If you beleive that phasers and photon torpedos are all Star Trek uses, you're sadly mistaken. They may be mostly what the FEDERATION uses, but the weapons vary ALOT. Star Trek doesn not use the mass drivers because they are relatively primative weapons. Hurling an asteroid into a planet has a degree of effectiveness, but a series of high-yeald photon torpedos launched from orbit can punch a hole in a planet's atmosphere because of MASSIVE anti-matter explosions. Much mroe effective. Nukes are overused, it's that simple. In early Star Trek: Enterprise they used nukes, but as they pointed out later, even the first photon torpedos were IMMENSELY more powerful. In anti-matter vs. Fusion, andti-matter will win every time. A "lightning Gun" is about the least imaginative thing ever. A Phaser, is actually a Phased Energy projector. Those of you who don't know what that is, look it up. Star Wars simply says "Oh, we're gonna jump to hyperspace now!" Star Trek actually has stuff that scientifically makes sense behind their technology rather than say "It just is cause I say so!"

Sorry, if this sounded like flaming, it wasn't meant to. I'm just emphasizing my point.

You aren't flaming, you're just explaining the things to us. The reason SW doesn't have scientific background in the tech is because it is mostly fantasy, there is very little scifi in there.

Sorry for taking all that stuff out, most of it was just things that really bugged me about ST (by the way, I am in no way defending SW).

They would build it in real life, but something called republicans and other idiotic governments are slowing the evolution of space exploration massively.

There is a big difference between a theory, a scifi concept and a proven fact. What StarTrek does is to create words and other concepts that are believable, but not neccesarily scientificly proven nor "theorized".

And by the way, by theory it is possible to go faster than the speed of light, that does however require to dimension jump because the law of physics in this universe don't allow that sort of speed as far as I know.

wtf.. ok.. SW, ST both SUCK!! nuff said..

That's right, Bjossi.

Star Trek theorizes that you could propel a starship faster than light by creating an energy field that shunts the ship into "subspace", a kind of half-paralell dimension with slightly different properties, such as the ability to breach lightspeed, as well, as significantly lowering the mass of the starship as compared to normal space.

Not necessarily realistic, but. . .

And D. Ein, Weaponry in Star Trek is a couple dozen times more varied than in Star Wars. You just happen to be uneducated about this. That's okay, though. Common mistake.

And Bjossi, they Type II Hand phasers you were referring to as a "purdy stick" are a lot more original than the silly-looking modified Mauser handgun that Han Solo packs around.

Give me a mauser or a rusted metal shank any day! Those "calculator guns" won't even leave a bruise if they hit someone on the head...
I'm also pretty sure they don't have mauser in either, It's too powerful!
BJOSSI!!! Wher do you get "PURDY STICK", its more like a "tur[error] stick"!

Oh yeah, Cyberax, Why not add StarGate to the poll? And StarCraft while you're at it!
Just for the , uhhh... "less refined" people (like me) to understand...

Well, a gun with the railgun technology leaves a very very bloody mess where it hits you.
But that is unrelated to StarTrek.

You know StarCraft was supposed to be based in the Warhammer40k universe, but they couldn't get the lisence?

And a rechargable directed energy beam makes more sense and is more efficient (and feasible) than a hand held railgun.

An energy beam wouldn't do any harm afaik, movies are just movies. A laser would, but not simple beam of energy.

I don't know why you think that, but I'd love to hear some kind of actual explanation.

Really!

If Atari hadn't sold the UT license, I think UT2007 would need to be named differently.
And same goes for System Shock, EA now owns the license so they'd need to name the next SS game Syst3m Sh0ck or something.

very very true Bjossi.

Yeah, just look at al the similarities, say, between the Terrans in StarCraft and the Space Marines. Or the Protoss and the Eldar. Or the Zurg and the tyranids. When they couldn't get the lisence, they just changed enough to keep from being sued and released it, and it ended up being more popular than anything Warhammer's ever had.

How that is I've never understood. I enjoy Dawn of War more than I ever enjoyed Star Craft.

The reasons that I love star wars is kind of the same reason that i love starcraft, It has a really deep story line, I don't care if it's got bits missing, but it has so much potential to be continued... Granted, most people that tried with SW failed miserably, but no one said it was that easy.

Making a good storyline is anything but easy, but I have to admit that both writers of StarTrek and StarWars plots have a lot wilder imagination than me.

How that is I've never understood. I enjoy Dawn of War more than I ever enjoyed Star Craft. [/quote]

When StarCraft was out, nobody even thought of the name "dawn of war". By the time they started getting ideas for a potential new game which they later named dawn of war, Starcraft was already played by millions (most likely including at least 3\4ths of the total population of Korea... heheh. Sorry, had to get that in there).

Also, a quick edit: poll-wise, ST is winning. I hope you're happy, ST fans.

I never said it wouldn't hurt, I said it wouldn't make a mess. But certain type of energy can do so of course if it is in a state powerful enough.

What kind of energy is a phasor supposed to be shooting, anyways? I've always wondered how it can magically stun someone without leaving any wound or anything (I think), but crank it up and it kills you and leaves a nasty hole in ya.

I knew starcraft and warhammer were very similar, but I never knew SC was supposed to be for WH. huh. Guess you learn something every day.

Who cares about star wars or star trek, lets rev up the chain blades get get hacking into some orks!

*Whips out Star Trek: The Next Generation Techical Manual*

The lead defensive system maintained by Starfleet command for sublight use for the last century is the phaser, the common term for a complicated energy release process developed to replace pure EM devices such as the laser, and particle beam accelerators.

Phaser is something of a holdover acronym, PHASed Energy Rectification, referring to the original process by which stored or supplied energy entering the phaser system was converted to another form for release toward a target, without the need for intermediate energy transformation. this remains essentially true in the current phaser effect.

Phaser energy is released through the application of the Rapid Nadion Effect (RNE). Rapid Nadions are short-lived subatomic particles posessing specail properties related to high-speed reactions within atomic nuclei. Among these properties is the ability to liberate and transfer strong nuclear forces within a particul class of superconducting crystals known as fushigi-no-umi. The crystals were so named when it appeared to Starfleet's Tokyo R&D facility that the materials being developed represented a virtual "sea of wonder" before them.

/end rant

Basically it's a directed energetic particle beam with attributes of both a laser and a particle beam. It damages things it hits by disrupting the subatomic bonds in it's molecules.

the "stun" effect is accomplished by providing just enough energy to momentarily disrupt neural functions in the brain, causing unconsiousness. Higher settings can permenantly disrupt or disintegrate tissue or other material.

that a good enough answer, or should I type up the rest of the 10-odd page article?

Good enough answer. I think I understand now.

This goes past my knowledge, but the explanation is logical as far as I can tell.

umm.. i really dont think so.. who's experimenting with hand hel directed energy beams?? railguns exist now, and are some of the most powerful weapons around.. it seems MORE feasible to hav an infantry railgun, than some weak-ass energy beam that fits into something smaller than a pocket calculator..! but i guess i'd rather be shot with the energy thing than the railgun

dont take offense or nothing, but i'm a zelaous fan of the Railgun

oh yeah.. just have to say, that StarCraft destroys all the other "star" things around.. SC rocked.. definetly one of the best strategy games.. not like that horrible Warcraft 3!

AoE3 is better

And AoE1 is better than AoE3.