Starfleet Design Bureau

[X] Impulse Shunt (+20% Impulse Engine Output)

Basically a no brainer because we designed a core that literally can't work in a smaller ship. Even with it 'only' being 7 decks tall, that's still too big to fit in the engineering section of the Kea class (not counting the neck). So going big is literally the only way to fit these cores in, therefore we probably want the maneuverability bonus as it'll always be useful, no matter if we're designing a warship or a tug, whereas the tug would have no use for the shield boost and desperately need the engines, the warship could use either, therefore isn't actually losing anything by going with the engine boost.
The Galaxy core is something like 12 decks tall IIRC, so we're still smaller than that at least! Also we could do a thicker "neck" like the Sovereign and put the core there.
 
The Galaxy core is something like 12 decks tall IIRC, so we're still smaller than that at least! Also we could do a thicker "neck" like the Sovereign and put the core there.
We're also a few generations removed from it, and in much lighter ships (not being ~5 million tonnes). I imagine that they'll grow in time, though given this is the first of a new generation of warp cores it'll likely be the case that you'll be able to get smaller (and larger, as needed) cores as our infrastructure and understanding of them improves (though obviously they'll come with their own advantages and drawbacks, as far as volume and power output goes).
 
Shields are a "Failure" design focus. The goal is that you don't want to get hit, and if you do get hit you don't want to take too much damage.
The ideal state is to get hit aproximately never. I would take Shields over Hull, but not Speed. Impulse is also just better for quality of life. It lets you move more mass with less engine, or less mas with more velocity

Thrusters allow for you to change your position, and even get away. Getting away, is awesome. Valliantly flee, civilian models!

Also Nyoom.

[X] Impulse Shunt (+20% Impulse Engine Output)
 
The Galaxy core is something like 12 decks tall IIRC, so we're still smaller than that at least! Also we could do a thicker "neck" like the Sovereign and put the core there.

For TMP-era ships the the top of the warp core is just below the glowing dome next to the impulse engines and runs about as far down as they can go. The Excelsior's runs something like 18 decks. How that works in-universe with the Miranda, considering it doesn't have a neck and secondary hull to descend into, I have no idea. Defiant-style micro core? Must end up quite slow.
 
While I don't mind Impulse winning this vote, I do want to push back at the idea that shields have no non-combat use or that improving shields is planning to fail and we should just go fast enough to not get hit in the first place.

A science ship with stronger shields could get closer to an anomaly if some kind for better quality scans without risking the crew, or instead spend a longer time a similar distance to get more studies done before having to back off. Sure not everything they do will benefit from the extra protection, but not everything they do will benefit from having 20% more maneuverability to dance around when even in system they can cover distance so much more rapidly by just jumping to a low Warp 2-3.

And I'm not sure how useful saying just don't get hit is when weapons we may find ourselves in the wrong end of include beams, guided torpedoes and projectiles that look to be far faster than our ships, possibly also shot from cloaked ships with the advantage of surprise. Impulse is good for trying to stay out of the firing arcs of a hostile ship so they don't shoot in the first place, but those depend more on the design of the enemy than anything we control. I'd like to see someone try to circle around and try to attack the Kea from a aft deadzone. Assuming that we're going to take hits on the shields is less planning to "fail" and more just an acknowledgement that some shit out there we just aren't going to be able to dodge.
 
While I don't mind Impulse winning this vote, I do want to push back at the idea that shields have no non-combat use or that improving shields is planning to fail and we should just go fast enough to not get hit in the first place.

A science ship with stronger shields could get closer to an anomaly if some kind for better quality scans without risking the crew, or instead spend a longer time a similar distance to get more studies done before having to back off. Sure not everything they do will benefit from the extra protection, but not everything they do will benefit from having 20% more maneuverability to dance around when even in system they can cover distance so much more rapidly by just jumping to a low Warp 2-3.

And I'm not sure how useful saying just don't get hit is when weapons we may find ourselves in the wrong end of include beams, guided torpedoes and projectiles that look to be far faster than our ships, possibly also shot from cloaked ships with the advantage of surprise. Impulse is good for trying to stay out of the firing arcs of a hostile ship so they don't shoot in the first place, but those depend more on the design of the enemy than anything we control. I'd like to see someone try to circle around and try to attack the Kea from a aft deadzone. Assuming that we're going to take hits on the shields is less planning to "fail" and more just an acknowledgement that some shit out there we just aren't going to be able to dodge.
My logic on the topic is a bit different than this.

The Kzinti gave us a headache because they did stupid shit with their engines to pull crazy maneuvers our ships couldn't match. Klingons are only slightly less insane in this regard. We are going to have to deal with a bunch of lunatics in the space equivalent of drag race cars with guns no matter what we do, so having improved impulse performance should blunt that nonsense before it can even get started.
 
We are going to have to deal with a bunch of lunatics in the space equivalent of drag race cars with guns no matter what we do, so having improved impulse performance should blunt that nonsense before it can even get started.
Next-generation starships' Engineering crews will be issued Nitrous Oxide tanks and silver spray-paint to huff while drag-racing Klingon battlecruisers...
 
[X] Impulse Shunt (+20% Impulse Engine Output)

"You see starships, like cars, are all about Power. Speed and Power, which is why I've installed this nifty little valve here on the dash. What it will do is shunt the antimatter directly to my impulse manifold's plasma, make it more energetic you see, and hopefully it will expel in the proper way instead of oh, I dunno, leaking over the new carpet we put down in the bio labs."
-LCDR Clarkson
 
[X] Impulse Shunt (+20% Impulse Engine Output)
The ships are getting bigger, we NEED this if we don't want to spend resources putting many engines in or settling for subpar manoeuvring.
 
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For TMP-era ships the the top of the warp core is just below the glowing dome next to the impulse engines and runs about as far down as they can go. The Excelsior's runs something like 18 decks. How that works in-universe with the Miranda, considering it doesn't have a neck and secondary hull to descend into, I have no idea. Defiant-style micro core? Must end up quite slow.

Perhaps they tilted the core on its side along the width of that fat aft section?
 
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