Excelsior 2 Community Design

posted on September 7th, 2007, 8:35 pm

Well, I was concerned that the ship may appear to be too stubby. For the design you are going for, it seems that longer coils and a "stretched out" frame of the ship would make it appear sleaker, and therefore more Fedish... maybe? Will the saucer really be that round though? If it is then may I suggest having the pylons that hold the warp engines at really prominent angles (and not straight up, or just barely angled, like some of those ugly TOS ships): in general it is very hard to critique a design which hasn't been displayed

-dom

[calvary]

posted on September 7th, 2007, 9:45 pm

Last edited by calvary on September 7th, 2007, 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

well the good thing about the nova class nacelles is that they are straight and not tilted forward like the sovereigns. obviously they are half the size of the sovereign nacelles and would look stupid to have an excelsior with tiny nacelles so I will scale them in length. I had concerns about using an original pylon like the galaxy or original excelsior but in reality, all newly designed ships of 2360-2370 use the "V" angle with the exception of compact ships like the steamrunner and saber (unavoidable) which is actually like the old constitution class, infact the new sovereign impulse engines are taken from the original excelsior, aswell as the "dome" shuttle bay doors which is also from the old excelsior and constitution. the excelsior II will be if not as big or a little bigger in length of the galaxy class, the hull and saucer compose of about 75% of the size of the sovereign so it will be shorter. I thought about using sovereign technology default with "newer" technology to create a brand new starship design more powerful than a sovereign but I don't think it will feel right, the excelsior II fits a more cheaper role like, resources, size, half the armament, prototype sovereign defenses, and extra shuttle and cargo bays to fit the profile. in-game this should replace the original however I would like to see the defense increased because at default they seem to become cannon fodder and more like destroyers (low defense, high armament) very quickly compared to akira and galaxy and people tend to discard them now and not even build them, the excelsior and excelsior II is the sister ship of the sovereign and should be "the" ship for patrolling duty I think it will look considerably different and feel right.

- Christine

posted on September 7th, 2007, 10:01 pm

were talking about a post nem happy team, so im going with B because most people have failed at making a sovereign style excelsior, it is hard I think I can do it.

I have some questions, the most obvious one is why in the hell did you put TMP thrusters on the excelsior II? you do know they have RCS Thrusters. I also just hate the secondary hull it looks too much like the galaxy class, the secondary hull is too big and the primary hull is too thin.

I took the liberty of drawing up something in ms paint because im so angry at the person who modelled this, this is how the excelsior saucer should look like. im doing a photoshop concept soon since i'll be modelling one.

http://img131.imagevenue.com/img.php?im ... _600lo.jpg

I planned on making a circular sovereign saucer (not oval) with nova bridge module and an akira phaser strip. 3 shuttle bays, 2 aft above and underneath impulse engines and 1 aft tail, 2 forward cargo bays to fit the emergency aid and mission specific profile.

the enterprise b, excelsior refit. was fitted with counter cloak technology, I think this would be a good special for gameplay, decloak enemy vessels in sensor range.

- Christine

kitabash's suck.

[calvary]

posted on September 7th, 2007, 10:08 pm

Last edited by calvary on September 7th, 2007, 10:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

it's not a kitbash the excelsior is it's own design, the older and new excelsior II models are ugly like that quote. you can thank fleetops not me, im simply designing and creating one that will put optec in his place, using a simular technique so that it doesn't have 20,000 polys or look like the best ship in-game. and if they don't want to use my excelsior (I hope they do), I will release 2 versions to the public, one for fleetops (fo style wireframe, buttons, admirals log, odf) and one for stock. as with any of my models, my talents are not for hire, I model which ships I want but if a mod team wants to use it months before I release to public that would make me happy.

- Christine

posted on September 8th, 2007, 12:06 am

Well, let's not get angry at Optec for helping to make this incredible "game". I don't think it would be nice to put someone down that works hard trying to make a game better for the enjoyment of the people, and also doing this for free. I think if you finish your excelsior design and kindly show it to the FO team, then they will look at it and decide whether to use yours or their own. If you start making fun of any of them, they might not be so willing.

[PREATOR DEFIANT]

posted on September 10th, 2007, 4:32 am

Last edited by PREATOR DEFIANT on September 10th, 2007, 4:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

Use the Lakota refit, has Quantums, nice and canon, there shouldn't even be a discussion on it.



They have it, why can't we...

posted on September 10th, 2007, 9:51 am

Screenshot is totaly awsome 

posted on September 10th, 2007, 10:37 am

Essentially an unmodified Excelsior Enterprise-B subtype model with stronger armor, more Phasers, and Quantums. It just feels right, no kitbash BS.

posted on September 10th, 2007, 10:47 am

I couldn't agree more. There's an elegance to the original model, and it's not just about nostalgia. The excelsior refit doesn't have to look like it's the love child of an F14 Tomcat in order to fit in with the rest of the fleet. Besides, pointy aerodynamics is useless in space. It's a vacuum!!  There's no air resistance.

posted on September 10th, 2007, 1:05 pm

Even though I like the model... I really don't like that the nacelles are joined at 90 degree angles. They seem to just want to be broken off.

posted on September 10th, 2007, 1:13 pm

Ha, yep I see what you mean.  Bit of a design flaw there. They'd probably snap off, like tree twiggies on a windy day, as soon as you reached half impulse. If it were real that is. At least, I think the Star Trek universe is fictional. Actually, come to think of it, I'm not sure  . Someone help me out here. Dang, how did I get down this slippery slope from a discussion about warp nacelles? Way to go me, I managed to mention a standard logical debating error, without even intending it (slippery slope).

posted on September 10th, 2007, 2:10 pm

Well, if we go with the Lakota type it can't be too powerful a vessel anymore, as the Lakota was beaten down quite easily by a ship a quarter of its size.

posted on September 10th, 2007, 2:21 pm

Not trying to disagree but... 

Well we're either overestimating the power of an excelsior class vessel, or underestimating the power of the defiant. After all, the defiant is a weapon with a couple of warp nacelles glued on the side. It was built, not as a general purpose ship, but as a warship, and it was built 80 years after the Enterprise-B. Plus, it's far more maneuverable owing to its size, so it could fly around the Lakota like a buzzing bee if it wanted. This is assymetric combat, and can allow a weaker opponent to defeat a stronger one. Finally, I'm not sure the excelsiors had been refitted with upgrades and quantums at the time of the attempted coup, but I could be wrong here, someone correct me on this one. 

posted on September 10th, 2007, 2:27 pm

That's all well and good darting around in space, but it doesn't work.  It's not like phasers can miss a moving target.  We've never seen that happen in all of Trek (not counting pulse phasers).  And it's not like the Lakota's that slow.  I mean, both ships can get to just below lightspeed.

And yes, the Defiant is a weapon, but it's a very small weapon.  The fact that the Lakota got beat down in this situation speaks to it's relative weakness, especially when compared to the Excelsior II.

And we don't know exactly when the Lakota was built, but I have reservations about starfleet building new ships of a design that's pushing 100...

posted on September 10th, 2007, 2:33 pm

I definitely agree on that one. I always thought it was strange that Starfleet were so keen to decommission the constitution class, but kept the excelsior and miranda classes going for the best part of a century. It's probably about what looks nice according to the show's producers, which takes precedence over realism.