New Orleans Class

posted on January 7th, 2010, 11:34 pm

Well, you guys know best.  I was just going from what I saw from Ex Astris Scientia.  The final side view made it look like it has lots of volume.  What are those pods if they aren't torpedo launchers?

As I said, they are most likely sensor pods, like the Saratoga. Far more Starfleet-like considering the peace around when it was most likely developed. The side view may look big, but check out the studio model on the MA article; the bridge, windows and escape pods look unusually large, not what you'd see on a big ship.

It's a Galaxy-Era (maybe pre-Galaxy) ship, so Warp-In would be a good bet. It could also be used as a map object too, there is likely a few of them that went missing and found in a newly explored sector.

posted on January 7th, 2010, 11:35 pm

i agree it fits as a warp in, all designs with galaxy style nacelles are, which is just the galaxy and the nebula.

it should be weaker than a galaxy. i humbly believe it should be specialised, be a frigate, rather than a general ship.

posted on January 7th, 2010, 11:42 pm

i think the pods could work as shield reinforcers, to increase power to allied ships shields.

posted on January 7th, 2010, 11:46 pm

Now that I've read more on it, I see there's a lot of debate as to what the pods are.  But sensors do make sense for the reasons you stated, Tyler.  It's funny, from what I understand we only see a very damaged model in Best of Both Worlds, and then the rest is from manuals.  Yet this ship has quite the following, for being little more than a Galaxy kitbash.

posted on January 7th, 2010, 11:48 pm

its one of the few ships to fill the big gap between excel I/constellation and galaxy/nebula. i like the cheyenne class a bit.

posted on January 7th, 2010, 11:52 pm

1-off's and extras often seem to be quite popular... sometimes even more than main characters. Like O'Brien.

posted on January 7th, 2010, 11:53 pm

thats true, i mean ask people what they prefer pikachu or mudkipz and you'll see.

posted on January 8th, 2010, 8:02 pm

The New-Orleans could also be an avatar vessel for one of the future fed-avatars.
Something like a support-frigate with a "light"-version of point defense (so that sensor pods would make sense to autocalculate phaserfire on approaching torps). The ship to ship weapons can be deactivated when point-defense is active.

Just one idea, the design could easily be taken for other interesting purposes.^^

posted on January 8th, 2010, 8:45 pm

Based on all the information I could find it seems the pods are indeed torpedo launchers and the New Orleans was well known for having a substantially larger torpedo yield then other Federation ships from that time period: New Orleans Class - Bravo Fleet InfoBase

I suppose I could see it as a long range torpedo ship. Maybe to counter the large barrage of torpedos, each individual torpedo could do little damage or have a lower hit chance then most standard ships. To be honest though I think it's a rather ugly ship and I'd rather see it only as a warp-in then something buildable.

posted on January 8th, 2010, 8:51 pm

Fanon sites are not trustworthy in the slightest... never a good idea to put faith in sites that make up info on the spot.

posted on January 9th, 2010, 10:37 am

Similar to the case of the Soyuz-class. Its mounted antenna-like sensor system is often considered "additional phaser-cannons" 

posted on January 10th, 2010, 12:13 am

The ones on top look like ram-air scoops for the engines

posted on January 10th, 2010, 1:42 am

Ram-air-scoops with antennas? 

[Dircome]

posted on January 10th, 2010, 5:05 am

Last edited by Dircome on January 10th, 2010, 5:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

Sure based on that, i am going to say that they are axillary impulse engines. Actually they could be specialized atmosphere testing pods

posted on January 10th, 2010, 10:46 am

I wouldn't go so far.
The modules on the Soyuz-class are definately looking like sensor systems, but since there was no explanation what kind of sensors they were, we won't know. All we really know about the Soyuz-class is that it was not the Miranda because it was taken out of service almost eighty years before the encounter between Enterprise-D and Bozeman in TNG "Cause and effect". So I guess it was either a variant that never got successful or it was a design right before the Miranda-class, but that's my own interpretation and I could be wrong.

And all we really know about the New Orleans-class is that Enterprise-D found the Kyushu (I think it was that one) among the destroyed ships after the battle of Wolf 359. We saw the wreck for a moment and there was no closeup to those questionable modules on the ship. In all A2 mods including the New Orleans, it was used as a torpedocruiser. And since this is a wargame, it makes a lot more sense of giving it torpedoes instead of weatherprobes