When I say that you should pay homage to a ship that already uses a name, I'm thinking of more like making sure that there is room for both the previous ship to have been lost or destroyed, and for the ship that is to replace her to be commissioned. I don't think that it is necessary to start using letters, unless that trend has already been started for that name, or the ship has a certain following. I also think that it might not be a bad idea to come up with an in-universe reason for why the name is being used for a newer ship (for example: perhaps the Akira-class James T. Kirk was one of the vessels destroyed during the ongoing Klingon-Federation War). Uh, lets not go there, because there already is a fan design that currently has that name, and I have every intention of sticking with this current ship. Yeah, I'm thinking the same sort of stuff. I personally disagree with C. Calloway's design being in second place. I don't intend or want to be rude, but I just don't like it, and it just gives me another reason not to like necks for future designs. I think the Joshua Samuelson's Pinnacle class or the Vektor's Magellanic class should have been in second place. As for it being in the top 25, I won't disagree on that account. I won't necessarily disagree with D. Shick's design or JM Trexler's Ark Royal being in the top four, though on the other hand, I think that Fuzzy Modem's Frontier class should at the very least have been amongst the top 25, and perhaps even among the top four. I also disagree with the choices of some of the runner ups. I personally don't think that L.O. Barnett Jr's Discovery class (considering how early he submitted it, when he could have continued to work on it; it looks unfinished, and even a little unrefined), B. Crick's design, J. Kurfner's design, A. Anderson's design, D. Vargas's Omega class, J. Inabinet's Sol Class, A. Laws design, and O. Montgomery's design (which is not a bad sketch, but he could have and should have spent more time refining his sketch. I spent as much time on it as I could, and pretty much ended up submitting it towards the last minute.) aren't quite as deserving of the top 25 as some of the other entrants. I don't want to be rude or offensive, to the designers who worked on these designs, or anyone else, but I have to be candid, and I think that Fuzzy Modem's Frontier class, Dac's design, and Sean's design (which I never really liked, but still apparently had a lot of work put into her and her presentation. To be completely honest, one of the reasons that I entered the contest because I didn't like the neck and the secondary hull one bit, and I didn't want this ship to become the next Enterprise if I had anything to say about it. I truely hope I haven't offended you Sean, because I respect you as not only the designer of the Luna class, but various other designs as well) deserved to have a place in the top 25 before these other designs.
Well, it looks like someone has already started up a hate wagon for Ihlecreations' design on another forum Fuzzy and I frequent. I suspect it's the same Richardson guy who was starting a fuss over other people's designs back when the contest was going.
That is why I am trying to find the registry for the James T. Kirk so I can see if that is the trend, but there doesn't seem to be any reference to its registry online. All that is said is that it is a Akira class ship heavly damaged in a fight with the borg. If I can't find it I will do what i do with alot of my ships and just come up with a registry #
"There already is a fan design that currently has that name." Yeah, you said that right. Fan design. All of these entries were fan designs. Every single new ship class we come up with is a "fan design"...there's no rule that any one fan design becomes an "official" fan design. Think about how ridiculous that sounds. Fuzzy's design is his take on the new Enterprise, and the contest results don't change that. It's still his vision. Just because he didn't win doesn't invalidate it...by that reasoning at least half of the fan designs out there shouldn't be allowed to exist. I was just trying to encourage him not to think of this whole mess in terms of a loss, because he didn't lose anything in the end. His design is so well-balanced that it can easily find another niche in the tapestry of fan original creations. In fact, it already has. ~Belisarius
Special mission to get the ship? I'd wager it's an STF or some other thing you need five people with loaded out ships and characters for. I'll give you money for it, Cryptic, honest!
Interesting that they're talking about saucer separation for the ship here: http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=3525879#post3525879 & http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=3525912#post3525912 My guess is only a section of the primary saucer will detach from the ship.
To everyone involved in submitting to the contest... this clearly was a labor of love for some of you... and you've learned what I learned when I did my "Titan Contest" entry... Which is that what's chosen isn't as important as what you've done, yourself. (It's also why, even though I have a "future Enterprise" design I've done, I chose not to present it to this contest!) I have never had any real issue with Sean's Luna Class (except for that little "newtonian impulse thrust vector" thing which he and I simply disagree about! ). I spent a TON of time on my Titan design, and I haven't let it go. I don't plan to. I love it. But I like Sean's design as well, and I think it fits well into the "canon." I have no hard feelings towards that contest. The thing is, I still own my own design. Pocket Books didn't take possession of any of my work, since I didn't win. So, while my ship isn't the Titan... that's a small price to pay for continuing to have "full legal rights" to my own work. I think, sometimes, that people assign far too much weight to the NAME "Enterprise." Imagine, if you will, if the ship in TOS had been called the Yorktown or Lexington or Farragut instead. Would the show have been any different? I'd argue, and argue strongly, NO... it wouldn't have. And I really still wish, and wish strongly, that the Scott Bakula series had been called "Star Trek - Horizon" instead of "Enterprise." I've never been terribly fond of the "Enterprise B" or the "Enterprise C" for that matter, as designs go (though they're not TERRIBLE, mind you!). And despite Andrew Probert's and Rick Sternbach's exemplary work on the "Enterprise D" (along with many others), making it into a BELIEVABLE ship... I never cared for the style of that design either. But all three were "Enterprises." So... this ship will be the "next Enterprise" (at least insofar as the game is concerned, though there's NO guarantee that it will ever be seen elsewhere, obviously... PPC/CBS/etc can change their minds at any time!). And, with a bit of polish, it can be turned into something quite acceptable, perhaps even with the level of "believability" of the 1701-D. I'm fine with that. I have to admit, it doesn't capture my imagination like some of the other designs do. It will never be a "personal favorite" for me. But that's OK... personal taste is allowed, isn't it? Adam, you should still be happy and proud and I hope that this leads to a lot of fun for you in the future! But I have to admit (ENTIRELY leaving Adam's work out of the rest of this conversation)... I'm not all that thrilled by how this contest has been run, either by Cryptic or by CBS. And I'm less than impressed by the majority of the "runners up" I saw, though there are several nice ones. As I read the contest rules... and if anyone disagrees, please point it out to me where I'm wrong... ONLY the rights to Adam's sketch is now owned by Cryptic and CBS. NOBODY ELSE has signed over any rights, since nobody else won. Am I wrong about that? SO... Adam, I HOPE that they'll continue to involve you, as Sean was fortunate enough to be involved after the Titan contest. If they don't... well, you still get the prize, anyway, huh? But the rest of you... you still have sole rights to your designs, and I would recommend that you do as I've done, and keep right on working on YOUR WORK. As I said before, I checked out everything and Fuzzy's design was by far my personal favorite. It seems that his design was also popular with lots of other folks. Well... Cryptic and CBS now have forfeited any right or claim to that... which means YOU STILL OWN IT. So WHAT if it's not the "Enterprise?" It's a damned nice looking, well-realized design. My advice to you is simply this... re-name the damned thing and keep right on playing in your own sandbox! My ship isn't the "USS Titan, Luna Class" but it's a contemporary ship, sailing right alongside that, in my own "personal canon." (It's the USS Achernar, Vega Class, FYI.) I've got a full set of deck plans, a very nice CGI model, pretty much a technical manual completed at this point. And it's mine, not Simon and Schuster's or PPC's or CBS's. I can play in my own sandbox in any way I like! So... for those who are happy with their own work... I'd ask you to not abandon it. If Cryptic does right by Adam, they can turn his sketch into a nice finished design, and in that game it will be the Enterprise-F (and potentially in some future fiction, though that's by no means guaranteed). But you can turn your ship into ANYTHING YOU WANT at this point. Star Trek's universe is a BIG UNIVERSE. There are tens of thousands of ships throughout the Federation, and certainly at least a thousand "Ships of the line" at any given time. Only one can be named "Enterprise" but that's no limit to how many ships with other names may be out there... thataway.
I am pretty sure I am out of the loop as the last email I got was in response to my question of them needing orthographics they said no, the cryptic artists have it in hand as of now.
Ouch, cut out so soon.... You uh, you know there is no official names database? We can pretty much use any name we want at any time we want. It's all fan wank. I certainly don't do exhaustive searches to make sure a name I like hasn't been used before, though if it's a well known name, I tend to avoid it.
Well, I'm pretty sure I can find a Rush-class if I spend a few hours on ShipSchematics.net, so change it now.
You offered them orthos and they declined?!? The Eve contest was the opposite. They didn't care about the perspective, their only requirement was all 6 orthos. [edited to avoid thunder stealing. my bad.]
Actually, I believe you are. I am not a lawyer but Section 7 of the contest rules states: "All entries become the sole and exclusive property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned." Note the use of the words "all entries," not "all winners." This stipulation is common to pretty much every design contest I've seen, including the Titan contest as I recall. Were it not so, Cryptic would be open to lawsuits from anyone who thought they recognized some element of their own work in a future ship design. With literally thousands of entries having been submitted, that would leave them in an obviously untenable position. That being said, I don't imagine Cryptic or CBS is going to waste much time or effort trying to police the unauthorized use of the thousands of designs that were submitted for the contest. I rather doubt I'll be getting into any ownership disputes with them over my Magellanic class just by further developing the design, modeling it in 3D, creating illustrations of it for my portfolio, or anything else I'm likely to ever do with it on my own.