Ships of the Line: Olympic AND Hope class?

[mikester101]

Under commander in science the Olympic and Hope classes are listed. But my question is what is the difference? They are both the same class, Google them for more info.

http://www.startrekonline.com/ships

[BreachAndClear]

In canon, the Hope class was renamed the Olympic class. Cryptic's Hope class might have borrowed the name intentionally or coincidentally, but either way Cryptic's Hope class isn't going to be the same as the Olympic class.

[Varrangian]

See this post by Rekhan.

I asked Zinc about this today. I think where it gets confusing is marrying the way Star Trek classifies ships with the way people think about classes in MMOs. The internal terminology we use around here works like this: You have types, configurations and classes.

There are three Types of ship: Science, Cruiser and Escort. There are right now 16 Configurations (they're not spread evenly along each tier). There's a lot more Classes, and this is where you see stuff like the Akira and Oslo.

What differentiates the Akira from the Oslo is the Bridge Officer configuration. One could, for instance, have room for more Tactical Officers, while the other has room for more Engineering officers. However, you can customize one ship Class to look like another ship Class in the same Configuration. So, hypothetically again, you could customize your Akira to look like an Oslo, if you happen to like the look of the Oslo better, and vice versa.

Visually, it looks like this.

TYPE (Escort, Cruiser, Science)
CONFIGURATION
CLASS

Let's use our Excalibur class ship from the Ship of the Line (http://www.startrekonline.com/ships/excalibur)as an example.

TYPE: CRUISER
CONFIGURATION: SURPRISE!
CLASS: Excalibur

The difference between classes in the same configuration (hull silhouette) appears to be the organization of the Bridge Officer seats.

[Archangelwoghd]

I want everyone to have Captain's chairs.

[mikester101]

See this post by Rekhan.



The difference between classes in the same configuration (hull silhouette) appears to be the organization of the Bridge Officer seats.


hmm good point, what does everyone think the difference between the 2 classes are?

[Acyl]

hmm good point, what does everyone think the difference between the 2 classes are?

The Olympic Class has a full-sized swimming pool on board. The Hope can't even fit a diving board.

Seriously, though - I assume the 'signature' canon vessel in each configuration would be the regular 'balanced' option, and the other two would be more specialized.

[Laurelin]

Hope will be a new cryptic designed ship. Just like the Escorts have a Phoenix class, when there was a Nebula class ship named Phoenix. Also, Defiant, Excalibur and Intrepid were originally Constitution class ships names. Cryptic isn't the only one that recycles names. Probably the Hope and Phoenix were destroyed, and the names were given to new ship classes.

[BreachAndClear]

The Olympic Class has a full-sized swimming pool on board. The Hope can't even fit a diving board.

Seriously, though - I assume the 'signature' canon vessel in each configuration would be the regular 'balanced' option, and the other two would be more specialized.

Rekhan explained that the difference between classes would be in seating arrangement. E.G. one might have an extra science station, another an extra tactical station, and the third an extra engineering station. I don't know if there will be any other differences, but in discussing the Oslo and Akira he said it was the seating arrangement that set the two apart.

[Acyl]

Rekhan explained that the difference between classes would be in seating arrangement. E.G. one might have an extra science station, another an extra tactical station, and the third an extra engineering station. I don't know if there will be any other differences, but in discussing the Oslo and Akira he said it was the seating arrangement that set the two apart.

So there's three classes in each tier...eg. for a T1 Escort, you can choose between one that's more Tactical, more Engineering, or more Science. And the same for the T1 Cruisers, etc.

That sounds about right. Simple and logical.

[Varrangian]

Hope will be a new cryptic designed ship. Just like the Escorts have a Phoenix class, when there was a Nebula class ship named Phoenix. Also, Defiant, Excalibur and Intrepid were originally Constitution class ships names. Cryptic isn't the only one that recycles names. Probably the Hope and Phoenix were destroyed, and the names were given to new ship classes.

I'm not sure what you mean by "new cryptic design" If you look at the Valiant, you'll see it is a derivation of the Defiant. It is not a "new design" in the literal sense of the words. The Hope will be a Olympic class derivation, it will have slightly different aesthetics, but can be customized to look just like the Olympic if we so choose (as is stated by Rekhan in the post I quoted above).

[Varrangian]

Rekhan explained that the difference between classes would be in seating arrangement. E.G. one might have an extra science station, another an extra tactical station, and the third an extra engineering station. I don't know if there will be any other differences, but in discussing the Oslo and Akira he said it was the seating arrangement that set the two apart.

So there's three classes in each tier...eg. for a T1 Escort, you can choose between one that's more Tactical, more Engineering, or more Science. And the same for the T1 Cruisers, etc.

That sounds about right. Simple and logical.

This seems to be the case. The key differentiation of classes in the same configuration will be their seating organization. While somewhat varied visually they must look close enough to one another so they can be customized to look just like either of the other two classes.

[mikester101]

considering that the Hope and Olympic were medical ships (in cannon.) I am sure one of the two will serve in that purpose.