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Starfleet Design Bureau

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Skippy said:
I would support this, especially if it deliberately bucks the trend of being a stereotypical "space carrier" and is instead something more like a space seaplane or torpedo boat tender. It would need to be as janky as possible; I'm talking something that makes the Archer look sleek and elegant.
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In the early era of the torpedo boat you got all sorts of weird designs, ranging from an Italian ironclad that could carry one internally and launch it from a well deck to British battleships (or armoured cruisers) carrying a bunch of second class ones on deck, to be launched for harbour defence when they'd stopped steaming.
 
Geordi's mother is the Captain of a vessel with a majority Vulcan crew, that may be what you're thinking of. Similarly, the Connie Intrepid was a mostly Vulcan affair.
 
Tank man said:
Iirc it's long be held by fans, but only recently officially become a canon thing. At least as far as maintaining a fleet capable of persecuting a war on behalf of the wider Federation government goes.


I'd say it's a bit low, but I tend to treat the TOS Federation as basically a bunch of napoleonic war era Britain's in space, so I'd have said with our 20 members 4,500 to 12,900 starships would be about right (depending on if you count stuff other than frigates & ships of the line).

We did, iirc some of them got decommissioned early.
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If by "decommissioned" you mean "exploded" then yes, two were "decommissioned."
but yes, the Starfleet at this time is very much still transitioning from being Basically United Earth Starfleet with the ships that United Earth could support out of its own pocket to the Federation Starfleet that can stamp out Galaxy class starships like sardine cans on the back of its mighty economy and infrastructure. a relatively small number of ships is expected.
 
[X] Chemistry (+2 Science)
[X] Extra Crew Quarters

So something to notes about all our designs is, that they can get synergy across various areas. Chemistry can and will combo with medical to be better than they would be apart.
 
Mechanis said:
If by "decommissioned" you mean "exploded" then yes, two were "decommissioned."
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I mean, technically they were taken off the commissioned rolls…


Mechanis said:
but yes, the Starfleet at this time is very much still transitioning from being Basically United Earth Starfleet with the ships that United Earth could support out of its own pocket to the Federation Starfleet that can stamp out Galaxy class starships like sardine cans on the back of its mighty economy and infrastructure. a relatively small number of ships is expected.
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You make a good point. I wonder if the success of Starfleet and its ships in this upcoming war might be a kickstarter for the various members to start giving over a bit more of the federal budget Starfleet's way, and put up some more recruitment flyers/open up some academy branches.
 
Tank man said:
You make a good point. I wonder if the success of Starfleet and its ships in this upcoming war might be a kickstarter for the various members to start giving over a bit more of the federal budget Starfleet's way, and put up some more recruitment flyers/open up some academy branches.
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And maybe we can work with the Vulcans to test out a new (for Utopia Planitia) configuration for nacelles -
 
Honestly part of whether the number sounds low or not is like, based on our intuition about how much a starship costs relative to the resources of a Federation member world? And what our point of comparison for starships is.

We know that there are twenty member species of the Federation, which means twenty developed worlds, and a network of colonies. But colonies in Star Trek often don't seem as big or developed as the homeworlds, often resource extraction operations or agrarian settlements, especially in the TOS era. That's a very large economy, but it's not hundreds or thousands of worlds. It's twenty developed planetary economies and their economic satellites, with even the largest and most developed colonies in this era being something like the 1900s Commonwealth nations in comparison to 1900s Great Britain.

In terms of our point of reference, if we compare a Federation starship to something like historical or modern naval vessels, then yeah, it seems intuitive that there should be hundreds of them per world. But if we compare a starship to something like say the International Space Station; I.E. a pretty incredible expenditure of resources needing the resources, high-tech manufacturing and talents of a whole world to come together in its construction - then it makes slightly more intuitive sense why individual member might only be able to fund low double digits of them, and not hundreds of them.

Add in that the member fleets still exist in some form in this era and are not yet as subsumed as they will become by the TNG era (and even then, there still seem to be some independent Vulcan and other vessels), and it becomes even more explicable. None of this is to say that a view of the setting with hundreds or thousands of ships for Starfleet in the 23rd century is wrong - and by the Dominion War it certainly appears to be getting there - but I think one can also envisage there being a lot fewer ships without any internal contradiction.
 
Our lab should already have a basic chemistry kit at least. So that's not as high on the list and I do want this ship as an Explorer. It only mentions that the cargo hold is only to transport stuff. Not for the crew.

This ship is also not a full saucer so I imagine it to be cramped. All these options are good to me.

[X] Stellar Dynamics (+2 Science)
[X] Extra Crew Quarters
 
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[X] Stellar Dynamics (+2 Science)
[X] Extra Crew Quarters
[X] Ice Cream Maker (+2 Scoops)
 
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Skippy said:
Honestly part of whether the number sounds low or not is like, based on our intuition about how much a starship costs relative to the resources of a Federation member world? And what our point of comparison for starships is.

We know that there are twenty member species of the Federation, which means twenty developed worlds, and a network of colonies. But colonies in Star Trek often don't seem as big or developed as the homeworlds, often resource extraction operations or agrarian settlements, especially in the TOS era. That's a very large economy, but it's not hundreds or thousands of worlds. It's twenty developed planetary economies and their economic satellites, with even the largest and most developed colonies in this era being something like the 1900s Commonwealth nations in comparison to 1900s Great Britain.

In terms of our point of reference, if we compare a Federation starship to something like historical or modern naval vessels, then yeah, it seems intuitive that there should be hundreds of them per world. But if we compare a starship to something like say the International Space Station; I.E. a pretty incredible expenditure of resources needing the resources, high-tech manufacturing and talents of a whole world to come together in its construction - then it makes slightly more intuitive sense why individual member might only be able to fund low double digits of them, and not hundreds of them.

Add in that the member fleets still exist in some limited form in this era and not yet as subsumed as they will become by the TNG era (and even then, there still seem to be some independent Vulcan and other vessels), and it becomes even more explicable. None of this is to say that a view of the setting with hundreds or thousands of ships for Starfleet in the 23rd century is wrong - and by the Dominion War it certainly appears to be getting there - but I think one can also envisage there being a lot fewer ships without any internal contradiction.
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My general theory is always that starships represent fairly enormous costs to operate, rather than necessarily construct; placing sharp limits on how many ships one can afford to operate at any one time. and neatly allows for the emerging super-economy of the Federation (especially once Replicators come along and instantly supplant nearly all traditional manufacturing) to slowly at first but faster and faster grow the number and size of the vessels it can support, until you get to the Dominion war and they're replacing their near-hundreds of Connies and Excelsiors and whatnot with mass-production Galaxies.

(not to say that starships are cheap to build-on the contrary, I imagine they are enormously expensive in absolute terms-simply that it's operating budget more than construction budget that limits how many Starships one can support in service at any one time.)
 
Skippy said:
Republic, Intrepid, or Constellation all seem like great names for this class to me if people want to avoid Constitution, apropos of nothing.

Also interesting that the Defiant from ENT is not mentioned here: implying either some canon divergence (not implausible) or a second tranche of ships at some point.



Oh, neat! More than I thought honestly. We built a lot of Newton and Archer class ships compared to the Kea or Saladin.

Hmmm, I thought there were twelve Sagamartha type ships rather than ten, did I hallucinate that?
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I'd take Intrepid - our Voyager can get another class name. Maybe Wayfinder.

Then again, I still like Defiant. Make naming the Find Out ship to win a war Defiant a tradition.
 
Tank man said:
In the early era of the torpedo boat you got all sorts of weird designs, ranging from an Italian ironclad that could carry one internally and launch it from a well deck to British battleships (or armoured cruisers) carrying a bunch of second class ones on deck, to be launched for harbour defence when they'd stopped steaming.
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Yes!

This is exactly the kind of energy I'm talking about.
 
[x] Stellar Dynamics (+2 Science)
[x] Extra Crew Quarters
[x] Ice Cream Maker (+2 Scoops)

I'm doubling down on the morale options here but I suppose a starship being able to avoid crashing into a planet because it didn't know it was there might help with its final grade.

Sayle said:
"I'm sorry Ensign, we can't let you out of that escape pod. We're out of beds aboard and...well, you knew the risks when you put on that red shirt."

*pushes the pod back into space*
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*assembled Bridge Crew kazoo Taps while the escape pod drifts back into the void*
Skippy said:
I would support this, especially if it deliberately bucks the trend of being a stereotypical "space carrier" and is instead something more like a space seaplane or torpedo boat tender. It would need to be as janky as possible; I'm talking something that makes the Archer look sleek and elegant.
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I too would fund submarines in spaaace!
 
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