My suggestion is mostly because of the fact that it appears certain people (the people building them) are fed up with ships with a bunch of prototypes stuff and we should use the really advanced stuff we currently have before one of the ships blows up cause we tested are luck to much.
Starship Design Bureau
- Thread starter Sayle
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
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While I certainly think for future builds we should be a bit less liberal about slapping prototype tech into ships, I think that the Reliant only taking a single one is a decent part of why the Ambassador turned out as it did. We ended up being saddled with a few options where we had no choice but to take a prototype, particularly the deflector and the impulse drives, when both of those had at least one option we could have trialed in the previous project.
There's probably still a case for outliers on both ends of the scale though, whether that's us trying to make a really cheap and reliable ship, or maybe Starfleet is deeming the project important enough that it's given a budget of "yes."
So two to three prototypes per ship unless we are on a max production or balls to the walls project?
- Location
- Philippines
Starfleet procurement does not seem to be demanding cheap ships much, as a design team the group has to assume that if Starfleet wants a new ship they expect it to be new.
There is also a lack of reason for a design of a cheap mass produced ship given that the Federation is currently not in a rush to actually replace things yet.
I mean I'm pretty sure it's kind of expected for capital ships to have a lot of prototype technology or just be really expensive. It was kind of visible in the design request for Ambassador. Capital ships are supposed to be top the line ships. As in some of the most advanced ships in the fleet. Their budget plan is literally just "YES". Their capital ships they're not expected to be mass produced. Them being really hard to build is just part of being a capital ship.
That's likley gonna hit when we reach the massacre at wolf era. Project for Cheap ship to replace the losses and project for a borg killer captial ship.
- Location
- California
The Ambassador could have used nothing but last gen tech, and Utopia Planitia's build teams would still be pissed just because of how big and how much work each one is to construct. The exact same thing is gonna happen in a generation when we design the Galaxy class, and we're gonna stuff in a bunch of prototype tech there as well, because giant capital ships are great places for those.
It's been my experience that design boards and the people building it always are fed up with each other.
In any case, you'll likely want to keep prototyping as you iterate since Starfleet appears to do that: new ships have one or two more systems that are fixed in testing of the prototypes and improvements rolled out on successor ships. The Enterprise-D had fixes from its predecesors experiences (Yamato, Galaxy) after all.
- Location
- Titan
Let's get the science ship and shell out on prototypes again, after all those teething problems are out we can build the production versions on the line cruiser.
Duzzit
CSC 1st Multiversal Fleet Commander
- Location
- London, UK
No, if sayle kept to the timeline we will only learn of this after the next design launches, or in the middle of working on the one after that. I believe.
- Location
- EcksEcksEcksEcks
not necessarily, im sure there will be an engine fix in the works, too many chief engineers who know what the engine is supposed too be capable of who will be motivated to fix it.
as for the saucer we may end up nebula-ing the ambassador to get the modular heavy cruiser we want
My proposal for our next project would be to pick the heavy cruiser, and essentially make the Miranda or Nebula to the Ambassador's Constitution or Galaxy class. Stick entirely with existing technology, and produce a capable workhorse heavy cruiser integrating the R&D from our flagship explorer which can do well at almost any mission and be built in volume. We should re-use as much as possible from the Ambassador design because the largest component of cost in a project like this is the cost of learning, and we've learnt those lessons now.
That being said, there's nothing wrong with the fact that the Ambassador had a ton of prototype technologies and was extremely expensive to produce. This is something we absolutely knew and were prepared for going in, and has produced an absolutely stellar ship which has pushed forward the frontiers of starship design and won immense diplomatic plaudits by demonstrating the spirit of Starfleet to other peoples.
That being said, there's nothing wrong with the fact that the Ambassador had a ton of prototype technologies and was extremely expensive to produce. This is something we absolutely knew and were prepared for going in, and has produced an absolutely stellar ship which has pushed forward the frontiers of starship design and won immense diplomatic plaudits by demonstrating the spirit of Starfleet to other peoples.
NSMS
Probably evil, unfortunately.
- Location
- A rapidly widening tear in the fabric of reality
I think I pretty much designed that with my last letter omake, tbh. Downsize it maybe a little, and it does what you're describing.
NavySeel
"I don't know what I'm doing."
- Location
- Places
Just caught up on this, you know if this version of the Enterprise did an even better job than the canon version did then that might actually lead to the Klingon's being more favorable towards the Federation than in canon.
Not only did the Enterprise sacrifice itself, but it probably went down doing a lot of damage.
Not only did the Enterprise sacrifice itself, but it probably went down doing a lot of damage.
Did we get the data recorder from the Enterprise-C, or were the Klingons too set on burning it as part of their "funeral pyre" for the ship and crew?
Yeah I saw that, nice omake!
Although I'm not sure about going with a reduced saucer - I think a new saucer configuration always means the risk of working out where everything goes, setting up power relays, etc., is increased. The attraction of an existing design is that a lot of that work is already done for you, like with the Reinassiance. But we could do a reduced or inset secondary hull, similar to the Nebula or Miranda? Although the Miranda actually weighs more than the Connie, the Nebula seems smaller.
Also I suspect that the production and running cost of a starship is probably as much about how many complex systems you're cramming in and how many people it takes to run them as the actual physical weight of metal. If we're economising on that a bit, then I expect for a heavy cruiser it's probably fine.
Yeah I saw that, nice omake!
Although I'm not sure about going with a reduced saucer - I think a new saucer configuration always means the risk of working out where everything goes, setting up power relays, etc., is increased. The attraction of an existing design is that a lot of that work is already done for you, like with the Reinassiance. But we could do a reduced or inset secondary hull, similar to the Nebula or Miranda? Although the Miranda actually weighs more than the Connie, the Nebula seems smaller.
Also I suspect that the production and running cost of a starship is probably as much about how many complex systems you're cramming in and how many people it takes to run them as the actual physical weight of metal. If we're economising on that a bit, then I expect for a heavy cruiser it's probably fine.
The problem with reusing Ambassador parts for the heavy Cruiser, is that the Cruiser is supposed to be modular. The Ambassador wasn't set up for that, and so we would probably take a hit to possible module space if we reused the saucer. Though if it helps with ease of manufacturing it still may be worth it.
- Location
- California
yes but there are plenty of examples of federation ships that have swappable mission specific modules (the California and nebula class come to mind) that use the saucer from other ships.