Nova class

[Mark]

Obviously basing them at a Starbase because they're short ranged is the end result. But what made Starfleet want the ships to be short ranged. Which is where is comes down to is it cost, mission, or what?

Well, with a ship that gives up a great deal of tactical ability to devote to extended scientific capabilites, you wouldn't want it to get so far away you couldn't send help for one. They are designed to be deployed at various stations and frontier starbases for dispatch to wonderful scientific discoveries made by the Galaxy Exploration ships (ie Galaxy, Nebula, and so forth). While a Galaxy could certainly match a Nova's scientific abilities, you gonna tie one up for months of routine scanning and data gathering?

[Mikey]

Exactly. While the UFP's resources may seem mind-bogglingly huge to us, they are most definitely finite - at least, the amount available at any given time. It wasn't made with greater range, etc., because it didn't need to be to fulfill its intended role.