100% Official detailed description of Type-II phaser functions lifted from the Starfleet Technical Utilities Manual for new cadets
A couple problems:
Some of these "settings" go on completely different weapons, or even different centuries.
Some of them are also "they rigged the phaser to do X" which would not be a button.
I'm a big fan of the Vaporize Acqueduct setting, though. You wouldn't think you'd get to use it often, but you might be surprised!
Oof. So You're not actually vaporized like a regular phaser, just sent to O'Brien's shadow realm
They need more wide beam settings. Every time they clean something with a phaser in Lower Decks, using the precise beam, I die a little inside
To be fairrrrrrrr.....
The beams are wider than normal phasers in most situations. Like mariner cleaning carbon off slightly harder carbon or the crew cleaning the crystal graffiti off the ship.
I could see that being an energy-intensives thing though, and having worked on handheld high-current devices, I could totally see limiting the beam power/width settings to ensure you don't melt your hand. Or accidentally trip the overload setting...
here's a crazy idea: dedicated cleaning beams that make that kind of thing a "boop and we're done" situation. Or like.... Use the rifles. Those have to be able to handle more power, right?
Just a cylindrical power supply, you can add some wheels to make it easier. Oh, and make the beam-generator wider, so you can best disperse that beam.
Here's how a well device cleaning device would look like (but the on one the image wouldn't work in a vacuum): https://ukcleaningsupplies.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/IMG_1451-1.jpg
Use the 2 side buttons to switch modes and the big button to fire. The lights will change depending on the mode.
But be careful if it has the post-Wolf-359 remodulation hotfix, because it's really easy to end up stuck in the nutation settings menu if you press either button 5 times within a few seconds.
You can disable this behavior with a long press of the firing button, which unsurprisingly got its own hotfix shortly after that.
Unfortunately, the side buttons default to back/next on your browser and Starfleet really locks down rebinds.
It's the trigger - like a weedwhacker. The actual firing mechanism is on the bottom of the handle. You use your little finger. Any small children or pre-warp civilizations just assume it's designed to be convenient and fumble about uselessly. Nah: if Starfleet can't make a dangerous tool smart enough to say no, they make using it a pain in the ass.
Where's the ' Make energy run through an entire aqueduct destroying it for miles' button?
See, this is why they go through Starfleet training. My untrained eye didn't pick up on that setting.
You know a character is gone for good if they have 45 seconds of dialogue before kicking the bucket.
Edit: there's always an exception to every rule, the best rules only have 1 exception, this one being spock.
That's how Stargate had a time-travel episode to 1969, and the worst writing decision was about getting rid of a footlocker.
Single press to change display colour Hold for 5 seconds to recalibrate Hold for 5 seconds and then 3 seconds until beep to self-destruct
