STA: The Seige

[drewder]

One thing that's always bothered me about the zpms in atlantis is how inconsistent they are. Three zpms together held back the ocean for 10,000 years yet a few wraith darts raining down on the shields and suddenly we're running out of power. It seems every time we find a zpm it's quickly depleted. You'd think if they were so short lived there'd be a zpm factory somewhere on atlantis to crank them out.

[hypocratus]

I think the reason is that all the ZPMs they tend to find are ones that have been in use for thousands of years. The ones that were in use on Atlantis were more than likely brand new before spending 10,000 years holding back the ocean.

[clearspira]

I agree with Hypcocratus. There is also a retroactive problem with the ZPMs thanks to Stargate Universe. That show has a ''solar power'' drive that literally eats the energy from a sun. Its so powerful that it can power a ship continuously for longer than Atlantis, travel further than any ship in the franchise history and operate a very powerful shield. Its also implied that it could open an 8 or 9 chevron stargate address it is just too old and broken to do so. We don't know how strong ''Destiny'' is compared to later ships, but I get the impression that ''Destiny'' operates under Star Trek Discovery rules of just kind of ignoring canon because top secret ship or something.

So why abandon this tech? Atlantis is a space ship after all.

I guess its partially justified that the Ancients could mass-produce ZPMs, but its just weird that we never see this again as a back up or something.

[Madner Kami]

ZPMs are kinda implied to be a recent development, which is difficult to produce, even for the Ancients. Even the Pegasus-Replicators, who were able to construct new ones, only seem to have a few. And Destiny is pre-dating ZPMs by quite a margin and needs to refuel regularly. The ship is also significant slower than Asgard- and ZPM-powered Tau'Ri-ships. I remember someone running the math back in the day and the ZPM-powered Daedalus would need just under 30 years to catch up with Destiny, while Destiny was underway for around 50 million years.

[drewder]

I think the reason is that all the ZPMs they tend to find are ones that have been in use for thousands of years. The ones that were in use on Atlantis were more than likely brand new before spending 10,000 years holding back the ocean.

I feel like spending 10k years holding back the ocean is basically for all intents and purposes is limitless energy. Which makes sense that's what they're supposed to be. The other zpms however have been sitting mostly dormant the past 10k years. They should be nowhere near the edge of their power. I also doubt the ancients produced brand new zpms just to sink the city.

[clearspira]

ZPMs are kinda implied to be a recent development, which is difficult to produce, even for the Ancients. Even the Pegasus-Replicators, who were able to construct new ones, only seem to have a few. And Destiny is pre-dating ZPMs by quite a margin and needs to refuel regularly. The ship is also significant slower than Asgard- and ZPM-powered Tau'Ri-ships. I remember someone running the math back in the day and the ZPM-powered Daedalus would need just under 30 years to catch up with Destiny, while Destiny was underway for around 50 million years.

30 years? Damn, I take that back. The problem with Stargate as a show is that the gate uses an inconsistant level of power. The episode ''1969'' has them power the gate using a car battery. Another has an Ancient wire one up out of crap from a hardware store and plugs it into the mains.

The ninth chevron has similar problem. I refuse to believe that a ZPM cannot dial it let alone the three that Atlantis had at the end of season 5. It requires a ''special planet'' with a core of Jonas's super naquadah.

[clearspira]

I think the reason is that all the ZPMs they tend to find are ones that have been in use for thousands of years. The ones that were in use on Atlantis were more than likely brand new before spending 10,000 years holding back the ocean.

I feel like spending 10k years holding back the ocean is basically for all intents and purposes is limitless energy. Which makes sense that's what they're supposed to be. The other zpms however have been sitting mostly dormant the past 10k years. They should be nowhere near the edge of their power. I also doubt the ancients produced brand new zpms just to sink the city.

The Ancients are established as being very arrogant. I wonder if the ZPMs have varying levels of quality control. Like I said above though, Stargate is pretty bad regarding energy levels.

[Madner Kami]

30 years? Damn, I take that back. The problem with Stargate as a show is that the gate uses an inconsistant level of power. The episode ''1969'' has them power the gate using a car battery. Another has an Ancient wire one up out of crap from a hardware store and plugs it into the mains.

MilkyWay-Stargates were once explained to basically run on sunshine and blowing onto them. They take most of the energy they need out of their environment, though they need an external power-source for special occasions (e.g. repeated activations without recharging-period or extragalactic linking) and to operate the DHD. Earth's is a bit special, due to the jury-rigging the Tau'Ri did with it and thus doesn't run overtly efficiently.

The ninth chevron has similar problem. I refuse to believe that a ZPM cannot dial it let alone the three that Atlantis had at the end of season 5. It requires a ''special planet'' with a core of Jonas's super naquadah.

That could be explained by the ZPMs being good at providing baseline-power, but being bad at dealing with short-term demand-spikes. That would also explain the limits with the Atlantis-shield. Holding back a high, constant force like an ocean's weight, no problem, though burnout over time. Dealing with multiple localized, high speed Impact and explosions, not that easy.

[McAvoy]

I agree with Hypcocratus. There is also a retroactive problem with the ZPMs thanks to Stargate Universe. That show has a ''solar power'' drive that literally eats the energy from a sun. Its so powerful that it can power a ship continuously for longer than Atlantis, travel further than any ship in the franchise history and operate a very powerful shield. Its also implied that it could open an 8 or 9 chevron stargate address it is just too old and broken to do so. We don't know how strong ''Destiny'' is compared to later ships, but I get the impression that ''Destiny'' operates under Star Trek Discovery rules of just kind of ignoring canon because top secret ship or something.

So why abandon this tech? Atlantis is a space ship after all.

I guess its partially justified that the Ancients could mass-produce ZPMs, but its just weird that we never see this again as a back up or something.

I have a running theory that the Ancients is just a cover-all term for humans who have gone through cycles of rise of civilization and the fall of it. So the ship SGU uses could be the fourth cycle, the Atlanteans could be the 14th and the Tauri could be the 15th. It would explain the technology design looking different.

[Frustration]

I before E, except after C...