Canon or apocryphal ships?

[helldiver]

As many of us know, a massive multiplayer online game needs a significant amount of content. More content than other games of similar genres given that players will consume the content rather quickly and the developer runs the risk of said players suspending their account.

In a game such as WoW (where one can continue to pour in equipment) the developer can make up lore as he goes along and can continue to pour things on top almost unhindered. We saw how in Everquest even the developer ended up stepping on the lore (see the whole Luclin blowing up and the move to Everquest 2).

That brings us to Star Trek. I can understand new phaser rifle designs, new armor designs, and even new locations. Afterall the area that ST encompasses is 100,000ly in diameter possible more.

But one area that there hasn't been much change in, is ship design. One could argue that there are a lot of ships. But I've noticed that many of those ships are from TOS era and I noticed that there might not be that much variety in the TNG era.

So what are everyone's feelings on the developer sticking with canon ships as opposed to inventing new apocryphal designs so as to give players more content?

I didn't think TOS ship designs were seen in TNG+ eras as standard Federation ships, perhaps someone could shine a light to that?

[Hagon]

Due to the timeline of the game, they'll have a bit of leeway as far as offering new designs.

[Haegemon]

I supose it's a fact of needs. So all the canon posible and the rest new design.

Many TOS ships were redesigned. The real due to the CGI era wich means better FX. The reason inside the plot due to the time period farther than TOS. However original federal ship designs were not used were keept as ship classes from that current period. So the original Enterprise was a Constitution-class vessel.

Don't forget the remastered TOS.

[Trekkie]

I think that the developer should primarily stick to what has already been established in the Star Trek universe, but I am looking forward to seeing what new types of ships the developers come up with. I just hope that the new designs that the developers create are not too radically different, but I have to say that I doubt this will be too much of an issue.

[JamesDBurke]

Who knows, they might do a yearly contest for a ship design like they did for the Luna Class in the Titan novels about Will Riker's first command. That would be kind of cool and encourage a hell of a lot of player participation.

[iceman22503]

I somehow think there wil be new ship designs, as was said, the future timeline of St allows them to be creative in that field, but I think the main focus is going to be put on how well people can create their own ships. With all the kits that should be available to everyone, it will be very surprising if two ships are the same. I am sure that cryptic is well aware of all the canon, and they will honor it by allowing players to have those ships from the other era's if they so choose, but the creation of you own ships seems to be what they are emphasizing, that way not everyone has the same ship.

[Freejack]

Allakhazam : For fans of the original series, will we get to see any older model starships in the game, e.g. Constitution class?

Craig Zinkievich : Many of the ship classes that you’re familiar with will show up in the game. We already talked about time travel, right?

As far as player ships go, the ship configurations and styles are based on well-known ships in the Trek Universe. You’ll be able to customize your ship with materials and pieces inspired by the different eras (TOS, TNG, VOY and the Future).

Star Trek Online begins in the year 2409, about 30 years after Star Trek Nemesis. Because of advances in technology, ship design has changed. So while you may not be able to create an exact replica of a Miranda Class, you will be able to create a starship that is very much like it but still uniquely yours. (http://www.allakhazam.com/story.html?story=15597)

Does this help?
:cool:

[Meehile]

Well, this game won't be considered canon so thay can use pretty much anything from either canon or apocrypha. They could even make new desings unless licensing forbids it.

[Father_Origin]

new content can come in many forms, as for this game, I can take a guess where
new stuff can be ..er..poured in.

Ship exterior parts (variations on standard shapes)
Ship interior do-dads ( basic cosmetic stuff )
variations on ships weapons ( slight variations...trading a few degrees of fire arc for a little more range
kinda thing)
replicator patterns.....want that new Rigilian coffee table? got to get that new replicator pattern..ect..

so the point? your not going to see many..straight canon ships, there are going to be a TON
of variations.

[Toaster87]

im pritty sure there will be an option for a standard ship, like if you wanted a Galaxy class but dont want it modified then u could just pick a standard Galaxy class ship, no variations.

[rygar]

I think there are alot of really good fan-made ships out there. Granted, theres alot of redundant or just plain awful looking crap out there as well.
But if you do searches for "ships of starfleet" there are some pretty good pdfs that have some new ship designs that look like they'd perfectly fit cannon. I just wish Cryptic would consider cherrypicking some of those designs. Hell,I'm sure the creators would let them use them for free on the off chance that one day they might be considered canon.

especially one like the Cheyenne Class, which looks like the logical successor to the Stargazer
http://bfinfobase.org/index.php?title=Cheyenne_Class

or the Diligent class which looks pretty cool
http://bfinfobase.org/index.php?title=Diligent_Class

or the Discovery class which granted, some of the specs should be changed, but I'm still partial too.
http://www.asdb.net/asdb/docs/sfp/sfp.pdf

[Manx]

I think there are alot of really good fan-made ships out there. Granted, theres alot of redundant or just plain awful looking crap out there as well.
But if you do searches for "ships of starfleet" there are some pretty good pdfs that have some new ship designs that look like they'd perfectly fit cannon. I just wish Cryptic would consider cherrypicking some of those designs. Hell,I'm sure the creators would let them use them for free on the off chance that one day they might be considered canon.

especially one like the Cheyenne Class, which looks like the logical successor to the Stargazer
http://bfinfobase.org/index.php?title=Cheyenne_Class

or the Diligent class which looks pretty cool
http://bfinfobase.org/index.php?title=Diligent_Class

or the Discovery class which granted, some of the specs should be changed, but I'm still partial too.
http://www.asdb.net/asdb/docs/sfp/sfp.pdf

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you but Cheyenne class is cannon; it's from the graveyard scene at Wolf 359.

[rygar]

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you but Cheyenne class is cannon; it's from the graveyard scene at Wolf 359.

your right, but the only time we see it is in a really blurry far away shot. So I guess it is cannon, but its never really been fully shown other than that one shot.

[Thibor]

A lot can change in 30 years and if anything, the rate of change, even in our own time, seems to accelerate.

Compare a '57 Chevy to an '87 Lamborghini Countach
A WWII era Lockheed XP58 ("Chain Lightning") that saw service in '44 to the F-14 Tomcat that entered service in '74.
Or consider in less than 30 years we went from putting the first man-made object into orbit (Sputnik in '57) to walking on the moon 12 years later ('69) to having a reusable space vehicle (Space Shuttle) 12 years after that ('81).

In some ways, I think some of the tech in the later series really didn't evolve enough and was kept similar for the obvious tie-in to previously accepted technology, terminology and ideas. People get used to the lexicon of Star Trek ... Phaser, warp core, jeffries tubes, transporter/beaming, photon torpedo, sensor array, tricorder, etc etc and while some new technologies certainly have been added as the various series came along (holodeck and holographic doctor, android officer, etc.) many of the technologies didn't change all that much relatively speaking.

And keep in mind our advances are without the knowledge from sources external to us and we've progressed as fast as we have. The Federation is made up of how many systems? With how many scientists and engineers to work on better propulsion systems, hull designs, etc etc?

Please don't take all that as meaning I think the devs should throw canon ship design out the window and do whatever they think is aesthetically pleasing to them. I like what I've seen so far. I guess though in relative perspective, I'm willing to give them some leeway in moving the designs forward.

[RogueEnterprise]

In my opinion, the more the merrier!

Keep in mind too that I believe ship design and aesthetics will be customizable as well... so its likely that 10 different ships that are technically Galaxy-class could look entirely different from one another. At least, that's what I'm gathering from what's been shown so far. =)

[Thibor]

In my opinion, the more the merrier!

Keep in mind too that I believe ship design and aesthetics will be customizable as well... so its likely that 10 different ships that are technically Galaxy-class could look entirely different from one another. At least, that's what I'm gathering from what's been shown so far. =)

I think we've yet to get a solid idea of how far we can take a certain base design with our own customizations. Hopefully we're limited such that people aren't creating starship winnebagos a la Space Balls :p

[CurtisWT]

or the Discovery class which granted, some of the specs should be changed, but I'm still partial too.
http://www.asdb.net/asdb/docs/sfp/sfp.pdf

Personally I prefer the Eximius class, but that's just me.

[KL0k]

as long as it doesnt interfer with canonical material (like 2 engine section, 6 warp nacelles, 2 saucers and all that ****), i'm fine with "selfmade-ship-designs".

but still, i would prefer canon shipdesigns overall, even if its just a refit of an old ship or shipdesign.
i had a hard time to accept the achilles class in the dominion wars game cause of its arrow-saucer, and i cant stand most of the fancreated-fed-ships of the ST:armada2 game.

so i'm a bit picky bout this. there are some ships i like, and some i dont.. kinda hard to explain..

PS: i hope theres some kind of a "blueprint"-section with the shipdesign. for example, you can choose an existing shipdesign and give it a go, or you can design your own ship, but it has to run through excessive testing and has the NX class state till the end of the testrun / before its accepted as an official class.

[JamesDBurke]

the area that ST encompasses is 100,000ly in diameter possible more.


This doesn't sound that accurate, has this already been discussed? I know that the series and films have had 'goings-on' in all four quadrants of the galaxy but I would hardly say that the series has covered every light year in the milky way galaxy. Thoughts on this aspect of the discussion?:confused:

[Profedius]

I see them having new ship designs as there is really nothing to stop them from introducing new ship types given the time that has past since the last movie. I am not sure on the books because I never got into reading them.

[Lord_Xomic]

Err, I don't mind them designing new ships, but, I'd rather hope they'd spend a long time developing few new designs, and have them look good, then hundreds of crappy looking ships.

[Thraken]

IMO, There's good precedent for many of the ship classes seen in Deep Space Nine and Voyager to still be around in this time period.
(i.e. It's probably time to retire Miranda and Excelsiors... or design a goodlooking replacement (http://www.geocities.com/~holoworldfleet/pic/tech/starchild.jpg))

After such a long time of course there will have to be plenty of new ship classes. I pray that these ships will look good and as if they belong to star trek - unlike the majority of the horrific kitbashes that are highly popular on the internet :(

[Thibor]

so i'm a bit picky bout this. there are some ships i like, and some i dont.. kinda hard to explain...

Not hard to explain ... we as a species went from driving many similar looking vehicles to the wide array that is available today. And it doesn't matter whether it's a Ford Fiesta or a Porsche Cayenne you're asking an opinion about, some will say they love it, others outright hate it, and some just go, "meh, it's a vehicle, it'll suit my needs."

The question is, does the ship architecture, aestheticly pleasing or not, make sense or does it outright fly in the face of what we've come to know. And, if it flies in the face, does it at the least have a plausible reason why?

[Captain_Intrepid]

Ship design changed quite a bit over the years for Star Trek.

From circular saucers to arrow-shaped 'saucer sections', from cylindrical warp nacelles to a variety of shaped warp nacelles, from the engineering section being separated from the saucer section and the nacelles by the 'neck' of the ship and the pylons to the engineering section (now called the stardrive section) being almost indistinguishable from the rest of the ship.

Just remember, this is not Star Wars, where starship design barely changes over hundreds, if not thousands of years.

And as the Federation expands, and they discover new ways of getting around the galaxy, the more ship design is going to expand as well.