Do you think some fan designs overdo it on weaponry and other capabilities? I saw one recently which had a shuttlebay that was also a transporter, for assault forces - is that overkill?
Do FASA's designs count? Some were pretty silly, but others made sense... Should they be grouped as rubbish or used selectively? And what about their deck plans? I for one liked the Regula 1 plan
And what about the topic rather than the look? Should we include naval-type classes that Starfleet don't (officially) use, like fighters, carriers and dreadnoughts? All of these have appeared in fan designs and fiction...
Oh yeah - and hands up who likes Cargile's pencil drawings better than some of the crap pixellated images people keep posting??
Come on, folks - let's hear your opinions and get some good arguments, links to your fave designs, and LOTS of controversy!
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WARNING: Storing semtex in the microwave
may be hazardous to your health!
[This message was edited by Starbuck on June 09, 1999.]
I really don't like the Starfleet style at all anyway, though...the further a design is from that, the better.
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http://frankg.dgne.com/
"Let's get those missiles ready to destroy the universe!" - TMBG
Yes, some fans make their ships way too powerful. No ship would have 2000 quantum torpedoes. I like a bit more realism than that.
If you want real controversy, move your 4th question to the Starships forum.
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"Angels and Ministers of Grace, defend us"
-Hamlet, Act I, Scene IV
And, some kitbashes are okay. Obviously, if you only cut and paste directly from other ships, it isn't as good as if you add some original stuff. But, rememeber, the Nebula itself is only a little beyond a kitbash...
Now, as far as irrationally "beefed-out" ( :-) ) ships go... Well, here's a hint: if your ship can take down a Borg invasion fleet in a single volley, it's probably got a few too many armaments...
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"I ran into Charlie Fogg.
He blacked my eye, and he kicked my dog.
My dog turned to me, and he said,
'Let's head back to Tennessee, Jed.'"
-The Grateful Dead, "Tennessee Jed"
As for the specs, most of the stuff I read about fan-designed ships gives me the impression that all previous ships are scrap. Newer ships are supposed to be better (would be a shame about Starfleet otherwise), but not every design can be groundbreaking.
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"No, thanks. I've had enough. One more cup and I'll jump to warp." (Janeway, asked if she would like some coffee in "Once upon a Time")
www.uni-siegen.de/~ihe/bs/startrek/
(I am only kidding, and I made the above sentence complicated on purpose.)
I don't like cut-and-paste because you can tell it's cut-and-paste. I've not seen anyone put one on the web that impressed me.
I personaly enjoy designing warships partly because of the SMR page I have, and because I can deviate from the standard starship configuration. There is only so much I can do with a saucer, secondary hull, and pyloned nacelles. That arrangement has bored me and designing something that has a Trek feel and yet looks radically different is a bigger challedge. I'd rather design shuttles, runabouts, transports, and even travelpods, than the next galactic Explorer.
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"Minsk."
Cmdr Worf
Generaly I don't like cut'n'paste designs that comply with the 'Starfleet standards'. I'd rather see radical new designs, like the Defiant.
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Bugs Come In Through Open Windows.
[This message was edited by Altair on June 10, 1999.]
like this - this was done to convey an IDEA.
Andrew
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"I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die, while you discuss this invasion in a committee" Queen Amidala - Star Wars: Episode 1, The Phantom Menace
Hobbes
9906.10
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"You're a groovy baby...baby" - Austin Powers
Let's keep this one going! More opinions?
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WARNING: Storing semtex in the microwave
may be hazardous to your health!
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"I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die, while you discuss this invasion in a committee" Queen Amidala - Star Wars: Episode 1, The Phantom Menace
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"I ran into Charlie Fogg.
He blacked my eye, and he kicked my dog.
My dog turned to me, and he said,
'Let's head back to Tennessee, Jed.'"
-The Grateful Dead, "Tennessee Jed"
Kitbashes are ok if they are done with some taste!
Weapon loading kitbashers should be summarily taken out and executed!
Here are some constitution/miranda/constellation reconfigurations to produce specific designs of given class.
Note Large pic
http://www.geocities.com:80/Area51/Stargate/9268/variantlist.jpg
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hello world
[This message was edited by bear on June 11, 1999.]
[This message was edited by Fabrux on June 13, 1999.]
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Star Trek: Dark Horizon
Creator, Owner, Only Writer
I personally have always loved this era of Trek, but the powers that be feel that new and sharper designs are better. I would have love to have had more fleet battles similar to the era of battleships and sailing vessels.
Boy is it dead around here!
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hello world
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"Silence, you contemptible shrew!"
-Stewie, The Family Guy
[This message was edited by TSN on June 14, 1999.]
Kitbashing
There's kitbashing in the movies (Constitution and Miranda), in TNG (Galaxy and Nebula), and now the DS9 fleet. I think kitbashes are OK if done properly... I mean, most of the material put out by people like Jackill and Mastercom Data are kitbashes; even the original "Star Fleet Technical Manual" had kitbash designs in to make scouts, destroyers etc.
FASA
Some FASA designs are OK, some are terrible. I tend to judge them on an as-and-when basis (ie when I find them), and modify them to suit.
Image Quality
Cargile's pencil sketches and Adam Heinbuch's CGI are just two of the gems to be found... I don't mind lesser quality images, althouhg what I do hate is drawings which look like they were done with a Commodore 64! I mean, there's artistic license, there's art, and then there's usable Treknology...
More later - keep em coming!
[This message was edited by Starbuck on June 15, 1999.]
Ascii art ship designs.
*Speeeeew!*
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American Society of Newspaper Editors motto:
"Proudly Maintaining the (Continued on Page A-4)".
www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8641/
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WARNING: Storing semtex in the microwave
may be hazardous to your health!
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What bloke invented signatures?
I don't like kitbashes much.
BUT I think the keyword here is TASTE.
Say it with me, jurors.
"Taste."
This topic pleases me.
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If no-one will play with me, then I'm going home,and I'm bringing the inflatible with me.
About designs, I believe a ship must have flowing lines, as if it cuts through space, but not too much, keep them a little bulky. But one deadly thing, I believe, is big protruding nacelles in exactly the wrong places. Andrewr's example, er..for example, is a good example of a clean, balanced design. A kitbash, but a good one nonetheless.
[that's three times example in one sentence-how's that?]
Er, wait a minute. Back to starships. I'll do a lot of scribbling to get the shape right, then work with a ship for days--some times months, until I get it just right.
(and because someone will assume the above mentioned namebrands are meant to be answer the header question and tell me that I'm wrong. The namebrands are tires. I know that.)
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"There are always bigger tits."
Qui-Gon Jinn in Mos Espa's sleaziest adult nightclub.
Sometimes a ship may seem over armed, but in reality modern day vessels in the U.S. and other navies have massive armaments.
Take the WWII German Type-XX U-boat. This massive beast had six forward and twelve aft torpedo launchers, of course it only held 30 or so torpedoes. They had quick firing in mind with that rather than pure firepower, as reloading a torpedo was dangerous and lengthy.
And most of the old German U-boats had a single 20mm cannon for anti-aircraft use. Others that were customized had a quadruple 20mm cannon on deck along with smaller 7.25mm guns. (That partiular U-boat drove off two squadrons of Avenger aircraft at one time, heavily damaging all of them. Tell me that's not overarming!)
If the weapon can fit into the ship, then it's not over arming it (unless of course you have a special Defiant class ship with a million torpedoes, which is not only unrealistic but defeats the whole purpose of designing a starship).
In the way of actually designing a starship in hull shape: It can be anything you want. Whether it be a single saucer or a multiple-hulled craft like the Enterprise, it all depends on what you do to it to make it interesting to the eye.
Paul Cargile's ships are sometimes kitbashed (slightly, if I remember correctly the Prevaricate looks like a Defiant and a Runabout), but they're interesting to the eye because they seem to have their own way of combining it.
Adam Heinbuch's designs are interesting to me as well, at least the Sentinel is. It's a very streamlined organic-looking shape and it's never been done that way before.
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Master of the spoon
I don't mind kitbashing. I can take several elements form a few starship in existance and merge them together in a sketch, but I don't cut and paste often. On CSD, the Chikara is blatanly a Galaxy c-n-p. But others do because that is what they can do to express their ideas. And that's cool.
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I was right in the middle of a f*cking reptile zoo. And somebody was giving booze to these goddam things."
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Never mind :]