Old school starship design vs....

[BillJ]

In fact, upon further recollection, Rick Sternbach was busy designing Voyager and really didn't have any real input on the Enterprise-E.

I'm not sure that the timing of that matches up? Voyager had already been on the air for a couple of years by the time Star Trek: First Contact came out.

This says the design process started in the fall of 1995.

http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/1701-e.html

Voyager premiered early in 1995.

 

[number6]

It's like arguing with a 14 year-old girl.

That's hardcore TOSers, alright.

 

[Rick Sternbach]

If Andrew Probert and/or Rick Sternbach were in on the design process, then that covers TMP, but my understanding, as well, was that the E-E was Eaves' baby.

In fact, upon further recollection, Rick Sternbach was busy designing Voyager and really didn't have any real input on the Enterprise-E.

John Eaves did indeed design the Ent-E and produced a large number of sketches, both ortho and perspective. I worked from those sketches to make the 1/2 scale blueprints (five feet long) used by ILM to build the miniature. As far as input goes, I had to make certain that a lot of the shapes that John drew actually worked in three dimensions. I also laid out the window and escape pod patterns. I didn't design the ship, but I did facilitate its construction.

Rick

 

[BolianAuthor]

I really do not like the Aventine at all... it looks a lot like something you would see on Star Trek: Online, which is NOT a compliment in any way. I don't think it's that great of a design.

 

[Chaos Descending]

I really do not like the Aventine at all... it looks a lot like something you would see on Star Trek: Online, which is NOT a compliment in any way. I don't think it's that great of a design.

I second that! One of my biggest problems with ST:O is that all of the good ship designs are for low ranking characters. The higher up you level, the uglier your ships get!

 

[BolianAuthor]

I really don't think ANY good ship designs made it into STO... IMO, every single one of them is ass-ugly, especially the "traditional" designs that have been mutilated for the game. Every time I see a picture of an STO ship, it makes me never want to even try the game more and more.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Both Constitution designs are good, both TOS and E-Refit styles.

I'm also (ashamedly) fond of the Nova Class.

However, there's not one good Escort design in the whole game.

 

[Subcommander R.]

Just reviewed the thread and saw the (T)Raumschiff discussion. I thought that its worth mentioning that while Raumschiff means space ship, Traumschiff means 'dream boat.'

But to get back to current discussion, I'm with BolianAuthor. STO's ships are lousy.

 

[Captain Robert April]

If Andrew Probert and/or Rick Sternbach were in on the design process, then that covers TMP, but my understanding, as well, was that the E-E was Eaves' baby.

In fact, upon further recollection, Rick Sternbach was busy designing Voyager and really didn't have any real input on the Enterprise-E.

John Eaves did indeed design the Ent-E and produced a large number of sketches, both ortho and perspective. I worked from those sketches to make the 1/2 scale blueprints (five feet long) used by ILM to build the miniature. As far as input goes, I had to make certain that a lot of the shapes that John drew actually worked in three dimensions. I also laid out the window and escape pod patterns. I didn't design the ship, but I did facilitate its construction.

Rick

Y'see, this is one of the things I love about this place. I can spout off a half-remembered trivia bit, and in short order, clarification comes in straight from the horse's mouth.

So that model is ten feet long?

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

I definitely prefer the older designs. Seems like later ships were designed after Excelsior, which was originally intended to look clunky and ugly next to the Enterprise, or so I've heard. People thought Excelsior looked cool, I guess. I didn't like the Klingon ships on TNG, either. The old battle Cruisers and the Birds of Prey looked so menacing. Those sea green-colored things just didn't have the same effect.
I do really like the design of the Enterprise-D, but the subsequent TNG movie Enterprises(Didn't they destroy the ship in every movie or something? ) just seemed to lack something that I can't put my finger on. Just not as iconic-looking.

 

[RAMA]

I really do not like the Aventine at all... it looks a lot like something you would see on Star Trek: Online, which is NOT a compliment in any way. I don't think it's that great of a design.

I don't like most of the designs of ST:O, but Aventine's is a different story. I think its a great and logical late 24th century design.

RAMA

 

[Captain Robert April]

It just looks like a better-than-average fanboy design for a bigass battlewagon of a ship.

 

[CoveTom]

I don't dislike many of the 24th century designs. I like the Enterprise-D (and the variants that flowed from it), the Defiant and Voyager. All of them. But pretty much after that, I felt they went downhill. I am not a fan of the Enterprise-E at all, and the other ships that followed, including the one shown in the pics at the beginning of this thread, all seemed to follow that design lineage. And I really do not like it at all. Too 'busy,' too overdesigned, doesn't match the clean look of Starfleet ships at all.

 

[Commodore_Rook]

This is why I have trouble with all the Cryptics designed star ships in Star Trek Online. Most are bulky or have unnessarry bulges or extra ridges. Smooth and simple is a Federation ship. Not big and bulky.

And the original Constitution class is the single best star ship design ever!

 

[DrTikhon]

My personal favorites are the Refit, the Enterprise E, and the Original Enterprise, in that order.

The Enterprise E looks fantastic to me, but almost any other ship designed afterwards looks horribly over-designed and complicated to me.

 

[RyuRoots]

TNG movie Enterprises(Didn't they destroy the ship in every movie or something?

...assuming you're serious, no. There is exactly one (1) Enterprise ship exclusive to the TNG movies, that being the Enterprise-E, seen in First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis.

 

[Irishman]

Just curious...I know a lot of the older fans like the style of ship from pre-STIV era...especially disliking the post-Voyager era...what do they think of of the semi-official USS Aventine? I can almost see where some of the criticism comes from for ships like the E-E, but the Aventine just blew my socks off..is there any love for this class in TOS fandom?







RAMA

Too busy. Not a fan.

 

[Irishman]

The old-school ships were designed by people who actually BUILT things. They looked REAL because the WERE real objects reflecting REAL light onto REAL film.

The new ships are designed by people who sit at computers who generally have no interest or experience in how objects are actually put together. I think that explains why they look absurd.

I was about to reply to this, but I gave up. I guess some of us Trekkies just are very conservative if it comes to the definition of Science Fiction and/or Spaceship.

I would say that, any criticism isn't that you've taken too liberal an approach in designing her. It's that you've been too beholden to the original TOS E nil planform.

If you want to get crazy and advanced, remove the saucer entirely - remove the center top bridge, remove the nacelles, remove the pylons, and start over with a blank slate, using your in-universe understanding of QSD to guide you.

There are already too many iterations of the E-Nil that change one infinitesimal thing and call it a "new class". It's not a new class, it's a lack of imagination. I think your Aventine is actually redolent of that. It's great skill and work, but not very creative, because you're still working within that "it's gotta look like a saucer and sticks or noone will recognize it's a starship" meme.

 

[Satyrquaze]

I don't like it.

But I do like the Titan.

Me too.

I think the Enterprise E and this Aventine are just trying too hard to look flowy and artsy, if you know what I mean.

I loved the ship designs that the FASA role-playing game had. They had little miniatures of most of them too. They were all basically variants of the hull and nacelle design of the refit Connie.

See, I personally just don't see how the Titan would be any different than any Akira-class ship. Just looking at the layout of it's exerior design, everything it laid out pretty much identically to the Thunderchild. Low-slung warp nacelles, photon torpedo pod up top. Phaser arrays in pretty much the same places.

Does the Luna-class ship have advanced sensors? Quantum torpedoes? Beefed up phasers? Ablative armor? Something that would seperate it design-wise from the Akira?

I say this as someone who loves the old FASA game too, but If were to do a write-up for the Titan, I don't see anything about it that would make very different than the Akira.

 

[ZeroArmour]

Just curious...I know a lot of the older fans like the style of ship from pre-STIV era...especially disliking the post-Voyager era...what do they think of of the semi-official USS Aventine? I can almost see where some of the criticism comes from for ships like the E-E, but the Aventine just blew my socks off..is there any love for this class in TOS fandom?





RAMA

I like Dax's ship, and the Titan. I'm an old school Trek fan, but I find the new designs interesting. Unlike the ships from ST-O, whick are just new skins on old mods.