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capnmanx
Member Posts: 1,452 Arc User
This is a little gripe I've been sitting on for quite a while; but with the fleet refits coming up, it seems like a good time to mention it.
I remember, back in the day, the various ship 'configurations' were described as being intended to make ships more recognisable by keeping their basic outlines consistent (regardless of which specific components you were using). It's always seemed to me that the 'Cryptic's own' heavy cruiser variants don't really do that.
To my eye, the distinguishing feature of the Cheyenne class (and my favourite thing about the design) has always been its mirror symmetry; you could flip it upside down and nobody would know. Even the old Constellation class, while not symmetrical in the design of its saucer, did have the same mirrored image on its aft section.
The Dakota and Stargazer classes, on the other hand, have their upper and lower nacelle pairs out of alignment with each other; and the nacelles themselves have vertically angled fronts, which clearly shows their orientation.
Now, I don't have a problem with the Dakota and Stargazer themselves (in fact, I rather like them); the problem is, if I want the mirror symmetry of the canon original, then I have no choice but to use the Cheyenne components. Let's face it, the Cheyenne was never the prettiest ship; it was a hastily kitbashed wreck, that was never intended to withstand close scrutiny. The secondary hull is ugly (yet necessary if you want the upper nacelles directly above the lower ones), and the nacelles are crude and dull (yet necessary if you want no clear 'top' or 'bottom' to the ship's silhouette); not Cryptic's fault, it always looked like that.
So, Cryptic, if we are getting any new ship variants to go with season 6, any chance of a new Heavy Cruiser that's a little closer to the original mirrored look? It really would be nice to have more than one nacelle/hull combo that works that way.
I remember, back in the day, the various ship 'configurations' were described as being intended to make ships more recognisable by keeping their basic outlines consistent (regardless of which specific components you were using). It's always seemed to me that the 'Cryptic's own' heavy cruiser variants don't really do that.
To my eye, the distinguishing feature of the Cheyenne class (and my favourite thing about the design) has always been its mirror symmetry; you could flip it upside down and nobody would know. Even the old Constellation class, while not symmetrical in the design of its saucer, did have the same mirrored image on its aft section.
The Dakota and Stargazer classes, on the other hand, have their upper and lower nacelle pairs out of alignment with each other; and the nacelles themselves have vertically angled fronts, which clearly shows their orientation.
Now, I don't have a problem with the Dakota and Stargazer themselves (in fact, I rather like them); the problem is, if I want the mirror symmetry of the canon original, then I have no choice but to use the Cheyenne components. Let's face it, the Cheyenne was never the prettiest ship; it was a hastily kitbashed wreck, that was never intended to withstand close scrutiny. The secondary hull is ugly (yet necessary if you want the upper nacelles directly above the lower ones), and the nacelles are crude and dull (yet necessary if you want no clear 'top' or 'bottom' to the ship's silhouette); not Cryptic's fault, it always looked like that.
So, Cryptic, if we are getting any new ship variants to go with season 6, any chance of a new Heavy Cruiser that's a little closer to the original mirrored look? It really would be nice to have more than one nacelle/hull combo that works that way.
Post edited by capnmanx on
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I spent about an hour on the ship customization screen making my Heavy look acceptable to me. I ended up with a Stargazer saucer and hull, Dakota nacelles and lower struts, and Cheyenne upper struts. This tucks the lower nacelles under the saucer while leaving the uppers stretched out and back like a Constitution-class ship. It also leaves the nacelle pairs aligned vertically and doesn't clip any parts (Cheyenne struts clip Stargazer nacelles, Cheyenne nacelles on Stargazer upper struts clip all the saucers).
The problem with the Cheyenne is that it's a hard canon model. CBS isn't going to let them change the model away from what the studio filming model looked like. Picture of the Cheyenne-class studio model, from the STO wiki.
Now, if they were to make a new heavy cruiser design with symmetrical nacelles, it'd be easy to make new ones that were interesting and had good details. Hell, they've already done it on other models.
The Centaur and ShiKahr light cruiser nacelles are symmetrical and interesting, as well as the Hope and Cochrane science vessel.
You could also adapt something. For example, take the Vesper cruiser's nacelles, and mirror them top-to-bottom at the blue line. Then at the front, add a Bussard collector like from the NX escort or the Celestial cruiser.
Adapting nacelles could be as simple as turning them on their sides; that's what the Constellation did with its Constitution derived nacelles. Wouldn't work well with chunkier designs like the Stargazer nacelles though.
Tell you what I'd really like to see, a mirrored Heavy Cruiser based on the Bellerophon; with that funky deflector built into the 'nose' of the saucer. So long as the nacelles were oriented the same way they are on the Bellerophon itself, they would work just fine with the symmetrical look. :cool: