Proximity torpedo

[Tyler]

posted on May 28th, 2011, 2:08 pm

Last edited by Tyler on May 28th, 2011, 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've been wondering something for a while; shouldn't the Fleet supply special also effect the Monsoon (when Proximity is researched). Proximity torpedo is set for area detonation, but is still a Photon torpedo.

Also, why is the officer Excelsior's weapon refit renamed Refitted Proximity Torpedo Launcher when it's not a Proximity torpedo?

posted on May 28th, 2011, 6:59 pm

even if the monsoon was given another proximity torp by a nova, i would guess that the energy is used by firing, not the torp itself. so it still wouldnt have energy to fire the torp. while firing normal torps is less energy intensive and the nova can give the boost.

plus i dont think mons need more proximity torp lol

posted on May 28th, 2011, 7:07 pm

Doesn't need to be a proxy torp. The torpedo is on a different setting, but the launcher should still be compatible with a regular torp.

posted on May 28th, 2011, 7:08 pm

Doesn't need to be a proxy torp. The torpedo is on a different setting, but the launcher should still be compatible with a regular torp.

maybe firing a proximity torp drains all the energy required to use the launcher at all.

posted on May 30th, 2011, 5:05 pm

maybe firing a proximity torp drains all the energy required to use the launcher at all.

It is comparable to flak being set to detonate on impact or detonating on a timer or some other method, the launching is the same.

I actually agree with Tyler here, they need a slight re-do, perhaps make them a non-special weapon (but still require research) but give them pretty low DPS, either thru low damage or high rate of fire.

To be honest, there's consistency issues with many torpedo weapons, IE: the way many Klingon ships use 'micro' photon torpedos, which only would really make sense on smaller ships, not ones such as the Vor'cha (I think one of the klingon avatars starbase uses micro photons too, which seems quite odd as a station would easily store LARGER than normal torpedos if anything else.)

Past that, I think torpedos should recieve a full re-work, and be treated as the projectile weapons they are. If they hit, they do shield or hull damage, but they can miss, and if the chance to hit ratio were used as the balancing method, it would allow for more consistent use of torpedos throughout the mod.

For proximity torpedos, this would be in essence giving the Monsoon a much higher chance to hit with the drawback of greatly reduced damage done as the proximity blast trades doing high damage on impact for doing SOME damage consistently, prehaps give the proxy torp a low chance to do higher damage on occasion (IE: the proxy fused torpedo makes a solid impact or close to it close to full torpedo damage)

posted on May 30th, 2011, 5:11 pm

It is comparable to flak being set to detonate on impact or detonating on a timer or some other method, the launching is the same.

you say that like you are sure how a photon torpedo works. you're not, because none of us know the exact details.

you might have noticed at the beginning of my post i said "maybe" as in this could be an explanation for it if needed. the better reason to not have field supply affect proximity torp is mind numbingly obvious: balance. proximity torp is a brilliant special, monsoons dont need more of them.

a technobabbly rationalisation: setting the torpedo to detonate on proximity has the downside that the firing ship could accidentally trigger the proximity sensor, so the launchers have to be modified to put out an inverse polaron magnetic flux field to avoid detonating the torpedo near the ship. unfortunately these fields take a lot of power, limiting how often we can fire.

posted on May 30th, 2011, 5:38 pm

you say that like you are sure how a photon torpedo works. you're not, because none of us know the exact details.

Photon torpedo - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki

Enough cannon details exist.

Antimatter goes boom, photons carry antimatter, make it go boom on target.

One thing that even Enterprise got right was having reed describing how they were variable yield, capable of out preforming any IRL nuke or damaging a specefic part of a shuttle without doing damage to the rest of the vessel.

posted on May 30th, 2011, 5:43 pm

Photon torpedo - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki

Enough cannon details exist.

Antimatter goes boom, photons carry antimatter, make it go boom on target.

One thing that even Enterprise got right was having reed describing how they were variable yield, capable of out preforming any IRL nuke or damaging a specefic part of a shuttle without doing damage to the rest of the vessel.

how the weapon makes the explosion isnt in question. im reading my post and i cant see any question of it.

an effective weapon is far more than something that explodes. you have detonators, guidance systems, propulsion systems, warp systems for warp launch. the m/am explody bit is the (theoretically) easy bit. the complicated bit is the stuff that gets the explosion where u want it. how much energy it takes to fire a torp also depends on the launcher system as well.

so no, you dont have a clue how any of this stuff works, nobody does, because canon never gave a detailed explanation of the operation of a torpedo (and its associated launch system). canon could never have done this, as TV shows arent tech explanations, and these weapons are FICTIONAL, so there's no point inventing an exact science about it, as it could all be proved garbage in 500 years.

therefore any technobabbly explanation cannot be disproved (arguing from canon), and canon does not disagree with proximity torps not being refreshable by field supply.

posted on May 30th, 2011, 5:53 pm

In real life we allready have quite a few of the guidance bits. In WW2 some AA flak shells used in the pacific had a very small radar system built in, so shells only detonated when in proximity to something.

Plus of course all of the IRL guidence systems.


The detonator you mentioned is actually part of the explodey bit, you just cut the containment field on the antimatter, and boom.

posted on May 30th, 2011, 5:55 pm

Aside from the Monsoon torp, anything about why the officer Excelsior has a mislabled torpedo?

posted on May 30th, 2011, 5:57 pm

In real life we allready have quite a few of the guidance bits. In WW2 some AA flak shells used in the pacific had a very small radar system built in, so shells only detonated when in proximity to something.

Plus of course all of the IRL guidence systems.


The detonator you mentioned is actually part of the explodey bit, you just cut the containment field on the antimatter, and boom.

yes, because we all know you've seen a photon torpedo (!).

this is all pure rubbish. you dont know what guidance/propulsion systems go into a trek photon, so your claim that we already have these systems is silly on the face of it.

you are never gonna find an argument based on canon reasoning to disprove the logic behind field supply not refilling proximity torpedo. to do so you would need canon blueprints for a photon and launch system (which do not exist, they never fully specified what goes into these).

Aside from the Monsoon torp, anything about why the officer Excelsior has a mislabled torpedo?

probably a typo

posted on May 30th, 2011, 6:02 pm

Aside from the Monsoon torp, anything about why the officer Excelsior has a mislabled torpedo?

IS it mislabeld, I mean look at all the klink ships/stations that use MICRO photons .....

That said yeah it all needs a re-write for consistency.

As for the Nova special, it just adds a weapon to the ships, so why not add a proxy torp that doesnt use special energy to the monsoon, and does half the damage of the photon normaly added by it's special while using the sprite for the proxy torp.

posted on May 30th, 2011, 6:06 pm

As for the Nova special, it just adds a weapon to the ships, so why not add a proxy torp that doesnt use special energy to the monsoon, and does half the damage of the photon normaly added by it's special while using the sprite for the proxy torp.

too lazy to read previous posts?:

1) balance
2) proximity torp uses all the energy for the launchers, so there is no power left to fire a torp of any kind (normal or proximity rigged). in normal combat the phasers/shields/engines use all the power so the torps dont fire.

[Tyler]

posted on May 30th, 2011, 6:13 pm

Last edited by Tyler on May 30th, 2011, 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

IS it mislabeld, I mean look at all the klink ships/stations that use MICRO photons .....

It's called a Proximity Photon, while appearing to be just a regular photon. Not even the accuracy is comparable.

posted on May 30th, 2011, 6:15 pm

The damage was not accorded in the scripts, but it is a proximity photon torpedo.