Alternate Constitution

[Tyler]

posted on June 11th, 2009, 2:29 pm

Last edited by Tyler on June 11th, 2009, 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Does anyone think the ship is unusually big for it's era?

Length: 2,357 feet (718.4 meters)
Height: 625 feet
Decks: At least 6 (A-G Decks)
Crew: 1100

Aside from the decks, it's bigger than a Galaxy!

posted on June 11th, 2009, 5:37 pm

That's a good example of temporal contamination.  Another is Future's End.

Henry Starling has 30 years to manually tear apart the Aeon.  Using this he kickstarts the digital age.

The Kelvin and her shuttles use 23rd century scanning technology to analyze every weakness, every strength of the Narada.  A ship that size that survived the pull of a black hole must have a very good structural design.  The information carried back by the shuttles was most likely assimilated into the Federation technological pool, thereby allowing bigger, stronger ships.

So no, I think it's perfectly reasonable.

posted on June 11th, 2009, 5:53 pm

More advanced tech is one thing, but being bigger than a Galaxy, when the original Constitution is barely half the length of a Galaxy's nacelle is a little different. Starfleet (from every other reality/timeline) prefers ships that work over ones that are big, with only a few Classes as exceptions.

Then again, I've seen the film compared to Star Wars before. They probably just nicked the 'bigger=better' mentality the Imperials love so much.

posted on June 11th, 2009, 6:22 pm

These "exceptions" are usually the most advanced, best designs on the market.  The Galaxy class was the largest of its time, and it became the Federation flagship.  Now that the past was contaminated by technology from a ship bigger and badder than the Galaxy class, the standards have been raised.  If you were given the formula for durasteel, wouldn't you put it to use builing stronger, sturdier, taller skyscrapers so as to make efficient use of space and resources?

And that whole bigger=better thing doesn't apply for all the Empire.  Ever heard of the TIE Fighter?

[Tyler]

posted on June 11th, 2009, 6:37 pm

Last edited by Tyler on June 11th, 2009, 6:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Those exceptions don't include the Federations most advanced ships, except the Galaxy/Sovereign. The Defiant, Intrepid, Akira, ect were a lot smaller. Starfleet doesn't build bigger ships becasue they meet a ship bigger than theirs, or did I miss a Federation ship built as big as a Cube, Dominion Dreadnought, D'deridex & the Scimitar?

The TIE is an expendable (almost useless, unless in massive swarms) fighter, litterally flying scrap-metal. Find an Imperial ship they actually put effort into and tell me it isn't bigger than everyone elses ship built for the same purpose, because I didn't see any small Star Destroyers.

posted on June 11th, 2009, 6:47 pm

The Tie advanced. Or the Interceptor. Or the Bomber... 

posted on June 11th, 2009, 6:56 pm

imperial technology was in a galaxy far far away, and a long time ago. Not the future but the past.

So there has to be a more archaic touch to it. But if they had that tech then, you can imagine what they'll have at the time ofthe feds. now that would be an interesting open to interpretation fleet which would really be interesting.

We cant compare chinese canons at the time of the Boxer revolution to the current Korean nukes can we. But China today outclasses the Koreans any day.

same diff in the imperial v fed comparison

posted on June 11th, 2009, 7:22 pm

I wasn't comparing the tech, I was comparing the 'Size = Power' look of the new Constitution to the identical look of the Empire's ships (do fighters & Star Destroyers qualify as the same type of ship?).

Yeah I know about them, Dominus, I used to play as them often before growing out of that game (before someone twists that into an Anti-Wars comment, I said nothing about the films!). Those things still die as quickly as the standard fighter, the only exception being Vader's personal craft.

posted on June 11th, 2009, 7:40 pm

The Empire was going for "shock and awe".

Plus, those things are massive because they hold all the needed kit for the.... "subjagation" of an entire star system (solar system).

I cba to explain further. Imperial I-class Star Destroyer - Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki

Oh, and I do wish we had spoiler tags for making stuff smaller (because I know you won't look):


Complement:

    * TIE/ln starfighter (48)[1]
    * TIE/sa bomber (12)[1]
    * TIE boarding craft (12)[1]
    * Lambda-class shuttles (8)[5]
    * Delta-class stormtrooper transports (15)[1]
    * Assault gunboats (5)[5]
    * A variable number of Skipray Blastboats
    * Gamma-class assault shuttle (1+)
    * Repair and recovery vehicles
    * Theta-class AT-AT barges
    * Sentinel-class landing craft (12)[1]
    * AT-AT walkers (20)[5]
    * AT-ST walkers (30)[5]
    * Prefabricated garrison base (1)


Crew :

    * Officers (9,235)[1]
    * Infantry (9,700)[1]
    * Enlisted (27,850)[1]
          o Gunners (275)[5]


Cargo capacity:

36,000 metric tons[5]


Consumables:

6 years

posted on June 11th, 2009, 7:42 pm

Yes, I'd like to see the day the Feds went for shock and awe... I can see it now "Fly the Enterprise over the camp Scotty, we wanna scare the locals real good" 

posted on June 11th, 2009, 8:09 pm

star trek ships sizes never been exact. not in one of the movies, not in one of the shows, not in one of the games.
thats how star trek is, no matter how nerdy you look at sources like alphas techmanuals etc.

posted on June 11th, 2009, 8:17 pm

The Galaxy and Sovereign also happened to be the Federation's flagships during their time, didn't they?

One big reason you build bigger things is because it's an arms race.  Honestly, they knew the Narada was still on the prowl, and that it was Romulan,  So if they had built the Enterprise at 300 meters, that missile would have torn the neck in half.

posted on June 11th, 2009, 8:41 pm

Galaxy was designed to do everything without the need for large refits, the Sovereign was likely similar. They are the only Starfleet ships that are actually big. Defiant is an anti-Borg monster and she's tiny, the Akira is a warship and she's medium. The Intrepid is state of the art and a little smaller than an Akira, the same goes for the Prometheus in that she isn't as big as the flagships.

Starfleet's proper warships have never been as big as other races, and the strength of a ship is more important than the size. Bigger means greater cost, greater crew sent to possible death and an easier target. Size pretty much screwed the D'deridex in the war because the enemy couldn't miss if they tried.

posted on June 11th, 2009, 8:48 pm

The point is the biggest ships are the flagships.  To make a big ship, you need good structural design.  And they have that, now that they've seen a really big, impossible to make ship.  So now that they have the ability to make big, big, big ships, they'd do it.  And since it's their biggest, baddest ship, they made it their flagship, the Enterprise.

posted on June 11th, 2009, 8:51 pm

But the size has jumped about 5 future Enterprise's...their Enterprise-D will probably be Cube-sized if they share the prime universe's habbit of increasing size with each ship.