New Testingstan

Actually I think SG1's kit is a good model for this. It's not particularly intimidating for example.

tbh it's because i've been watching stargate lately that has made me want to discuss this

Good man.

my troll aside i can think of several times when knife/rope/blanket/chocolate bar would have been handy in star trek too

like "the enemy" when geordi fell down some thing

now he got out of it by using his phaser to improvise some climbing picks (he melted some random metal into a crack to make the right shape)

but if he just had a rope on him that probably would have been faster and easier


i don't recall the naked time specifically but i don't think they had blankets there either and again relied on the phaser



which proves how fucking useful phasers are


but the basics are good to have too

Zod wrote:
in that one episode with the neanderthals in tos that worship the american flag captain tracy used up his phasers power packs by supposedly killing hundreds of yangs

remember when Mike tried to argue they couldn't have done that with hand phasers and tried to say it was that big ray gun thing from the pilot episode.

But...reserve belt packs?

VF5SS wrote:

Zod wrote:
in that one episode with the neanderthals in tos that worship the american flag captain tracy used up his phasers power packs by supposedly killing hundreds of yangs

remember when Mike tried to argue they couldn't have done that with hand phasers and tried to say it was that big ray gun thing from the pilot episode.

not really

Sandman wrote:You could implement a portable replicator into the small shelter, reducing some of the weight required for rations and water, and magazines would be very low-weight being pretty much literal 'power cells'. Frees up a lot of weight for other things. And your communication system comes as standard as your uniform's badge.

Come to think of it, they do have some general weight-reduction technology in starfleet which would be useful to possibly implement, depending on how humanoid-portable they can make it.

I'd argue against a portable replicator for a short-term landing party. Even with miniaturization, my impression is that replication takes a substantial amount of power, and you still need a stock of material to work with. Not only are there phenomena that interfere with transporters (which are part of the replication system), but the potential for the replicator to be captured by hostile or low-tech forces seems too high to me. A team of 4-6 operating independently for 72 hours should be okay with real water and the combat rations we saw introduced in DS9. Those combat rations were pretty amazing, as if I remember right, it was basically a little packet the size of a Pop-Tart that had all the nutrients necessary for 24 hours. Not the most satisfying culinary experience, but undeniably efficient.

Mostly though, I'm just wary of doing that kind of tech-creep where any guy can pack a whole replicator with him. TNG+ is wonky enough with what they can do on the ship.

(Maybe they've already done the porta-replicator and I've forgotten about it. But in that instance, although I would grudgingly admit it could be useful, my sentiment would still be that it shouldn't have happened in the first place.)


Now, for a longer-term deployment, and/or a larger contingent (maybe platoon strength?), I could see bringing along a miniature fusion reactor that powers a small replicator, recharges phasers and tricorders, and powers other possible devices that need more juice than their battery technology would otherwise afford (phaser cannon? a short-range forcefield? high-power sensors? long-range subspace radio?). This would probably depend in large part on the mission.

uraniun235 wrote:

Sandman wrote:You could implement a portable replicator into the small shelter, reducing some of the weight required for rations and water, and magazines would be very low-weight being pretty much literal 'power cells'. Frees up a lot of weight for other things. And your communication system comes as standard as your uniform's badge.

Come to think of it, they do have some general weight-reduction technology in starfleet which would be useful to possibly implement, depending on how humanoid-portable they can make it.

I'd argue against a portable replicator for a short-term landing party. Even with miniaturization, my impression is that replication takes a substantial amount of power, and you still need a stock of material to work with. Not only are there phenomena that interfere with transporters (which are part of the replication system), but the potential for the replicator to be captured by hostile or low-tech forces seems too high to me. A team of 4-6 operating independently for 72 hours should be okay with real water and the combat rations we saw introduced in DS9. Those combat rations were pretty amazing, as if I remember right, it was basically a little packet the size of a Pop-Tart that had all the nutrients necessary for 24 hours. Not the most satisfying culinary experience, but undeniably efficient.

Mostly though, I'm just wary of doing that kind of tech-creep where any guy can pack a whole replicator with him. TNG+ is wonky enough with what they can do on the ship.

(Maybe they've already done the porta-replicator and I've forgotten about it. But in that instance, although I would grudgingly admit it could be useful, my sentiment would still be that it shouldn't have happened in the first place.)


Now, for a longer-term deployment, and/or a larger contingent (maybe platoon strength?), I could see bringing along a miniature fusion reactor that powers a small replicator, recharges phasers and tricorders, and powers other possible devices that need more juice than their battery technology would otherwise afford (phaser cannon? a short-range forcefield? high-power sensors? long-range subspace radio?). This would probably depend in large part on the mission.

if they wanted to bring a replicator with them why wouldn't they just come down to the surface with a shuttle? don't those things have replicators?

I'm... not sure. We've seen people eating on shuttles before (the sandwich scene with Picard comes to mind), but I can't remember seeing someone actually replicate something on a shuttle. Which doesn't mean it didn't happen, just that I don't remember it. The Captain's Yacht almost certainly has one, but it's a fair bit bigger than the average shuttle.

I definitely remember the runabouts having transporters, but I think you need at least a Galaxy-class starship to carry one of those.

how about a nice fold out wheeled buggy they can strap to the exterior of a shuttle pod. Or maybe inside some of the bigger ones

like just for moving around real fast when a shuttle is too big

i dunno i think theres a lot of good reasons just to use old fashioned vaersions

like groundsheets and magic selfheating meals and shit

i mean unless COMMUNIST UNIONS ruined everything in the future and everyone is a PUSSY and needs their MAGIC PORTO-HOUSE

about food

wouldnt there be issues if all you were given was some vitamin supplements re fullness, fibre, etc

like, the food is going to need some mass right

i guess you could just give everyone energy bars?

but that would mean people would get super unhappy, morale is important too you need to have the meals that everybody fights over

and you need ham steak and pineapple as punishment

lets tlak about how many landing parties are down there for more than a few hours

artemas wrote: and you need ham steak and pineapple as punishment

Ugh flashbacks

What was that awful breakfast IMP, was it the omelette? So terrible.

artemas wrote:about food

wouldnt there be issues if all you were given was some vitamin supplements re fullness, fibre, etc

like, the food is going to need some mass right

i guess you could just give everyone energy bars?

The only objection anyone had when Chief O'Brien passed out the rations was that they tasted like ass, so I'm guessing they work alright for what they do.

And actually, on reviewing the episode (DS9 The Siege), O'Brien says it's a "timed-release formula of all the nutrients the body needs for three days", so that's a pretty massive mass/volume saver right there. Hell, you could eat the damn thing before you went and not have to carry any food at all on the away mission.


Look, my whole point is that the away teams don't need to pack replicators along.

Possibly not. And of course, in situations requiring stealth due to prime directive related issues, you want to risk leaving behind as few world-changing technologies as possible...

so we have

- the phaser/tricorder/communicator trinity
- two or three of those 72hr ration packs (3 of them stretches out to ~ 2 weeks of food if you're willing to go hungry for a few days between rations)
- a knife (which are part of a starship's armoury, just... never used except when Janeway roleplays as John McLane)
- a blanket/ground sheet/ poor man's tent fabric thing
- flashlights (they have the wrist-mounted ones... not sure how comfortable they are for longer periods though)
- a dermal regenerator (seriously, it's a suture kit, bandages, painkiller, disinfectant and a kiss on the boo-boo all in one tool. Why doesn't every away team carry them as standard?)

Possibly that it requires a trained medical officer to use most effectively, with everyone else being only-just trained enough to use one to get rid of minor wounds, and the official starfleet recommendation is to leave stuff like that in the hands of the person trained to use it. Which is also why they should possibly include 'a medic' in the list of people sent on any given away mission.

And being absolutely fair, in TOS, they did bring a medic on pretty much every away mission.

what we're learning is that criminaloids in blake's 11 were better equipped than star tree

adr wrote:my troll aside i can think of several times when knife/rope/blanket/chocolate bar would have been handy in star trek too

like "the enemy" when geordi fell down some thing

now he got out of it by using his phaser to improvise some climbing picks (he melted some random metal into a crack to make the right shape)

but if he just had a rope on him that probably would have been faster and easier


i don't recall the naked time specifically but i don't think they had blankets there either and again relied on the phaser



which proves how fucking useful phasers are


but the basics are good to have too

you know speaking of ropes didn't they make it a big deal about picard rappelling down a cavern with ropes in that one episode where he got captured by the cardassians

and then we never see them use ropes on a mission again

yea i think so

Bounty wrote:- the phaser/tricorder/communicator trinity

Voyager showed that a communicator with a little monkey work could be used to create a forcefield which could last a useful while too.

Stofsk wrote:better here than over there because over there first reply would be 'JUST GIVE THEM BODY ARMOUR OK AND TRIGGER GUARDS'

body armour MADE OF trigger guards

like chain mail

only instead of chain links

it's trigger guards

:idea:

xon wrote:

Bounty wrote:- the phaser/tricorder/communicator trinity

Voyager showed that a communicator with a little monkey work could be used to create a forcefield which could last a useful while too.

Fuck, they didn't, did they?

The old 'combadge forcefield' used to only work in the holodecks back in TNG...