Cardiff is in there! (That's only about 11 miles from where I live)

Is that the original list with extra, or did you just take all the capital cities, CVN? It must've taken a while to write it! 8O

Mind you, I do know the feeling of long posts...

One thing though CVN, I noticed there was one called Helsniki - Unless i'm mistaken, I think you mean Helsinki.

I hope that cure for Dyslexic Fingers arrives soon...

Just to weave this back to topic, we were on about the ship types, of which we had:
Corvette
Escort
Gunboat
Destroyer
Light Cruiser
Frigate
Cruiser
Heavy Cruiser
Battle Cruiser
Battleship
Fire Support

Is there more, or should we begin discussing which are which?

Well, all we ACTUALY know is that Defiant is and escort
Oberth and Nova are probably corvettes then.

it will be a cold cold day in hell before any ship will be named stalin, why not name one hitler while your at it also lose de`gaule and why leave out german generals? rommel was one of the greatest in history, even the guys he beat said that. and were the hell is piltown? one of the most important historical places on earth, also how about naming some warships after gods? like greek and roman ones, they had plenty, i always liked the earth alliance shipnames in b5.

If the ship classes are going to be in order, then a Fire Support Cruiser is going to be somewhere between a Frigate and Heavy Cruiser (So either slightly weaker, or slightly stronger than an ordinary Cruiser)

Remember, they have weaker defenses, and longer-range weaponry than standard starships. They also have little or no heavy weapons. Because of these reasons, they may also have slightly better sensors, to help maintain a stronger target lock.

Several of the names I have personally never heard of, but I do like the mixture of alien names as well. Starfleet would certainly want a multi-cultural Naval force!

...

If we are going to discuss what the classes actually are, then to start off, I think we should start with the basics: -

- The ships obviously gain in power as you move up the scale.

- They will tend to increase in size/mass.

- The larger the class, the slower/less maneouverable the ship will be, but the better the coverage of the weaponry.

- With some possible exceptions, the heavier starships will have better defenses. (For example, would a Hospital ship be classed as a Corvette, but have heavier-than-normal shielding, to compensate for the few weapons, and help defend the injured on board?)

- Corvettes and other small classes will rely on their maneoverability to avoid damage. They will also use it to (Hopefully) score extra damage aginst enemy ships. (Easier to hit weak shield arcs etc)

- Battleships and other heavy classes will rely on their stronger defenses to to avoid damage, as they will not be so capable of dodging attacks. However, they will be able to delive a much greater punch, making them more of a threat.

- Corvettes will likely make up the bulk of your fleet, as they are the easiest and cheapest ships to produce.

- Battleships will be the 'rarest' ships you will field. The loss of one will be a major blow, and may make life a great deal easier for your enemies.

Well that's the basics that I can think of...for now...

I personally liked the Galaxy-X as a ship, but it certainly wasn't a ship of the Federation that we know and love <The Romulan shudders>

If the ship isn't goimng to be in, then it could easily be in as a Terran Empire mod, or an alternate timeline mod.

I'm sure there will be people out there that can't wait to get to grips wih making such things...

Anyway, if the Galaxy-X is going to be in as a normal part of the game, i'd personally forget about the 'Phaser Cannon' since it is too non-Federation (But i'd keep the 'undercarriage' of the weapon, because it helps to show that the Galaxy-X is a different/upgraded ship)

...

For the Olympic class, seeing as it was rarely seen, perhaps it should either be an extremely modern ship, (As in only get it at the end of the tech tree, as with Sovereign, or it should be part of a future mod.

I personally always thought the Olympic class was designed specifically as a Hospital ship class though. I certainly don't see it as a Battleship (As evidenced by the pasting the USS Pasteur took)

If people don't like the idea of using it as a Hospital ship, then I suggest using it as either a colony ship, or a troop transport. I've done some research, and the canon sources say it is a Hospital class, but (And I know certain Klingons are going to gouge out my eyes for this) some non-canon sources have suggested that it could be used for transport purposes, because it apparently has an extremely modular design.

Modular designs are obviously extremely useful if you want a class that can easily be taken apart, (For colonisation purposes) or can easily be reconfigured, (For changing mission types, like the Nebula classes' pods) or for ships where massive storage space is essential (Like trade vessels or resupply envoys for damaged ships that can't make it back to a starbase)

Basically, from a non-canon point of view, the Olympic could be a very useful class, if we are stuck for designs to fill roles.

Yep! Look at the design,



it can be used from anything from diplomacy through cargo transport and even some light combat duty to complement research capabilities

The appeture at the bottom of the sphere can be a weapon emplacement, and we saw what they can do with phaser technology in that time(-line); refering to the cannon on the Galaxy-X

Personally, I think the whole Hospital ship idea shouldnt be included in this game. It would only be useful for outbreaks of the 'plauge' and, I suppose, large battles. It just seems like a rather trivial thing to have a whole ship class for. But whatever...

The Olympic reminds me of an extremely modern Daedalus class ship (assuming that model in Sisko's office is a Daedalus).

A repair ship would be a good compromise - but it would have to have a low repair rate, say any ship in the same sector repairs with a bonus of 5-25% (So if a ship repairs 5 hit points per turn, then with an Olympic class repair ship, it would at most repair 6 hit points instead)

This may seem rather pathetic, but if you're in the middle of war, and your ship yards are building/repairing ships as fast as they possibly can, then anything that can help you repair ships at a faster pace will be a blessing. You have to remember that a ship is never going to have the facilities of a Starbase, so will never be able to repair ships with the same speed - this is why the bonus repair rate must be low.

...

I've thought of something else though - will damaged ships travel at a slower speed? I'm not sure if this will be programmable, but imagine you know there is an enemy fleet heading for Sol, and you only have a couple of Oberths defending it.

You know you have a Sovereign nearby, but it is heavily damaged, and can't make it to Sol before the fleet arrives unless it is repaired. If you were able to send a repair ship that could help it repair faster (And therefore get back faster) you would be able to defend Sol effectively.

This would certainly make a repair ship of use in times of dire need...

...

Another thing, what about supply ships? Are they still going to be in or not? If they are, then aren't they technically going to have repair capabilities? What is the point in having cargo vessels going round resupplying your ships with fuel and not be able to repair them as well?

Heh...I can rant as well STHedgehog...

Im not a programmer but it odes sound a bit off to program something like ships moving slower if their damaged. I think it should be presummed that Life support / Shields / and Engine are Bodged up so the ppl on a ship can live and get back Safely.

The olympic has around 18 decks (thats counting the windows on the pic) so its a fare sized vessle. Most of that would be Medbays and cargo bays to transport needed supplys, but in War times, surly a ship like that woiuld fill its cargo bay with materials as well as medical supplys. We know that as a general rule CArgo bays have mass transporters, ive seen the crew of the Ent-D transport things shuttle size with them, so as a repair ship it works.

I agree that the repair rate should be slow, its not as good as a starbase and should be nowheres as quiick, so id agreee with a small pecentage added to repair, or something like everyship in this sector repaires 1HP while an olympic vessle is there. SO if you had 10 olympics it could repair ships faster.

As for smaller ships are eaiser to repair than bigger ships thats already sorted, a smaller ship has only a fraction of the HP a Large vessle has. Say an oberth has 100 HP, and a soverign has 2500 HP. It would take an olympic 99turns to fiz an ovberth on 1HP back to max, but would take 2499 turns to do the same to a soverign, so the size/tech diffrece is already covered.

Maybe rather a repair speed based on a perentage of the ships total HP?
Like, restore 3% of maximum HP every turn

Small ships should be easier to repair, but using a percentage wouldn't show this ease.

Using a 3% repair rate, and STHedgehog's numbers, it would take 25 turns to repair both of the ships. The only way we could show the sifference in repair rates, is to use an actual number for repair, or use a sliding scale od percentages. (So an Oberth may be repaired at 10%, while a Sovereign may be repaired at 1%)

This would also tie in with the fact that the Sovereign has far superior technology than the lowly Oberth - it's easier to find parts for something that is old, than for something that is brand new and difficult to make!

Haven't got a clue on the programming side of things though.

I was getting a little confused by the ship classification system...
Is it going to be canon, or are we infusing it with 'real' ship types?

In the canon, there is no 'corvette' classification as far as I know (please correct me if I'm wrong), and there is never anything really classified as 'fire support'.

There are some really good ideas here, but perhaps some consolidation is in order.

There exists in the canon a one-size-fits-all type called the 'explorer'. Usually big multirole ships get called this, like the Galaxy and Ambassador classes. Otherwise, the term is also applied to long duration science vessels like the Intrepid class.
-Maybe this classification could include the Ambassador, Galaxy, and Sovereign designs.

Could we incorporate this class? and maybe get rid of superfluous classes like 'corvette' (read 'Frigate') and 'gunboat' and 'fire support' (read
)

I promise I'm not just trying to destroy things - I'll try to fix the ideas that I break