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Teaos wrote:I'd go for the phaser but I'd use it properly.

Same - it basically entails HOLDING DOWN THE GOD DAMN TRIGGER, preferably on maximum setting to make sure they get through any plastic crates.

I'm more concerned about the inconsistancy of damage. Some times phasers kill without leaving a mark on the body, while others leave a huge wound

Technically maximum setting is said to be able to take down a building so I might tone it down a little bit.

Teaos wrote:Technically maximum setting is said to be able to take down a building so I might tone it down a little bit.

Probably for shooting a guy, yeah. I'd also put a laser sight on the phaser so you can see where you are shooting. The phaser, with competant usage and a laser sight, would be a increadible weapon. You could use it as a handgun, a semi-automatic, a minigun, a grenade launcher... And that's just its military uses!

It even slices bread.

Teaos wrote:It even slices bread.

And toast it.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that in the 80s the TV people thought vapourising people was considered too violent, so most kill shots left a body.

We know that in The Omega Glory, Captain Tracey said he drained four of his phasers in killing "thousands" of Yangs. That's a minimum of 500 kill shots per phaser; and he didn't have spare power packs at the time. He did then say that bodies were all over the place, so obviously this was a non-vapourise setting.

If the TNG TM is to be believed, setting 4 uses 515.75 unspecified units of energy, and is enough to kill people with short duration blasts, while setting 8 uses 15,000 units and vapourises people. If that were true, you would get 29 times as many level 4 shots as level 8; a minimum of 17 based on the Omega Glory number above. Of course, the TNG TM is not to be believed all that often.

If you really can have 500 kill shots versus 17 vapourise shots, I surely know which level I would be using.

For me, it's summed up by Ron Moore's quote : "The weapons are way too powerful to present them in any realistic kind of way. Given the real power of a hand phaser, we shouldn't be able to show ANY firefights on camera where the opponents are even in sight of each other, much less around the corner! It's annoying, but just one of those things that we tend to slide by in order to concentrate on telling a dramatic and interesting story."

I wonder how it kills you with out vaporising part of you. Sometimes people seem to have no damage to them yet they drop dead.

GrahamKennedy wrote:I seem to remember reading somewhere that in the 80s the TV people thought vapourising people was considered too violent, so most kill shots left a body.

We know that in The Omega Glory, Captain Tracey said he drained four of his phasers in killing "thousands" of Yangs. That's a minimum of 500 kill shots per phaser; and he didn't have spare power packs at the time. He did then say that bodies were all over the place, so obviously this was a non-vapourise setting.

That's not quite accurate, Spock shows Kirk Tracey's "reserve belt packs". After surveying the scene.

Edit: He had two in his hand, BTW.

Teaos wrote:I wonder how it kills you with out vaporising part of you. Sometimes people seem to have no damage to them yet they drop dead.

Wouldn't a high enough "stun" type setting fry the nervous system? That'd make someone drop dead without any visible marks.

Tsukiyumi wrote:
Wouldn't a high enough "stun" type setting fry the nervous system? That'd make someone drop dead without any visible marks.

How would you do such a thing without burning or electricuting them?

I imagine a quick enough jolt to the system would stop the heart, and wouldn't necessarily burn them. Defib paddles can stop a heart, and don't burn people. Usually.

Tsukiyumi wrote:I imagine a quick enough jolt to the system would stop the heart, and wouldn't necessarily burn them.

Yeah but takes more than enough amperage to be noticable, the guy should either spasm or sieze up. Though honestly I can't remember how kill is consitantly displayed post TOS. There should also be scortch marks noticable on the uniform and holes on the exit points.

No scorches on the uniform or flesh. People just sort of throw their arms up in the air and fall to the ground.

Maybe they have them set to "give up and die of despair?"