New Orleans Class (Specs) for STO

victornite1976

brian334 wrote: »

The photos by Sternbach show the upper pods hugging the saucer's crown while the ventral pod stands away for some reason. I actually like the look of the upper pods in this configuration, as they clear the curve of the saucer without standing out. I prefer the model shown at the head of this topic for the ventral pod location as it inexplicably stands off from the lower hull on the studio model, but I do prefer the highlighter shape of the pods to those shown in the OP's picture.

Some questions:

1) If the pods are torpedo launchers, then they are by far more massive than any Galaxy class launcher. Why those pods as opposed to a Miranda-type roll bar? Why those pods rather than an internal launcher like every other Starfleet ship since... well... ever?

2) If the pods are modular their location makes a certain amount of sense. A starbase could easily build new pods for a specific purpose and exchange them at need. If, instead, they are integral components of the ship, why do they appear to be detachable? Is there something in those pods a captain would want to dump in case of emergencies?

3) If the pods are excess mass the ship doesn't need in combat, why was the badly mauled Kyushu still carrying at least two of hers?

I was wondering this too, but I'm thinking they are meant for heavy payloads. If you noticed all 3 pods face forward.

artan42

I really don't think they are launchers. They are clearly similar components to the nacelles on the Cheyenne and Springfield classes, and on the reconstructed CGI model and on the studio model, the ends are covered with translucent blue plastic that is backlit in the same way as the Bussard Collectors.

It's really hard to tell but the Bussard Collectors of the Springfield appear to be blue as well...

They are however, back to the familiar red on the Cheyenne...

All I can see for the pods on the New Orleans are auxiliary nacelles such as on the Melbourn Class...

rattler2

But that would give the New Orleans a total of 5 nacelles. Which honestly doesn't make sense. And if you look at every ship, they've got MATCHING nacelle sets. Even the Proto Nebula's smaller nacelles are the same style as the larger ones. From an engineering standpoint, having matching styles means easier to repair. Giving the New Orleans two separate styles of nacelles makes her far more complicated than necessary and harder to repair. Means more downtime for maintenance and repair.

silverlobes

brian334 wrote: »

The photos by Sternbach show the upper pods hugging the saucer's crown while the ventral pod stands away for some reason. I actually like the look of the upper pods in this configuration, as they clear the curve of the saucer without standing out. I prefer the model shown at the head of this topic for the ventral pod location as it inexplicably stands off from the lower hull on the studio model, but I do prefer the highlighter shape of the pods to those shown in the OP's picture.

Some questions:

1) If the pods are torpedo launchers, then they are by far more massive than any Galaxy class launcher. Why those pods as opposed to a Miranda-type roll bar?

(Assuming 'if': My theory would be storage magazines for the torpedoes (for A Lot of torpedoes )

Why those pods rather than an internal launcher like every other Starfleet ship since... well... ever?

I would guess the real reason, is to alter the lines of the hull enough for it to look different enough from the Enterprise, that the Kyushu wouldn't be mistaken for a blown up Galaxy class. From an in-verse perspective, as above: Massive torpedo storage, for unleashing whoopass on a target. Equally, that we'd not seen anything like it prior, don't forget, we'd never seen a ship which Starfleet specificslly built as a warship, and look how radically different the design if the Defiant is, compared to the traditional 'two nacelles and a saucer' approach

victornite1976

Well the Freedom has 1 nacelle and the Galaxy Dreadnought has 3. I'm not saying that they are nacelles, because I don't know for certain, but it wouldn't be the first time there was an odd number.

rattler2

victornite1976 wrote: »

Well the Freedom has 1 nacelle and the Galaxy Dreadnought has 3. I'm not saying that they are nacelles, because I don't know for certain, but it wouldn't be the first time there was an odd number.

5 is still a pretty big stretch. Especially with a 2/3 mismatch set. Also... no warp field grills like on the Cheyenne.

victornite1976

rattler2 wrote: »

victornite1976 wrote: »

Well the Freedom has 1 nacelle and the Galaxy Dreadnought has 3. I'm not saying that they are nacelles, because I don't know for certain, but it wouldn't be the first time there was an odd number.

5 is still a pretty big stretch. Especially with a 2/3 mismatch set. Also... no warp field grills like on the Cheyenne.

I agree it's a stretch. The only way I can think of that they would mismatch the nacelles like that is if it had been quickly upgraded to a "Fast Frigate". I think the more likely case those pods are for heavy weapons not normally seen on other ships.

artan42

rattler2 wrote: »

But that would give the New Orleans a total of 5 nacelles. Which honestly doesn't make sense. And if you look at every ship, they've got MATCHING nacelle sets. Even the Proto Nebula's smaller nacelles are the same style as the larger ones. From an engineering standpoint, having matching styles means easier to repair. Giving the New Orleans two separate styles of nacelles makes her far more complicated than necessary and harder to repair. Means more downtime for maintenance and repair.

Considering how they're capped with a bluelit surface I can only see them being nacelles or deflectors, and as the ship has a modern and prominent deflector I can't see them being deflectors. But as I said on another page, maybe it's testing one set of nacelles and the others are there as backup if they misform a warp field or something.

They might be sensor pods though as I don't think we've seen a ship with them before, most sensing is done through the deflector it seems.

rattler2 wrote: »

victornite1976 wrote: »

Also... no warp field grills like on the Cheyenne.

Most of the ENT era ships, all of the Kelvin era ships, and all of the TOS ships all lack any lighting on the nacelles except for the Bussard Collectors. It would be out of place for a TNG era ship to have unlit nacelles but not unheard of.​​

rattler2

victornite1976 wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

victornite1976 wrote: »

Well the Freedom has 1 nacelle and the Galaxy Dreadnought has 3. I'm not saying that they are nacelles, because I don't know for certain, but it wouldn't be the first time there was an odd number.

5 is still a pretty big stretch. Especially with a 2/3 mismatch set. Also... no warp field grills like on the Cheyenne.

I agree it's a stretch. The only way I can think of that they would mismatch the nacelles like that is if it had been quickly upgraded to a "Fast Frigate". I think the more likely case those pods are for heavy weapons not normally seen on other ships.

Well... they could also be interchangeable Mission Pods. The bottom pod would be a good location for a Planetary Survey module. And I mentioned earlier that she could potentially be the equivalent of a modern AWACS system. Don't forget most of Starfleet's designs leaned more towards multi-role, and not necessarily combat during the lead up to Wolf 359. We didn't see more combat oriented ships until after that and the lead up to the Dominion War.

Wolf 359 was a serious wake up call for Starfleet. They needed more Combat ships. Thus ships like the Akira and Prometheus.

victornite1976

rattler2 wrote: »

victornite1976 wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

victornite1976 wrote: »

Well the Freedom has 1 nacelle and the Galaxy Dreadnought has 3. I'm not saying that they are nacelles, because I don't know for certain, but it wouldn't be the first time there was an odd number.

5 is still a pretty big stretch. Especially with a 2/3 mismatch set. Also... no warp field grills like on the Cheyenne.

I agree it's a stretch. The only way I can think of that they would mismatch the nacelles like that is if it had been quickly upgraded to a "Fast Frigate". I think the more likely case those pods are for heavy weapons not normally seen on other ships.

Well... they could also be interchangeable Mission Pods. The bottom pod would be a good location for a Planetary Survey module. And I mentioned earlier that she could potentially be the equivalent of a modern AWACS system. Don't forget most of Starfleet's designs leaned more towards multi-role, and not necessarily combat during the lead up to Wolf 359. We didn't see more combat oriented ships until after that and the lead up to the Dominion War.

Wolf 359 was a serious wake up call for Starfleet. They needed more Combat ships. Thus ships like the Akira and Prometheus.

I think good questions would be: When were those pods added to this class of ship? Before they learned the Borg were coming, or after? That could better determine what they are.

rattler2

Well... its entirely possible that they just called in every available ship in the area. No real preparation because they weren't expecting the Borg so quickly. It was a scramble to prepare at Wolf 359.

victornite1976

They could have been hastily added if they weren't already there at the time of construction.

artan42

rattler2 wrote: »

Well... they could also be interchangeable Mission Pods. The bottom pod would be a good location for a Planetary Survey module. And I mentioned earlier that she could potentially be the equivalent of a modern AWACS system. Don't forget most of Starfleet's designs leaned more towards multi-role, and not necessarily combat during the lead up to Wolf 359. We didn't see more combat oriented ships until after that and the lead up to the Dominion War.

I'm not going to say you're wrong because we're all just spitballing here but I've never understood the whole 'mission pod' thing. All three main exploration ships in the shows (Conni, Gal, Intrepid) all did everything needed episode by episode with no pods or refits of any kind. Planetary surveys, colonisation, combat, escorting, space magic and so on. The New Orleans is certainly bigger than the Conni and about as big as the Intrepid and shares external components (though smaller) with the Galaxy so I can't see a reason it'd need pods that the other ships didn't.

As for the AWACS idea, there's at least three, maybe four subclasses of the Nebula and the Springfield that I think are far more likely to be the TNG eras AWACS ships.

Basically I think it's far more likely it's the DS9 (excluding the Intrepid and the Sovereign) era ships that would need mission pods to give them the ability to perform roles other than combat but that all pre-Wolf 359 ships would be multi-role by default.

brian334

Something baddmoonrizin said has been stocking in my head:

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

Is it possible that the New Orleans class could've been a testbed for the Galaxy class, thereby predating the Galaxy and allowing for the Rutledge to be such a ship?

As a testbed ship, the New Orleans could have been built to prove new technologies intended for use on the Galaxy. Having been built for that purpose, there were never many of them, and Starfleet may have taken a "Waste not, want not," approach once their original purpose was fulfilled. Thus New Orleans itself was probably tested to death proving various drive configurations and live-fire armor testing, but her sisters may well have had second careers, leading to the Rutledge being on the border when the Cardassian war broke out.

A note: ships of a class are often named with a theme, so we have New Orleans and Kyushu, two port cities on Earth, in the same class as Rutledge and Tecumseh, which may be presumably named after famous leaders. This indicates to me a break in the class, which could be explained by a prototype built as a testbed proving to be a capable vessel in its own right. Thus the original class vessels built for testing was followed by a production class built for service.

With the production vessels out on the borders, the three to five original testbed ships continued to serve as technology proving vessels, and the modular pods were retained to house the latest experiment. But what large system would have required such massive pods?

Phaser Lance weapons.

They were never used except in an alternate future, but surely such an upgrade to the Galaxy class would have been years in the testing. There are three because one might break down during testing, and the pods are massive because the rear end houses massive capacitor banks to power them from the relatively small New Orleans power plant.

Using this idea as a guide, I would say that recharging would take time, and only one pod could recharge at a time, but New Orleans could fire all three simultaneously for one massive kill shot, or use them one at a time to allow a slow but steady power recovery rate for more or less continuous use in a battle.Since phaser lances have a very narrow field of fire, the dorsal pods wouldn't have to worry about hitting the saucer at all, and the stand-off ventral pod not only allows an additional torpedo launcher to be housed in the pod support, but allows all three pods to focus fire on a single target closer to the ship.

Given this explanation, the Rutledge and Tecumseh would not have had those pods at all. They would have been built only for the original testbed vessels. (Or the production vessels got the Reliant roll bar!)

velqua

artan42 wrote: »

The accurate model produced from the original studio model for the Eaglemosss Official Starship Collection. Saving you all from trying to judge angels of weapons and things from inaccurate fan renders.







​​

WOW!!! Might as well add this model to the game. It's gorgeous! I still think the pods would work a Scientific Sensor pods; if not the top, surely the bottom one since it is similar to the Oberth look. Thank you for sharing!

victornite1976

brian334 wrote: »

Something baddmoonrizin said has been stocking in my head:

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

Is it possible that the New Orleans class could've been a testbed for the Galaxy class, thereby predating the Galaxy and allowing for the Rutledge to be such a ship?

As a testbed ship, the New Orleans could have been built to prove new technologies intended for use on the Galaxy. Having been built for that purpose, there were never many of them, and Starfleet may have taken a "Waste not, want not," approach once their original purpose was fulfilled. Thus New Orleans itself was probably tested to death proving various drive configurations and live-fire armor testing, but her sisters may well have had second careers, leading to the Rutledge being on the border when the Cardassian war broke out.

A note: ships of a class are often named with a theme, so we have New Orleans and Kyushu, two port cities on Earth, in the same class as Rutledge and Tecumseh, which may be presumably named after famous leaders. This indicates to me a break in the class, which could be explained by a prototype built as a testbed proving to be a capable vessel in its own right. Thus the original class vessels built for testing was followed by a production class built for service.

With the production vessels out on the borders, the three to five original testbed ships continued to serve as technology proving vessels, and the modular pods were retained to house the latest experiment. But what large system would have required such massive pods?

Phaser Lance weapons.

They were never used except in an alternate future, but surely such an upgrade to the Galaxy class would have been years in the testing. There are three because one might break down during testing, and the pods are massive because the rear end houses massive capacitor banks to power them from the relatively small New Orleans power plant.

Using this idea as a guide, I would say that recharging would take time, and only one pod could recharge at a time, but New Orleans could fire all three simultaneously for one massive kill shot, or use them one at a time to allow a slow but steady power recovery rate for more or less continuous use in a battle.Since phaser lances have a very narrow field of fire, the dorsal pods wouldn't have to worry about hitting the saucer at all, and the stand-off ventral pod not only allows an additional torpedo launcher to be housed in the pod support, but allows all three pods to focus fire on a single target closer to the ship.

Given this explanation, the Rutledge and Tecumseh would not have had those pods at all. They would have been built only for the original testbed vessels. (Or the production vessels got the Reliant roll bar!)

So we are back to Heavy Weapons. I hadn't considered the Testbed theory though.

brian334

victornite1976 wrote: »

brian334 wrote: »

Something baddmoonrizin said has been stocking in my head:

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

Is it possible that the New Orleans class could've been a testbed for the Galaxy class, thereby predating the Galaxy and allowing for the Rutledge to be such a ship?

As a testbed ship, the New Orleans could have been built to prove new technologies intended for use on the Galaxy. Having been built for that purpose, there were never many of them, and Starfleet may have taken a "Waste not, want not," approach once their original purpose was fulfilled. Thus New Orleans itself was probably tested to death proving various drive configurations and live-fire armor testing, but her sisters may well have had second careers, leading to the Rutledge being on the border when the Cardassian war broke out.

A note: ships of a class are often named with a theme, so we have New Orleans and Kyushu, two port cities on Earth, in the same class as Rutledge and Tecumseh, which may be presumably named after famous leaders. This indicates to me a break in the class, which could be explained by a prototype built as a testbed proving to be a capable vessel in its own right. Thus the original class vessels built for testing was followed by a production class built for service.

With the production vessels out on the borders, the three to five original testbed ships continued to serve as technology proving vessels, and the modular pods were retained to house the latest experiment. But what large system would have required such massive pods?

Phaser Lance weapons.

They were never used except in an alternate future, but surely such an upgrade to the Galaxy class would have been years in the testing. There are three because one might break down during testing, and the pods are massive because the rear end houses massive capacitor banks to power them from the relatively small New Orleans power plant.

Using this idea as a guide, I would say that recharging would take time, and only one pod could recharge at a time, but New Orleans could fire all three simultaneously for one massive kill shot, or use them one at a time to allow a slow but steady power recovery rate for more or less continuous use in a battle.Since phaser lances have a very narrow field of fire, the dorsal pods wouldn't have to worry about hitting the saucer at all, and the stand-off ventral pod not only allows an additional torpedo launcher to be housed in the pod support, but allows all three pods to focus fire on a single target closer to the ship.

Given this explanation, the Rutledge and Tecumseh would not have had those pods at all. They would have been built only for the original testbed vessels. (Or the production vessels got the Reliant roll bar!)

So we are back to Heavy Weapons. I hadn't considered the Testbed theory though.

Spinal Weapons are not Heavy Weapons. Spinal Weapons are integrated into the structure of the vessel while Heavy Weapons appear to be modular to some degree.

Well, anyway, it's just one idea. Many valid theories about these pods can be offered and none of them are wrong. Well, except for the pirogue idea. I mean, it's a given that small boats on a starship... wait, did someone say shuttlecraft pods?

Now I have to go and invent the Pirogue Class Aquashuttle. With a Cast Net weapon specifically designed to capture live seafood.

"Firs' ya cotch some shrimps, den ya jug-line fer sac-a-lait, den ya hook da fish onna steel leader an hang it outta cypress tree an wait fer da gator..."

velqua

artan42 wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

But that would give the New Orleans a total of 5 nacelles. Which honestly doesn't make sense. And if you look at every ship, they've got MATCHING nacelle sets. Even the Proto Nebula's smaller nacelles are the same style as the larger ones. From an engineering standpoint, having matching styles means easier to repair. Giving the New Orleans two separate styles of nacelles makes her far more complicated than necessary and harder to repair. Means more downtime for maintenance and repair.

Considering how they're capped with a bluelit surface I can only see them being nacelles or deflectors, and as the ship has a modern and prominent deflector I can't see them being deflectors. But as I said on another page, maybe it's testing one set of nacelles and the others are there as backup if they misform a warp field or something.

They might be sensor pods though as I don't think we've seen a ship with them before, most sensing is done through the deflector it seems.

rattler2 wrote: »

victornite1976 wrote: »

Also... no warp field grills like on the Cheyenne.

Most of the ENT era ships, all of the Kelvin era ships, and all of the TOS ships all lack any lighting on the nacelles except for the Bussard Collectors. It would be out of place for a TNG era ship to have unlit nacelles but not unheard of.​​

For me, the pods are Deflectors. However, I could see the aft part of the pods being used a torpedo tubes. I would definitely be open for a dual pod system where the pods have both sensory and torpedo abilities. The aft part of the pod could be used for torpedos, where the front would be sensory deflectors (allowing for the ship to have a secondary deflector). The ship would have a higher aft DPS while the front would be Science focused. I do believe that having a secondary deflector would allow the ship to have the Intel BOFF ability, and since it is a frigate, the Pilot ability would also be justified. Since it is similar to both the Galaxy and Nebula classes, this would also lean towards Engineering as those two do.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

brian334

repetitiveepic wrote: »

what are those weird ugly pod things even supposed to be?

There is no canon answer. There is no soft canon explanation. Fan theories tend to be torp launchers, sensors, deflectors, or hangars, more or less in that order, with torps on top of the list by a wide margin. Once you get past the first few most popular ideas, the field opens up to a wide array of increasingly unlikely ideas.

So, I guess the take away from all that is, the pods are whatever you want them to be.

angrytarg

Except by their looks they are not looking like any weapon in all of Starfleet (awesome shots of the model by the way @artan42 ). There definitely no launchers or emitters of any kind on them. The Eaglemoss model also rules out impulse engines. Warp nacelles, maaaybe. I'd go with either sensors or some tender things if the blue glow are forcefields or doors, they could be Mars Defense Pods in there. Maybe. I don't know xD

It has to be something making sense in the ship's role of "frigate". If it's escorting other ships mostly a technology testbed seems odd to me but who knows.

avoozuul

So is this a love child between the Galaxy and the Nebula?

k20vtec

Those pod are soliton wave generators fesigned to destroy planet 50 lightyears away, it was psrt of the secret project to dominate gslaxy. However the peototype failed when fighting the cube and the weapon, togethr with its design is destroyed. There you go

artan42

angrytarg wrote: »

Except by their looks they are not looking like any weapon in all of Starfleet (awesome shots of the model by the way @artan42 ). There definitely no launchers or emitters of any kind on them. The Eaglemoss model also rules out impulse engines. Warp nacelles, maaaybe. I'd go with either sensors or some tender things if the blue glow are forcefields or doors, they could be Mars Defense Pods in there. Maybe. I don't know xD

It has to be something making sense in the ship's role of "frigate". If it's escorting other ships mostly a technology testbed seems odd to me but who knows.

Because of the blue glow I can only see nacelles, deflectors, or possibly hangers (the Galaxy shuttlebay has a blue forcefield when the doors are open doesn't it?).

They cannot possibly be torpedo launchers, phaser lance points, or weapons points of any sort as far as I'm concerned, they simply do not resemble any torpedo points on any other ship or the lance on the Gal-X.​​

seaofsorrows

Aren't those top pods located right where the Impulse engines go?

I admit, I don't know the Galaxy class all that well, but it looks like those two top pods could be improved impulse engines which would be a great explanation for people proposing this thing have a 12-15 turn rate when it's clearly a modded Galaxy that turns like a cinder block floating in mud.

I agree that they're way too close to the saucer to be any type of weapon, that would just be a disaster waiting to happen. The extra pod on the bottom appears to be the same type of device as the ones on the saucer, which is honestly a little harder to explain.

Even if they are improved or heavily modified impulse engines, I have to say that giving this thing the handling characteristics of a destroyer is still quite a stretch. It's still a Galaxy.. it's modified, but it's a Galaxy.

I say call them impulse engines, give it a 9 turn rate (tops) which is still amazing for a ship of this size and bulk. A 9 turn rate puts it equal with the Arbiter, you can't have this slug out maneuvering the smaller ships. I would be cool seeing it get a 5/3 layout to differentiate itself from it's cousin and give it the ability to use Intelligence abilities. Overall, this thing looks like a version of the galaxy that's been adapted for combat over the exploration focus of it's cousin.

artan42

@seaofsorrows it is superficially similar to the Galaxy however the saucer and hull of the studio model have had the escape pods and windows sanded off and much smaller ones cut in to show a smaller ship.

@reyan01 it's not so much the fact it's enclosed it's more the fact it's translucent in the same way the Bussard Collectors are. Also the way the top pods are flush with the hull.

seaofsorrows

artan42 wrote: »

it is superficially similar to the Galaxy however the saucer and hull of the studio model have had the escape pods and windows sanded off and much smaller ones cut in to show a smaller ship.

If that's true and it's smaller then the Galaxy, then the desire to make it an agile attack ship makes a lot more sense.

If it's the size and proportions of the Galaxy, then it should be slow and sluggish like the Galaxy. If this thing is Miranda sized or slighly larger, then it would make a cool destroyer type combat ship.

artan42

seaofsorrows wrote: »

artan42 wrote: »

it is superficially similar to the Galaxy however the saucer and hull of the studio model have had the escape pods and windows sanded off and much smaller ones cut in to show a smaller ship.

If that's true and it's smaller then the Galaxy, then the desire to make it an agile attack ship makes a lot more sense.

If it's the size and proportions of the Galaxy, then it should be slow and sluggish like the Galaxy. If this thing is Miranda sized or slighly larger, then it would make a cool destroyer type combat ship.

Both the New Orleans and Springfield are around 300m, roughly half the size of the Galaxy based on the fact the windows change two decks into one but keep the same spacing.

They are essential to the Galaxy what the Norway and Steamrunner are to the Sovereign. Or the Constitution and Miranda to the Excelsior.

seaofsorrows

artan42 wrote: »

seaofsorrows wrote: »

artan42 wrote: »

it is superficially similar to the Galaxy however the saucer and hull of the studio model have had the escape pods and windows sanded off and much smaller ones cut in to show a smaller ship.

If that's true and it's smaller then the Galaxy, then the desire to make it an agile attack ship makes a lot more sense.

If it's the size and proportions of the Galaxy, then it should be slow and sluggish like the Galaxy. If this thing is Miranda sized or slighly larger, then it would make a cool destroyer type combat ship.

Both the New Orleans and Springfield are around 300m, roughly half the size of the Galaxy based on the fact the windows change two decks into one but keep the same spacing.

They are essential to the Galaxy what the Norway and Steamrunner are to the Sovereign. Or the Constitution and Miranda to the Excelsior.

Thank you for that explanation, that makes what I'm reading in this thread make a lot more sense.

silverlobes

artan42 wrote: »

angrytarg wrote: »

Except by their looks they are not looking like any weapon in all of Starfleet (awesome shots of the model by the way @artan42 ). There definitely no launchers or emitters of any kind on them. The Eaglemoss model also rules out impulse engines. Warp nacelles, maaaybe. I'd go with either sensors or some tender things if the blue glow are forcefields or doors, they could be Mars Defense Pods in there. Maybe. I don't know xD

It has to be something making sense in the ship's role of "frigate". If it's escorting other ships mostly a technology testbed seems odd to me but who knows.

Because of the blue glow I can only see nacelles, deflectors, or possibly hangers (the Galaxy shuttlebay has a blue forcefield when the doors are open doesn't it?).

They cannot possibly be torpedo launchers, phaser lance points, or weapons points of any sort as far as I'm concerned, they simply do not resemble any torpedo points on any other ship or the lance on the Gal-X.​​

The USS Defiant did not resemble any Starfleet ship prior to its launch...