Federation Ship classes

posted on May 8th, 2011, 6:56 am

Death in a fire (or at all) is a little extreme... but I agree that many of their designs leave much to be desired.

That was the general idea being expressed, yes.

STO looks like a game from ten years ago......... wait, I dont want to insult games from ten years ago, since games from eleven years ago even managed to look better.

posted on May 9th, 2011, 12:35 pm

[align=center]STO SUCKS BALLS

IT'S SHIP MAKERS ARE INCOMPETENT IDIOTS

NOONE LIKES THE CUSTOM STO SHIPS AS THEY ARE UGLY

STO EVEN UGLIES UP THE NICE SHIP MODELS[/align]

A bit harsh, I wonder how many say the same kind of things about you? Can you model and make ships? Yes? No?

If you can model I would like to see what you can make, if not, learn to model before bagging out others works.

Oh and for the record I do agree most STO ships are horrid and have no real Trek feel about them. However there are a few I like and will one day model, just not today or any day soon as I have many other designs to do first.

posted on May 10th, 2011, 2:14 am

A bit harsh

Get me started on Jar Jar Abrams if you want harsh....

posted on May 10th, 2011, 7:49 am

Holy ****! Did that chart get bigger! I remember seeing a version of this a while back, but it looks like it got bigger.

As much as I hate STO, there are actually a few classes which look acceptable like Avenger and Emissary. I do find it odd though how they have misnamed the Steamrunner (Zephyr) and Norway (Oslo) classes.

Also notice how there is no Ambassador class or anything which resembles it (although the Celestial comes close).

Also notice that in the Celestial Retrofit box, under the Vice Admiral column, the saucer separation image has a weird plume of smoke/dust. That in and of itself it weird, but then the Galaxy picture next to it has no plume. Not weird at all, right.

And finally, if you look at the Kingon version of this chart, the Hegh'ta class (Brigadier/Major General, second row down) looks suspiciously like the Scimitar.

I only like the Luna somehow.

That's probably because the Luna is technically fannon. It was designed in a contest with the purpose of being featured on the cover of a book about Riker and his new command. Since the winner was probably picked by someone(s) from the long standing Trek production team, it's pretty close to canon design aesthetics.

[align=center]STO EVEN UGLIES UP THE NICE SHIP MODELS[/align]

This is a texture problem more than a modeling problem. It's mostly a stylistic choice done to bring the game models in line with the latest movie. I don't like it. Having the ships all shiny like that makes me want to barf. There are some other poor visual choices they've made in STO like gigantic rooms, contrails, phasers a la Star Wars; but what can I say, it's their game.

[align=center]IT'S SHIP MAKERS ARE INCOMPETENT IDIOTS

NOONE LIKES THE CUSTOM STO SHIPS AS THEY ARE UGLY[/align]

While I don't dispute the second point, their ship makers aren't idiots. If anyone is an idiot, it's the game designer who decided that the ships have to somehow change visually to indicate refit (i.e. higher level, tricked out, supped up, etc.). That's stupid; it hardly reflects Trek design philosophies, and it just caters to the steriotypes established by existing MMOs.

All the ship designers were probably told is "Ok, we want you to come up with a bunch of variations on these dozen or so hulls by next week." What's the catch here? Star Trek is not a universe where every modification leads to a different appearance, but rather a universe where a limited number of hulls can be arranged internally in many configurations. Trek is also not a universe where hulls have lots of little gizmos and do-dads sticking out all over. Federation hulls especially are very clean, very sleek, and very flat. Even later designs like the Sovereign which get busier are still very clean. Ergo: it's hard to create visually distinct variant while still staying within canon design aesthetics. Who ever was responsible for the ship designs either didn't have a good understanding of the canon design aesthetic or chose to ignore it and make their lives easier.

Having done some 3D work, I can say first hand that coming up with a new design which follows an existing aesthetic is hard. So I have to defend the ship designers, not because they make nice ships (they don't) but because they are neither incompetent nor idiots. Ignorant, perhaps, but not incompetent.

How the game didn't flop makes me really wonder. You have to pay monthly to command ships so ugly... the players must either be mindless zombies or teenage people who enjoy the shooting.

That and they're getting the "new" Trekkies. All those who were taken in by the latest movie (or converted). Well, whoever these people are, they obviously have no idea that other, way better Trek games exist, like oh I don't know, Star Trek Armada 2: Fleet Operations   .

posted on May 10th, 2011, 10:21 am

As much as I hate STO, there are actually a few classes which look acceptable like Avenger and Emissary. I do find it odd though how they have misnamed the Steamrunner (Zephyr) and Norway (Oslo) classes.

Also notice how there is no Ambassador class or anything which resembles it (although the Celestial comes close).

steamrunner/norway are gone in STO, those models (IIRC) are newer versions basically replacing them.

Also they are identical to the akira, you can mix/match parts, etc etc.

I remember reading they planned to add the ambasador back in, likely as a pay to play ship.

posted on May 10th, 2011, 10:47 am

I like the idea behind some ship classes: upgraded designs for Steamrunner, Oslo and Intrepid but usually i don't like the designs themselves.

posted on May 11th, 2011, 10:29 pm

What they did here was take perfectly good designs by John Eaves and hand them to a 12-year-old.

Now they are xtremely kool.

posted on May 12th, 2011, 12:10 am

Hello everyone,

a friend and I was chatting some days ago, we talked about several Star Trek Games. While that he came up with an impressing large image of the federation vessels of Star Trek online.
Warning: 9.425 x 2.943 Pixel at up to 7MB.
---Click here to see it---

I'm wondering if there is not one of this ships usable in FO, too.

Not all, but a lot of the STO ships I like.

But the Feds have waaaaaay enough ship's already

posted on May 12th, 2011, 12:42 am

The Klingon ships look a lot better than most of the Federation ones actually. But I agree with a lot that has been said. I would never play STO and it's not because of the models. I just don't believe in having to pay to play a game that I have to buy in the first place.

I understand why they do it, the amount of revenue they get from it world-wide. But you should either pay for the game and play free or get the game free and pay to play. One or the other not both.

Plus they really peeved me off with that contest they had which was for US Residents only. When their customer base is world wide. Not that it really mattered anyway, they screwed that one up so much with people able to cheat on the voting and instead or re-doing the comp, they ignored what the community wanted and went with what they wanted, well what CBS I believe wanted.

I mean STO isn't canon so what does it matter, hell I hope it isn't canon, Federation and Klingons in a war? That's 23rd century stuff. There are many more species out there they could have both powers go against.

Well enough of my ramblings.

posted on May 12th, 2011, 12:56 am

This one has some potential:
File:Default Shi'Kar Class.jpg - Star Trek Online Wiki

But what the heck were they thinking with the Imperial (chart between Nobel and Avenger) they take a ship and put an arrow on top of it?

The long range Science vessels are too much like the Intrepid. Only change is position of the nacelles!!

Deep Space science.. don't get me started. Got a barf-bag?

For the Zephyr i like the idea behind the vessel (upgraded Steamrunner, light frigate/cruiser/escort) but not the design itself.

So bottom line, the only thing which saves the whole lot from a one way trip to the wastebasket is the Shikar/Zephyr duo.

posted on May 12th, 2011, 1:55 am

  looks like a STO designed miranda 2

posted on May 12th, 2011, 2:49 am

Most of the designs are stupidly and pointlessly complicated. Modelling them would be a waste of time.

posted on May 12th, 2011, 10:05 am

  looks like a STO designed miranda 2

agreed

isnt it from sto?

posted on May 12th, 2011, 10:24 am

STO do a good line in ugly...



(This is a fed dreadnought "Jupiter Class")

posted on May 12th, 2011, 10:43 am

eurrrgghhhh bleurggghhhh 

its like a giant dirigible

not right, just not right.

i cant take that much ugly at once