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The Stingray class could benefit from the new phasers but I wouldn't bet on more than that. Ot would be nice to give them photon torpedoes, but I don't know how easy a refit for them would be, also they would increase the cost for what is a fundamentally fragile ship. What I'm taking away from this last update and the battle above Earth is that at present CL cannot take a good hit and keep going but our heavier ships can. Without either next generation polarization or shields I'm hesitant to build a new Light Cruiser class.
 
Yeah, ultimately, the Stingrays have done great, but I think we're getting close to End of Life for them, especially if we get Shields unlocked after this.
 
The true dream would be if we can refit all our ships with shield emitters, once that tech is unlocked.
 
We know we can save on cannons if the ship has high enough maneuverability to keep the firing arcs always on-target, so it might not need as many.
 
Bedpotato said:
Also I wish to kill multirole crap before it becomes thing in quest. If people want a exploration ship lets design a dedicated long range explorer.
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There's a fundamental issue with this single-role idea in the Star Trek universe, at least if the civilization we want to be is the Federation, and not your average empire in the setting, and that issue has to do with the dedicated long-range explorer you're talking about. What do you need in a dedicated long range explorer? You need, first of all, sensors and science labs, to investigate strange new worlds. Second of all, resources to do long-range exploration, so engineering supplies, fuel, and so on. Third, you have to have good engines, so that you can actually do your exploring. Fourth, a long-range explorer that you want to come back home needs to have enough weapons and defenses to deal with your average "threat vessel" or bizarre hostile cosmozoan. What does that leave you with?

It doesn't leave you with an Oberth, that's a ship for doing long-term research around a known planet or star, or responding to various scientific inquiries. It leaves you instead with a Constitution, a Galaxy, an Intrepid, the very multirole explorers that Starfleet in fact builds. Starfleet's ships are an entirely logical response to the doctrinal demands of the society that forms the United Federation of Planets, and I for one quite like a society more interested in remarkably well-armed explorers than a fleet made first and foremost of battleships.
 
Yeah, can't really lose multi-role, especially if you want to go the long-range exploration route that the Federation loves.

Think more it's just having the short-range, short-endurance armored bricks in reserve for when you need to clobber down the local genociders. Less building everything for a specific role or all multi-role, more ensuring that you have a good mix of both.
 
Jensaarai said:
The Stingray is our oldest design, and it's starting to feel the strain of fitting newer and more advanced systems in that tiny frame. It's unfortunate, but we've been flying along in our tech development, so things only a decade old are swiftly becoming outdated.

I think we could come up with a light cruiser that takes advantage of the new stuff we've prototyped and get something a bit more able in tooth and ability, for hopefully around the same price.
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We might not need to put the Stingray out to pasture just yet, though, even if we do design a dedicated light cruiser, that, by the way is sorely needed and should probably be our next project so the stingrays can stop dying.
Compellor said:
Let's not forget about utility ships. We need at a minimum:
1: A minesweeper
2: An upgrade to the Merchant-class so that we can safely bring spare parts and torpedoes to the front lines, and maybe troops if there's anything to capture.
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A small ship like her could probably be refit into a decent minesweeper, or maybe even a mine layer.

Also, there's always the task she was actually built for. Tradelane security.
 
Raw90 said:
There's a fundamental issue with this single-role idea in the Star Trek universe, at least if the civilization we want to be is the Federation, and not your average empire in the setting, and that issue has to do with the dedicated long-range explorer you're talking about. What do you need in a dedicated long range explorer? You need, first of all, sensors and science labs, to investigate strange new worlds. Second of all, resources to do long-range exploration, so engineering supplies, fuel, and so on. Third, you have to have good engines, so that you can actually do your exploring. Fourth, a long-range explorer that you want to come back home needs to have enough weapons and defenses to deal with your average "threat vessel" or bizarre hostile cosmozoan. What does that leave you with?

It doesn't leave you with an Oberth, that's a ship for doing long-term research around a known planet or star, or responding to various scientific inquiries. It leaves you instead with a Constitution, a Galaxy, an Intrepid, the very multirole explorers that Starfleet in fact builds. Starfleet's ships are an entirely logical response to the doctrinal demands of the society that forms the United Federation of Planets, and I for one quite like a society more interested in remarkably well-armed explorers than a fleet made first and foremost of battleships.
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It also says something about the UFP that its multirole ships can typically brawl with other nations' dedicated warships without issue, even taking two to one fights at times and doing okay. Heck, this is true even here, where an NX going up against a lone warbird is probably winning. The thing is that this lets us keep our true capability for war obscured until it's actually needed, such as deploying the Thunderchild, which the Romulans were clearly not prepared for.
 
Jensaarai said:
I think the Stingray already well outclasses any sort of frigate- or destroyer-weight ship that we can presently make, given it's classified as a light cruiser.

But yes, I agree on building a new light to medium cruiser.
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I'd argue that the Stingray is a destroyer. Starfleet just doesn't like that word, so those kinds of ships are all instead called Frigates or Light Cruisers.
 
Mulisa said:
I'd argue that the Stingray is a destroyer. Starfleet just doesn't like that word, so those kinds of ships are all instead called Frigates or Light Cruisers.
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Consider that the "destroyer" started life as the "torpedo boat destroyer", and had a big role in anti-submarine warfare (most submarines being a type of torpedo boat, fittingly enough.), I'd argue that the "destroyer" lable applies more accurately to the Thunderchild. Which is amusing.
Mind you, the term "frigate" started out referring to the larger Ships of the Line of Battle (a term which eventually gave us "battleship"), and ended up referring to sub-destroyer escort ships (which then became so multi-role that they make a good stand in for light cruisers these days, in terms of what they get up to) and modern destroyers often outdisplace ww2 cruisers (though generally carry far less gun.)

Basically we can call just about anything just about, well, Anything, RL naval classifications are just broadly convenient most of te time.
 
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Raw90 said:
There's a fundamental issue with this single-role idea in the Star Trek universe, at least if the civilization we want to be is the Federation, and not your average empire in the setting, and that issue has to do with the dedicated long-range explorer you're talking about. What do you need in a dedicated long range explorer? You need, first of all, sensors and science labs, to investigate strange new worlds. Second of all, resources to do long-range exploration, so engineering supplies, fuel, and so on. Third, you have to have good engines, so that you can actually do your exploring. Fourth, a long-range explorer that you want to come back home needs to have enough weapons and defenses to deal with your average "threat vessel" or bizarre hostile cosmozoan. What does that leave you with?

It doesn't leave you with an Oberth, that's a ship for doing long-term research around a known planet or star, or responding to various scientific inquiries. It leaves you instead with a Constitution, a Galaxy, an Intrepid, the very multirole explorers that Starfleet in fact builds. Starfleet's ships are an entirely logical response to the doctrinal demands of the society that forms the United Federation of Planets, and I for one quite like a society more interested in remarkably well-armed explorers than a fleet made first and foremost of battleships.
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Yes, the multirole is neccesary for long distance exploration without support. But for actually defending home territory, you'll want monopurpose warships. Simply because they are cheaper than a multi-role ship of equivalent firepower. War is a game of industry, after all.

Besides, you already mentioned a mono-purpose ship for tasks in home-territory, the Oberth.

We should build ships like the Constitution in limited numbers for the purposes of exploration and diplomacy. But they shouldn't be used as warships. That's what ships like the Thunderchild are for.
 
Chargone said:
Consider that the "destroyer" started life as the "torpedo boat destroyer", and had a big role in anti-submarine warfare (most submarines being a type of torpedo boat, fittingly enough.), I'd argue that the "destroyer" lable applies more accurately to the Thunderchild. Which is amusing.
Mind you, the term "frigate" started out referring to the larger Ships of the Line of Battle (a term which eventually gave us "battleship"), and ended up referring to sub-destroyer escort ships (which then became so multi-role that they make a good stand in for light cruisers these days, in terms of what they get up to) and modern destroyers often outdisplace ww2 cruisers (though generally carry far less gun.)

Basically we can call just about anything just about, well, Anything, RL naval classifications are just broadly convenient most of te time.
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Remember that time a bunch of US ships were reclassified from frigates to cruisers purely because the Soviets had a bunch of cruisers and politicians and propaganda types freaked out, even though their cruisers were dinky little obsolete tubs?
 
Void Stalker said:
For our next ship I would like to know if the tech sharing that was talked about will happen and if that means we get shields or not because that makes a big difference in design and class. Because if we get shields a replacement to the stingrays with the new torpedoes would be deadly.
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Assuming it happens, what would humanity have to offer to the table?
 
Mulisa said:
Yes, the multirole is neccesary for long distance exploration without support. But for actually defending home territory, you'll want monopurpose warships. Simply because they are cheaper than a multi-role ship of equivalent firepower. War is a game of industry, after all.
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Keep in mind that, this being Star Trek and thus there being the possibility of Weird Shit happening even in home territory, we'll still want patrol/defence ships to have some degree of scientific capability. Whether that's through semi-multirole designs or partnering ships of different specialities to support one another.
 
SpicyAussie said:
Footing the bill industrially?

Hell, could be the start of Humanity going all-in on the Federation as they did in canon. Like how United Earth Intelligence became Starfleet Intelligence, Starfleet itself in general, things like that.
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So humanity has a much larger industrial cap than the others? I assumed that since the others have been sailing the stars longer, theyd have a much larger established industrial base.
 
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