How strong are Stargate weapons and shields? (Possible Spoilers)

[Buba uognarf]

Ok in stargate there is alot of inconsistancy with all sorts of things but especially weapons. There are instances in Stargate of weapons seemingly leveling countries and cities but then the same weapons exploding like hand grendades when seen at ground level.

The purpose of this thread is to put all the different weapon yeild estimations into a single thread to try and reach a general conculsion on the strength of SG weapons and then from there work out shield strength.

Across these threads i have seen firepower figures referenced many times by many different people but this is a thread to put it all together and try and reach a conclusion.

[SGFerrit]

Umm... where to start lol. This is going to be quite hard.

Regarding the weapons from Unending, I'd say they packed a hug punch, as we have seen a shielded Hatak crash into an Ori mothership at full speed and cause little to no damage, yet the Asgard weapons were able to cut through the shields and destroy a mothership in about 6 or 7 hits. That was boosted by a ZPM, but is still pretty powerfull when we take into account the effect a collision had with the mothership. Plus the firing rate is good too. It means the weapon coud pack a punch equal to that of a ship colliding with the shields (of an Ori mothership no less) every 1.5 seconds.

Mind you, I can't help you with this when it comes to being in terms of actual units of power.

Edit: I just checked, and the Hatak crashing into the Ori shields had no effect whatsoever. Mid explosion it cuts to inside the ship with the prior, Daniel and Vala, and the room doesn't even shake and you don't even hear a sound, they don't even realise what has just occured outside.

I don't recall seeing any other ship in a sci fi show withstand a collision with a ship (or object that matter) the size of a Hatak and not taking atleast a moderate amount of damage, certainly not having no affect at all.

I'd say the Ori ship's shields rank quite highly.

[Buba uognarf]

Umm... where to start lol. This is going to be quite hard.

Regarding the weapons from Unending, I'd say they packed a hug punch, as we have seen a shielded Hatak crash into an Ori mothership at full speed and cause little to no damage, yet the Asgard weapons were able to cut through the shields and destroy a mothership in about 6 or 7 hits. That was boosted by a ZPM, but is still pretty powerfull when we take into account the effect a collision had with the mothership. Plus the firing rate is good too. It means the weapon coud pack a punch equal to that of a ship colliding with the shields (of an Ori mothership no less) every 1.5 seconds.

Mind you, I can't help you with this when it comes to being in terms of actual units of power.

Edit: I just checked, and the Hatak crashing into the Ori shields had no effect whatsoever. Mid explosion it cuts to inside the ship with the prior, Daniel and Vala, and the room doesn't even shake and you don't even hear a sound, they don't even realise what has just occured outside.

I don't recall seeing any other ship in a sci fi show withstand a collision with a ship (or object that matter) the size of a Hatak and not taking atleast a moderate amount of damage, certainly not having no affect at all.

I'd say the Ori ship's shields rank quite highly.

Daniel and Vala were on a different ship.

[SGFerrit]

Actually, I don't think Ori shields are the best, i think Ancient shields are. Hell we saw a damaged and practically power depleted ancient ship withstand a volcanic eruption for 4 seconds, which IMO is pretty impressive. Had it been fully powered it wouldn't have been, but the fact is the ship was delapadated, and had hardly any power left. That doesn't come close to what we have seen Atlantis stand up to. The ancient shields, unlike all other shields, are impenatrable providing they get enough power.

[SGFerrit]

Daniel and Vala were on a different ship.

Oh...

Well, we still have no evidence of damage being done. From what we COULD see, the ship was fine after the collision.

[Buba uognarf]

Oh...

Well, we still have no evidence of damage being done. From what we COULD see, the ship was fine after the collision.

While the shields are up it's impossible to tell if damage is being caused to the vessel by looking at the outside.

For all we know the ship could have been shaken quite violently though carters words do suggest minimal damage would be caused at best.

[SGFerrit]

I think we should request a technical manual for Stargate so once and for all we can see what the ships actually have in terms of power.

I'd still say the fact that The Odyssey weapons are powerful as they managed to destroy 2 Ori motherships with ease when a shielded Hatak ramming them at full speed(according to Carter like you said) would have caused minimal damage, at best.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the weapons do against the Wraith/Asurans without a ZPM in s4 of Atlantis

[jenks]

I think we should request a technical manual for Stargate so once and for all we can see what the ships actually have in terms of power.

They have as much or as little power as the episode requires.

[SGFerrit]

They have as much or as little power as the episode requires.

That is what I thoguht too, and it made sense. IMO, In the episode it was important for Bratac and Landry to witness the destruction of Dakara. Had the entire place just been obliterated, that would have not happened.

In the episode where they 'destroy' the village, had it been a huge crater, the village would not have been able to materialize around Vala and she would have not had that big renuion thing with Tealc.

[Buba uognarf]

They have as much or as little power as the episode requires.

Well that being said i'd still like to gain some sort of estimate on their upper limits.

I just wish they'd be consistant with weapon yields or give some actual figures.

[SGFerrit]

Me too. Why doesn't someone ask Joe Mallozzi about including some sort of figures/consistency regarding power in s4 in his blog?

[Mister Oragahn]

Umm... where to start lol. This is going to be quite hard.

Regarding the weapons from Unending, I'd say they packed a hug punch, as we have seen a shielded Hatak crash into an Ori mothership at full speed and cause little to no damage, yet the Asgard weapons were able to cut through the shields and destroy a mothership in about 6 or 7 hits. That was boosted by a ZPM, but is still pretty powerfull when we take into account the effect a collision had with the mothership. Plus the firing rate is good too. It means the weapon coud pack a punch equal to that of a ship colliding with the shields (of an Ori mothership no less) every 1.5 seconds.

Mind you, I can't help you with this when it comes to being in terms of actual units of power.

Edit: I just checked, and the Hatak crashing into the Ori shields had no effect whatsoever. Mid explosion it cuts to inside the ship with the prior, Daniel and Vala, and the room doesn't even shake and you don't even hear a sound, they don't even realise what has just occured outside.

I don't recall seeing any other ship in a sci fi show withstand a collision with a ship (or object that matter) the size of a Hatak and not taking atleast a moderate amount of damage, certainly not having no affect at all.

I'd say the Ori ship's shields rank quite highly.

Let's also consider that this crash sequence was in slow-mo.

[Mister Oragahn]

Me too. Why doesn't someone ask Joe Mallozzi about including some sort of figures/consistency regarding power in s4 in his blog?

You think they'd care? Isn't it a bit obsessive to follow writers on their blog and ask them to get some guide about ships' wee bee wabadoom weapons and gadgets?

[Jimbo-DR]

Shields and weapons in Sci Fi shows are used only as plot devices anymore. When the writers want to show the superiority of a certain "device" they simply make it seem better than everything on the screen around it. Examples: The Ha'tak crashing into the OMS and not even phasing it.

In ST:FC, When the Enterprise-E arrives at Earth, it takes 2 shots from a Borg Phaser(which was cutting other ships in half without even trying) and it simply lights up its shields. The Ship itself doesn't even shake. This is shown to make you think "oh look at how strong the new Enterprise is!".

In Full Circle, Anubis' ship takes shots from like 8 or 9 Ha'taks at once and doesn't even shake a little bit.

Atlantis withstood a pounding from around 10 Wraith hives and a whole slew of their darts actually crashed into the shields. At the rate it was going the ZPM would've lasted another couple DAYS under that insane barrage of power. That was by far the biggest display of defensive technology ever seen in Stargate, possibly in any Sci Fi show ever. To be able to hold up against so many enemies was amazing on the part of Atlantis. And it made you go "oooo look how strong Atlantis is!".

When they want the fight to be even they practically never even consider shields. In the last fights from DS9 the clips I've seen you never see even one little shield impact. All the weapons from every ship in the video just plow straight into their target as if none of the ships have shields at all.

[Mister Oragahn]

Shields and weapons in Sci Fi shows are used only as plot devices anymore. When the writers want to show the superiority of a certain "device" they simply make it seem better than everything on the screen around it. Examples: The Ha'tak crashing into the OMS and not even phasing it.

In ST:FC, When the Enterprise-E arrives at Earth, it takes 2 shots from a Borg Phaser(which was cutting other ships in half without even trying) and it simply lights up its shields. The Ship itself doesn't even shake. This is shown to make you think "oh look at how strong the new Enterprise is!".

In Full Circle, Anubis' ship takes shots from like 8 or 9 Ha'taks at once and doesn't even shake a little bit.

Atlantis withstood a pounding from around 10 Wraith hives and a whole slew of their darts actually crashed into the shields. At the rate it was going the ZPM would've lasted another couple DAYS under that insane barrage of power. That was by far the biggest display of defensive technology ever seen in Stargate, possibly in any Sci Fi show ever. To be able to hold up against so many enemies was amazing on the part of Atlantis. And it made you go "oooo look how strong Atlantis is!".

Actually, all these examples are fairly consistent, and somehow, even the low yield ha'tak shots were still easily explainable.

But they seriously ****ed up these last years, with the wraith cruisers and wraith ships shooting fire cracker level weapons at Sheppard's team when they're on the ground, yet in Misbegotten, flashes of explosions due to weapon fire from a crippled hiveship can be seen from space, and wraith weapons quickly drain 304 shileds. Just as much as we see that it takes an internal nuclear explosion to actually destroy pussyfied wraith warships.

And of course, the major other **** up is when ori beams hit ground targets.
On one hand, you get the impression that the two ori ships which attacked the Odyssey where those which were in orbit of Othalla when it exploded (which could actually explain why the 304 were shooting them down so easily), and have weapons that one shot ha'taks and need like three successive hits to take down a 304.
They use some kind of pseudo mystic energy core.
But when they hit a mountain, there's some kind of build up, as the rock doesn't even immediately explode when hit (despite the huge flare seen from space), and worse of worse, they barely manage to torch the grass around what I wouldn't even call a small village, despite, again, seeing a huge explosion from space.

So it really seems thing got bad these last three years.
Certain fans could find ties to other key events in the Stargate franchise.

When they want the fight to be even they practically never even consider shields. In the last fights from DS9 the clips I've seen you never see even one little shield impact. All the weapons from every ship in the video just plow straight into their target as if none of the ships have shields at all.

Wasn't it from that battle where the Jemhadar used weapons disabling shields?
I remember seeing insectlike jemhadar ships literally cutting klingon warships in two by running into them.