Ship of the week: Nova

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:59 am

In an effort to keep the forum rolling along and the debates ongoing I introduce the ship of the week. Hopefully I or someone will open a thread every week with a new ship to talk about either Federation or other species ships.

This week we get my personal favorite the Nova class.

In my opinion a right near perfect design. A science ship to do all those missions that it would be a waste to send bigger ships on.

A good size for its roll. Big enough to keep crew comfort in check (Which for a science ship is important) while being small enough to be very economical to build.

It has comparatively weak weapons but being a science ship it hardly needs them. A few weak phasers that can be used in self defense and for use in exploring natural phenomena.

A single roll ship that does its roll to perfection. Also I don't think we ever saw this ship in a Dominion war fleet which would mean Starfleet for once kept a ship to its assigned roll.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:11 am

Yeah probably the wisest ship design I've seen from the Federation for all the reasons you stated. It looks awesome too and follows the pattern the Federation ships take in the mid to late 24th century.

I really like it.
You need a ship that causes a lot of contraversy

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:20 am

Yeah next week I'm planning on the Romulan flag ship.

But I wanted to start on this since it's my favorite

But I figure people might still have problems with it. Giving a science ship weapons or not enough weapons. Even I think it is pushing the lower limits on size. I would make it at least 20-30% bigger. I can't imagin it has that good sensors or labs in a ship that size. Either that or give us an other pure scinece ship that is Nebula size.

Also the fact that you have more or less wasted several Federation officers and NCO's on a ship that could be run by a civilian agency.

See lots to talk about

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:28 am

True but I agree with all of that too

I think the Nova works perfectly into my dream Federation task force. Not the huge fleets I've been talking about earlier but the mixing and matching pairs of ships for different roles.

You get Novas, Akiras, and an Ambassador styled ship and mix and match groups of them and you don't need to do slow seperation and the risk of civilians that one larger ship like the Galaxy does.

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:37 am

Do you mean to keep them in mini task forces all the time?

A little wateful to have several ships in the same area. Especially as the areas a Nova would usually work would have no need for a Akira or the like to be anywhere near it.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:47 am

I meant have a task force number and add or subtract ships as the need arises.

For example:

Task Force 23 would contain

2 Akira
1 Nova

While on scientific missions. Say Task Force 23 is sent a war front it would mix and match to be:

2 Akira
1 Soverign

Nova would be transfered to a different task force perhaps one in a peaceful area that could be
2 Nova
1 Akira

Task Forces would come and go as the mission arrive and the need for jack of all trades like the Galaxy would be limited. While there would still be uses for ships like that groups of smaller, cheaper, ships like the Akira or Miranda would make a better use of resources imo.

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:54 am

In what situation would you ever need an Akira with a few Nova's?

Nova's should be posted in low risk areas inside Federation space. They are to observe and reserch phenomena.

There would be no need to have an Akira anywhere need them.

Task forces would only be needed in war time or in areas on the boarder where trouble may happen.

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:42 am

It's still a good idea to have some for of covering force available, especially if the Novas were operating in an area under threat, but not at war, near the Neutral Zone or the Breen boarder for example. In those circumstances it would be sensible to station a warship of some description (say, and Akira or Excelsior) where it could cover a number of science missions, rather than have one tag along after every ship.

The Nova itself is one of Stafleets better designs - it's a dedicated science vessel with enough firepower to scare off the odd pirate, but not enough to risk getting dragged to the front lines when Stafleet's looking round for ships to pad out their fleet numbers.

Blackstar the Chakat · Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:55 am

I think the concept is good but it was already done by the Oberth-class. We've seen them in TNG and DS9 so it seems they should still be available. Why build a ship for the exact same purpose?

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 12:24 pm

Maybe there is only so much you can update a design before it becomes inpractical. The Nova would have better warp core and speed and better accomidation. No matter how much you up date it it is still a small ship.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:17 pm

Teaos....something very strange has just happened.

I also think this is a good ship.

We actually agree on something.

*awaits the sound of the universe imploding and goes to check wether hell is still warm*

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:02 pm

Rockey this isn't how it works. I make a thread on something and you disagree with what ever I say. It's in the "unofficial rules of DITL"

Don't make me go get Graham.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:24 pm

Okay...er....er....its.....stupid! Because....er.....I say so!

Post by **Mikey** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:20 pm

Maybe there is only so much you can update a design before it becomes inpractical. The Nova would have better warp core and speed and better accomidation. No matter how much you up date it it is still a small ship.

I agree - to update the Oberth-class to the state of tech in the Nova-class, would require whole new sensor systems, weaponry (such as it is,) impulse and warp generation, changing from multitronic to bioneural computers, etc., etc. - probably enought o make it easier to just build the new ship.

Aside from cosmetic differences, I am very happy that the design characteristics of the Nova class are so similar to the ship it is replacing. The Oberth was succesful enough at its mission to be around forever, and the Nova class embodies the same traits - small, low crew number, not a high top speed, light armament. Not necessarily the things we want to see out of all our ships, but the traits of the succesful ship which it is replacing.

As far as task forces, similar to the carrier groups that the USN began employing in WWII, I 195% think it's a great idea, and am sorry to think the Starfleet couldn't figure that out. However, I would caution against the idea of preset compositions - that way of thinking tends to limit flexibility and creativity in the upper brass.

Blackstar the Chakat · Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:03 pm

Already built Oberths may be harder to upgrade but building new ones to modern specs is fairly easy. At least easier then designing a whole new class that may not work out in the end. In a sense modern navys do the same. Here's an example: Although the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers may all look alike they all have slightly different specs due to new equipment.(plus the sub-classes much modified specs)