StarDestroyer.Net BBS

https://boldlygo.intel.com/content/index.html - "USS Kelvin" button on the right

Highlights:

- The Kelvin bridge crew has at least one alien of a new species ("Monchezke")
- The Quadrant system stays in use
- No more viewscreen; bridges now have a window with a HUD
- The Kelvin is armed with "phaser turrets" that fire nadion particles in beam or pulse modes, by "passing plasma through a phaser emitter"
- Impulse engines are still fusion-based. Max impulse is rated at .25c
- Multi-year endurance

Bounty wrote: - No more viewscreen; bridges now have a window with a HUD

A window instead of a viewscreen?! At that size the stuff they use for windows on a ship must be really strong... or they are just suicidal and waiting for a direct hit on the bridge once their beloved shields have left them for good... Maybe reboot-ships heavily rely on their shields instead on armor in combat.

Bounty wrote: - The Kelvin is armed with "phaser turrets" that fire nadion particles in beam or pulse modes, by "passing plasma through a phaser emitter"

Hooray for turrets! And they are retractable... I hope they show how some of them are destroyed by enemy fire.

Bounty wrote:https://boldlygo.intel.com/content/index.html - "USS Kelvin" button on the right

Highlights:

- The Kelvin bridge crew has at least one alien of a new species ("Monchezke")

The real test is weather its got more than forehead bumps. Oh, and please don't let it interbreed with humans.

- The Quadrant system stays in use

Which would probably be a change to TOS, since the system was different than the quadrant system in later Trek.

- No more viewscreen; bridges now have a window with a HUD

God damn it. So they go out of their way to confirm that the bridge is on the outside of the ship with a big window. That's some great design work their, Starfleet.

- The Kelvin is armed with "phaser turrets" that fire nadion particles in beam or pulse modes, by "passing plasma through a phaser emitter"

I'm more interested in what the fire power is. I wonder if they'll up the fire power, since indications are that this will be a more action/special effects-oriented version of Trek.

- Impulse engines are still fusion-based. Max impulse is rated at .25c

How does that compare to earlier Trek? Or real-world fusion drive concepts, for that matter?

- Multi-year endurance

Needless to say, this is nessissary unless Starfleet has lost its obsession with deep space exploration (in which case it wouldn't be Star Trek any more now would it? )

Ah, I see the new alien is, in fact, not a human with bumps. One little step in the right direction.

How does that compare to earlier Trek? Or real-world fusion drive concepts, for that matter?

Reading through the rest of the notes, it seems like they just pilfered a TM for blurbs. Most of the Kelvin data, save for the turrets and crew profiles, are pretty much unchanged from the "old" Trek.

The Romulan Republic wrote:

Bounty wrote:https://boldlygo.intel.com/content/index.html - "USS Kelvin" button on the right

Highlights:

- The Kelvin bridge crew has at least one alien of a new species ("Monchezke")

The real test is weather its got more than forehead bumps. Oh, and please don't let it interbreed with humans.

Going by the picture on the site it's a lot more than a forehead bump style alien.


The site got me a little more jazzed about seeing the movie in theaters. I've been leaning more towards the "wait until video" side of things.

I'll probably see it for several reasons, including the following:

1. Lack of good movies (especially sci-fi).

2. To see if the new Starfleet improves on the incompetance and lousy firepower of the old.

3. Because I like the Romulans. This one is mixed though, as they'll likely screw them up.

Orthographic views of the 3D render:











Let the scaling commence.

2. To see if the new Starfleet improves on the incompetance and lousy firepower of the old.

Sorry, "lousy firepower"? You do know they threw around the equivalent of modern-day nuclear weapons on a regular basis, right? How is that "lousy"?

Sorry, "lousy firepower"? You do know they threw around the equivalent of modern-day nuclear weapons on a regular basis, right? How is that "lousy"?

1. Lousy compared to Star Wars.

2. Lousy compared to many other sci-fi vs.

3. Lousy compared to what their tech should have allowed.

Right, how big is this thing?

I'm going to make two assumptions: that the saucer edge is two full decks high, corroborated by the portholes visible in the rear view, and that the deck height has remained unchanged compared to TOS-era ships.

So, how thick was the saucer's edge on a Constitution? (click for full version; well, I say "full", looks like Photobucket auto-resized it to 1024))



At an established length of 289 meters, the saucer is (32/5=) 6.4 meters thick.

As for the Kelvin -



With a 6.4m thick saucer, the ship as a whole is ((6.4/12)*708=) 377.6 meters long, putting in in the ballpark of the old Centaur and Norway classes. Most of that length is the nacelle, though.

Interestingly, the original Constitution's own single-nacelle variant, the Hermes, was just 242.5m long.

1. Lousy compared to Star Wars.

2. Lousy compared to many other sci-fi vs.

3. Lousy compared to what their tech should have allowed.

One is irrelevant, two is irrelevant, three is debatable. It's about storytelling, not dickwaving.

Bounty wrote:

1. Lousy compared to Star Wars.

2. Lousy compared to many other sci-fi vs.

3. Lousy compared to what their tech should have allowed.

One is irrelevant, two is irrelevant, three is debatable. It's about storytelling, not dickwaving.

You could argue that the first two are irrelevant (certainly they are outside of a vs debate). However, the third is quite likely to say the least. Starfleet's anti-war attitudes and military incompitance are well documented. Perhaps "lousy" was a poor choice of words, however.

I'm not seeing how that old tangent is relevant to anything at all. If you want to whine about Starfleet being incompetent, start a new thread. I'm sure literally a few people will still be interested. Maybe.

Apparently the Intel images are just a bit distorted; the corrected ones over at TrekBBS add up to 324 meters.



(6.4/14)*708 = 323.6m

Bounty wrote:I'm not seeing how that old tangent is relevant to anything at all. If you want to whine about Starfleet being incompetent, start a new thread. I'm sure literally a few people will still be interested. Maybe.

It was an off-hand comment. You are the one choosing to pick a fight about it. Don't you have something better to do?

The Romulan Republic wrote:

- The Quadrant system stays in use

Which would probably be a change to TOS, since the system was different than the quadrant system in later Trek.

It was in use as of at least The Undiscovered Country. Before that, it's up for debate, but we never heard them using any other system from what I remember.

Starfleet's anti-war attitudes and military incompitance are well documented.

Wrong; the TNG-era Federation's anti-war (or more accurately, anti-military) attitudes are well documented. Enterprise-era as well, though it actually made some sense there, since Earth wasn't exactly in a position to be going around starting interstellar wars. The TOS era on the other hand was when the Federation had its shit together, and was ready to defend its citizens - watch Errand of Mercy if you need an example.

Just for shits and giggles, and assuming my crapshoot scaling is halfway right:

DaveJB wrote:

The Romulan Republic wrote:

- The Quadrant system stays in use

Which would probably be a change to TOS, since the system was different than the quadrant system in later Trek.

It was in use as of at least The Undiscovered Country. Before that, it's up for debate, but we never heard them using any other system from what I remember.

Wrong; the TNG-era Federation's anti-war (or more accurately, anti-military) attitudes are well documented. Enterprise-era as well, though it actually made some sense there, since Earth wasn't exactly in a position to be going around starting interstellar wars. The TOS era on the other hand was when the Federation had its shit together, and was ready to defend its citizens - watch Errand of Mercy if you need an example.

You're right. They're still undergunned, but its not as bad. Their main weaknesses are in ground forces and not ship to ship weaponry however. You must forgive my blunder. I'm very tired right now, and I made a generalization that was not entirely accurate.

Regarding the quadrant issue, I recall a reference in The Wrath of Kahn to the Enterprise being the only ship in the quadrant. Which would be obscene unless quadrant meant something different than its TNG-era usage. I may be wrong, however.

The Romulan Republic wrote:Regarding the quadrant issue, I recall a reference in The Wrath of Kahn to the Enterprise being the only ship in the quadrant. Which would be obscene unless quadrant meant something different than its TNG-era usage. I may be wrong, however.

TNG also makes mention of quadrants outside of the big four ("Where Silence Has Lease" was one example) - I think they had the Alpha-Beta-Gamma-Delta system describing the four segments of the galaxy, and the other "quadrants" were meant to be sub-sections of individual sectors, if that makes any sense. They never did explain it very well to be honest; it would probably have helped if they'd gotten these things sorted out at the outset of the series.

I must say I'm starting to like this. It also makes sense to me that the Kelvin is larger than the later Enterprise, since early versions of technology tend to be larger than later renditions.

However, I'm not sure why they went with a single nacelle. IIRC from the ST Technical Manual, warp drives have to be fielded in pairs to create an effective warp bubble. Perhaps they get around it by having two warp generators in a single nacelle, like the fanwank anto-Borg Enterprise.

Incidentally, one thing I saw no mention of is torpedo launchers. The website cover phasers, but unless the phasers are much more powerful or the torpedoes were simply overlooked (most likely option), then this thing would be seriously undergunned by TNG standards, nevermind TOS.

Count Chocula wrote:I must say I'm starting to like this. It also makes sense to me that the Kelvin is larger than the later Enterprise, since early versions of technology tend to be larger than later renditions.

However, I'm not sure why they went with a single nacelle. IIRC from the ST Technical Manual, warp drives have to be fielded in pairs to create an effective warp bubble. Perhaps they get around it by having two warp generators in a single nacelle, like the fanwank anto-Borg Enterprise.

The description on the website mentions two sets of coils in the one nacelle so what you're saying might be right.

I must say, the Kelvin looks cooler than I thought. It really looks like a little bruiser of a ship, as opposed to a kitbashed mini-Enterprise.

I'm a bit appalled by the "no more viewscreen" business, though. A HUD? What is this, an F-18? You can do cool funky graphics stuff more easily on a big television than on a proper window...how the heck would one change the magnification, for instance? It's bad enough that all major engagements in Star Trek seem to be at visual range--this ship actually seems to have been designed that way. (And here I thought these guys watched "Balance of Terror." )

Anguirus wrote:I must say, the Kelvin looks cooler than I thought. It really looks like a little bruiser of a ship, as opposed to a kitbashed mini-Enterprise.

I'm a bit appalled by the "no more viewscreen" business, though. A HUD? What is this, an F-18? You can do cool funky graphics stuff more easily on a big television than on a proper window...how the heck would one change the magnification, for instance? It's bad enough that all major engagements in Star Trek seem to be at visual range--this ship actually seems to have been designed that way. (And here I thought these guys watched "Balance of Terror." )

It's still *possible* that the blue glow on the bridge dome is something else. The HUD comment is based on it looking like there's a window on the outside, but there being data and graphics on the "screen" when viewed from the inside. It looks like a window with a HUD, it's just not been officially confirmed yet.

EDIT: wait, I'm an idiot, the bridge close-up on the site shows a blatant window. The glow is a floodlight.

I suppose they figured that since the bridge is always exposed with only a bulkhead between the crew and space anyway, they might as well put a window there.
I suppose with a HUD you could use it to create a screen on the window and zoom in with that, making the window redundant for all purposes except "oooh! pretty!".

Personally if I were redesigning these ships I'd put the bridge in the center of the saucer instead of the traditional "shoot me" dome.