, those are only activated when there is a need for them to do so - not least since the PFR suffers a number of limitations in terms of manoeuvrability while this is being done.

Speaking of PFs, it's notable that, despite how small Drex gunboats are by the Omega Octant average, the Drex found it quite difficult to install "casual" mech-links in any significant number on any given hull type, since even their "full-size" ships had been built to such narrow tolerances that adding these external hard-points was quite difficult for hulls not purposely adapted for use as "full" PFTs.

Which makes for an interesting comparison, in terms of the exacting standards to which most Drex military units are set - and why it might have been more "logical" for them to design their full-sized ships with latent life support capabilities from the outset.