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New Federation Starship Designs
jamesrmartin
Member Posts: 14 Arc User
Hello there!
This is my first time posting on this particular subject on these boards so please if I violate any rules of the "Road" so to speak please take pity on a poor nerd thank you. Alright with my statement of naivety out of the way I'm going to jump on to the man subject. My dislike of the new Federation ship designs. To Sum up, they don't look like anything the United Federation of Planets from the Star Trek universe that Gene Roddenberry created for us. So hopefully I'll be able to give you all a cogent explanation of my reasons for the dislike of what the developers are calling Federation Starships. Firstly, they look far to Menacing, secondly they look more like the "Alien of the week" Ships we used to see on Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation and to an even larger extent Star Trek: Voyager. Finally, only one of these ships follows the beloved Iconic design formula of Federation Starships. (Excluding the Defiant which in it's planning phases for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, would have looked more like the Nova class of USS. Equinox fame.)
My first reason for dislike of the new Federation ship designs is something that most hard core trekkies have voiced, these ships are far too Menacing looking, Starfleet is a Peace keeping force, granted this means they have to complete military operations any peace keeping force has to do that. Theses ships simply look mean, too mean. When you look at those ships for the first time you instinctively go, "Hm must be a bad guy" That's not what you should think when you see a Federation Starship, frankly the Federation isn't the bad guys and a Psychological response to a ship design (Even though you are supposedly dealing with Alien Psychology with may be radically different from human) would be considered by the ship Designers of a Federation Starship. First Impressions go a long way and these ships when you see them give a very negative one. In short, they just look Evil and you don't want that kind of thing associated with the United Federation of Planets.
As for the second part of my Argument, these ships look like the old school Kit bashes we used to see on the Series. They the are not immediately Identifiable as Federation Starships. When you glance at them after the menacing feeling you get from looking at them you start to wonder. "Which Species or group of Species does this ship belong to?" They just don't look like Federation Starships plain and simple. It's as if the Designers went out of their way to make these ships not look like Starships of the Federation. They look more like an unholy union of Breen, and Tholian ships. When a Federation Starship drops out of warp you want to be able to look at it and go "Hey Feddies are here!"
Finally, These ships just don't follow the design formula we all know and love for Federation Starships (With one notable exception, the Defiant) Every Federation Starship since the beginning of the franchise has had a simple recognizable combination of features, the Round Saucer, the Cylindrical Secondary hull (The part with the Deflector) Tubular Engine Nacelles and pylons that hold the nacelles "up". Now I understand there have been some variations on these designs, the Akira and NX which had no secondary hulls to speak of, but let's face it not many people liked those designs, otherwise you'd see more of them in the game. Then there is the Constellation class, which people do like, I personally like the ship. I can go on with the list but let's face it, those ships aren't as popular as the Galaxy, Constitution, Excelsior, Sovereign and the list goes on. In summation, these ships just don't fit.
Hopefully I have been able to explain my dislike of the new ships and in a way that seems reasonable and at least semi-intelligent. If anyone sees me in the game my handle is @jamesrmartin Feel free to send me a tell and let me know what you think. I'll try to respond but I might be in the middle of a Mission or RPing with members of my fleet. Thanks for reading and above all else have fun in the game and Live long and Prosper!
This is my first time posting on this particular subject on these boards so please if I violate any rules of the "Road" so to speak please take pity on a poor nerd thank you. Alright with my statement of naivety out of the way I'm going to jump on to the man subject. My dislike of the new Federation ship designs. To Sum up, they don't look like anything the United Federation of Planets from the Star Trek universe that Gene Roddenberry created for us. So hopefully I'll be able to give you all a cogent explanation of my reasons for the dislike of what the developers are calling Federation Starships. Firstly, they look far to Menacing, secondly they look more like the "Alien of the week" Ships we used to see on Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation and to an even larger extent Star Trek: Voyager. Finally, only one of these ships follows the beloved Iconic design formula of Federation Starships. (Excluding the Defiant which in it's planning phases for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, would have looked more like the Nova class of USS. Equinox fame.)
My first reason for dislike of the new Federation ship designs is something that most hard core trekkies have voiced, these ships are far too Menacing looking, Starfleet is a Peace keeping force, granted this means they have to complete military operations any peace keeping force has to do that. Theses ships simply look mean, too mean. When you look at those ships for the first time you instinctively go, "Hm must be a bad guy" That's not what you should think when you see a Federation Starship, frankly the Federation isn't the bad guys and a Psychological response to a ship design (Even though you are supposedly dealing with Alien Psychology with may be radically different from human) would be considered by the ship Designers of a Federation Starship. First Impressions go a long way and these ships when you see them give a very negative one. In short, they just look Evil and you don't want that kind of thing associated with the United Federation of Planets.
As for the second part of my Argument, these ships look like the old school Kit bashes we used to see on the Series. They the are not immediately Identifiable as Federation Starships. When you glance at them after the menacing feeling you get from looking at them you start to wonder. "Which Species or group of Species does this ship belong to?" They just don't look like Federation Starships plain and simple. It's as if the Designers went out of their way to make these ships not look like Starships of the Federation. They look more like an unholy union of Breen, and Tholian ships. When a Federation Starship drops out of warp you want to be able to look at it and go "Hey Feddies are here!"
Finally, These ships just don't follow the design formula we all know and love for Federation Starships (With one notable exception, the Defiant) Every Federation Starship since the beginning of the franchise has had a simple recognizable combination of features, the Round Saucer, the Cylindrical Secondary hull (The part with the Deflector) Tubular Engine Nacelles and pylons that hold the nacelles "up". Now I understand there have been some variations on these designs, the Akira and NX which had no secondary hulls to speak of, but let's face it not many people liked those designs, otherwise you'd see more of them in the game. Then there is the Constellation class, which people do like, I personally like the ship. I can go on with the list but let's face it, those ships aren't as popular as the Galaxy, Constitution, Excelsior, Sovereign and the list goes on. In summation, these ships just don't fit.
Hopefully I have been able to explain my dislike of the new ships and in a way that seems reasonable and at least semi-intelligent. If anyone sees me in the game my handle is @jamesrmartin Feel free to send me a tell and let me know what you think. I'll try to respond but I might be in the middle of a Mission or RPing with members of my fleet. Thanks for reading and above all else have fun in the game and Live long and Prosper!
Post edited by jamesrmartin on
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From what we've seen of the Guardian T6 cruiser, Cryptic hasn't given up on the typical Federation aesthetic.
Stepping outside of canon we also have to realize there was a transition in Trek. TNG and most of DS9 comes from the ship model era. CBS used what ship models they had and kit-bashed others to keep costs down. Thus everything had a very similar look. By the time we got into Voyager CGI had become the norm. Now ships could look like whatever a programmer wanted them to look like. So Voyager could be streamline, the Defiant could be a flying wedge, the Prometheus, the Dauntless, etc. They could have non-traditional shapes and functions. The game is just an extension of that. Cryptic is only bound by polygons rather then models, and that means they can take more liberties - just as Voyager did.
No one likes every ship. 3 decades later and I still do not like the Galaxy. People still complain about the Luna, and CBS approved that a decade ago. You are never going to make all Trek fans happy.
are still present as well as Romulan and Klingon. But again they won't please everybody.
Bingo.....
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Ironically, the CGI era recycled even more ship models than actual physical models were reused. This was also to cut costs - half of Enterprises alien ships are recycled Voyager assets, and Voyager assets are even bought from other franchises, I think partly from Babylon 5. If you ever wondered about 8472 for example - there was no genius planning behind them, rumors are they just reused models the CGI production company had in stock (ships, not the aliens, although the resemblance is... striking
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http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/memory-gamma/images/d/de/USS_Relativity.jpg
So at some point the "classic" starship maybe going to the way side anyhow.
*scurries off to his hole*
TY SIR.
One ship does not a design trend make. The low-observable forward and side facing of the intelligence ships is in line with thier design purpose.
My only argument is that instead of talking about 'ships' - marketing would been better off selling them as 'a new generation of intelligence gathering craft, purpose built for the new threats from the Delta Quadrant' But then again, marketing is not your (Cryptics) strong suit.
High notes - i love the new fed designs. The escort is a nice modern take on the defiant, a ship which was radical in it's design. The cruiser's 4 nacelles are sweet. The image of the sci vessel doesn't seem to do it justice - seriously we need more images of these ships in action.
KDF ships - niiiice.
Romulan ships - a D'D variant? faster? better armed? Heck yeah
In fairness, Voyager was designed and built as a physical model, and CGI was used only sparingly for the first couple of seasons.
Section 31
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I completely agree these ships look tough and battle ready, I can't wait to fly them.
Section 31
[Joseph Steel] [Jennifer Steel] [Dredd Steel] [Kenzi Steel] [Shira Steel] [Eris Steel] [Artemis Steel] [Stardragon] [Delta] [Alexandria Rose] [Number Six] [K'emb'ah Steel] [Karnak Steel] [Kacy Steel] [Venom Steel] [Areli Steel]
I am thinking the same but instead of Section 31...Starfleet Intelligence.
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The Klingon and Romulan ships are following their respective design lineage though, both are unmistakeably part of their faction, the Federation ships look more like they belong in a different IP than Trek.
Its kind of weird really, Cryptic seem to be able to get the aesthetics of the KDF and RR spot on when they design a new ship for them but they seem to be getting worse with each Federation design.
A nice piece on the T6 ship design from the horses mouth.
It's good to know that everything I thought was behind the design process actually WAS behind it as well
Stealth bombers, appealing to new audience thus imitating what other "cool" franchises have, STO is an action game. Now, mind you this is understandable and frankly, it doesn't hurt STO much in my opinion since it never was a very true-to-canon piece of work to begin with. I like that the design team comes forward and talks about the issue and while I don't necessarily agree with what has been said I understand it and I even can live with the ship designs since they aren't new ships of the line but basically meant to be three one-of-a-kind ships operated by Starfleet Intelligence. Almost every player having one of those is nothing that happens in-lore - it doesn't help the "degrading" visuals (regarding true-to-canon designs you see when interacting with others) of the game, but in the story there are only very few intel ships.
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These are the latest and most advanced ships in the Federation arsenal. And not just the release of a new C-store pack, but a whole new tier of ship, representing a big technological leap that will potentially change how Starfleet operates.
And, to spearhead this change, we are getting these 3 frankly alien designs, along with just a single traditionally Trek ship. To introduce T6 you could have designed successors to the Odyssey, Armitage and Vesta for example. Ships that really show the advance of technology but still stay true to the things that make Starfleet vessels so recognisable, and crucially, so popular amongst players and fans.
The Intel ships could have been released as the next phase of T6 ships, with emphasis put on their departure from usual design principles being a temporary measure, given their unique role and background.
I digress, I think that when designing these Fed ships, you could have been more careful to stay close to what we already have, especially given that in the eyes of many players, these ships have come along to make all their existing Odysseys, Sovereigns, Defiants, Vestas etc. utterly obsolete.
Lets face it guys, whatever you thought about Voyager or Janeway, the undeniable fact is that she left a lot of enemies behind in the Delta Quadrant, enemies that would, thus, be hostile to the Federation and Starfleet in general. Starfleet knows this, and hence why I get the feeling that a lot of the early missions in Delta Rising will be on the covert side, and so we get a trio of new ships designed specifically to be stealthy and, hopefully, allow captains to avoid unnecessary confrontations while executing their missions.
There's many ways one could justify a difference in the material/hull colour/hull shape. Generally speaking, even a ship under cloak gives off trace particles and radiation that can be tracked. This may be one of the Federation's ways to minimize that effect. Also, it would also be beneficial for a ship, whose main purpose is recon and intelligence gathering, to also have a design that minimizes detected when not cloaked, as well. There are going to be a lot of times when an intelligence ship like these are going to be uncloaked, for various reasons.
And as has been said before, it's not like Cryptic has abandoned creating more Trek-like Federation ships, looking at the Guardian.
The intelligence ships are specific purpose ships. Just like escorts are purpose built apart from cruisers and science ships (until DS9, there were only cruisers and science ships), this is a new category that borrows and builds on other classes, but designed towards a specific purpose.