Excelsior 3000
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I still find the main deflector glaringly ugly, which is a shame, because the rest of the ship has some beautiful design elements (the shape of the saucer section, the nacelles, and the fantail, for instance). I'd have to say that the aft cutout in the secondary hull is my favorite design element of the whole ship.
I find the inability to use the saucer's impulse drives for extended periods of time when moving the whole ship and a lack of warp drives for the saucer section to be glaring inadequacies for a vessel originally designed to replace the Sovereign or Galaxy class, and it would have been really forward thinking to give the Saucer Section Quantum Slipstream abilities.
Perhaps these are things to think about if you do any more designs, or alter the Excelsior.
That really depends on the year that she is commissioned. If it is in 2385, I'd say 85000-ish. If in 2390, I'd say 90000-ish. If in 2395, then 95000-ish. If in 2400, I'd have to 100000-ish. You might want to also look for other ships commissioned around the same time, and look at their registry numbers for reference. Keeping the NX prefix might make sense if the shield booster is still in the experimental stage.
Given that there are at least 2 ships that should be of the same era that has the name Excelsior, I wouldn't blame you if you did give her a letter registry, though that doesn't mean she is going to be counted in my timeline, as I consider the Queenstown class to be the current Excelsior. Then again, I've also already decided on which Frontier class is in the primary timeline I work in.
I find the inability to use the saucer's impulse drives for extended periods of time when moving the whole ship and a lack of warp drives for the saucer section to be glaring inadequacies for a vessel originally designed to replace the Sovereign or Galaxy class, and it would have been really forward thinking to give the Saucer Section Quantum Slipstream abilities.
Perhaps these are things to think about if you do any more designs, or alter the Excelsior.
Beautiful ship!
I think you could just put an '8' in front of the '3000', and you'd be good to go!
That really depends on the year that she is commissioned. If it is in 2385, I'd say 85000-ish. If in 2390, I'd say 90000-ish. If in 2395, then 95000-ish. If in 2400, I'd have to 100000-ish. You might want to also look for other ships commissioned around the same time, and look at their registry numbers for reference. Keeping the NX prefix might make sense if the shield booster is still in the experimental stage.
Given that there are at least 2 ships that should be of the same era that has the name Excelsior, I wouldn't blame you if you did give her a letter registry, though that doesn't mean she is going to be counted in my timeline, as I consider the Queenstown class to be the current Excelsior. Then again, I've also already decided on which Frontier class is in the primary timeline I work in.
I'm guessing these ranges are based on STO? (I don't play, but I've seen some images with numbers up there.) I'm not sure I buy into the thought that Starfleet puts out 1000 new registries every year. It doesn't seem to mesh too well with a universe where NCC-70637 was commissioned in 2357 and NCC-74656 was commissioned 14 years later.
But I guess since the registries are all just pretty much advanced handwavium anyway, I would say just go with whatever number you like!
I'm not against changes to the deflector, if improvements were recommended.
There was a time in development that I had considered an oval deflector, more like the Galaxy or Intrepid:
I ended up moving towards a small round deflector, as that's what the Sovereign had (and I felt my design was too old fashioned) but in retrospect, that was because for the Sovereign they had to match the deflector to a physical set in First Contact, and a small round set is much easier to construct and film than a big oval one.
It was also the last aspect I finished as it was facing away from the camera in my submission shot, though you can still see it in the orthographic view: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1147253&stc=1&d=1295299530
It was also many people's least favorite design element in my promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEUf9UfRpSU
So I put the extra work into polishing it afterwards, but after the contest ended the contest judges said they were looking for an oval deflector, so it may well have ruled out my design, so it's something I've always second guessed.
Cool I wanted an observation deck on both the saucer and the star drive, and that seemed a good place for one, as I had moved most of the torpedo launchers to the bottom of the saucer, as the Sovereign had them away from the non-neck, almost replacing (and some say obstructed by) the Captain's yacht.
I ended up moving towards a small round deflector, as that's what the Sovereign had (and I felt my design was too old fashioned) but in retrospect, that was because for the Sovereign they had to match the deflector to a physical set in First Contact, and a small round set is much easier to construct and film than a big oval one.
It was also the last aspect I finished as it was facing away from the camera in my submission shot, though you can still see it in the orthographic view: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1147253&stc=1&d=1295299530
It was also many people's least favorite design element in my promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEUf9UfRpSU
So I put the extra work into polishing it afterwards, but after the contest ended the contest judges said they were looking for an oval deflector, so it may well have ruled out my design, so it's something I've always second guessed.
Cool
I wanted an observation deck on both the saucer and the star drive, and that seemed a good place for one, as I had moved most of the torpedo launchers to the bottom of the saucer, as the Sovereign had them away from the non-neck, almost replacing (and some say obstructed by) the Captain's yacht.
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C'mon, man, it's Star Trek. Pointless glowing and blinking things are obligatory!
I could tone down the glows, go TOS, with less blue and more copper. Could improve my sense of realism and scale. Might imply lower tech though, while I'm shooting for higher… Maybe split the difference?
That's a good idea. A deflector dish alternative, in the same place, and conveying the same function, but different...
^Yet I can't think of anything...
That's actually something I really found interesting about the Dauntless in "Hope and Fear," where it had a weird ribbed glowing thing (kind of like the blue parts of TNG era warp nacelles) where the deflector would normally be.
It definitely gave the impression of being similar in function to the tech we're used to, but not quite the same. Which makes sense since if I recall correctly the slipstream drive used the deflector instead of the warp nacelles.
It definitely gave the impression of being similar in function to the tech we're used to, but not quite the same. Which makes sense since if I recall correctly the slipstream drive used the deflector instead of the warp nacelles.
