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Starfleet Design Bureau

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Starship Design Bureau Starfleet Design Bureau
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Sayle said:
Project Darwin is formally accepted by the SDB with a small launch party for the team and plenty of cake. Between mouthfuls of chocolate your designers begin discussing their more off-the-wall ideas and wishlisted features for the class of ship you've just committed to constructing, almost none of which will be included.
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I truly hope, years from now, new questers come along this post and have to drop out of "threadmarks only" mode so they can go back over the past dozen pages and try to understand what the *hell* we were talking about that was so wild that it warranted an in-universe nod. I also need an omake of our discussion turned into proper prose for fever dream reasons :V
 
RighteousRancor said:
I truly hope, years from now, new questers come along this post and have to drop out of "threadmarks only" mode so they can go back over the past dozen pages and try to understand what the *hell* we were talking about that was so wild that it warranted an in-universe nod. I also need an omake of our discussion turned into proper prose for fever dream reasons :V
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When you think about it from a meta point of view, the Starfleet Design Bureau/Utopia Planitia Division is kinda terrifying.

Not sure how many personnel SanFran or real design bureaus use but we consistently manage to do pretty good with 100-150 people total, more than a few of which are probably well over 130 (assuming a direct translation - which would mean that going by when my first vote was made 'I' have been here for 68 years)
 
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The federation needed to make our division because what else could do with all the insane people with way too much engineering knowledge besides making there own version of skunk works.
 
Tank man said:
When you think about it from a meta point of view, the Starfleet Design Bureau/Utopia Planitia Division is kinda terrifying.

Not sure how many personnel SanFran or real design bureaus use but we consistently manage to do pretty good with 100-150 people total, more than a few of which are probably well over 130 (assuming a direct translation - which would mean that going by when my first vote was made 'I' have been here for 68 years)
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Went back out of curiosity; first vote had ~80 votes and this one has had ~110 so far - even assuming that a fair number of people have dropped and the member of new people over time is more than 30, you could still have a percentile of department members in the double digits who are older than the Federation itself!! Pair that with our fiercely democratic nature, slowly increasing militarism, and extensive mafia infiltration, and "kinda terrifying" is a dramatic understatement, both for our peers and enemies :V
 
[X] Covariant Standard Shield Grid

With all the craziness of space I think being able to tank sudden danger at least once, is ideal.
 
This is a surprisingly tough choice. Now, if I could choose to pump the extra cost into an oversized deflector dish I would absolutely do that, from what I have seen those are the magic devices that let Starfleet ships Science away problems and this ship is all Science.

Ironically, our great thrusters are almost a problem with this ship given the sizes we have been talking about. One is not quite enough, Two is massive overkill.

Yeah ok, going to vote for the better shields and see if I can stomach/makes others stomach a smaller ship and only the one thruster. If we are Scienceing things, chances are we are stationary not zipping about - and that means having to tank the occasional blow.

[ ] Covariant Light Shield Grid
[X] Covariant Standard Shield Grid
 
RighteousRancor said:
Pair that with our fiercely democratic nature, slowly increasing militarism, and extensive mafia infiltration, and "kinda terrifying" is a dramatic understatement, both for our peers and enemies :V
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The ORB is always waiting. And if that's not enough to drown our enemies in logistics, we have RING ships with purpose-built ram-prow edges to cut them to pieces like a lunatic discuss thrower, and SAUCERS with enough torpedoes to make a Klingon go mad with lust.

[X] Covariant Standard Shield Grid
 
RighteousRancor said:
I truly hope, years from now, new questers come along this post and have to drop out of "threadmarks only" mode so they can go back over the past dozen pages and try to understand what the *hell* we were talking about that was so wild that it warranted an in-universe nod. I also need an omake of our discussion turned into proper prose for fever dream reasons :V
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It's been a wild, hilarious ride. I came into the quest around the time we were configuring the nacelles for Project Daedalus, which went on to be the Stingray. I believe those were the early days of the Shape Wars.
 
RighteousRancor said:
I truly hope, years from now, new questers come along this post and have to drop out of "threadmarks only" mode so they can go back over the past dozen pages and try to understand what the *hell* we were talking about that was so wild that it warranted an in-universe nod.
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We didn't actually get that crazy, did we?

(rereading...)

Flying saucer
Flying ring (face-on)
'Nother orb
Flying ring (edge-on)
Ring nacelles
Tractor-beam [defense sats]
Torpedo box launchers [defense sats]
Asteroid armor [defense sats]
Modular spaces
Biosci ship, but actually it's a hospital
Biosci Archer pod
Double saucers
Planetary landing capability
Flatpack laboratories
Split saucer
Jettisonable quarantine labs (various)
No photorps
Cloaking device
Plug phasers straight into the warp core
3 nacelles
4 nacelles
1 nacelle
No deflector
Ramming prow
4 RFLs

...Ok, we did range pretty far out there. Of those, I hope we get a shot at quarantine labs and/or landing capability. For some of the others, I hope security catches whoever spiked the punch bowl.
 
luckless21 said:
I'm one of the OGs that worked on the Daedalus project all the way back in 2145 (in the first dozen posts IIRC) and would probably be sent to the retirement home if they weren't afraid that I would build a starship crewed by my fellow detainees out of boredom.
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hear me out: i'll figure how to replace the maneuvering thrusters with ultra high density phasers, 1000% coverage guaranteed.

just give me another 100 years 👀
 
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2235: Project Darwin (Spaceframe: Part One)
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    • [X] Covariant Standard Shield Grid

    Now that the shields have been decided on you can give an accurate cost-estimate for the spaceframe as you go. The Darwin's success will be predicated on its internal spaces and scientific capabilities, so exactly what you decide to pursue will be vital to determining just how much space you have to play with at the end of the process. To that end you have three options available.

    First is a small saucer designed to house only the most vital systems, crew quarters, perhaps some basic laboratories. This is designed with the intention of housing most of the secondary systems in the secondary hull where a cylindrical form factor will maximise the internal space relative to the outer hull. It certainly won't be sleek, but it should be effective.

    Second is a flat-bottomed saucer, building multiple decks up from a horizontal plane. The objective is to preserve that flat ventral surface by using either a miniaturised blister-based deflector or a standard-size inline dish. In either case the ship would then be able to mount either vertical nacelles or integrate some kind of deployable landing system.

    Finally there is the maximal option, taking a large saucer section equal in diameter to the old Sagarmatha-class and then building out the rear section. This would completely eliminate the option of a classical secondary hull but definitely provide the most internal space possible. The deflector would have to be mounted either inline with the hull or built out in a separate pod that would ordinarily be inaccessible to the crew without EVA or a shuttle.

    [ ] 80 Meter Saucer (Mass: 30,000 Tons) (Cost: 32)
    [ ] 120 Meter Flat-Bottom Saucer (Mass: 60,000 Tons) (Cost: 36)
    [ ] 140 Meter Expanded Saucer (Mass: 160,000 Tons) (Cost: 54)

    Two Hour Moratorium, Please
     
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