Tactical Computer - Phaser banks

The Star Ship is equiped with phaser banks. When a phaser bank is charged with energy this energy can be "fired" in a more or less focussed method towards an object. As a result the object sustains damage because of the energy blast. The operational status and reliability of a phaser bank can fluctuate, as any other system onboard the Star Ship. This depends on many factors, for example the energy reserves of the Star Ship, whether the phaser banks has been hit by a phaser blast or photon torpedo.
The Star Ship has six separate phaser banks: fore, aft, top, bottom, port and starboard. The Tactical Computer can supply energy to only one phaser bank at a time. Since the fire power from a phaser bank is essentially (focussed) energy, there are two conclusions you can draw.

  1. Energy travels with the speed of light.
    As a result of this, the simulation can register the damage on the target immediately (if a target is actually hit of course). The effect of the phaser blast depends on several aspects: the operational status and reliability of a phaser bank, the capability of the target to absorb energy (raised shields!), and of course the distance between the Star Ship and the target. The effect of a phaser bank decreases as the distance increases because energy is lost as the energy can not be kept focussed infinitely.

    The use of a phaser bank is only possible while the Star Ship travels at sub-light speed.
    When a phaser bank command is called while the Star Ship is at Warp speed the Tactical Computer issues the message
    "phaserbanks disengaged at warp speed". The "Fire phaser bank" command is rejected.

  2. Energy follows a straight line.
    This means that the proper phaser bank must be selected if you want to hit a target. Firing the aft phaser bank while the target is in front of the Star Ship will do no good. The Tactical Computer is capable of determining which phaser bank must be deployed so that, when fired, the energy blast is actually towards the target. The penalty is that the Tactical Computer draws more energy from the Star Ship reserves when it must determine the correct phaser bank.

Tactical computer command controls

The Tactical Computer accepts the following phaser bank related commands.
  1. Fire a specified phaser bank at a specified coordinate.
  2. Fire a specified phaser bank at a specified object.
  3. Fire a phaser bank (Tactical Computer determined) at a specified coordinate.
  4. Fire a phaser bank (Tactical Computer determined) at a specified object.
All phaser bank commands are activated with the Tactical Function/Location buttons.
Any tactical function is initiated by pressing the "TFR", Tactical Function Request button. The TFR button is the green one at the left. The Tactical Computer responds by switching the light on in the button. With the Function and Location buttons you can now specify the desired tactical subsystem, which in this case is the phaser bank subsystem, and which phaser bank to activate (or let the Tactical Computer determine the phaser bank).

Fire phaser bank at coordinates

  TFR        Function code           Location code         EXEC   phaser bank subsystem command  
TAC Computer determined phaser bank  fire TAC Computer determined phaser bank
manually specified phaser bank  fire manually specified phaser bank    
   * see port table for specific locations

When you have selected the phaser bank subsystem command, press the "TFR" button to proceed to the next step.
The lamp in the "TFR" button is turned off and the Tactical Entry Display the keypad are activated.

Enter target coordinate for phaser bank on Tactical Entry Display

When the Fire Phaser Bank at coordinates command is selected, the display shows the letter "P".
A square in the left-most corner of the display is lit to indicate that the Tactical Computer expects the entry of the X coordinate of the target. With the keypad you enter the X coordinate. When the X coordinate is set you press the key under the lit square, in this case the "diamond" key. The X coordinate is stored.
The next square in the display is lit to indicate that the Tactical Computer expects the entry of the Y coordinate of the target.
When the Y coordinate is set you press the key under the lit square, in this case the "#" key. The Y coordinate is stored.
The next square in the display is lit to indicate that the Tactical Computer expects the entry of the Z coordinate of the target.
When the Z coordinate is set you press the key under the lit square, in this case the "X" key. The Z coordinate is stored.

X coordinate on Tactical Entry Display Y coordinate on Tactical Entry Display Z coordinate on Tactical Entry Display
entry of X coordinate entry of Y coordinate entry of Z coordinate

Press the "." key to toggle the sign of the coordinate entry.
To correct an entry, press the red "*" key. This key backs up to the entry of the previous entered digit.
When the entry is at the first digit, the "*" key backs up to the previous coordinate when the entry is at the Z or the Y coordinate. The lit square indicator always shows which coordinate is expected. When the entry of the first digit of the X coordinate is expected and you press the "*" key, the "Fire phaser bank" command is cancelled.
A message "fire phaser bank at coordinates command cancelled" is shown on the console CRT.

When the Z coordinate is entered and confirmed with the "X" key, the target coordinate entry is completed.
The following events are possible.

When the correct phaser bank is selected, the distance to the target is calculated.
phaser bank ready to be deployed

If everything still looks fine it is time to engage ...
  1. The Tactical Computer issues the message "phaserbank #% locked on target coordinates" on the console CRT.
  2. The Tactical Entry Display shows the selected phaser bank.
  3. The fourth square underneath the "*" Cancel button is lit.
    When you press this Cancel key the Fire Phaser Bank at coordinates command is aborted.
  4. The "EXEC" button is lit. This is the red button at the right-hand side of the Tactical Function/Location buttons.
fire phaser bank

When you press the "EXEC" button an energy blast of the phaser bank is fired. Damage on the target is assessed immediately (see the introduction). The "EXEC" button remains lit as it is possible to fire the phaser bank again. However, the energy reserve of a phaser bank is not limitless. As you fire the weapon the following messages can (and will) eventually be issued on the console CRT:
"phaserbank #x operational status below 40%"
"phaserbank #x operational status below 20%"
"phaserbank #x inoperative"
When the phaser bank is no longer operative (exhausted) the light in the "EXEC" button and the other Function/Location buttons are turned off; the "Fire phaser bank" command is terminated.
 

Fire phaser bank at object

  TFR        Function code           Location code         EXEC   phaser bank subsystem command  
TAC Computer determined phaser bank  fire TAC Computer determined phaser bank  
manually specified phaser bank  fire manually specified phaser bank
   * see port table for specific locations

When you have selected the phaser bank subsystem command, press the "TFR" button to proceed to the next step.
The lamp in the "TFR" button is turned off and the Tactical Entry Display shows the letters "PHA" to indicate that you selected the "Fire Phaser Bank at object" command.

Enter target identification for phaser bank

The Tactical Computer sollicits for a target identification on the console CRT.
Enter the name of the object with the keyboard. To pass that information to the Tactical Computer you press the red "XMIT" key.
The square above the "*" Cancel button is not lit. This means that you can not use this button to abort the Fire Phaser at object command. Press the "XMIT" key without any entry as a target identification to abort the command.
The report line shows: Fire phaser bank at object command aborted.
















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 >> TAC - target identification : > _......... <
the Tactical Computer 'target identification' prompt

All the actions that follow are the same as for the "Fire Phaser Bank at coordinates" command.
However, a coordinate is always 'where it is'. A target name that you specify must somehow be determined by the Tactical Computer. The Tactical Computer accesses the data banks of the Sciences Computer system to find the current position of the target. If the target is not known by the Sciences Computer system the following message appears in the report line (between the two dotted lines) on the console CRT:

requested target not found in any data bank.
If the target is not detected by short/long range sensor scans the message
[targetname] not detected by any sensor
is displayed. This can happen when the target is cloaked, as Klingon Bird of Prey ships like to do.
If the manually selected phaser bank is not facing the target, the
phaserbank #x will not hit target [targetname]
message is issued. If everything is okay, the Tactical Computer issues the following message and the red "EXEC" button is lit
phaserbank #x locked on target [targetname]

If no target identification is entered when the XMIT key is pressed, the Tactical Computer interprets this as an abort of the Fire Phaser Bank at object command. The report line says: no target entry: fire phaser command cancelled.