Remove ads

Starfleet Design Bureau

Linked contents
Starship Design Bureau Starfleet Design Bureau
Reader mode
KarmaA said:
True but I'd believe the ship is better at surveying and sensing stuff even from outside of atmo than a shuttle would be. To me one would have the capability of building a detailed map while the other would only have the capabilities needed to avoid running into something.

Maybe the shuttles could do a rough survey but in those cases I'd almost expect the ship to just drop/launch a handful of sensing satellites. The rest of the time I imagine a lot of focusing on one region or planet by different specialist teams rather than spreading the teams out over the whole system. That way they've got pretty quick access to the ship's computing resources as well.

Not saying that a widespread effort wouldn't happen just that spreading the team to five drastically different locations seems unwise somehow or unnecessary a lot of the time.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Trek works strictly on the "we send shuttles with people over satellites" every time policy. They also don't have multiple teams because only one team is out. tbh, I voted for 2 over 4 is over manpower concerns, or I'd rather it have 4 shuttles for the ability to use multiple teams at once.

(The ship is *as* good as shuttles, generally, at scientific studies, don't ask me how, it's not realistic.)
 
Shuttlebay:

The utility I see for shuttles is 'transporting things in circumstances where the transporter is not a reasonable option' and 'having a [flying high tech] vehicle in a much smaller space than a starship'

Having two shuttles is such a massive improvement over having none that it's a no-brainer, but increasing from two to four is does not expand a ship's capabilities so much as it lets that starship do 'shuttle jobs' faster.

Good for the set of circumstances that have need those tasks to be done faster, but it comes at the cost of those spaces not being filled with labs and guns.

And I'd rather have more labs and guns than an extra two shuttles.
---
Antimatter:

In my view these ships are 'interior ships,' designed to SCIENCE stuff within Federation borders, and just generally exist as a 'Big Moderate Stick' to keep the Klingon's approval rating up, so to speak.

If we need to go on the offence, then we can either use these as the home-defence fleets, or be sure to bring ships that can top up their tanks; though with a 70 ly basic option, I do think our antimatter vote has more impact on 'how often does the ship need to divert to a fuel stop' than 'can this ship bring the fight to the enemy'.

And I'd rather a ship that can science better but needs to go to the gas station more often than a ship that has a big tank, but can't science as good.

Range is for explorers, and this ain't an explorer.
 
Last edited:
Extra shuttles also provide additional utility during emergencies/in the case the ship needs to be abandoned. Not only are there more spaces available on the whole but there's also more craft capable of tending to the escape pods and preventing them just drifting/falling into hazards once their fuel runs out.
 
BeepSmile said:
Antimatter:

In my view these ships are 'interior ships,' designed to SCIENCE stuff within Federation borders, and just generally exist as a 'Big Moderate Stick' to keep the Klingon's approval rating up, so to speak.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Secret Achievement: Diplomatic Victory over the Klingon Empire by maxing out Military Science.​

"D'ukal, what's the latest intel from our scouts in Federation space?"

"Chancellor Uhal, the scouts say that the Federation designers have figured out how to add phaser turrets to their photon torpedoes..."

"Are you shitting me?"

"... I wish I was."

"Prepare the Articles of Confederation so that we may join them."
 
Last edited:
In terms of the benefit that the shuttles provide, I don't think it's that far-fetched?

The first one is that it will make the ship better at responding to disease outbreaks and other medical emergencies. Based on voting trends the quest is virtually guaranteed to go for an expanded medical bay if it's on option, and this a synergy with bio-labs, making an effective first responder to medical emergencies due to the ability to isolate and research pathogens. More shuttles = more ability to get doctors and medical supplies where they're needed when fighting Andorian Measles or whatever.

But the more simple one is... it boosts the ship's Engineering rating. This ship is going to have a secondary role as a "second line cruiser" - not the tip of the spear in wartime or emergencies, but something that can serve credibly if needed. Having a wide array of capabilities is useful, and Engineering is probably the stat that most often gets randomly called upon if a ship has to help a colony realign their orbital solar farms before it melts their polar ice caps, or place some navigation buoys, or whatever random odd jobs a ship is called on to do.

We would never trade science rating for engineering, because that's the ship's primary role, but if we can decide between more Engineering and other internals, there's a valid case for it. Both choices have benefits at the cost of space, basically.

Anyway, having said all of that, I'm not going to vote for it:

[X] 0: Extended Range (Range: 70ly -> 140ly)
[X] 1: Standard Shuttlebay (2 Shuttles)

Kinda surprised at the vote honestly, I'd have thought more people would have gone for the shuttles, normally the quest loves shuttles.
 
[X] 0: Standard Antimatter Load (Range: 70ly)
[X] 1: Standard Shuttlebay (2 Shuttles)

I don't think an extra two shuttles is worth the space, and we just built a line of stations that let ships easily refuel around the edge of federation territory. So I don't think we need the extra storage.
 
Also, from a fleet logistics point of view, IIRC it was stated that, of the ships currently in service, only the Sagas-explicitly the long range exploration ships- have better than 70 LY range, so in a scenario where a fleet action is happening-which is explicitly one of the things we're building this design for- we're going to be stuck with 70 LY plus whatever extra range we can get out of tankers or the Sagas sharing anyway, and I would think that very nearly every ship essentially having the same range would be useful for crews, since it means you always know exactly how far the ship can go and are used to its limits, regardless of what ship you're serving on.

Edit: it also would simplify things like "how far apart should we be building starbases" and other such fueling infrastructure, if everything needs it at the same rate.
 
Last edited:
Sayle said:
I don't think I really buy that. If that's the case then ship sensor suites wouldn't really matter. Shuttles aren't equipped for that sort of thing. They are for conveying people and materials, not doing their own investigation. If they are dispatched on investigatory missions, it's because it's carrying people with equipment to do that or the main ship is too big, not for the shuttles themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The ship has better sensors sure, but shuttles still have sensors. You don't need sensors capable of picking up a ship 10 AUs away to scan rocks in an asteroid belt or do close up surveys of various gas giant moons.

You are not poking the newest space wedgie. You are scanning rocks of various sizes to see if they contain the specific rare materials a star trek age civ actually cares about.

So power shouldn't matter. A shuttle should have what it takes to do basic survey work. If the shuttle runs into something it needs the cruiser sensors for sure, it calls the cruiser over.

But 99% of the time it's going to be confirming that the rock it's scanning does not have dilithium and then marking the rock's position and velocity to make a detained system nav map.
 
I mean, an exploration ship could use the extra antimatter, but we seem to be going for an armed science ship, so

[X] 1: Standard Shuttlebay (2 Shuttles)
[X] 0: Standard Antimatter Load (Range: 70ly)
 
[X] 0: Standard Antimatter Load (Range: 70ly)
[X] 1: Expanded Shuttlebay (4 Shuttles)
 
[X] 0: Standard Antimatter Load (Range: 70ly)
[X] 1: Standard Shuttlebay (2 Shuttles)

Skippy said:
Kinda surprised at the vote honestly, I'd have thought more people would have gone for the shuttles, normally the quest loves shuttles.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
My logic is: I want ships to have some shuttles, but I don't think most ships need to have a lot of shuttles.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top