Are spaceships too fragile?

[Gilgamesh]

PLOT devices...

Reality, such as WW2, are entirely different. If these ships were real life, I doubt they'd explode and disintegrate the way the do in these shows. They would get heavily damagaged, but not obliterated.

That depends. A lucky shot in the munitions hold, and yes, a ship could blow rather nicely from the munitions cooking off. But still, probably not as spectacularly as spaceships in science fiction shows.

Here’s my gripe. If the hyperdrive is always the first thing to break, then why is a critical system like the Artificial Gravity System (which I’ll call AGS) always the LAST to break?

Yes, I know the special effects cost would be way up there. And with SFX getting better and better, perhaps it will be done someday. But still, I have yet to see a SciFi ship on TV that looks like it takes into account a possible failure in the AGS. You know, things like handholds in the hallways (floor, walls and ceiling), or ceiling lights with protective grills to prevent them from being kicked while the AGS is out.

If you want to render the crew helpless, knock out the AGS, since crews obviously have little training or practice in a zero-G environment, and no seatbelts to keep them at their workstations, still able to do their work during an AGS failure.

I can only think of two exceptions to the AGS “never fails” rule.

1. The Ancient satellite in SG-A season 1 used to destroy a Wraith Ship.

2. In Babylon 5, the Nova class dreadnought had no gravity at all (no rotating section, no artificial grativy), workstations at odd angles to each other, and seatbelts!

[BnF95]

Another ridiculous thing is that the shields are fully powered at the start of the engagement, next thing you know it's at 20% (i.e. still there but at 1/5 power right?) But the systems the shields are protecting (like the abovementioned hyperdrive) is already broken ... ??? Why???

[Xeon_1]

Another ridiculous thing is that the shields are fully powered at the start of the engagement, next thing you know it's at 20% (i.e. still there but at 1/5 power right?) But the systems the shields are protecting (like the abovementioned hyperdrive) is already broken ... ??? Why???

i don't know but mayby the forgot the surge protectors when they build there ships?

[BnF95]

No surge protectors, no circuit breakers, heck, for that matter, if the shields still let the enemy weapon systems break through, what good are they for? They are obviously not protecting the ship.

Idea: instead of shields, why not use reflectors? That way the enemy vessels (Ori, Gouald, Wraith) who use energy-based weapons get their shots bounced back?

[jburrows]

Well everytime when we are aboad that ship and that ship hyperdrive does out we see people replacing the crystals and afterwards there hyperdrive is working. It may take some time for it to change the crystals but that long.

As for shields not working they do. When they do. They do absorb a decent portion of weapons fire. If it were not for shields take only a few shots before being destroyed. However with shields we take alot more weapons fire before being destroyed. My personal belief is shields absorbation rate is effected by shield strengh and weapon type.

As for surge protectors is very hard I imagine to handle the surges caused by capital ship weapons.

[ferrari20092]

Hey hyperdrives do use a lot of energy and such inorder to get starships to travel at that speed.. So they get attacked power drops and the hyperdrive can no longer be used. Then they get attacked more and then the hyperdrive gets damaged... Thats why hyperdrives go offline alot...

[Conor]

I highly doubt that we'll ever hear something like the "toilets or microwaves are off-line." But think about it:

Airman: Colonel! TVs are offline!
Colonel: Dear God! Oprah's on in 15 minutes!
Airman: Life Support is failing!
Colonel: Reroute all power to the TVs!
Airman: Ok were getting a few channels...I think li.....
(Crew goes unconscious

[Gilgamesh]

Airman: Colonel! TVs are offline!
Colonel: Dear God! Oprah's on in 15 minutes!
Airman: Life Support is failing!
Colonel: Reroute all power to the TVs!
Airman: Ok were getting a few channels...I think li.....
(Crew goes unconscious

Must have been a killer episode....

[Metonic]

What is up with spaceships from any sci fi show?

If they are under attack, the first thing that always breaks is the hyperdrive. How many times have you heard the phrase, "the hyperdrive is offline"? It's enough to drive me mad.

You would think that after years of study and scientific advancement, ship engineers would be able to create a ship that could get hit more than 2 times before the most important tactical piece of technology on a ship breaks. I realize that the hyperdrive is the most fragile thing on board, and the fact that it works at all is borderline miraculous, but I just wish that it would stop breaking in every single battle.

Just once I would like to hear someone say, "We've taken a hit. Shields are at 80%, but the microwaves are offline," or, "the toilets have stopped flushing."

It's high time they built a dependable engine. Do others agree, or is this just my imagination?

The enemy aims at the shield, hyperdrive, and weapons.. tkae them off line and bamu win

[BC - 303]

If you could choise between not having shields and getting 100% of the damage
or having shields and getting only 20% of the damage from weapon fire, what would you choise?

[Ravroz]

I think the reason that systems are still damaged with the shields up is simply because high energy weapons impacting the shields cause power surges in the system. These surges can damage certain systems more easily than others. Since the hyperdrive uses so much energy it can be easy to see why a surge like this could knock it offline. As with some of the other systems normally effected during a battle.

[Gilgamesh]

If you could choise between not having shields and getting 100% of the damage
or having shields and getting only 20% of the damage from weapon fire, what would you choise?

Agreed, and even 20% of weapon fire is going to add up fast, especially if there are lots of weapons firing on you repeatedly.

By analogy, dump out a glass of water in your front yard. How much impact did it have? You probably cannot see any change. And yet, it was running water over time that dug out the Grand Canyon.

[Jopp]

Airman: Colonel! TVs are offline!
Colonel: Dear God! Oprah's on in 15 minutes!
Airman: Life Support is failing!
Colonel: Reroute all power to the TVs!
Airman: Ok were getting a few channels...I think li.....
(Crew goes unconscious

rofl!