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You can't design a viable car (or shuttle, or whatever) without considering the engineering aspects. Unless you just wanted an empty hull.

Tyyr wrote:However there is another consideration, what's the goal? For instance the Federation could be trying to pack as much ship as they could into an efficient warp field. Efficiency could be the Federation's entire goal. Max speed with minimum engine and fuel. Other powers may not care about efficiency. They could be just fine with putting bigger warp cores in their ships and burning more anti-matter to get the same result.

You are right to a degree but my point remains, since all ships travel in the same medium - even if specialised to fullfill a certain role - they should look "much" more similar as it is the case, if the hullshape would be so important for the warpfield.

Naval ships - for example - may also be designed for certain purposes (cargo/person-transport, military etc) yet ships from the same vintage are extremly similar in shape because given a certain propulsion system and considering the medium they have to work with there are only certain ways you can build them.

Another example, you want to build a naval-ship which provides the most space using as few materials as possible to construct. Logically you would build a sphere which would probably even swim but then how comes no-one builds such ships?

Teaos wrote:Yeah I read it. Your wrong.

Great. Care to explain how instead of just stating it to be so?

Rochey wrote:
Guys, I really don't know why you're trying to compare building a car now to building a shuttle in the 24th century. They're not at all similar. It'd be more like someone trying to build a fighter jet in the modern day. Could a pilot have some basic knowledge of aerodynamics and flight systems that would let him think up a general outline that would work? Sure. That knowledge comes with the job, and it's presumably the same for pilots in Trek. Does that mean they'd be able to design the majority of the craft and all the various electronics and systems? Nope.

well that was the point we were trying to make. we all operate cars and have a basic understanging about how they work, however none of us could design an effective car designed to fill a role that no other car has before. let alone a piece of highly advanced military hardware or an interstellar space craft. the complexity involved in designing a modern day car is staggering, let alone a fighter craft, which spend years in R&D before they are ready to even think about building a test unit. design and engineering go hand in hand. you can't design a car with no idea behind the engineering that will make it work. same applies to the delta flyer.

Ah, we're in agreement then. Right. My apologies.

Honestly........I don't think the Galaxy hulls are the best choice for specialty missions in general.


UNLESS we are talking about interchangeable primary hulls (like the Nebula's pod). That might be SOMEWHAT useful. Otherwise, I don't know that I'd agree with designing 10 different Galaxy variants. Hell, make 10 SPECIFIC mission ships and carry on.

Mark wrote:Honestly........I don't think the Galaxy hulls are the best choice for specialty missions in general.


UNLESS we are talking about interchangeable primary hulls (like the Nebula's pod). That might be SOMEWHAT useful. Otherwise, I don't know that I'd agree with designing 10 different Galaxy variants. Hell, make 10 SPECIFIC mission ships and carry on.

That is what i was assuming. Designing and building brand new specialized saucers for different missions, not altering existing ones.

But then if you do that, your tying up a whole other ship......for just a little extra effort you can design an entirely NEW specialty ship, right?

Yep. The size of Galaxy class saucer is pretty much the size of some of the smaller Starfleet ships we have seen. It would also be a disadvantage for the Galaxy class since the ship is supposed to be a jack of all trades. Specialized saucers would get rid of that.

But the Galaxy class IS A Specialized ship. She's a long range, long term exploration ship. Which is WHY she's a jack of all trades. She's DESIGNED to operate years away from any other support or a Starbase. So, why would you want to tie up a Galaxy class ship, when a smaller ship could complete the mission.