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I still think thats too big of an investment (they must cost a shit load) for something that really isnt that great at defence, build specialised defences, not a logistics/industrial station that doubles as a weapons platform.

Not that great at defense? Says who?

And it's because of that investment that something that can be used as a defensive platform AND an industrial facility makes sense.

Says the fact that they have piss poor weapons coverage. You could slip a fleet right past them to fuck the surface over and get it back out and come no where near the things. 3 stations? I'll come in through the polls.

Teaos wrote:I'll come in through the polls.

I don't speak Kiwi, but I don't see where your analysis comes from. They don't have poor coverage simply because you say so for the purposes of an argument. Look at it like this: draw three tangents on Earth, each one intersecting the circumference at equidistant points. You end up with an equilateral triangle - now place a Starbase-74-type at each vertex. Are you really saying that phasers and torpedoes don't have enough range for one to cover the other? That's absolutely ludicrous, even in the Southern Hemisphere.

Now, figure there's got to be at least three to five of the Regula/orbital-office type stations supportingeach 74-type, and I fail to see where the supposed holes in this coverage are.

Now add the fact of the outer defences I proposed, plus the starships which would be permanently attached to each of the 74-type stations, plus the fighters/et. al. whcih could be attached to the smaller stations...

Well in my example you have lets say two of those stardocks each with a nice 36 ship defiant fleet. For lack of a better reference the ISS makes - I think - a complete orbit in around 1,5-2 hours. Given that there are two stardocks and considering the respective weapon ranges which could very well be much better than ship mounted phasers I would say you got a pretty neat coverage.

If anything at all manages to advance past the defiants.

Cons? Well the spacedock is not strictly a military facility but also an econimcal one.
Pros? Since the docks are more or less self sufficient and the defiants are also held ready with a minimum of ressources you can keep up those defenses almost indefinitley without ruining your economy. (Klingons cough, cough)

The weapons range and accuracy of the station would leed to poor coverage at the far points. DS9 waited till the enemy fleet was right ontop of it before firing, even starships rarely fight at ranges greater than 1km. And while yes, weapons have been stated to have good ranges 99% of the times we see them fire it is at ranges of less than 5km. Everytime we see combat it is short range, and every time we see long range shots they are not well aimed. And firing over the surface of your homeworld, is one place you dont want a stray hit.

So yeah, 3 Spacedock are fucking horrible defences for something the size of a planet, which has a diameter of something like > 5km.

Each of those stations would be in visual range of another, so they're definitely within accurate distances.

And you think they're por defenses, so you'd rather have... nothing?

You're also missing the important fact that each of them would be well supported by other intermeidate units.

Visual range is a bit misleading, I'm with in visual range of Alpha Centura. These stations are thousands of kilometers apart, way further away than normal combat range.

My issue is that they cost way to much, build one sure, two maybe. But anymore than that your better off using that HUGE amount of resources for other stuff. How many Drydocks could you build for one of them? How many Defiants could be built? Hundreds.

GK estimates their mass at 71,000,000 metric tons, A defiant is 355,000 metric tons, a Sovereign is 3,500,000 metric tons.

They have their uses, defence is not one, They can defend themselves, not a planet, they support a fleet, not replace one.

Teaos wrote:they support a fleet, not replace one.

So glad you read any part of my posts other than what you wanted to argue against. I thought I may have mentioned something about supporting these things with other stations AND with starships...

Teaos wrote:They can defend themselves, not a planet

So, you'd rather have manufacturing facilities which can't defend themselves? OK, that makes sense.

Mikey wrote:So glad you read any part of my posts other than what you wanted to argue against. I thought I may have mentioned something about supporting these things with other stations AND with starships...

And I'm so glad youv developed Q like powers and can make unlimited amount of resources.

One of these stations will be enough to support a decent sized defence fleet, anything more than that is over kill

But apparently you not only have the ability to build three MASSIVE stations but you can now fill them with ships too.

So, you'd rather have manufacturing facilities which can't defend themselves? OK, that makes sense.

No, what I would do is use the massive amounts of resources you wasted on two surplus stations and use them to build a combination of drydocks, defence platforms, and these really neat little things that can move and activly engage a enemy... I believe they're called "starships".

Teaos wrote:No, what I would do is use the massive amounts of resources you wasted on two surplus stations and use them to build a combination of drydocks, defence platforms, and these really neat little things that can move and activly engage a enemy... I believe they're called "starships".

So, you would use the resources that you claim don't exist to build drydocks and defense platforms - of which the UFP doesn't actually have any extant designs(1) - and the starships which you claim can't be built. Gotcha.

No my point there was that if I had that rediculous amount of stuff I could literally make a fleet of hundreds of ships.

What i would do is build a reasonable amount of drydocks (actually just keep whats already there) throw in a few defence platforms, station a small fleet of Defiants in the existing space dock and save Starfleet about 150 MILLION tons of resources for other stuff like captial ship building.

You keep mentioning these defense platforms. Do you have a link to or photo of Starfleet's defense platforms?

Clever have a cookie

No I don't, although it is obivously well with in their means to design and build them if others can. And we have heard of a Mars defence grid which could indeed be something like that.

But even with out them I just get a few more Defiants. Which are a powerful/portable/cheap/numerous planetry defence ship.

Does Starfleet have any kind of torpedo defense grid technology? That is something that should be standard on all colonies. Torpedoes launched from the surface could cause some serious damage in space.