Though there is admittedly an appeal to being both disgustingly tough and disgustingly hard to hit, we're definitely going to need to look carefully at the costs for shields.
This is where I really wish starfleet intelligence was more on the ball. Knowing how much damage we would take on an Alpha strike from the Klingons would let us build around being able to survive the first salvo before maneuvers come into play.
If that were the case the prices wouldn't be measured per 100kt. Also just because we went for basically the smallest hull option doesn't mean that the ship is small in an absolute sense.
I'd say that for the simple addition of 2.5 to the cost a standard covariant is quite an attractive choice, since it'll get it out to the fleet sooner rather than later (and cheaper than just ignoring it for now would).
Nah, we could probably put it in the police cutter even, I think the whole 'small, standard, large' thing is an attempt to work in @Fouredged Sword idea about more module/non-module granularity and that impacting things.
It's only 2.5 after they standardize with the second tranche ships. It's 6.5 before that which is a pretty big chunk of change for zero direct benefit. Given we'll be building these in bulk it's probably worth at least an extra ship.
I'd say that being hard to hit tends to devalue additional defensive spending. In general it's most efficient for offensive and defensive spending to be about equal. We've spent a fair bit in engines, and will spend more on shields to make ourselves tough, spending too much is a waste versus more ships or more armaments.
You are overlooking the strategic implications of progressing that technology branch faster for the rest of Starfleet.
The shields are very close to standardizing anyways. Like 2235 is not far away.
I think it's mainly just there as a way to let us manage costs more when designing ships.
It's an important consideration for certain. But this is also a time where we need to focus on the now just as much as the future, because we need fleets in the... streets?
They're close to standardising
Strictly speaking, I don't think we know the Covariant is a dead end tech branch. What we know is that it's not the direction Starfleet had hoped to find new shield tech in, but that so far those hopes have been failing to pay out.
With this in mind i'd argue in favor of pushing the most cost effective prototype.
I'd say it's pretty precisely the opposite. If we pick a ship with extremely expensive shields, we actually want to fit as much firepower as possible. The reason is that if we're using 40 points of shields to protect 15 points of weapons, it's wasteful. We will live somewhat longer than a ship with 20 points of shields(but not twice as long), but we will deal way less damage than 40 points of weapons would.
On the other hand, it's been explicitly said in the updates our Type 1 shield tech is obsolete and shite these days. They will *not* be up to the task in the least if a D7 manages to land a solid hit on this ship.
The standard sized Covariant has exactly the same shield power as the Large Type-1. And we spent a big chunk of money getting max maneuverability- if our plan was to trade blows with the D7, why not go with minimum thrust?
We've been told our present standard shields are showing their age/kinda shit now, that finding our true next generation/revolutionary shield is troubling the tech guys and that in the meantime this offers a notable increase in shield capacity for a given mass.
The standard covariant is not any tougher than the large Type-1. And it could be less tough, because this is an untested prototype tech.
Sure.
You are overplaying that IMO. The exact quote is:
Cost is a factor, but secondary to achieving mission effectiveness and mass-produceability.
