Ideas for new classes of starships

[Lt. Staplic]

i cant get an image from my computer to ditl please help

I couldn't upload it direct either, i had to upload mine from my computer into photobucket, then transfer the photo from pb to the post.

[Teaos]

Yeah the only way to do it is through photobucket.

Check out the link Seafort gave, some awesome guy wrote up a guide to it.

[Lt. Staplic]

that's how i figured it out.
The guy must be a genious

[Mark]

What kind of ship does Starfleet use to patrol trade routes and stuff? Like the Coast Guard? Fighting smugglers and pirates and such? I think we may need a special class of starship for those duties.

[Deepcrush]

My guess would be whatever ship they have on hand. Though we seem to see a lot of Nebs out on the borders. Which to think about it would make a pretty good patrol cruiser.

[Lt. Staplic]

they may even keep some of the ghost fleet active for "coast guard" duities.

[Deepcrush]

Ghost Fleet?

[Teaos]

Tom Paris mentioned the Federation naval patrol. Could be a coast guard type thing that uses Soyuz type thing.

[Deepcrush]

Umm... thats for use on water... starships sink, not good on water...

[Teaos]

It was never stated what it was, considering the Klingon fleet is refered to as a navy sometimes it would make sense for the Federation to employ the term for their coast guard.

[Mikey]

There have been some ships that have been indicated (either by canon or fanon) to be "systems defense craft," like the Soyuz. I could easily see somewhat outdated or lower-warp ships (like the Freedom-class) being used for patrol of systems or trade routes.

[Grundig]

Isn't Trek pretty much Naval to the bone? Even down to ship design, you can see the influence in the ships' profiles, the way the engineering sections usually dip down like they're cutting through the water. I don't quite understand why one group or duty in particular would be called "federation naval patrol." I guess the operative word is 'patrol.'

See it's these little offhand comments about some really important aspect of canon that get the writers into trouble. They've created quite a restrictive universe to write in. I can understand why a new group of people working on the movies would wind up saying "F*ck this! Let's focus on the things that make Star Trek great, and then do what we can for the canon." At least, that's what it seems like they're doing. We'll see in 9 months or so.

[Mark]

So what kind of stats would you guess a pirate ship or smugger ship would have? Do you see the Federation outlawing certain kinds of weapons on civilian ships? I'm asking because I'm doing a thing on which a respected SF Captain is manipulated by Section 31 to take command of a "merchant" ship, and set up an undercover operation WITHOUT any Starfleet interference. It looks like the old Merchantman class from STIII, with four retractible disprupter cannons and one photon torpedo tube all forward facing. However, I'm seeing just about ANY SF ship as outgunning it. What do you guys think?

[Lt. Staplic]

Ghost Fleet?

I probably mispoke, the "fleet" of inactive ships that have been decommissioned.

[Mark]

Ghost Fleet?

I probably mispoke, the "fleet" of inactive ships that have been decommissioned.

Oh, the mothballs. I'm with you now.