Federation and capital ships (Excalibur class)

[nathanj]

posted on July 9th, 2009, 3:57 am

Last edited by nathanj on July 9th, 2009, 5:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

i only saw nemesis once but if i recall correctly when the big E rammed into the reman ship the reman ship splintered all over the place while most of the saucer section remained intact.  i would say that is a pretty tough hull.

posted on July 9th, 2009, 6:07 am

Ah, I did not know that.  Then I believe you would.  Soverign would be more standard, as well as defiants, akiras, and steamrunners, and the like, but there would be no need to have more than one excalibur.  However if your point is that it is not very fed in design, I dissagree.  It meats the Saucer, and nacelles law, (which isn't a lax considering steamrunners, and defiants).  And I don't think there is a spacific look that fed ships follow.  There have been nsome trends, but they were all thrown out the window, starting with the reliant, then the defiant, steamrunner akira, then the voyager, ans so on.  Even nacelles on top arn't even sacred. 

sure it is huge, but there is no rule about sise, and we saw the massive sise of the ent J in enterprise, so maybe ships in the future are larger, the federation has just spread so much, they are generational ships, made to explore distant quadrants.  Because the Federation has expanded so much, there is no need for small exploration/ war ships.  Only large ships that can hold their own like cubes.

And by the mid- to late 25th century, that might be true. However, I don't see that shift occurring within the late 24th/early 25th-century timeframe of Fleet Ops. When we last left them, the Federation was building more compact, maneuverable starships like the Sovereign-, Defiant-, Intrepid-, and Prometheus-class ships, all of which overperformed dramatically versus the big Galaxy- and D'deridex-class vessels that had performed inadequately against the Dominion Forces.

We may just have to agree to disagree on this one, but I think it's really unlikely you would see a Starfleet ship longer than 750-800 meters by 2410, let alone one in standard production.

posted on July 9th, 2009, 6:14 am

i only saw nemesis once but if i recall correctly when the big E rammed into the reman ship the reman ship splintered all over the place while most of the saucer section remained intact.  i would say that is a pretty tough hull.

While this is true the ablative armor had nothing to do with the Big E's resistance to the collision. Ablative armor only is useful agianst energy discharges.

posted on July 9th, 2009, 12:01 pm

And by the mid- to late 25th century, that might be true. However, I don't see that shift occurring within the late 24th/early 25th-century timeframe of Fleet Ops. When we last left them, the Federation was building more compact, maneuverable starships like the Sovereign-, Defiant-, Intrepid-, and Prometheus-class ships, all of which overperformed dramatically versus the big Galaxy- and D'deridex-class vessels that had performed inadequately against the Dominion Forces.

We may just have to agree to disagree on this one, but I think it's really unlikely you would see a Starfleet ship longer than 750-800 meters by 2410, let alone one in standard production.

I agree, so that is why is would be in experimental warpin.  This could be an excuse to make it less powerful than it would normally be, because it is still a prototype.

posted on July 9th, 2009, 5:55 pm

I think this is a good discussion.... it points out a fork in the evolution in Federation Ship Design. On one hand the Dominion War showed that smaller more maneuverable ships like the defiant were most effective against the smaller Dominion destroyers and fighters.  On the other hand the increasing conflict with the borg has highlighted the need for a heavy battleship that can go toe to toe with a cube (if there ever could be such a thing) In any event these two distinct foes have made it so that there is a potential use for smaller faster ships and bigger heavier ones. Although it seems like the Federation is leaning more towards lighter faster ships as pointed out by SaoMagnifico.

posted on July 9th, 2009, 6:02 pm

Makes you think, that at war, we have different units, then in a time of peace, and different tactics for different enemys...just maybe.

posted on July 9th, 2009, 10:27 pm

I agree, so that is why is would be in experimental warpin.  This could be an excuse to make it less powerful than it would normally be, because it is still a prototype.

And I think the Descent-class experimental battleship already fits that role quite nicely.

posted on July 9th, 2009, 10:35 pm

But the descent is more of a support ship, or at least it makes a goos one.  And who cares if there are two ships used for the same thing.  Then it wouldn't mater which one you got.

posted on July 10th, 2009, 12:14 am

Someone will probably whine about too many unneeded ships, even if it is only one ship.

posted on July 10th, 2009, 12:30 am

well, even with several more it still won't be as many as the other races(excludeing the borg.)

posted on July 10th, 2009, 12:46 am

I hope you mean combined, because the Feds already have more units than any other race  (22)

posted on July 10th, 2009, 12:50 am

nah, I'm counting prototypes to. 

posted on July 10th, 2009, 1:19 am

Why on earth...?

posted on July 10th, 2009, 1:25 am

because they are separate ships, and we arn't on earth.

posted on July 10th, 2009, 1:27 am

Well then, the Borg have more ships then any other faction. I think then they would have close to 200 or more?


You should think about combat ships then: prototypes don't work as such