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Mark wrote:Door number three won you your very own.............Travel Pod!!!!!!!

Hey, I'd take one. By modern standards, it would be awesome.

"Hey, man. Check out my new car!"

"Screw that. Take a look at this..."

Nice.

Imagine picking up your date in one.

Oh yes. I'd be using the cockpit window for MAXIMUM effect

Mark wrote:It's a matter of usefulness. Impulse only shuttles are SEVERELY limited in the roles that they can play and their overall usefulness. If I had a choice of 100 warp capable shuttles or 500 impulse shuttles, which one would make more sense to take?

But giving it a warp core makes it far harder to build.

Teaos wrote:

Mark wrote:It's a matter of usefulness. Impulse only shuttles are SEVERELY limited in the roles that they can play and their overall usefulness. If I had a choice of 100 warp capable shuttles or 500 impulse shuttles, which one would make more sense to take?

But giving it a warp core makes it far harder to build.

Well, that's why he said 500 impulse shuttles vs 100 warp shuttles. A 5 to 1 ratio seems to illustrate the difficulty of building warp-capable shuttles. I'd also go with a mix, as stitch said; say 50 warp shuttles and 250 impulse shuttles.

You're not factoring in the cost. While it may be 5 times quicker to build a non-warp shuttle, it may also be 5 times cheaper, and require a lot less resources. Add all that in and you can see why Starfleet builds a lot of them.

Field maintenance must be a hell of a lot easier for a non-warp shuttle, also.

They also wouldn't need antimatter. An important consideration, given Starfleet's safety record.

Aye, safer all around.

But they would be restricted to use in systems or by planetary facilities. A rather narrow scope, IMO

That's not a serious limitation for a shuttle. They're so slow at warp as to take months between systems anyway, and they don't have the accomodation necessary for extended flights. If warp-capable shuttles are necessary then build a few, but the vast majority only require impulse drive.

I like runabouts better, anyways. They'd be much better suited for short or medium-range travel than shuttles.

Man, I'd love to have a runabout.

But they would be restricted to use in systems or by planetary facilities. A rather narrow scope, IMO

Even a warp-capable one isn't going to be going to other systems anytime soon.

Besides, the whole point of shuttles is to ferry personel and equipment from your ship to another ship/starbase/planet. In the vast majority of those cases you'll have the ship itself nearby. As such, warp drive is not required.

Or to take Geordi or Worf to a conference or competition and take long enough in the process to allow for abduction/space-time phenomenon.