Oh, wow! The addition of the windows, thrusters, phasers and other little details really speaks to the scale of this ship. Plus, the Fleet Ops disc really does make that aft superstructure work, now. I've already worked it into my head-canon as a carrier (rather than a dreadnought) for rescue and evacuation missions where transporters can't cut it. And for those (hopefully) few offensive/defensive missions, bring on the fighters! I really like your design BorgMan - some real Trek originality!
The windows really conveyed scale yeah, I'm quite happy with it. The current configuration is a carrier yes, but for it to be able to go on a rescue mission I'd need to move the nacelles upward so that the Rescue pods (instead of the current Carrier pods) are more close to the ground, which would enable a ramp to slide down from the bottom and load people (or unload squads of soldiers...) to board the ship en masse. But I'm glad you folks like it
Oh wow. Yeah loving this design. One question though, a navigational deflector on its backside? Or is that not the purpose of that one? Love what you did with the sail. Definitely could see this in a fleet of other ships as part of a larger combat/rescue force.
That aft deflector / communications dish is the one thing I stole from the original dreadnought. It's like having a super powerful communications array for real-time communication with Starfleet. And as for all of you Nimbus lovers... Here you go Something tells me those triple phaser banks should do the trick. As such I removed the rim's outermost phaserbanks; it proved to be a bit overkill. Still not sure what to do with the torpedotubes and underside of the saucer as far as phaserbanks are concerned though...
OK, totally makes sense. Maybe just have fore and aft torpedo tubes dead in the center? It's not like torpedoes need an arc unless you're going with the direct fire instead of independent targeting systems for them.
I think the idea of an amphibious combat ship, in this case an aerospace orbit breaker, sounds far more interesting. No one has done one for Trek, and surface based combat concepts for Star Trek are rare as hen's teeth. It also works better with the idea of double decker hangar pods. The issue I have with the pods is that they have an extremely narrow landing entrance, like threading a needle. It is made worse by the top deck creating a perfect place to ram a shuttle. It would be natural to aim for the middle of the opening but it is taken up by a knife's edge of deck. I think the new Galactica is closer to ideal because it has a single deck with a high entrance but even it strikes me as a dangerous looking approach. One way around the issue is to open the aft portion of the top landing deck to increase options for landing. Or, extend the top deck outside the hangar tube. Also, if the ship lands, then the lower deck can be dedicated to surface equipment, while the top is dedicated to flying equipment. However, keep in mind that in TOS anti-gravity seems a little more common than even in later Trek. We would never see wheels back then. That ground based stuff would definitely be flight capable. I was getting intense deja vu, now I know why. I made a TMP era Starfleet Battleship ages ago, never finished, but it has quadruple phaser banks. It also uses the Meranda's hull as a saucer, plus the Enterprise's tail hangar, so it has copious shuttle space. May I recommend Kelvan style torpedo turrets and moving the phaser banks back, to a steeper surface, so they can depress a bit further? I'm not a fan of the term Dreadnaught for any old super battleship but it also invokes a sense that the ship should be over the top in armament, like the Vengeance. Unless the deflectors are also graviton cannons I don't really see the crazy weapon aspect yet. Over all, I love the design and how it is developing. It is unique, which on its own is worth while, but outside that it has lots of interesting things. It is also obviously a fun design rather than going for "Starfleet would definitely build it this way!" That's something I can support.
Yeah, that was my initial idea with it and that's why the nacelles are shaped the way they are: it leaves room for atmospheric equipment. Well there's an option... I could make one big cavern out of it yeah, or as you suggest remove the "centre isle" and spread it out. I'm going to fiddle around with this. If I can't make it within the deadline of seven days, I'll rearrange it later My main issue was that I was afraid that removing the centre isle will create a structural problem. Of course, it doesn't need to be supported all the way from front to back, perhaps a small support in the middle is enough. I could also let the front end be as it is and have just the back one big entrance. This would actually make sense: a bit faster launch capability than recovery. Not sure yet if I want to remove the lower flightdeck though, but I'll look into it. Seeing as the original Enterprise had six phaserbanks and this baby already has sixteen, it might not be crazy weapons, but it is a bit over the top ;-) Nonetheless, I was contemplating a swivel launcher, even though the ship is more Prime then Kelvin. Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle... Thanx for the awesome feedback and kind words!
Here's a quick-n-dirty render of the new aft portion of the pod. It creates a pretty huge cavern, of which I'm sure that craft can safely land in. Suggestions?
One issue with removing a deck is wasted volume. But, seeing below, you have the lines walled with shuttle cubbies, so it I don't think it is bad. Point taken. My pleasure. The shape of the landing pod looks naturally strong, like the fuselage of an airliner. I wouldn't worry too much about internal bracing. Also, that pillar down the middle of the lower deck worries me, because the deck lacks innate landing safety features like an angled deck on modern carriers. You could alternate functions between pods, so one is for landing, one for launching, but they have no obvious way to trade shuttles internally. There are probably other techniques around that, like landing in one just until the other is fully emptied and switching to that other one, at which point the landing pod becomes the launching pod. If during landing operations all launches happen from top openings, then that could be a significant safety precaution. If all landing mechanisms fail, then a shuttle could at least have a clear path to zoom out the lower bow opening. Since many of the shuttles are in cubbies above the decks it seems like there should be tractor beams along the top of the hangar, or little manned flying tugs the size of a baggage tractor which can grab the shuttles. For landing, a pusher beam might make sense, maybe eight of them, four to either side lining the walls, kind of like how carriers have multiple cables for catching planes. Then the final barrier could be a multilayer shield barrier for if the pushers fail. Each layer would be stronger than the last to gradually, though very roughly and quickly halt a shuttle. There could also be four pusher/tractors just outside the aft opening for initial slowing, or for forcefully diverting an incoming object. The same thing could be on the fore end of the pod, also to push away unwanted objects, but also to accelerate shuttles away as they leave to increase the launch frequency and save shuttle fuel with a strong starting kick.
All the feedback will be taken into consideration, but for sake of getting my entry done I had to skip on plans I had (like showing off a shuttle launch). And with that, I present you my final entry
Thank you. The best part is the trench around the lending edge of the saucer segment. I'd like to see that elsewhere.