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I admit, I was lazy the first time around

Mark wrote:It seems to me that Starfleet would rather go for a variety (for whatever reason) rather than tried and true designs.

Because while the tried and true ships are good in their roles they can't fill every role. For example the modern Arleigh Burke destroyer does great as an anti-aircraft warship it's not really set up for SAR work, much less meteorological study, diplomatic work, deep sea exploration, etc. Starfleet ships are definitely flexible so they're not as rigidly locked into roles as modern ships but you can still use specialist ships for specialist duties. Ships like the Mirandas, Excelsiors, Nebulas etc. are great all around ships but they're still jacks of all trades, masters of none. Also look at some of the known specialists like Novas, they are smaller. They've got one purpose and don't waste space for things they don't need making it less expensive to build.

It makes sense to have a lot of the generalist ships, but you want plenty of specialized ones so you don't bog down your generalists with stuff they aren't best suited for.

Utopia Planetia Quartermaster: "We just received a shipment of funky Bussard ramscoops and main deflectors..."

Design Engineer: "Hmmm...guess we better design a new Class..."

And the Steamrunner was born...

There are niches for these classes to occupy.
They could be excellent for simply patroling borders in quiet spots, where an Akira would be wasted.
They could be slow but powerful, making them great system defence ships.
They could be used for checking out anomalies within UFP territory, where a GCS would be a massive waste of resources.
Etc.

There're plenty of possible roles once you get down to it.

We just need to look at the timeframes these designs were fielded - Norways in the 2330's, Sabers and Steamrunners in the 2340's, a good 20-30 years before the GCS... What was the Starfleet philosophy? What was the overall condition of the UFP?

The way I see it, Take my view or leave it, Is the Steamrunner was designed to replace the Miranda. it flopped. There were just so many Miranda's that were still useful within reason, that the Steamrunners just couldn't fill the shoes. What else are they useful for then? In relative terms to civilian, pirate, and light enemy raiders, they are fairly powerful. Thus the role was born. They were great for patrolling borders where there was less chance of a large enemy incursion (say the klingon or Romulan borders), and more of a chance of small hostile attacks (Tholian/Gorn borders). They were also useful in that most Civvy ships probably used older generation warp drives, meaning they might well be slower than the Steamrunner, Making her perfect for dealing with pirates, and operating in a policing function.

The Saber is a difficult one. its too small and weak to really be useful for most things. I think really they are meant to be scout ships, but their engine capacity was just nowhere near enough. So now they are probably used as System Defense ships. Hanging around worlds, little cost to maintain them, but they arent useful for much else.

The Norway is even more difficult. It has enough firepower to defend itself moderately, but is too slow and weak for fleet actions. Its not particularly fast, and its quite small. My guess is that she is a test bed ship. She was the first ship we have seen with a triangular hull. Maybe she was testing the Wedge profile for better hull strength, or increased warp field geometry? who knows. All we know is that Wedge primary ships have started appearing more often, with the Nova and Prometheus classes. I reckon the Norway was intended to test the shape, and provide some extra scientific relief until the Nova's came into Operation.

Excellent take on the , Reliant...makes a lot of sense!

Indeed....kudos little bro

Excellent take, in general, esp. on the Saber. But,

Reliant121 wrote:the Steamrunner was designed to replace the Miranda.

Where does that come from?

speaking of the ST:FC fisticuffs, its the other introduced design, the akira, that i don't get, from the looks of it, is possibly on a par with a galaxy class starship, yet someone told me that the registry implied a much older design...

TO be honest, we reall know damn all about the Akira. Along with many other FC spotted designs.

Mikey wrote:Excellent take, in general, esp. on the Saber. But,

Reliant121 wrote:the Steamrunner was designed to replace the Miranda.

Where does that come from?

Thats what I reckon she was. She looked roughly light cruiser or destroyer sized, what I imagine to be equalish to the Miranda.

Fairy snuff. I thought you meant there was some basis in a source for that.

oh no no no, I havent really got much evidence to support any of my claims, purely because there is little information or evidence in general on all three. Therefore I look, I take note of specs and pick a role i think they would work in.

We don't even have canon specs though, just some rough size comparisons from FC. Even bringing in the non-canon stuff like the DS9 tech manual doesn't tell us much at all.