Title kind of says it all. For those unfamiliar with the USS Titan-A coming in season 3 of Picard, there's this:
https://youtu.be/-sizDFYphvw
... and this is the USS Shangri-La, which (I believe?) is considered 'soft canon' at this point, since it appeared in Ships of the Line:
To be totally honest (though YMMV, of course), I think the Shangri-La is simply a better design - I prefer the TMP-era nacelles, I like the weird semi-saucer, and the placement of the torpedo launchers is inspired. The Titan-A is a lot... more somber. But, then again, so is the color palette of that entire series.
Assuming that we see the Titan-A "Neo Constitution" at some point (and that it isn't a bloody lockbox ship), do you believe that the Shangri-La will be one of the sub-designs built in to the release? Frankly, the game doesn't actually have a lot of ships from TMP timespan, so it would be nice to see another added.
Comments
He designed both ships, I believe.
No idea. Legally, what 'is' the Ships of the Line calendar?
Could be a symbolic showing of the Federation returning to its exploratory roots while embracing new technologies. Ship design doesn't always demand specific hull configurations, especially when technology is refined. The Constitution Class was the poster child of deep space exploration in the 23rd Century. By building a new incarnation of such a venerable design, it could be showing the citizens of the Federation that Starfleet is back, and Exploration is back on the menu.
It is a terrible name... and neither we (the USN) nor the Royal Navy don't do such things IRL, as far as I know. Frankly, I think it's a lazy bit of nostalgia fishing that's far too on-the-nose for Starfleet.
I'm not completely in love with the design, either. But I want more TMP-era ships. It's clear that Starfleet went through a period of about 20-25 years where the vessels had that kind of aesthetic - colors, nacelles, general saucer shaping, etc. - that we see on the refit Enterprise and Miranda. But I refuse to believe that the fleet during that time was composed ENTIRELY of Constitution and Miranda-class ships - that's taking the limitations of the budget of TOS and the limited requirements of the films (and the expense of producing screen-worthy models) and turning it into canon.
STO has done a modest job of fleshing out the TOS-era stable with theoretical designs (though GOD I wish we could get a T6 Pioneer), and there are a less-satisfactory number of Excelsior-era boats (we're still missing the Curry - not a fan, but I know people who love it). But we're really, really short on TMP timespan stuff. And this would help.
Not mad or lecturing, btw - just explaining my motivations in desiring this.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
> I'm just hoping that it won't be officially called the Neo-Constitution-class. That's a terrible name, like calling the new generation of US aircraft carriers the Neo-Nimitz-class instead of the Ford-class.
I totally agree with Jon!And for you naysayers out there—Kael already said in the livestream they are working on the Neocon or Pawnee (Picard-Connie). I wouldn’t be surprised if it will be be in a lockbox before Picard season 3 ends. A new Picard hero ship…yeah that’s going to generate enough money to finance the game for most the year. It is likely going to be the most in-demand ship of the year—and possibly longer.
Sound familiar?
Sounds familiar and very repeated.
> Well, they literally called the new Excelsior-class the Excelsior II, so...Neo-Constitution isn't a stretch.
I say that's just the Obena class but a prettied up CGI model. A hill I will die on and no showrunner can convince me otherwise.
Excuse me but did you just carbon-date yourself with that ship name? Oh my! roflmao.
The Parliament was so panned upon release, it's hard to believe anyone flies it. /hattip to you, sir, for swimming upstream.
> The very obvious Sovereign nacelles on her don't line up with the Excel-II. I mean we're talking completely different pylons and nacelles at the very least.
Don't take away my hill
I'm not really interested in the Maquis Raider, I've already got two Walkers, I've already got an NX Refit, I've already got a Vengeance...
But surprisingly those are relatively common in the 300-400 mil range. I know most of them are Lobi Store, but still...
Hell I even looked at the Kirk a couple times.
Although if the Farragut is available my DSC Character's getting more love again.
As far as I can tell, Constitution III is the formal class name. Close support envelope at sub-light speeds suggests for our game purposes as a high turn rate cruiser? What speculative turn-rate should it have? Without totally breaking the system we are familiar with?
Frankly, the whole idea of using impulse engines (except as emergency drives) and thereby subjecting themselves to Einsteinian physics constraints (such as inertia) is ridiculous when they have warp drives available that avoids all of that (and as TOS showed is perfectly safe to use right from planetary orbit).
In TOS they used the impulse engines as anything but a power generator (or in one case, an explosive) a total of less than a half-dozen times in the whole 79 episode run. And they only used it as anything but an emergency backup once, in "Elaan of Troyius", to give them time to civilize Elaan somewhat before delivering her to Troyius. Not only was Scotty flabbergasted that Kirk wanted to deliberately use the things the whole way between Elan and Troyius (two planets in the same star system) instead of warping, the dialog in one scene explicitly states that the impulse drives are never used for moving the ship except when the warp drive is knocked out.
Realism considerations aside, it sounds like the class should probably be faster than other cruisers at impulse but that doesn't mean it would necessarily have a tighter turn rate (though it would be nicer to fly with one, and it is not too farfetched provided that some of those engines are further from centerline than other cruisers have). It would be logical to assume that its trait should have some sort of control resistance to it as a side-feature (a good trait could be the ability to death-drag enemies or something, possibly along with a shorter high-impulse cooldown) because of the power of the oversized engines.
I agree that Drexler's premise is a consistent extension of tech standards put forth by Sternbach's contribution to the TNG writers. And, later, the TNG Technical Manual available to us.
Given that, especially during the TOS era, dilithium is seen as a finite resource, it made zero sense to be using warp drive frivolously with-in a solar system. IIRC it is even said that use of the warp drive within a system is restricted, unless in an emergency all the way up to and including TMP where they didn't go to warp until past Jupiter. The reasons probably are so as not to affect local bodies through the warping of space by affecting gravitational constants. Without delving into the technical manuals, there probably is a low level warp field at higher impulse speeds to negate Einsteinian effects, with standard top speeds of 1/4 lightspeed, but the problem with warp is it is notoriously hard to turn, which is probably achieved by altering the dynamics of the warp field, as thrusters and impulse would have no effect within the warp field.
Just remember that paradoxically, the warp drive moves space around the ship.
And it should be remembered that when TOS was on the air, there was little worry about continuity on most TV shows. It's not like they expected a cult-like audience to form and pore over all the minutiae of any given show for decades to come...