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Trying to figure out exactly how long/large Atlantis is

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    Trying to figure out exactly how long/large Atlantis is

    Hi everyone; I lurk, but rarely post. I came into these fan sites late, so a lot of what I want/need to know has already been answered.

    But...

    I'm trying out to figure the size of Atlantis. Common fanon has it 'the size of Manhattan', but as a former Manhattanite, I find it confusing that such a large cityship only has smallish transporters to move people around her rather than (to me at least) a decent 'public transportation system' - aka: the subway that could support such a populatin. And in one particular episode (the one where Kolya shot Rodney during a storm; not even close to a favorite so I binge-watch around it), John is able to run to all the lighting rod things. Hard to do if the cityship is over 20 miles long.

    Anyway, I read through many, many threads with all kinds of math and many rational points about Atlantis' size, and part of me wonders if the fanon sticks with the Manhattan-sized ship or, according to some sources, the ship is only between 1.5-3.0 miles long.

    Perhaps I look too little into it, but was Atlantis actually created as a warship, or more along the lines of a research ship/flying lab with armaments more as defensive than to be used as a weapon of war? In which case, it really didn't need to be huge enough to house potentially millions of people and be self-sufficient (with more than just a hydroponics lab or two to provide food, plus, were the Ancients vegans or did they eat meat/fish, in which case where would they store them?)

    Sorry folks, have been majorly distracted lately and these weird questions just popped up. I've been struggling with some of my own (admittedly novice) fanfic and I'm trying to figure out how many people Atlantis could hold if she had a full complement of charged ZPMs.

    #2
    I definitely agree with the transportation thing. And if you look at the transporter maps, look how few there were. Damn, the Ancients must be fast runners with killer cardio.

    I feel like Atlantis was a mobile research lab. Warships don't need research facilities. Though I thought that some of the "labs" the Tau'ri made. Like, I don't think Atlantis had a built in hydroponics lab rather the humans came in, found a big room that could serve as a hydroponics lab and turned it into one.

    And for Atlantis's purpose. Personally, I feel the writers just kinda overlooked it. It had to be alien, it had to fly, it had to have labs, and it had to have weapons, even if the combination didn't make much sense. Though, a possible explanation is that Atlantis is an exploration ship. You get a big crew and send it deep into uncharted space that they are interested in colonizing. They do research on the place, have weapons to defend itself, and when more people start arriving it could double as a settlement. It's just a theory though.

    sigpic
    Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
    https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5580179/StargateMillennium

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      #3
      The central tower is supposed to around seventy stories. Depending upon how you measure those stories (all the ceilings are pretty tall) the tower would be between 1400-2800 feet tall. Using the tower as a scale the diameter of the city is 4-6 central towers, so somewhere around 1-2 miles in diameter. As big as a small city downtown by area perhaps but certainly when factoring in the vertical space of the many buildings it would be the "size" of a larger city by population.

      The transporters are spaced fairly evenly with five across any given diameter. You could do the math but most parts of the city would be within a couple hundred feet of a transporter at any given time. They may have also used jumper or other vehicles to move around the city as necessary. As an aside about the grounding stations, all but one are extremely close to a transporter. Could be reached within 100 feet or less.

      I don't think the city had any one particular purpose. It seemed to be a central base for many activities, much like any other city. It was obviously an important center of Ancient activity but not so revered that it was the only one ever built. Who knows how many others may have been built in Pegasus or the Milky Way but were destroyed or lost.

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        #4
        I agree that it is the size of a small city. I never got the impression that it was the size of Manhattan, but who knows. There are a few sections, but the only one with tall buildings was the main area (where I believe most of the scenes take place) and spokes going out of it. There are other smaller sections that are less frequented. But I'm not sure if it was ever said other then them believing it was "big".

        As for getting around, I also figured they took puddle jumpers around to the further places.
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          #5
          Another thing I note is when you look at teh central spire, the top has that / like cut to it. AND the 'face looking' like one side.. BUT if you look at the rest of the city there are 3 other towers that have the EXACT same look to them.
          Did they ever explain if any of THOSE towers also had jumper bays in them??

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            #6
            Well, the comparison to Manhattan was because Rodney said exploring all of Atlantis would be like exploring all of Manhattan.

            But for Atlantis's purpose
            But I never thought that it was a city in the conventional sense. Sure, cities have laboratories but potential plagues are not researched there. They are researched in isolated facilities in case of an outbreak. Atlantis had a nano plague in one of their labs.
            Then there are the weapons. Sure cities have varying levels of police force but Atlantis has drone weapons. That would be the equivalent of putting missile launch pads in New York.

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            Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
            https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5580179/StargateMillennium

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              #7
              Well, in retrospect doing so (giving a city like New York AA-Capabilities) would not be a bad idea (considering 9/11)

              Still, I agree Atlantis (and the other city ships, I mean we know of at least one other that still exists, even if it's damaged and buried in the ground: The one from "The Tower") aren't just well, cities in space - they are a mix between a research facility, a trade/commercial hub, a government facility (think: White House and Congress rolled into one) and a military base (a role that they could fulfill a lot better if the Ancients were thinking more like us and gave the cities some more weapons, because the drones alone make for a crappy defense - why? They are easily depleted if you have to "waste" them on stuff like Wraith Darts (!)...Why throw something that can destroy or at least cripple a battleship (I mean 2 Jumper-Drones which are way smaller severely damaged a Goa'uld Ha'tak) at crappy fighters humans can take down with Machine-Guns and/or Man-Portable-Air-Defense-Systems (Man-Pads) like the Stinger!)? Then again: The military base aspect was probably a secondary thought to the Ancients, they are after all so evolved and "smart" that they often don't consider basic things (hell, sometimes I believe that they believe that everybody should be as evolved as them, when in fact the universe doesn't work that way and when you should do it like the US: Speak softly, but carry a big stick!)...I mean look at their Jumpers, they remind me of an Afghan Machine-Gun-Truck (meaning a civilian Truck with an MG strapped to it) because they aren't really meant for fighting, but instead of producing a true fighting craft (or at least fixing the most obvious weaknesses: Add another weapon, drones are too easily depleted and fix the wind-shield (a single hit destroys a jumper if the enemy fires at the wind-shield with something bigger than a hand-gun!) and give it shields) when they were forced to fight they stuck with it!)

              Same for the cities themselves: It took humans (McKay!) to give Atlantis a cloak...damned, the Ancients could have stayed on the planet Atlantis was on (they would have just had to move a city a little and cloak it and the Wraith would never have found it, they wouldn't even have had to submerge it!)! But no, ancients don't think like that! I've got another example of them not thinking straight: They could have used that Wraith-Hyperdrive-Shutdown-Device safely (if they just deactivated the gates before using it (!): shut off the gates, switch it on, finish the Wraith, turn it off and reactivate the gates!)

              As for the size of Atlantis?

              Over all (if you add up all the buildings and sub-levels (where the Star-Drive and other tech stuff (shield generators etc.) is) it might very well be the size of Manhattan, but otherwise? I'd imagine it's like a small city, so not all that large, but not tiny either!)

              greets LAX
              Last edited by Laxian of Earth; 22 December 2016, 10:08 PM.

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