Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Another reason why they should make more 4 nacelled ships

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Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :

With my new asymmetric design approach I thought of a new plus in designs with 4 nacelles. If ANY 2 (or just 1) nacelles are unusable in some way, you can still go to warp with the remaining 2 nacelles. Even though they are on the same side of the ship, or even diagonal. The only thing you may have to do is adjust the warpfield, but it CAN work!

BTW: This also applies to ships with 3 nacelles, which in essence have 1 backup nacelle which isn't used until one of the other 2 doesn't work any more.

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Wanted: Experienced Kamikaze Pilot

Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :

Suplemental:

The nacelles must be aligned and of the same type for this to work.

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Wanted: Experienced Kamikaze Pilot

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

I'm a little unclear here...possibly because I don't have your design memorized. However, if I follow you correctly, you're saying that a four-nacelled ship comes with a built in spare in case of emergency?

That's true enough, but I have two problems with it. One, it is hard to imagine a situation in which some nacelles would be damaged and some would not. For starters, the nacelle would have to be completely powered down at the time. Otherwise, the destruction of the nacelle would quite possibly take the ship along with it. (Uncontained warp plasma can be just as dangerous to the ship as antimatter.)

The other thing is, at what point does adding redundant equipment cease to be an effective use of resources? Taken far enough, you'll be able to just go ahead and build a second ship out of it.

While having spare nacelles is certainly an advantage of ships like the Constellation, that isn't a good enough reason to justify adding them to other ships. (And there are other advantages and disadvantages to multi-nacelled ships. I'm just saying this one isn't a big enough factor.)

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"And give me back my evil heart so I can see you as you are."
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John Linnell

Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :

I meant this as build-in failsave.

Point 1: Look at the Odyssey (sp?) in DS9. The Jem'Hadar destroyed a nacelle, and the Odyssey had to go home on impuls. If the Odyssey was a 4-nacelled ship, they would still be able to go to warp and escape the Jem'Hadar.

Point 2: The best way to use this is with 4 nacelled ships, since they can use either all 4 nacelles or just 2 to go to warp. My addition is that they can use ANY 2 nacelles to go to warp.

As for 3 nacelled ships: This is the best theory I can think of for the fact that they have a 3rd nacelle.

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Wanted: Experienced Kamikaze Pilot

[This message has been edited by Altair (edited July 06, 1999).]