Sujestions please...

[Excalibur001]

Threw a new universe story line i am creating, i have had to design a Starship for the story line, attached is an image of the "Excalibur X-BC-001" Experimental Battle Cruiser, In size and shpe it is similar to Star Trek's USS Defiant (Since i used it as a base line for the design), now this is only a rough sketch, if anyone has any sujestions on the design, sujestions are welcome.

Thank you.


GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS

Class – Excalibur
Regesteration - X-BC 001
Classification – Destroyer / Fast Attack/ Scout / Escort Cruiser
Fleet Size – 142 (Original Fleet Size 150, Due to losses in combat. More Completed at a rate of 10 every 3 months)
Launched – 2228
Quantum Discharge Cannons - Multiple Arrays
Torpedo Launchers – Hellfire Torpedoes / Light, Medium & Heavy Torpedoes
Length - 68.58 Meters
Width - 38.22 Meters
Height – 22.25 Meters
Mass – 7.152 Metric Tons
Hull: Re-enforced hull with Plasteel / Crystalline Armour mesh
Number of Decks - 4
Crew – 31
Fighters – 4 Reaper Class Heavy Fighters
Support Vessels – 2 Osprey Troop Carriers
Cloaking System – Mark VII

[Berticus]

What happened to stories being about people?

No offense, but the ship the story is based around should be designed last.

[TheGreatRaja]

I have to agree With Berticus
if your story can stand after your strip away the settings, it's a good story
To many people these days get trapped by this

[Excalibur001]

When I Wrote the story, (That is nearly 75% complete) I needed to Describle the main vessel in the story, so i started to sketch the ship for reference when describing said ship.

[Sanderlee]

The ship has a crew of 31 according to your specs. Do you have at least a 1 page write-up/synopsis/character sketch (not a drawing) of each crewmember? I'd recommend that you flesh them out if you haven't already.

My main characters have between five and ten pages of back-story, synopsis, physical description, etc., plus several character sketches (scenes that provide me insight into their behavior and voice). My secondary characters have 3-5 pages and my tertiary ones all have at least a page.

Ultimately, you should have almost as much support material as you do actual writing--creating a world is hard. In your case, you're basing things off the Star Trek universe, so much of the "World Bible" is crafted for you already. But anything relevent to your story that you're changing you should have some sort of entry for.

The ship looks interesting, and certainly a description of it is likely to be necessary (esp. in the Star Trek universe, and double esp. with the ship being so small!!!) but, as others have said, it's easy to fall into the tech-first, people-second trap. I've done it several times myself.

[Excalibur001]

I already have a six page bio and back story for all the main char's... as with the star trek universe, the only similarity to the defiant is the outward look.

on the Defiant they are "Warp Engines" on the Excalibur they are weapons bays for the torpedo and hellfire weapons systems. (Fwd & Aft)

[Icon1]

Originally Posted by Excalibur001

Sujestions please...

Use spell check. Sorry couldn't help myself.

[cochrane]

Another suggestion: A ship with 31 people warrants a Lieutenant Commander in command. Putting a ranked Captain in command of such a small crew is a complete waste of his experience and an insult to the officer. It would be like putting a Captain in command of a corvette. It just doesn't happen.

-- ZC

[Deks]

Originally Posted by cochrane

Another suggestion: A ship with 31 people warrants a Lieutenant Commander in command. Putting a ranked Captain in command of such a small crew is a complete waste of his experience and an insult to the officer. It would be like putting a Captain in command of a corvette. It just doesn't happen.

-- ZC

The Defiant had about 48 individuals in total and a captain so I don't see the problem.
Nor would I call placing a captain on such a small ship an insult or a waste of their experience.
It really depends on what types of missions a ship would be sent on, and there are certain things that a captain can do on special missions (such as the Omega particle) that lower ranking officers aren't equipped to handle because they wouldn't be informed of it in the first place.
Besides, why would every individual that holds a title of a 'captain' want a big ship to begin with ?

[cochrane]

Originally Posted by Deks

The Defiant had about 48 individuals in total and a captain so I don't see the problem.
Nor would I call placing a captain on such a small ship an insult or a waste of their experience.
It really depends on what types of missions a ship would be sent on, and there are certain things that a captain can do on special missions (such as the Omega particle) that lower ranking officers aren't equipped to handle because they wouldn't be informed of it in the first place.
Besides, why would every individual that holds a title of a 'captain' want a big ship to begin with ?

Defiant was attached to Deep Space Nine, which had a captain in command. But putting Worf or Dax in permanent command during the Dominion War was far more proper than keeping an O-6 in command when any officer with as much experience should've been placed in command of a heavy cruiser/battleship. Putting an O-6 in command of a corvette/frigate like Defiant is a waste, especially when you're running low on combat-experienced officers in the middle of a war. During WW2, we had reserve lieutenants commanding destroyers... and in peacetime those were ships that typically had commanders as COs.

-- ZC