Are spaceships too fragile?

[cowpants]

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?

[Pogo01]

Its like a house lol. Theres a major earthquake and someone goes. "the tv is offline" mostly because the electricity connection is gone or the TV tipped over because it was mounted on a wall being a flat screen tv.

[PG15]

You know, if some DOES say that the TV is "offline", I would think that he's been watching too much sci-fi.

Of course, that wouldn't be as bad as, say, "the sink is offline!"

[TechnoWraith]

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?

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

The hyperdrive systems are one of the most prominent features on a spaceship. The base component of the hyperdrive is the engines, which happen to be a fairly large target on any ship. Especially with bigger ships, the engines are larger. Along with engine size comes hyperdrive size. larger engines usually mean a larger hyperdrive installation to power the bigger engines, although this is not always the case. Two of the biggest components on any ship are the engines and hyperdrive, so those two items are hot targets for an attacker.

Another consideration could be power surges and electrical spikes caused by damage from enemy fire may damage hyperdrive and engine systems, too.

I will say that even with in-direct hits to the engines or hyperdrive areas of a ship, these two items are always the first to go, which does come across as an obvious issue. (Say a hit to the shields occurs mid-ship away from the engines and hyperdrive area. The hyperdrive still goes down. )

[Jimbo-DR]

There is one reason we always lose hyperdrives: story plots.

If, everytime we get attacked, we have the option of running away faster than they can chase us, its no fun. We always lose hyperdrives so that we can't run and it makes the battle more interesting.

[ziga1980]

but what are the shields for??? to protect the ship. and what kind of good a shield does if the ship still suffers damage even before it fails??? i dont see why shields are that important if we're dead in the water after only 1 hit.

and why cant we set the hyperdrive offline before the battle so it doesnt get busted. like with tv and computers, you pull the plugs before a bad storm. or something that would sustain at least 5 hits from a hatak.

[Dutch_Razor]

Without the shields you would be dead in one hit

[zpm!!]

just need to put more hull armour on the odyessy/daedulas.

[Wraith Scientist]

Ships are way, way too fragile

From the Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Cliches:

Spacecraft, when shot, blow up as if they had been packed with gasoline and liquid oxygen

And don't get me started on physics in space. Spacecraft in sci-fi do dumb stuff like this:
- When a spacecraft fires it's engines, the ship accelerates until it reaches it's maximum velocity
- When the ship's engines turn off, the ship coasts to a stop
- When a ship banks, it turns, as if it had wings
- If a ship turns and fires it's engines, it immediately starts traveling in the new direction
- Ships in sci-fi never use the third dimension. Everyone agrees which way is up.

And, while I'm ranting, another thing:

Space vessels lack fuses, circuit breakers, and surge supressors, so that the control panels explode when some distant portion of the ship is damaged.

[Carl]

I am always happy to look past these glaringly obvious problems, which Star Trek uses more than any other series. warp engines or transporters always have a habit of being knocked out by "that latest hit"... how conveeenient because its all about the drama and the story.

I also like the exploding panels and such because it makes it more exciting. The point is that they don't use electricity and their energy circuits can become supercharged [you can think of a reason for everything if you really want to]

Finally, people always ask why these ships become so damaged if they're so advanced. What they forget is that, as shields and computer systems become more advanced, so do weapons and therefore they always remain level.. for every shield advancement there is a weapon advancement and vice versa.

[.jolinar.]

he makes a very good point. this annoys me too. granted it is because of the plot but in real life it wouldnt really happen would it? so it shouldnt be so easy on TV

[MasterPower]

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?

I just want to see some ship that has suffered damage to not retreat into Hyperspace but to finish the battle, even if it means destruction.

[wise one]

i think the sheilds are connected to the hyperdrive like in atlantis season 2 er 2 'intruder' the virus infiltrated key system like navigation and sub engines, someone said that it needed them to both correspond and the they keep life support separate, so somehow the sheilds might be connected to the hyperdrive, so when they into hyperdrive they need the sheild on from like hyperspace radiation.


but of course i might be wrong

[Giantevilhead]

It makes sense for the most complex systems to be knocked out first because they are most easily damaged and the enemy always targets them first.

[Keeper]

dependable engines are impossible.

look at a car - its impossible to miss the engine on it with a gun. unless you miss practically the whole car, or are firing from beside/behind.
but a ship with targetting systems and weaponry designed to penetrate shields/armour? of course we can defend our engines *rollseyes*


ok, yeah, we can. but it means tripling the armour - which increases the weight, which forces the engine size to get bigger to push extra weight, which means we have more area to cover, which means more armour, which means more weight... get the picture?


engines are never going to be impenetrable. if nothing else, they need an exhaust, and i would imagine that a large engine needs a beast of an exhaust - and if that gets jammed....