About the Nova's Purpose

posted on February 2nd, 2010, 6:21 am

Hello!

  I am very excited about the inclusion of the Nova in the near future but I do have a question:

-  Will the Nova's intended role be that of what it was as the Equinox or that of the Rhode Island from "Endgame"?

  "Equinox" was one of my favorite Voyager Episodes and I loved the way they got into detail about the purpose and functions of the Equinox and the Nova Class itself.  Later on though in "Endgame", Harry' Nova-class is seen taking on a pair of Negh'vars as if it were no big deal ... something I did NOT like.


    So would it be too much to ask what the Devs had in mind for it's role?  (I was kind of hoping for a fun hybrid of support and combat )

posted on February 2nd, 2010, 7:09 am

hmm, idk i can only guess to that, i would guess a support ship, i mean its main role is scientific, i belive it has a light armament

however there was talk a while back about using the noca model to replace the..... the one that isnt the norway, that support ship as they look similar in appereance

idk , maybye we could see a ship that has combat cababilitys that of an intrepid, but has a point defense phaser, it will be interesting

posted on February 2nd, 2010, 12:46 pm

Power-wise, I'd put it a little below the Intrepid, being a Surveyor/Destroyer while the Intrepid is a Scout/Cruiser.

Canaveral Class, and similar appearance is a strange reason for a replacement. I doubt that will be it's use, unless it's an avatar-specific replacement.

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 5:20 pm

Harry' Nova-class is seen taking on a pair of Negh'vars as if it were no big deal ... something I did NOT like.

Imagine they were Birds of Prey, it makes a lot more sense that way.

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:12 pm

i can only presume that it was intended by the makers. those two negh'vars couldn't take on janeway's single shuttle. so presumably a starship could take them on.

i think that the makers of that episode intended to highlight that by the time, starfleet had improved its technology far more than the klingons. in ds9 it was said that the klingons were badly hurt by the dominion war, far more than starfleet.
in another future timeline presented in the TNG finale, one galaxy manhandled two negh'vars with its super cannon (magnan phaser array anyone?). presumably the makers of star trek intend that in the future starfleet tech is way better than klingon.

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:18 pm

I wouldn't mind seeing it use quantum pulses.  Mainly because most fed ships only have phasers/torpedoes.  It would be nice to see something a little different.

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:29 pm

I wouldn't mind seeing it use quantum pulses.  Mainly because most fed ships only have phasers/torpedoes.  It would be nice to see something a little different.

  Word. 

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:29 pm

the sabre canaveral and miranda already use them (sometimes as veteran for the weaker ships) they're not extremely rare. but i do agree with you that the nova should get them at officer rank, not veteran. to highlight its middle ground nature. its not old, but its not state of the art. i think it should be weaker than an intrepid, stronger than a monsoon, but have a specific use. not just another plain ship. maybe give it advanced sensor abilities, such as a hard to damage sensor subsystem, with a large sensor range. a bit higher than a venture, with an option to extend range like the nebula, or the ability to have anti cloaking systems such as a ping. the veteran ping could be the advanced ping. or it could have a probe thats better than the canaverals. it could have cloak detection like the borg probe. there's so many options to choose from.

on a separate question, is it possible to make sensor ranges not circular, maybe have a longer range directly ahead of the vessel.

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:31 pm

I like your idea for the Nova, but the Quantum pulse really is rare.  The only practical place you're going to see it is on the Canaveral - which has an offensive value of 13.

Miranda's are mixed-tech only and take FOREVER to get out due to the new timing on analyze tech.

Saber's are useless at the moment and will RARELY reach veteran status.  One tiny, expensive ship using quantum pulses to do negligible damage seems pretty rare to me .

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:32 pm

The makers are also somewhat crazy in their mind. The Klingons dont fall behind the federation technology, they simly have other regions they research for... weapon, shields, propulsion, armor... everything that is usable for fighting.

The feds fondled frogs up until the dominion war while the klingons fought all the lines, where the federation put in an Oberth against a V-13 Battleship.

Thats why they had such heavy losses. There must be a reason why the dominion did not simply flood over the federation.

To the Negh'var: I think the makers simply dont know what this ship is capable of if put into the field. Look at it. Many heavy weapons, large armor plates and a shield strength that should go over that of a souvereign.
But on the other hand it is a dreadnought, a ship that the feds would never produce.
Now we have the show of the voyager and this light cruiser takes out tactical cubes, spheres, a klingon D-7 with a single shot and so on... Come on, if you think about it, that was a bunch of bullshit.

Even in DS9 the defiant class may have damaged a Negh'var to its shields, but should have never come near of scratching its hull all alone.

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:36 pm

Well, I guess I'm thinking of fed weapons overall.  Almost of them use phasers, or phasers and torpedoes, so they're basically all the same.  In contrast, klingons have ships that only do pulses, or do beams, or do torps, which give them variety.  I guess I'm looking for a fed vessel that does only pulse damage, other than the top tier defiant.  The canaveral is the only vessel that comes stock with pulses and is not mixed tech, so I would like to see any new feds ships that come into play be different from what we already have.

Crap, I got ninja'd.  This was meant to respond to myles.

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:39 pm

Later on though in "Endgame", Harry' Nova-class is seen taking on a pair of Negh'vars as if it were no big deal ... something I did NOT like.

I would have to say is that the point of that ship being as powerful as it was, is because when janway cam back, she had alot of new tech.  this would have made the feds almost invincible for a short time after.  atleast until the romies stole it and sold it to all the other races.

[Myles]

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:45 pm

Last edited by Myles on February 3rd, 2010, 6:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

@sheva you love the neggie lol. sensibly it should be powerful (albeit not as powerful as you say), but these are the makers of trek, they decided that starfleet tech was going to improve faster than the klingons, and thats canon. i think its not sensible but we cant say its a mistake or an error, because they made the rules of the game.

if i had been in their place i would have made starfleet tech more advanced than klingons, but not by as much as endgame implies.

you say that a defiant shouldnt hurt a neggie, two problems:
1) that was an alternate universe neggie, alliance tech was a lot inferior to prime universe tech, they didnt have cloaks (emporors new cloak, and yes i remember they had it in an earlier episode) and their sensors were easily fooled.
2) the defiant should be able to damage a neggie in that way, they were at point blank range, and fired many many shots, that damage was realistic. the regents neggie still had warp.

@Boggz, i get your point that the quantum pulses are hard to get and uncommon, but my point is that they are not as rare as magnan phaser array, double layer shields, light tricobalts (not the intrepids) the quantum pulses are a future common weapon, not designed for a specific ship (like the magnan and tricobalts) and will probably be used more and more by starfleet. i do agree that the nova should have them, they fit well on the canaveral and i think would fit well on the nova as well.

maybe the nova could be risner's replacement to the canaveral, with more powerful stats and better specials, more effective probe and sensor blackout, better everything really.

@mal, the sabre gets quantum pulses at veteran level, even though you dont see vet sabres often. and hte miranda 2 starts with them (although is mixed tech as you note and is rarer..
feds have beam normal pulse, torp and quantum pulse. the fed style is to phaser and torp, we've seen nearly all canon ships do that.
the top tier defiant has the torps and plasma collider, the lowest ranks have only normal pulses.

EDIT: ninja-ed by all everyone

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:48 pm

The makers are also somewhat crazy in their mind. The Klingons dont fall behind the federation technology, they simly have other regions they research for... weapon, shields, propulsion, armor... everything that is usable for fighting.

Just because they are more focused on that than Starfleet, doesn't mean they can do it as well as them or better. Developing new technology and weapons isn't exactly their specialty, no matter how focused they are on it.

The feds fondled frogs up until the dominion war while the klingons fought all the lines, where the federation put in an Oberth against a V-13 Battleship.

Never saw that...

Thats why they had such heavy losses. There must be a reason why the dominion did not simply flood over the federation.

It's called a mined Wormhole and gods preventing ships getting there.

To the Negh'var: I think the makers simply dont know what this ship is capable of if put into the field. Look at it. Many heavy weapons, large armor plates and a shield strength that should go over that of a souvereign.
But on the other hand it is a dreadnought, a ship that the feds would never produce.
Now we have the show of the voyager and this light cruiser takes out tactical cubes, spheres, a klingon D-7 with a single shot and so on... Come on, if you think about it, that was a bunch of bullshit.

Even in DS9 the defiant class may have damaged a Negh'var to its shields, but should have never come near of scratching its hull all alone.

Negh'Var has big guns, Defiant is near impossible to hit. Power means nothing if you cannot hit the target, while they get a chance to have many shots gradually building up. Fights are never straight-foward.

EDIT: Myles is fast...

posted on February 3rd, 2010, 6:49 pm

i was ninja-ed and i ninja-ed, fascinating.