Looking for Techs!

posted on August 1st, 2012, 11:40 am

Heyho everyone,

We are currently redesigning the officer and veteran abilities. They will still be passive bonuses like in the current Fleet Operations version, but many of them are obsolete now with so many vessel roles changed.

What I'm looking for here are canon technologies, materials, devices or similar things that could inspire officer and veteran passives. Do you recall an episode were a certain cool alien device appeared? Do you remember a specific piece of B'Elanna's talk about warp-core specifications? Post it here! We want as many abilities to be inspired by canon things as possible!

Please also post a reference to memory-alpha or a similar page to help me catch the context of your idea.

Thanks in advance!

posted on August 1st, 2012, 12:03 pm

i've always wanted to see: Transport inhibitor/Transport scrambler

The feds could use the inhibitor to prevent beaming, ie no transport allowed at all.

nastier races could use the scrambler, so that when the enemy unit sends crew over, they just die. the target ship has no change of crew, the ship doing the beaming loses any crew they send.

since we only saw a fed venture scout and the flagship carrying inhibitors, they can be restricted easily, by saying they are expensive or something.

these 2 techs result in so many plot holes in star trek, like in ds9 way of the warrior where the klinks can beam into ops so easily just because the shields dropped. since it doesn't take much to block transporters (ion storms/rocks/sheets of paper/plot contrivance) they could have found something to stop the klinks from beaming in.

posted on August 1st, 2012, 1:40 pm

How hard do you want the canon source to be? Absolutely hard (ie, stuff only on screen), or will you not mind expanded sources like notes from the production crew, technical manuals, and novels?

posted on August 1st, 2012, 2:16 pm

doesn't have to be hard canon, but please always leave a reference where it comes from on-screen-stuff would of course be the most favorable

posted on August 1st, 2012, 3:20 pm

To start off then:

• Energy beam -- disables phasers on firing ship to either enable a disabled subsystem or transfer special energy (TNG: Encounter at Farpoint, Timescape).
• Blinding detonation -- a spread of torpedos designed to detonate in a manner that will blind the target vessel(s) sensors for a few moments (TNG: Encounter at Farpoint).
• Close-in manoeuvring -- a smaller vessel gets close to a larger vessel to exploit blindspots in their weapon coverage (DS9: Shattered Mirror).
• Target weapons and shields -- precision targeting of phasers inflicts less damage on the enemy vessel but may disable subsystems. (TNG: numerous episodes).
• Attack Pattern Alpha, Beta, Delta, etc -- preprogrammed standard firing and manoeuvre patterns designed to make maximum use of ship's weapons; could provide a short buff to firing rate or damage (TNG, DS9, VOY: numerous episodes).
• Rotate shield nutations -- prevented Borg tractor beam from locking on; perhaps also provides other shield buffs (TNG: The Best of Both Worlds).
• Anti-matter spread -- defensive technique developed to attract Borg sensors away from a shuttlecraft launch (perhaps a "taunt"?) (TNG: Best of Both Worlds).
• Phaser remodulation -- changing phaser frequencies to better penetrate Borg defenses. Would likely work well on other ships, too (TNG: Best of Both Worlds).
• Phaser sweep -- using phaser bursts fired in a search pattern to try and reveal cloaked vessels (film: Nemesis).
• Metaphasic shielding -- allowed a shuttlecraft, and later the Enterprise-D, to sit for a while in a star's corona (TNG: Suspicions, Descent Part II).
• Picard Manoeuvre -- short warp hop that closes range can confuse an enemy's targeting momentarily (TNG: The Battle).
• Beam a torpedo on it -- beam a photon torpedo to a sensitive spot on an enemy ship, then detonate it (VOY: Dark Frontier).

I'll try and think of more later.

posted on August 1st, 2012, 4:10 pm

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Way ... r_(episode)

While it's not my favorite technology I'd like see on the battlefield, in this episode (act 6) they use modulated tractor beams to deflect disruptor fire.

posted on August 1st, 2012, 4:29 pm

*cough* Phase cloak. *cough, cough*

p.s. anyone else notice the new smilies?

posted on August 1st, 2012, 4:31 pm

[*]Picard Manoeuvre -- short warp hop that closes range can confuse an enemy's targeting momentarily (TNG: The Battle).

Would the Picard Maneuver even work on any of the playable races? Only basic faster-than-light sensors should be needed to foil it.

posted on August 1st, 2012, 5:20 pm

[*]Picard Manoeuvre -- short warp hop that closes range can confuse an enemy's targeting momentarily (TNG: The Battle).

Would the Picard Maneuver even work on any of the playable races? Only basic faster-than-light sensors should be needed to foil it.

Well, the Enterprise crew had to work out a specific tactic involving using the tractor beam to limit the Stargazer's field of fire, but were still anticipating serious damage to the ship -- and that was with foreknowledge and more modern sensors.

Even with FTL sensors, I would expect that there would be a momentary reaction delay for retargeting weapons (even if but a second), and a sudden closing of range can be of significant tactical value in its own right.

Another one to add:

• Project fake warp signature -- project your warp signature on an enemy target, which can cause their allied automated defence platforms to attack it (DS9: Tears of the Prophets).
• (Not intended seriously): Abrams' Plot Device -- you activate it, and something ludicrous happens; like a nearby planet blowing up, or a star goes supernova and wipes out the entire map, or the game's continuity is reset, or your UI is replace with something really shiny with lots of lens flare.

[GoD_Tyr]

posted on August 1st, 2012, 5:46 pm

Last edited by GoD_Tyr on August 1st, 2012, 6:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

By using Deflector dish Federation Ships did ALOT of fancy stuff like:

- using it as high energy weapon against the Borg (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds I & II)
- using it in various episodes to deflect other objects and change their course through space movement (asteroids for example) or possible force-push them out
- inverse tachyon pulse to scan beyond sub-space (TNG: All good things) could greatly enhance vessel`s sensor readings or to open time-paradox, gate through time and space.
- Defiant tried to made a stable artificial worm-hole by using it (DS9:Rejoined)
- fooling a sensor readings of other vessels (unmanned space weapon platforms) to attack their own (asteroid remote power source) (DS9: Tears of the Prophets)
- opening Quantum Singularity to Fluidic Space etc etc.

Many times, that strategy failed, damaged ship or just rendered some systems powerless due to large energy drain caused by the deflector - which is an important factor for balance reasons and eventual overpowering weapon.

posted on August 1st, 2012, 6:12 pm

- anti proton beams used as weapon of mass destruction, could pierce both shields and matter alike, could be used to detect cloak etc etc (ToS, DS9, Voyager)
- isolytic burst forbidden subspace weapons used by Son`a race - large AoE and damage.
- plasma wave as known Cardassian tech, viably used on Dreadnought missile which was able to create those to defend itself and engage targets, it was almost impossible to evade and could attack several targets at once (VoY:Dreadnought)


These are some I managed to find, I am sure there are still plenty more!

posted on August 1st, 2012, 6:33 pm

Galaxy Saucer Separation ( as seen in several tng episodes )

posted on August 1st, 2012, 7:04 pm

Biological Sub conduits (passive): has sorta the same effect as the extended enginering., allowing the hull and subsystems to repair itself faster.

It woulde be a breen passive, bassed on that voyager episode where the docter refered to the biological parts on there ships.

thats the only thing i can think of.....

[GoD_Tyr]

posted on August 1st, 2012, 7:34 pm

Last edited by GoD_Tyr on August 1st, 2012, 7:46 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Also, Torpedo full spread (fires an entire salvo of torpedoes at the target, increased torpedo firing cooldown dramatically) could be useful at higher level ability on medium sized-large ships which have those rapid torpedo launchers installed. Could be done basically on any race ship, as we have seen Federation using it, also Borg through firing multiple torpedoes from different side launchers with speed:




I think that all races/ships should have defensive/offensive mode where all the power goes to specific subsystem which is meant to enhance above given ship configurations. Could be toggle on-off skill, which goes even deeper into microing and developing more strategy - also very much lore friendly.

posted on August 1st, 2012, 7:45 pm

Romulan "gonna has to be OP" drone-ship.
As seen in three ENT episodes. Shiny remote controlled drone with serious firepower, some weird fly like movement, with possibly one or more huge drawbacks?
(http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Romulan_drone-ship)

Or what about "that random Voyager episode that didn't make any sense" when the Borg queen was remotely shutting down Voyagers systems, just to start the usual conversation with Janeway.
No idea how to call it, but a feature like this might be fascinating (system disabler), including the common Borg message to the opposite player.

And i would really love to see a changeling special for the Dominion.
Could be something around a "sleeper transport" on a vessel with it's shields down. You may activate it right away, or later: the changeling will disable systems (as seen in MANY episodes of DS9, or something specific, upgradeable?) on the ship it has been transported to in the first place and / or nearby ships in transporter range of same player (researches, etc), or just working as a silent spy for either limited amount of time, or unlimited but detectable?

Energy re-route to phaser.
As shown to Dom around 136,087 times...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d734afLFPds#t=3m35s
Basically Galaxy Class re-routing energy to phasers to have a huge increase of firepower. Might be a more useful special for the WarpIn. Maybe dealing high amounts of damage with a huge drawback on the ship itself (engines decreased a lot, no shield recharge / repair, whatever), or doing some critical damage?



Last but not least: im totally for the saucer separation as we could see it in Generations.
Saucer separates, and crashes on next nearby planet... (would actually be quite a fun thing to see )