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All combat takes place at the same “altitude” which means the same
flat plane, with the concept that “down” or “south” will be
under a ship, and “up” or “North” will always be above a ship,
and all ships are flying with the same attitude. And as there
is no air resistance only inertia, ships can be of any shape.
However, bear in mind that in optional rules, ships can appear from “above” or
“below” into the battle area (more like an "arena"
actually) and in order for this to happen,
player/character/ship computers will be providing warning of an arriving
friend or foe .. or unknown.
Fighter approaching satellite
In the Media
As we have seen in the media, energy or beam weapons can be of a
frequency that would match a shield's electrical frequency, so the
shields becomes useless (Star Trek TNG series). Shields are
best against natural phenomena and will get overwhelmed during sustained
combat.
When shields are "up" energy is used from the ship's power
supply, usually meaning engines, though it is conceivable that a
separate engine might be employed JUST for shield use. Apparently
the location and strength of shields is variable by the user, as in the
phrase "shift all power to front deflectors" (Star Wars)
meaning that certain locations of the ship can be turned off and thus
reinforce another location.
As in a Star Trek episode, an assassin ship outfitted with no shields
and using all it's power for speed and weapons was immensely dangerous
to Enterprise 1701A. The ship was so fast it could not be
targeted, and as we have seen in that series, for some odd reason the
idea of guided missiles aka Photon Torpedo's apparently didn't occur to
the designers of the show.
Remember, even in the 1960's guided homing missiles like sidewinders
were just in the development stage, and as far as we know, torpedo's
were not self-guiding.. you had to point at the target and make
adjustments for it's speed and heading then launch your torpedo
accordingly.
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