Starfleet Design Bureau

Sorry, why is the arrowhead a "death trap"? One thing we do know is that manoeuvrability has a major impact on survivability. The extra mass of a larger half-saucer cruiser will improve survivability as well, and it's fair to note that, but let's not be unfair here.

Also on a different note, after re-reading the paragraph about the arrowhead design, it seems like the vertical nacelles are actually about offsetting an underslung deflector, rather than offering a second torpedo launcher. So it seems like the underslung deflector reduces our cruise speed at warp - depending on by how much, we may or may not care about the vertical nacelles.
 
Also on a different note, after re-reading the paragraph about the arrowhead design, it seems like the vertical nacelles are actually about offsetting an underslung deflector, rather than offering a second torpedo launcher? So it seems like the underslung deflector reduces our cruise speed at warp - depending on by how much, we may or may not care about the vertical nacelles.
I think we care quite a lot about maintaining these ships' warp cruise speeds at no less than the Stingrays'. These ships are meant to deploy with the fleet and should not slow it down -- operational speed is a major advantage we have over the Romulans.
 
[X] Arrowhead. Aim for a cheap light cruiser. (Industry: 2)

I wonder whether we can do something silly to get that extra torpedo launcher. For example, torpedo launchers don't need to fire fixed forward, you could have an assymetric armament with two torpedo launchers jutting out one side, rather than forward.

As the long as the ship is maneuverable enough; it won't be a problem.

 
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[X] Half-saucer. Aim for a capable medium cruiser. (Industry: 4)
Torpedo burst damage has been key to our efforts so far in this war.
 
If we want to get technical, Starfleet could DEFINITELY fit in a torpedo launcher if it really needed to. But it would need things that are beyond the level of abstraction we have, things like tight crew quarters or a reduced torpedo magazine.
 
Oh, man.. this is a tough decision you've given us, @Sayle . Both of these options have their issues, but on balance...

[X] Half-saucer. Aim for a capable medium cruiser. (Industry: 4)

... I feel the tradeoffs the half saucer will make are less than those of the arrow design, even at the cost of bumping the new cruiser up a weight class. The idea of potentially not having torpedoes is simply too big an ask, personally.
 
I think it was addressed earlier in the thread that torpedo launchers need to be parallel to the direction of movement for accurate aiming. So we cant do angled launchers.
 
If we had shields i would probably vote for arrowhead, but without that extra survivability I'm voting for more torpedoes.
However, when we get shields we're making an arrowhead design I swear.
[] Half-saucer. Aim for a capable medium cruiser. (Industry: 4)
Edit: changed my mind after looking at the stingray design.
 
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[X] Half-saucer. Aim for a capable medium cruiser. (Industry: 4)

Partly for torpedoes, but mostly for the extra internals, like cargo holds, workshops and antimatter.
The war is moving into Romulan space , which is a long trip even at warp 5.
 
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