quote:Also, and I know this is a fault of many fanboy uber-ships, but in this case I think it's necessary - 3 M/ARAs. 1 for each nacelle, and 1 for ship's power. Unless you think SF would have managed to get hold of a D'Dederex and reverse-engineered that quantum singularity in there. I don't want to be the first to draw that thing!
If I had any drawing skill at all, I'd share with you my own "uber-ship." I actually have a lot of the details worked out and I incorporate a few of the 2380+ weapons that I mentioned in a topic I started a little while back... But that's not why I'm responding to this post.
I don't think you would ever need 3 M/ARAs on a given ship. My "uber-ship" uses dual M/ARA in part to provide substantially more power but primarily as a redundancy feature. The main limiting factor in a given M/ARA's power output seems to be how much reactants you can happily pump through the thing in a given amount of time before your containment system fails and blows the thing apart. I don't think starfleet has really reached the upper limit in that respect yet. Also, it seems to me that if the containment system is based in large part on force fields or something that requires power, that the more power you generate, the more you will have available to pump into reinforcing your containment. Furthermore, I think the dilithium crystals do a lot to relieve the pressure/control the reaction by converting the otherwise spherically expanding energy of the M/A reaction into a directionized stream. The point... I think you could still happily run your ship off of one reactor since I don't think the design limit of reactors has been reached yet, or maybe a dual system for added redundancy and not-so-huge individual M/ARAs.
Anyways, running individual nacells off of independent reactors is a bad idea because of power output balance problems. Its better to combine the output of one or more reactors into a common plasma manifold to stabilize output and frequency conditions and then pump the energy out to the nacells from there... makes for a safer system, in my opinion.
-------------------- If the crew discover I'm really just Dennis the donut boy, I'm finished.
Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
They seem a little outclassed by the rest of that list, but anyway the Kazon didn't build their ships at all, but rather stole them from their former masters.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Irishman: So, my question still stands. Why do so many races in Trek build such friggin' huge ships if it's such a liability?
That depends greatly on the race building the uber-ship. The Romulans likely use their cow D'Derix class as psychological arfare while maintaining a larger fleet of less impressive ships withing their own borders (fuck, they must have something between the miniscule science/scouts and the Warbird/Valdore).
The Dominion builds uber-ships that can ebgage several enemy capital ships at once (and we never saw anything larger than their smallest ship destroyed! That speaks volumes).
The Klingons dont build many huge ships- the Neg Var is the biggest but we've never seen two of those at any given time, so they're either very new, very rare or both.
The Cardassians have nothing bigger than the Excelsior-sized Galor/Keldon class. (though the -video game only- Hutet class is very cool- it's intended for planetary occupation more than anything else) Annnnd...that's it for the major powers.
Mainly, it's the Federation that builds the largest ships at any given time- the rest of the major powers either try to keep up or just settle for smaller (as their ecomomies dictate).
The Borg have the biggest ships around, but those are like mobile starbases or colonies- on a whole diffrent scale and function than a starship.
Personally, I dont care much for gigantic city-ships, unless the purpose is to explore and colonize as they go from system to system.
Besides, just the size is threatening- imagine a first contact seanrio wherein the unknown race parks it's uber-ship over your homeworld (and something as large as your Titan would be readily visible to the population on a clear night- possibly causing panic, despite any messages of peace.).
From a writing P.O.V., larger hero ships only lead to the need for even larger bad-guys, untill you end up with a Dragonball Z formula of getting beaten by some unstoppable menace, then the heroes become even stronger and beat them,over and over ad nauseum....
I'd love to see the design scaled down and with all views represented though.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:From a writing P.O.V., larger hero ships only lead to the need for even larger bad-guys, untill you end up with a Dragonball Z formula of getting beaten by some unstoppable menace, then the heroes become even stronger and beat them,over and over ad nauseum....
That reminds me of Eric Lustbader's books. His first Nicholas Linnear-book "Ninja" was great, Linnear was simply a very good ninjutsu-practitioner that finally killed his opponent through good sword-skills.
By the fourth book, Linnear had aquired telepathic/empathic mind powers, could heal a person through touching and manipulate their hormone levels and could catch shurikens between his thumb and index finger. I think he aquired telekinesis as well, because of the way he killed his master with jewels without throwing them.
Airport novels at its best!
Registered: Aug 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
"...and we never saw anything larger than their smallest ship destroyed!"
posted
Oh? We see a big cruiser take several running explosions in SOA (as the Defiant zooms along it's impossibly mis-scaled dorsal hull), but it's unclear if it's destroyed.
Unless you know of something else? Another target...? a military target? (whoops! wrong genre, there)
Nim, I've comitted the name "Eric Lustbader" to a memonic list of authors never to read. Ever. If only someone had warned me about Peter David and Piers Anthony the same way...(sigh)
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
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No, but it is pretty clear, to me, that the effects are meant to suggest said cruiser gets blown up alltheway.
Registered: Nov 1999
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Jason: Actually, the first book is quite good and is a self-contained drama in itself, any sequel was unnecessary. Quite grisly, also. It's only in the later years that his writing has (imo) become formulaic, but he's in good company there...
The point in this case was that of the increasing might of the main character and his enemies, which rings true.
Funny that in Trek, this has never been necessary, it seems. The 1701-D could outright slaughter a bunch of enemy ships in season 3 or 4, only to to crushed by a couple of pathetic ferengi in BoPs. The Trek ships have always retained a fat amount of weak points to allow for the "oh no they might lose" factor.
The Picard-Shinzon duel, that's fighting. The Riker-fartgas duel, that's the kind of lackluster effort that characterizes plot-limiting Trek battles.
Registered: Aug 1999
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Yeah, they really could have shown the Son'A's pounding on the Enterprise- in the script the "Riker Manuver" causes the Enterprise to careen out of control.
Cartman, that does indeed look like it blowed up "all the way"- of cousrse, it also shows either a 2KM long ship of a 25 meter Defiant.
I concede that the ship did indeed blow up- that's one in the war. say what you will, I'd say the Dominion stayed far ahead technologicly thought the war.
I wonder....did ayone here ever make an onscreen ship deathtoll? That'd be a lot of Excelsiors and Mirandas.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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I'm having a hard time imagining the contours of the ship based on this view; how the 'neck' joins the saucer; the arrangement of the nacelles, etc. It's an interesting shape, though. Reminds me a little of those Minbari single-seat flyers. I'd be curious to see more views.
Registered: Sep 2000
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