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Felicia

Power is fleeting, love is eternal
(She/Her)
I'm of the opinion that while the Star Wars universe has more advanced warfare technology, Starfleet has more advanced peacetime technology. Again, see my initial post about translators. And when it comes to holograms, boy howdy is there a difference.

As for Warhammer 40,000, I'm reminded of an old crossover story I read:

Battle-broth... COMMANDER Marcius Flavius looked at the terminal in front of him in disgust. A thousand flashing touch-screen buttons, all of which had a different function, and apparently the same man was expected to deal with the ship's weaponry AND its communications. What nonsense was this? Admittedly, the lack of a chair for the weapons officer, to encourage constant attention, was an admirable detail, and he would bring it back as a suggestion when the transfer ended.

"Brother-Captain Picard!" Command Flavius shouted, his helmet-augmented voice shaking the bridge. "There is an unidentified ship dropped out of the warp! Shall I prepare a torpedo/phaser spread?"

"Good idea." commented Worf approvingly. Commander Flavius was uncertain of what to think about the xenos; while he was automatically condemned for his inhuman biology, he WAS the closest thing to a traditional space marine here. Still, his religion seemed suspiciously close to Khorne worshipping, he'd need a closer eye.

Captain Picard rubbed his eyes with a thumb and forefinger. Why the Federation had agreed to Imperium-Federation officer transfers he could not guess, but he was doing his best to accommodate the commander, though secretly, he wished for Riker back, and wondered how he was performing aboard the Phalanx.

"No, Commander, not unless they're hostile." he said wearily.

Although he was wearing a helmet, and could go for a week in constant battle without tiring, Data thought he could hear a sigh from the space marine. "Commander," he started. "Perhaps you should--"

"I hear not the unholy cries of the Iron Men." he interrupted. Fortunately, he thought to himself, I outrank the creature. Unlike with Worf, who might have some redeeming qualities, Commander Flavius knew EXACTLY what he thought of Data.

His eyes dropped to the foul, though attractive, half-xenos Commander Troi. A psyker, that one, though a weak one. She might be forgiven for her heritage in death, but while alive, she was a constant link to the Warp. It was true that Flavius had fought alongside chapter librarians, but they had decades of training to control their heretical mindlinks to the realm of daemons. Troi, from his understanding, had had none of that. And Brother-Captain Picard would not fire on a potentially hostile ship at its weakest? And the doctor seemed to have FEELINGS for the Brother-Captain that were poorly disguised.

Only Tech-Priest La Forge seemed to be performing his duties adequately. This ship needed some reorganization, he thought.

"And if I can slay five hundred Slaaneshi cultists in two days," he thought. "With nothing but a nonfunctional chainsword, I can bring this ship to Imperial standards."
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
I'm of the opinion that while the Star Wars universe has more advanced warfare technology, Starfleet has more advanced peacetime technology.
I agree with this! Nerdier nerds than I did some calculations and Star Wars ships are faster and their weapons are more powerful (and therefore so are the shields). They also seem to have fancier atmospheric containment. A new addition, but does Trek have a Beskar equivalent?

However they don't have replicators, touch screens, teleportation and so on.

Weirdly, at its core, Star Wars is probably more pacifist than Star Trek is.
 
I'm of the opinion that while the Star Wars universe has more advanced warfare technology, Starfleet has more advanced peacetime technology.
Nerdier nerds than I did some calculations and Star Wars ships are faster and their weapons are more powerful (and therefore so are the shields).
This doesn't really track to me at all. Especially considering the super science that regularly happens in Star Trek. Star Trek has:

- Weaponized time travel
- Single missiles that can blow up an entire solar system
- Weaponized black holes
- Grey-goo class nanomachines
- Weaponized transporters
- Capacity for Apocalypse-level AI on every moderately sized ship
- Apocalypse-level biological warfare

And that's before you get to just the everyday stuff that routinely does things more impressive than Star Wars shit on a regular basis.

Blasters in Star Wars leave bullet sized holes and can be blocked with metal alloys. Phasers in Star Trek can be set on a wide beam and can vaporize an entire building in a device the size of a small TV remote.

Single ships like a Star Destroyer don't seem remotely capable of nearly the kinds of destructive capacity that 23rd Century starships (to say nothing of ships later in the timeline) can accomplish, where they can face-tank barrages of nuclear weapons and glass the entire surface of a planet in minutes.

Star Wars ships are faster, assuming this Galaxy Far Far Away is roughly the same size as ours, and assuming the laws of physics are roughly the same. But that's an assumption I don't quite feel comfortable making since Star Wars canon material goes out of its way to avoid discussing how travel works at any technical level that would even begin to let us draw comparisons to the real world, or even other fictional universes like Star Trek that at least makes minimal attempts to ground itself in reality/science. And that also ignores the over-tech in Star Trek that more than levels the playing field like Quantum Slip Stream, Transwarp Conduits, Spore Drives, Time Warp, Iconian gateways, etc.
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
This doesn't really track to me at all. Especially considering the super science that regularly happens in Star Trek. Star Trek has:

- Weaponized time travel
- Single missiles that can blow up an entire solar system
- Weaponized black holes
- Grey-goo class nanomachines
- Weaponized transporters
- Capacity for Apocalypse-level AI on every moderately sized ship
- Apocalypse-level biological warfare
Are any of these Federation tech from the TNG era? Because absolutely none of this is familiar to me
 
Most of it is Federation tech, jus the Federation usually is Too Ethical to weaponize it themselves. Also, I'm willing to bet you're more familiar w/ them than you realize.
A personal favorite doomsday weapon I forgot was Omega Molecules, where a single molecule has the capacity to destroy subspace in a multi-lightyear radius, rendering warp travel (among other things) impossible through affected areas, effectively cutting those places off from the rest of the galaxy.
 

zonetrope

(he/him)
That list is great because it embodies everything I love about Star Trek, and presumably a lot of what the Star Wars faction hates about it.
 

Büge

Arm Candy
(she/her)
Most of those are either (a) non-Federation in nature, (b) prototypes that were destroyed or abandoned, (c) unfeasible for large-scale deployment.

A single Star Destoyer had the firepower to reduce a planet's crust to cinders. They even had a special code for it.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Going back to my earlier point; in Trek only the Bad Guys get stuff that looks cool. The good guys are always dweebs. Future people must have invented things more exciting than Victorian Literature at some point.

My head canon is that the reason Barclay gets no respect is because he’s just really into Brandon Sanderson novels instead of Sherlock Holmes and Shakespeare

In Wars, everything has to look cool always.

Efficiency be damned!
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Probably a much better idea to do it with one shot rather than gradually over the course of days with a sustained bombardment.
 

Lokii

(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
Think of all the resources you could have stripped mined from that planet octo instead you blew it up
 
Most of those are either (a) non-Federation in nature, (b) prototypes that were destroyed or abandoned, (c) unfeasible for large-scale deployment.
Every single category there has one that's Federation in origins, they were destroyed or abandoned b/c the goodies are Too Ethical, and you only need one of those deployed large-scale to end an entire civilization (which we see happen lots of times in Star Trek).

A single Star Destoyer had the firepower to reduce a planet's crust to cinders.
So does Kirk's original Enterprise, it's a fraction of the size, and can probably do it a lot faster. Since you can just wave a phaser beam across the surface, or quickly drill down to the mantle and create a bunch of super volcanoes. Now imagine the capacity of starships a generation or two later.

Oh ya, speaking of Death Stars, the Xindi built a Death Star and it was way smaller/just as potent.
Future people must have invented things more exciting than Victorian Literature at some point.
This guy doesn't Chu Chu Dance.
 

Büge

Arm Candy
(she/her)
why did they need the death star then?
It's big and showy. It's symbolic of Imperial hegemony, the way the A-Bomb was symbolic of American hegemony. Tarkin even says, "Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battlestation."
 

Regulus

Sir Knightbot
While Wars' ships are faster across longer distances, I get the impression that Trek ships are more nimble at medium distances because of the way warp works. I think transporter technology also gives Trek ships a pretty big advantage because there's nothing readily comparable in the Star Wars galaxy.

Really, the thing that would win the day is that Trek ships are populated by creative problem solvers.
 

Lokii

(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
It's big and showy. It's symbolic of Imperial hegemony, the way the A-Bomb was symbolic of American hegemony. Tarkin even says, "Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battlestation."

Fair, and yet star destroyers which can destroy all life on a single planet don't generate this fear and respect?

This isn't a criticism or anything. It's not bad that both these series are wildly inconsistent. That's what happens when you have decades long properties with many writers, all who are adding new material. Someone writes in a technical document that star destroyers have such and such payload and never mind if that makes the death star redundant or a little silly because its all just set-dressing. Talk of which ship is bigger, faster, more efficient will never really provide a satisfactory answer because it only touches on the inconsequential surface stuff and never comes close to addressing what these two properties are really about: "wouldn't it be cool if there were cowboys in space?"
 
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Bongo

excused from moderation duty
(he/him)
Staff member
They didn't need the atom bomb to destroy Dresden, but they invented one anyway.
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
Really, the thing that would win the day is that Trek ships are populated by creative problem solvers.

Really, this is it. Allowing that "lasers" in SW aren't, really, not even the "turbolasers" on a Star Destroyer, if it came to a stalemate between one of those and a Fed cruiser in terms of damage output vs shield technologies, people from A Long, Long Time Ago preferred to rely on power, speed, or traditional naval tactics, whereas Feddies would tank the hits, get a few consoles blown out, and then figure out that hyperdrives emit a particular type of radiation that a deflector dish could tap into, and make the entire Star Destroyer jump into itself or something.

No idea what Trek natives could do against a Clone Wars cartoon Jedi, though. Those guys pull starships out of orbit.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
On a similar note, there’s like, one space wizard in Trek and he’s an ass
Theres a whole whack of Space Wizards in Wars and they’re usually asses
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Oh for sure.

But something about Space Magic makes you an ass. This is the common ground between them
 

Felicia

Power is fleeting, love is eternal
(She/Her)
Actually, about every other episode of The Original Series had Kirk dealing with a different space wizard. And most of them were asses too.
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
Feddies would tank the hits, get a few consoles blown out, and then figure out that hyperdrives emit a particular type of radiation that a deflector dish could tap into, and make the entire Star Destroyer jump into itself or something.
If you're allowed to have Star Trek technobabble get involved in this then Vader's allowed to force choke Picard from across a comlink
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
comic2-1783.png
 

Felicia

Power is fleeting, love is eternal
(She/Her)
I don't remember where I read it, but during a discussion about who would win in a fight between Worf and Boba Fett, it was suggested that they would probably find some way to both lose.
 
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