Department of Starship Design (Trek-ish)

I don't hate them; I'm actually going to push for a single lounge on the Gold Road replacement.
That's kinda funny; I'm planning to push for no lounge on the gold road replacement.

On our warships I feel we owe the crew extra care because we're sending them into danger. On a tiny little civilian cargo ship? Eh, they can aftermarket-mod in a lounge if they really want one.

I'm thinking a double protium reactor, an oversized deflector, and a single type-1 for asteroids. Everything else cargo space.
 
I don't hate them; I'm actually going to push for a single lounge on the Gold Road replacement.

But I agree with @thepsyborg; if there's any ship in our fleet that does without a crew lounge, it's this Furious Wind, and I'm not taking the position that every ship we build needs at least one.
This ship is nearly the mass of the Battlecruisers we faced in the nebula. They were described as being almost half the size of the Star Seeker. The Star Seeker is 480ktons. Hence my estimate of 220ktons for them. The new Furious Winds are 200ktons.

This implies the upgraded Furious Winds are not a tiny ship. If we were building something like the nebula gunboats for local defense, then sure. But these are substantial warships, even if they are small compared to our monster Halberds.
 
Pretty much yeah. If we had taken ANY other design architecture than the one that maximizes internal volume, noone would be invested in lounges. And knowing that tidbit about medbays and transporters... well now I'm pushing those down my priority lists as well. Still above the crew lounge since they do add directly to a ships stats, but they are a second tier priority to critical systems like weapons and propulsion as opposed to something that needs to be on every single ship.

I will however be advocating for a lounge on the new light cargo ship IF we have space for it. For the simple reason that I expect many of those ships to end up in the civilian sector, and I dont expect the same level of mental endurance in the Merchant Marine.
 
Ya know, just for debate on the new ship. A priority list.

1. Cruise speed of at least warp 2.8, higher is better.
2. Cargo Capacity.
3. Range.
4. Affordability/2 per slip construction
5. Defenses
6. Crew comfort
7. Labs and other extras

Would be nice to hit the same cruise as the Halberd to run together in a large scale conflict, but I dont see that happening without a twin reactor.

Thoughts?
 
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Because I very much doubt it's going to be the people who own the ship who are going to be operating it.
And to add to that- I very much doubt they're going to crew five shifts, either. (They'll probably still crew three, to be somewhat fair, which is still miles better than the one-and-a-quarter-to-two of Earth cargo ships.)

debate on the new ship. A priority list.
Code:
  7   variant secondary hull idea* (a long shot, I know)
  6
  5   2/slip construction
  4   cruising Warp speed, range
  3   cargo capacity, crew comfort
  2   affordability
  1   defenses (shields+minimal PD)
  0   shuttles
 -1   workshops
 -2   aux sensors
 -3
 -4   labs
 -5   offenses
 -6
 -7   cloaks
* as previously described (lightly edited quote):
two or three different small inline secondary hulls that it could be ordered with any (or perhaps even none) of as options from the yard:
one with another protium reactor for dual-core speed without tritium's heavy costs and endurance penalties to make a speedy packet boat,
one with an additional "crew" lounge and a small medbay to add luxury-liner passenger capability
one with just a couple more cargo bays for max capacity.​

Note that I'm explicitly not attempting to make modular, swappable ship systems; these variants would be initial-construction options only. Attempting to refit one variant into another would be no easier or cheaper than a similar refit in the absence of the other variants' existence.
 
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Would be nice to hit the same cruise as the Halberd to run together in a large scale conflict, but I dont see that happening without a twin reactor.

Thoughts?
The new freighter needs to function first and foremost as an upgrade for our civilian shipping, and that means cheap is pretty up there as a priority. Both to build and to operate. So yeah, single protium reactor.

Now, I do think we'll be able to get warp speeds high enough that the Gold Road replacement can do bulk interstellar hauling; a basic warp drive and massive cargo bays means spending most of a year to reach another system while carrying cargoes that won't spoil is workable, if unpleasant.

Defenses... well, at the very least I'd like to see shields and PD coverage over the rear, even if anything attacking one of these is likely to be fast enough to run them down. Might be worthwhile to consider what we can get in the way of rescue beacons; these are ships that won't always be staying near port, and can't really afford to carry much in the way of supporting features, though a small medbay and a small workshop seem desirable.

Cloaking is, I think, entirely unjustifiable; it's both very expensive and makes our cargo ships targets for people who want to steal our cloaking technology.
 
1. Cruise speed of at least warp 2.8, higher is better.
2. Cargo Capacity.
3. Range.
4. Affordability/2 per slip construction
5. Defenses
6. Crew comfort
7. Labs and other extras

1. Yes, speed is critical. I want overkill power and deflectors; I'd be very happy if this were our fastest ship yet.
2. We're semi-officially lined up for a cargo ship, so capacity is very important.
3. Range will scale naturally with speed, but I'm going to argue for protium reactor(s) to minimize fuel concerns.
4. I think we should go 2-slip. The size we can afford on a single-build isn't that much bigger (if I've done my math right)
5. I want minimal defenses, especially if these are going to end up in civilian hands. I think this ship should lean towards outrun more than outfight. Probably shields, no cloak.
6. If we have a ton of space, I could be convinced to throw in a lounge, but I'm pretty indifferent.
7. 2 shuttlepods, maybe a small workshop fro repairs, nothing else.

I want these things to be fast and cheap.

Edit: if we do use shuttlepods, we need to remember to remove their cloaks too. (No shuttles; if we go as light as I want, a shuttle would outgun the whole ship)
 
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I want these things to be fast and cheap.
I did put those in order mind. From most to least important.

But also yeah. The only reason I can see to ever put a cloak on a cargo ship is if it's specifically to be a resupply tender for ships in the field. Hauling spare parts, weapons, and replacement crew.

I'd even argue against a cloak on Most science and engineering vessels.
 
[X] Plan Max use of space

A crew lounge isn't really required, at all, especially with the mission profile, but it'll make the crew happier, which makes me happy.
 
[X] Plan Max use of space

I am of the opinion that a crew lounge probably isn't actually necessary here, but at the same time there's basically no reason not to put one in, so we might as well. Happy patrol crews get less bored and less likely to miss pirates, which is more important than minimal science ability or a few more crates.
 
I dislike the idea that the crew lounge is now becoming a moral judgement. We've debated whether we need it or not into the ground, but it certainly shouldn't be used as a metric for how much better or worse our fictional civilization is against a largely ephemeral measuring stick. This is the exact sort of reason I think some people are just completely disinterested in them for this ship.

Frankly, I'd kill for more guns to actually use the 8 aux we shoved in here (I know I was thinking 2x2 aux when the weapon vote came and I think so was Jalinth based off the spreadsheets I was looking at then). But if feels like crew lounges completely suck the oxygen out of any discussion, and- yeah that's at least partially my fault.
There, that's out of the way.
I appreciate it.

[X] Plan This Ain't Royal Caribbean
 
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