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Okay, I think it's safe to say that even the people who do like this starship will admit that there's some flaws in its design. So let's try and make this a more sane design. Starfleet hires you to modify the GCS design. What do you do?
Oh, and saying "scrap it and build a new class completely" is out of the question. For whatever reason, they want the GCS to stay in service.

Requirements:
The hull must stay in the same shape, more or less. Minor changes to the hull are permitted, as is adding more stuff onto the hull, but the spaceframe must stay more or less the same.
It must be capable of taking on enemy warships.
It must be capable of undergoing exploration and research missions over long periods of time.

OK, here goes...two things drove me crazy since Day 1. First, the shape of the secondary hull - looks like the shape of a catfish mouth around the deflector. Maybe a more oval shape to it, kind of an intermediate shape between the E-C and the E-D... Secondly, the nacelle pylons - reminds me too much of the E-B and E-C. Maybe not as long and swept-back as the Sovereign, but not the "out and up" design of the Excelsior and the Ambassador.

Just some thoughts...

Appart from the warp core which seems to have already been fixed I like the design, its a good explorer.

Perhaps a pair of impulse engines on the primary hull, similar to the Sovereign? It seems there should be more than just the impulse engine on the connecting neck. Should help combat manoeuvrability with this addition...

steamrunner wrote:Perhaps a pair of impulse engines on the primary hull, similar to the Sovereign? It seems there should be more than just the impulse engine on the connecting neck.

She's already got impulse engines on the saucer. As for the general design, other than the obvious one of fixing the warp core, the ship's computer security needs to be seriously beefed up, and physical security around classified areas needs to be improved. Far too often we see unauthorised personnel getting into restricted areas (bridge, engineering, hangars, etc). It would also be worth making a clearer distinction between the military and civilian areas of the ship - put all the labs and swish accommodation in the saucer and turn the engineering hull into a proper warship. It's already got the PT launchers, now remove the windows, armour the thing properly, and put the main bridge there to remove the need to shift command in an emergency. Adding a mini warp core and nacelles to the saucer a la the Prometheus would also be a good idea if possible. A lot of this, however, is dependant on whether you're talking about refitting the existing Galaxys, or modifying the design of future ships - a lot of these modifications would only really be feasible in the latter case.

I think that steamrunner's idea of increasing the impulse capacity is a good one. my personal gripe is that So much of the hull it bloated with unnecessary rubbish. If there is something Enterprise got somewhat right is the size of crew quarters. I think he majority of the crew quarters should be of that size. I think the sensors should be updated a little bit much. I'm gonna keep with Roddenberry's rule that the bridge must be on the roof of the ship even though it is pretty stupid. I think the bridge should be reduced in size drastically, to allow an increased space of armour to be fitted. And of course the infamous destructive warp core. Maybe the odd phaser array here or there to upgrade the firepower slightly but not much. And decent anti-virus software for the computer.

When used as a deep space explorer I dont have so much of an issue with the big quarters and bridge.

Who the hell wants to be in a cramped ship for years and years. Granted the GCS did take it a bit far with its 3 meter wide hallways but large quarters ect dont bother me so much.

I guess so. Perhaps I put to much emphasis on combat ability.

I actually agree with having somewhat spacious quarters for people who have to be aboard for 5 years at a stretch. However, every officer over lt. j.g. doesn't really need a Wyndham suite, and there doesn't need to be a shooting range, aikido dojo, fencing alley, etc. when you have so many large holodecks. So, aside from the previously mentioned core and computer security, I'd take that volume and mass and dedicate it shield generators, redundant power feeds, etc; and greater armor and overall lessening of mass. I'd rather get rid of civvie accomodations altogether, but I don't think we're really rewriting the whole design intention here.

I think the War-GCS got it right for the most part. Weapons, shields and warp core all seem better off.

The idea's of better security and internal protection is always a smart idea. Though its hard to say what changes have come from the DW.

Crew quarters, not so bad if you're sending the GCS out to do what it was built to do. ie, S/E missions where most of the crew is civs or softy enlisted crew and they'll be there for a long time.

What I would add is this. Better armor to the hull. Why, because you can and if you're out on S/E type missions, you might need it. Move the fucking main bridge to the battle bridge. If the Civs want something cushy to work on then they can take what is now the main bridge and leave the Military personel the battle bridge. Give them some fucking Marines for God's sake! Why the hell is it only the Command Crew that know how to fight? Every time the shooting starts, its the officers that have to save the day because a ship of a thousand of "Starfleet's Best" can't hit a standing target at five meters!!! No C-4 in the panels across the ship.

I would probably create an independant power supply for the shields, and amp up thier power as well, using the extra space on the ship to do this...this will give the shields better reliability and reduce the size of the warp core, making it much more stable.

I would keep crew quarters the sizes they are, however everyone below Lt[jg] must share a room. then officers quarters I would reduce in size a little, because as some one else pointed out, they don't need to be that big.

With the extra crew space now made avalable, we will fill it with a unit of Marines, they would be good for ship defence and away missions when the crew is unsure of planet side conditions.

I would also remove all the game rooms: shooting range, fencing area, ect. and install a few more holodecks in their place, this should allow for the crew to still access their games/activities when they want to and still leave holodecks for training purposes.

I would have ships armor step up in thickness a little, maybe 15cm High Density (or if this is post DW) go with 7cm Ablative Armor. Window size and count would be reduced. Personal quarters could have a few windows (if their on the outer hull) but they won't be the giant ones just begging for the enemy to shoot them. Also, most of the windows on the Engineering Hull would be gone.

The Phaser arrays I think are in good balence, however I would add at least 2 more Torpedo tubes, probably three. Put two in the same area as the Deflector Dish (kind of like where Voyagers were) and then another one Aft Firing.

I'm in two minds about the size of the crew quarters. I can see the need for comfortable living quarters for long term missions, but I think the Galaxy class quarters are way over the top. Maybe I just prefer the look of the older movie era ships, there's no reason TNG era ships should look the same.

I'd up number of Holodecks, I'd imagine they'd be in a fair bit of demand with a crew that size. Replace / supplement the forcefields in the Brig with solid doors - The Enterprise A had a brig that could hold Spock and Kirk - even Scotty had to resort to brute force to break them out.

Put seats on all stations on the Bridge. Don't want Worf falling over everytime the ship takes a hit.

Regarding the window issue - how energy intensive would it be to replace all the windows with holographic displays? Possible 1 display for every 3 windows - enough to give the crew something to look at without going stir crazy. 3D displays are available now, surely in the 24th Century they could be used to replace windows - they wouldn't have to be solid holograms after all.

Also, not really limited to Galaxy class ships, but arm the crew with a Type 1 phaser at least, and show them how to use them. Intruders shouldn't be able to move 10 feet from the area they beam into.

I think the crew quarters should be made smaller, definately. Maybe not to the level of the NX *which I think is appropriate for most large warship size wise* but smaller, but keep the comfort if possible.

Hell, Picard's quarters alone could comfortably house half a dozen.

Exactly my point.