The TNG system was needlessly complicated. At some point we need to know what the "max" is, but it isn't terribly necessary now.
There is no max; ships get faster without limit right up into and through the TNG/VOY era.
Pretty sure the old girl would still be an Explorer in function, just not as size-classification.
She's an explorer to me, that's all I know, and that's all I need to know.
[folds arms]
Also...
Enterprise:
"Old girl? I'm not even twenty! ...In this life."
I believe the point of the classification change is to turn things like explorer/science/garrison explicitly into role names, thus the Enterprise would both be a capital ship and an explorer and it's status as an explorer will more than likely take precedence in descriptive terms over its weight category.
The Federation is unlikely to ever build a "among the biggest in the galaxy" capital ship that
isn't an explorer. I approve of the changeover to 'frigate' for light ships for exactly the reason you describe, but I oppose creating a situation where we have to call the
Excelsiors "explorer capital ships" given that we are unlikely to ever build a true battleship, nor do we want to.
So... you like the system but aren't voting for it? What am I missing here?
As pointed out, the
Excelsior and
Ambassador will be called Explorers for the foreseeable future, and it's unlikely that we will ever build a pure combat Capital ship, so our largest ships will always be called explorers until we down grade them to say heavy cruisers or something.
As noted, having the Federation call its capital ships "explorers" for
legacy cultural reasons (namely that its largest ships have been exploration vessels since time immemorial, NOT battleships) is something I value.
I like the part of the system where 'escorts' are redesignated 'frigates.' I do not like the part where 'explorers' are redesignated 'capital ships' or worse yet 'exploration capital ships' or whatever grammatical construction is comparable to 'science frigate' or 'garrison frigate.'
Leslie gets to build Excelsiors and Renaissances!
Leslie: "Eh, I'm a generalist kind of man. They never leave me in any one specialist job for long. You're talking to one of the few men to wear red, blue,
and gold shirts in the same tour of duty."
That's right, Seruk. Go before I kick you.
You were the one who came up with 'Old Father Time' you heartless!
[collapses, laughing at himself. With occasional sads]
Under the new system Excelsior/Ambys would still be Explorers, just Capital Explorers.
The thing is, that's redundant. The Federation is unlikely to ever build a 'biggest and best' ship worthy of the name 'capital ship' that
isn't an explorer. Conversely, it is unlikely to ever build an explorer that
isn't one of its biggest and best, at least not until technology advances so ludicrously far that we can build something like the
Intrepids that has enough longevity to function on detached duty away from a starbase for several years at a stretch.
Our big ships are explorers. That's the
point. We're not going to build them any other way.
