What starship would you least like to captain?

[Mikey]

Agreed about the Oberth. Funny thing is, in exchange for the poor design, she doesn't really seem to have scientific apabilities too much ahead of a ship that isn't a dedicated science ship.

But yes, Graham, I remember her first appearance, and that difference in design made it pretty cool when it debuted.

Right before it went FOOM.

Technicalities.

[cbosdell]

Miranda class in the late 24th Century. You're just asking to die.

[JudgeKing]

Raven- Darwin Award waiting to happen.
Miranda- nothing more than an oversized TIE Fighter in the late 24th century.
Frankenstein Fleet Ship- Abominations, must be purified.
Oberth Class- was destroyed in its first appearence, oversized cannon fodder.

[Captain Seafort]

Raven- Darwin Award waiting to happen.

That was due to the stupidity of its crew, rather than an inherent design flaw

Oberth Class- was destroyed in its first appearence, oversized cannon fodder.

True, but its a science ship. It's not intended to fight battles.

[Teaos]

Oberth fitted its roll well. Its the type of ship people around here love because it does one thing rather than trying to swiss army knife a dozen jobs into one hull.

[Aaron]

True, but its a science ship. It's not intended to fight battles.

Exactly, what do people expect from it anyways? She was deep in Federation territory and was a science vessel, SF's equivilant of an ocean mapping vessel. How well would one of those withstand a Harpoon?

[Mikey]

Oberth fitted its roll well. Its the type of ship people around here love because it does one thing rather than trying to swiss army knife a dozen jobs into one hull.

You'd think so. But I'd still like to see one instance of an Oberth being shown to have greater scientific capabilities than a contemporary ship.

[Teaos]

It doesnt need to be greater. It just needs to fill its roll as well for less resourses and be better suited.

[Mikey]

It doesnt need to be greater. It just needs to fill its roll as well for less resourses and be better suited.

One would think that a dedicated science ship should be better at scientific missions than a non-science ship. But, oh well. I understand your point about being equivalent but cheaper; but how do you get "better suited" for a role if you're not actually better at it?

[Graham Kennedy]

It's not necessarily true that a science vessel would have more scientific capability than something like an explorer. The way I always thought of them was that their advantage lay in the fact that they were cheap to build, cheap to operate, more numerous, and so could undertake longer term work. Whereas a Galaxy would bring all the best sensors and science equipment to a new planet, chances are it could only stay a few days before the next assignment. An Oberth might be much more austere in its scientific capabilities but could stay in orbit for months mapping the surface, gathering samples, charting the climate and weather over the long term, recording seasonal variations, tracking animal migration patterns, all the kinds of things that don't take big fancy equipment but do take people being there for month after month.

[Teaos]

One would think that a dedicated science ship should be better at scientific missions than a non-science ship. But, oh well. I understand your point about being equivalent but cheaper; but how do you get "better suited" for a role if you're not actually better at it?

You can always add sensors to a big ship to let it do what a pure science ship can do but it wont have been built for that one purpose in mind thus will be inferor in certain ways.

Designing a ship just for science can allow you to creat wide open labs that flow into each other. Easier computer access and power supply. Have quarters right next to labs so people can work when they need to. Things that you just cant get away with on a normal ship.

[Mikey]

Ah. Just a semantic difference, then. Everything you just described, Teaos, would be what I consider "better" - not just the actual material capability.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Oberth-class.

[Tsukiyumi]

Any of the shuttles up to the type-11 would be my choice.

[Mikey]

Any of the shuttles up to the type-11 would be my choice.

Is that really a captaincy?