USS Enterprise-J

posted on December 11th, 2009, 11:36 pm

if u fix the size of the FO akira to that of the bridge commander stock akira then the century (modded in via the previous link) is bigger and much stronger. it had aft firing quantums and forward firing quantum and forward firing photons, all of which reloaded in seconds.

Compared to the Akira's 15 Photon launchers, that seem quite weak...

posted on December 12th, 2009, 1:09 am

Enterprise's aren't the newest Class in the Fleet, they are the best currently in full service, or they would have held off on launching the A until the already existing Excelsior had finished it's trial runs and built the A as an Excelsior rather than a recycled Constitution.

The D could have been delayed for a number of reasons; the Cardassian war, long build time, bugs to work out, not really getting around to working on it, ect.

I agree with the possible reasons for D's construction delay.

The thing about the Enterprise A is a different story. I'm sure they just renamed another Constitution class vessel (I know the movie claims it was just built  ) because Kirk would never have accepted something else Besides that... adding an A to the models painting wasn't as expensive as making a new one for one or two movies only. Most of the budget in ST-movies was invested into the effects.

And to the newest class... okay. The classes Excelsior and Ambassador really weren't new in the way Galaxy and Sovereign were when Enterprise was part of them. If the Enterprise B was the first one built of that slightly bigger and faster subtype is never told (as almost anything else about it). Could it be Starfleet sent that ship on a mission and forgot it? 

posted on December 12th, 2009, 4:58 pm

Compared to the Akira's 15 Photon launchers, that seem quite weak...

the bridge commander stock akira didnt have that many guns, originally the akira was planned to be a huge torpedo and fighter vessel, but it never got any of that, which is good because it would have been silly.

[Tyler]

posted on December 12th, 2009, 5:01 pm

Last edited by Tyler on December 12th, 2009, 5:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The ship model (series one, not game ones) has all the launchers present, just never used. Nothing silly about a warship with a lot of weapons, just makes it harder to take them out.

Besides; There's no kill like overkill.

posted on December 12th, 2009, 7:36 pm

Yep...No kill like overkill....

Attachments

posted on December 12th, 2009, 9:10 pm

Real Voyager was better than that at the end (Ablative Armor+Transphasic torpedoes=Pwning the Borg ! )  Akira with 15 launchers looks weak next to Voyager when it got back to Earth.

posted on December 12th, 2009, 9:22 pm

Endgame Voyager makes Borg Cubes look weak...

posted on December 12th, 2009, 11:42 pm

endgame voyager makes Q look weak. but seriously if you assume that the enterprise D was better armed than voyager: the D in BoBW in a crunch fired 5ish phasers and had 1 torpedo tube firing 3 torps, that would seem to be the max amount the D could power cos worf was actually gunning seriously for once. so where would a ship like the akira get the power for 15 photons at the same time.  even if its more powerful than the D it cant power that much guns. i think 6 is more likely with no more than 3 firing at the same time. that would be 2 under the saucer as seen firing, 2 forward in the weapons pod on top and two aft in the same pod.

i like the design of the akira, its a shame it didnt get more screen time, it seems like a perfect replacement for the main ship of the fleet, the excelsiors old job. its less than a sov but still looks strong. in bridge commander the stock akira could fire quantums, which i think is realistic as it made its debut with the sov in first contact i believe. its also quite a sensible design, it has a deflector unlike the miranda and constellation and has thick nacelle struts unlike the constitution. i think the defiant was the most sensible design though. no thin bits to cut the ship in half with a well placed torpedo, like the constitution.

[Tyler]

posted on December 12th, 2009, 11:50 pm

Last edited by Tyler on December 12th, 2009, 11:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

so where would a ship like the akira get the power for 15 photons at the same time.  even if its more powerful than the D it cant power that much guns. i think 6 is more likely with no more than 3 firing at the same time. that would be 2 under the saucer as seen firing, 2 forward in the weapons pod on top and two aft in the same pod.

You don't know how much power it takes to power a launcher, while the D fired so few because it only has 1 foward launcher The D also has more Phasers and a much bigger ship to wrap the Shields around. Not count Warp Core upgrades between the Galaxy and Akira Class being first seen.

Memory Alpha quote:

In parts of his Nemecek interview that were published in Star Trek: The Magazine, designer Alex Jaeger stated that he created the Akira as a sort of "carrier/gunship," armed with fifteen torpedo launchers. Visual inspection of the hull and design drawings show all fifteen: ten on the ships weapons pod, one forward torpedo launcher over the deflector dish and also four flanking torpedo launchers on the saucer.

posted on December 13th, 2009, 12:32 am

In addition, there is also another big difference between Galaxy and Akira: The Akira has been developed and designed to be a well armed multipurpose battlecruiser while the Galaxy class is the exact opposite of that conception. The Enterprise D always reminded me of a luxury liner which can bite back if attacked. And that means that much of the ships energy is used for all the civil things. From replicators for over thousand heads or several holodecks working at the same time.

posted on December 13th, 2009, 12:57 am

Oh man, don't get me started on the Akira.   The ship that's the size of a misquito, but can do everything.  With 50 thousand photon launchers and two milion fighters, and it can go warp 9.9999999999996473844, which is the fastest ship to date!!!!

I like the design of the ship, but I think some of these designers go too far and make really make their ships sound like they can do anything and everything.

posted on December 13th, 2009, 1:18 am

I don't think the Akira would be overpowered. I rather could imagine a big lack of shield strength due to the energydrain Fighters are launched from more distance anyways and 15 torpedolaunchers would give most people the impression that the Akira is a moving artillerylike weaponsplatform.
If you get near on it, you've almost won the battle.

posted on December 13th, 2009, 1:38 am

I'm simply talking about how the designer describes it.  But seriously, what's the point of 15 launchers?  You'd run out of torpedoes before too long, even if you're only using half that many.  And what energy drain?  From what I understand, the torpedo launcher is magnetic, a glorified rail cannon.  The only reason you'd use torpedoes sparingly is because their supply is limited.  And where does one put 500+ torpedoes on a ship that small?  (or however many they have)

Here's the designer's interview.  I think he loves the sound of his own voice...
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Akira_class

Also, he states there are 15 launchers.  The DS9 tech manual says 2.  Both are on that web page.  2 sounds far more realistic to me.  One fore and one aft on that top thingy in the middle.  But that's my beef, is the designer makes it sound like the most amazing ship since sliced bread that can do anything, etc.

Also, how does the ship "Protect fighters as they enter the aft bay during combat" if the shields are up?  If the Akira's shields are down in a fight, it's dead.  His logic doesn't make sense, is what I'm saying.

[Zyrious]

posted on December 13th, 2009, 5:53 am

Last edited by Zyrious on December 13th, 2009, 5:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

In addition, there is also another big difference between Galaxy and Akira: The Akira has been developed and designed to be a well armed multipurpose battlecruiser while the Galaxy class is the exact opposite of that conception. The Enterprise D always reminded me of a luxury liner which can bite back if attacked. And that means that much of the ships energy is used for all the civil things. From replicators for over thousand heads or several holodecks working at the same time.

The Akira doesnt sound like a multi-purpose battlecruiser. It seems more like a Missile Boat in every sense there is. The focus of its design is clearly to carry and employ Torpedo's, however this is dampened by the fact that, apparently, it can only carry Photons. Which doesnt make sense, it was designed and built alongside the sovereign, revealed at the same time, and Even Voyager could've been retrofitted with Quantums (Look at the episode with Dreadnaught).

Though i agree with mal that clearly the designer just "liked the sound of his own voice". A Problem with star Trek seems to be every ship designed is overkill as far as their designers are concerned. "My ship's uber awesome!". Look at the Scimitar. Everytime a new ship is made, it has to be 10 times more rediculous than all previous ships. Atleast in Star Wars things had a nice...simplicity to them. (Not counting the EU, the Expanded universe in Star Wars is rediculous) Although, throughout star trek ships have had the single most rediculous and unrealistic power outputs i've seen in a science fiction. Then again, this is a universe where Anti-matter is as plentiful as sugar.

posted on December 13th, 2009, 10:13 am

I reckon Akira need four torp tubes to justify the launcher section - two forward and to aft should do it fine, keeping it's status as a torpedo cruiser but making sure it's not overpowered.

But back on topic:
If the E is to feature in the FO storyline, it should be destroyed rather than decommissioned. We're talking about another full-scale war, after all! Something like that would give more of a sense of danger, perhaps sparking off the conflict if the ship were destroyed by a relatively unknown power being secretly manipulated by someone more familiar. 

And the model: The Century, I think, is a beautiful ship but there are a load more designs that I think actually improve on it AND for which permissions could be gained more easily. Also, the Enterprise still needs to be larger than an Akira IMO. Not massively, but sovereign-sized at least!