This is starting to remind me of that Simpsons episode where Homer's long-lost brother the auto executive gave him free rein to design his dream car... Of course, what we're all overlooking is that what the ship really needs is a sombrero and fuzzy dice.
On a related note.... The Federation seems to unveil a new class of starship every five minutes these days. It's only been about seven years since Star Trek: First Contact, but in that time, we've seen the Prometheus, Centaur, Curry, Elkins, Nova, and Luna classes. Now we're meeting the Vesta class, to boot? It just seems like the Federation's building a lot of new starship classes for a nation that just emerged from the most damaging war in quadrant history and that's still struggling to rebuild...
To be fair, the Centaur and the Curry appear to be older classes of ships, possibily from the Excelsior generation - ignoring the ugly kitbashing side of them anyhow. The Nova would have been in production before the war, and the Prometheus was likely on the drawing board before the Dominion showed up on the scene too.
^^^ well, Given that for the most part, the workhorses of the fleet are of a design 3/4 of a century old (granted, with upgrades/modifications) and given the severe pounding Starfleet has taken in the last decade or so, why wouldn't the engineers design new ship types that could stand up to the kinds of threats that the Federation has been facing recently? Yes, there have been a lot of new designs recently, but building a variety of types of ships allows Starfleet admirals not to put all their dylithium crystals in one warp core, tactically speaking. As for the image as a starting point, works for me. It feels a little too much like the Dauntless for me, so I'd give it a more Luna-class and/or Sovereign-class style. Given its crew compliment and classification as a "multimission explorer" it feels to me as though the Vesta class could be working its way to becoming one of the main workhorses of Starfleet (experimental results affecting the speed of this development, of course). Which is cool with me. I think we've seen the Excelsior-class in this capacity for too long.
Well Centaur and Curry are composed from elements of older designs, so who's to say they are even remotely close to new introductions. The Nova was already in service pre-Dominion war to have gotten lost in the Delta Quadrant pre-Caretaker and is in he same design family as the Prometheus and Sovereign, the post-Wolf 359 generation. The Luna class was in development pre-war and the Vesta, if we a assume was built as the test-bed for slipstream (ie, after regular contact with Voyager) is the only very new design, and like the Luna comes at a time when Starfleet is presumably rebuilding it's forces after the heavy losses in the war. (And I've never even heard of an Elkins class) Wars spark innovation, and the damage dealt to Starfleet will necessitate them building lots of new ships, so surely we should be seeing more new designs starting to appear by 2181.
I was thinking that it might be a cross between the Prometheus class and Intrepid class, with down-swept nacelles that look like the Sovereign class.
I'm pretty sure I've read before that the Prometheus and Luna classes were both designed before the Dominion War.
I always thought that the Centaur class was pretty cool looking. Some of the best parts of the Miranda and Excelsior designs. I tried to kitbash my MicroMachines to make one once, but the glue didn't hold. So now I don't have an Excelsior anymore. Whoops!
I always took it as a given that a starship class is in development for years before we actually see it, and that therefore most of the classes we've been introduced to lately were projects begun before the start of the Dominion War.
^ Even if not, I think it make sense. If you have to replace ships after a war anyway, why rebuild old classes when you can build more modern ships?
Marco, Depending on the future of the Aventine, would you consider a design contest similar to the one you did with the Titan and the Luna class? Mike
We know (at least from extracanonical and deuterocanonical sources) that Starfleet launched into a major new shipbuilding effort after Wolf 359, replenishing their depleted fleet and developing new ship classes geared more toward defense and combat. The Defiant and Intrepid classes were meant to be products of this effort, and presumably all the other new classes introduced in FC and wherever were as well. Indeed, wasn't there something in the Titan books about the Luna class being put on hold because of Starfleet's shift toward a more military-oriented set of priorities?
No, thanks. While I was happy with the end result of the Titan competition, the contest involved too much grief before, during, and after for me to want to get involved in such an undertaking again anytime soon. Life is simply too short. By contrast, hiring an artist, discussing with him/her what I'd like to see, pitching ideas back and forth, and considering different options under controlled conditions...is cheaper, faster, easier, less uncertain, less complicated, and just pretty much hassle-free overall. That's how the Vanguard and Sagittarius designs were developed. So if Aventine is ever to be rendered for a book, I'll go the latter route. Yes. It's mentioned in "The Story Behind the Luna-class," the last section of the Titan concept notes that were part of the design contest rules in the back of Taking Wing.
I would love to take a crack at her. I like the image earlier in this thread. I could see that as a jumping off point.
No offense to Sean, but it seems to me that if we like the idea of using the SotL calendar image as a starting point for designing the Vesta class, then the artist who created that image deserves to be the first one the job is offered to.
Am I the only one who dislikes the SotL image? I've never liked the triangular saucers - the Dauntless, the Prometheus, or this.
No offense taken, I thaught that I would throw my name into the hat. I was planning on creating a fan-version. And if Marco and the powers that be wanted an artist, this is my way of showing that I would be interested in taking up the challenge.
It's a safe bet that some portion of the fan base would dislike our hypothetical Aventine, no matter what creative direction is chosen.