The names Jean picked...

Astilbe

Bluebell

Clover

Dahlia

Echinacea

Forsythia

Gardenia

Heather

Impatiens

Jasmine

Kalanchoe

Lantana

Mimosa

Nasturtium

Orchid

Peony

Quince

Rose

Snapdragon

Trillium

Violet

Wisteria

Yarrow

Zinnia

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 03:33 pm: Edit

The last two names

Ulex (an Irish gorse)

Xique-Xique (a type of cactus)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 03:40 pm: Edit

History: Back in (Y120? Y13o?) when star fleet was converting to new ship designs, one of which was the Frigate, they also designed a smaller corvette as it was cheaper, allowed more total ships to be built, and there really wasn't that much of a threat of fleet battles. Maybe eventually Petick will rewrite this to reflect that the first 12 were early Y-series ships refitted for middle years or maybe never refittted.

They were on par with the Kzinti FF, Lyran FF, Klingon E4.

The Federation knew that 12 corvettes cost what they would spend on 8 frigates, and 12 corvettes could be in 12 places at the same time. So 12 were ordered, named for flowers in honor of the WWII British Flower-Class Corvettes.

Later, a second batch of 12 were ordered.

Later, two member planets paid for a 25th and 26th ship.

No more were built after (Y145?). By the time of the General War, some had been lost, converted to non-military missions, used as police cutters, or handed down to National Guard units. So none of them need to appear on the F&E order of battle.

The national guard ones were given a hasty refit to add a drone rack and change the reactors to AWRs. They served as convoy escorts and local defense ships, but were too small to be used by Star Fleet. Amazingly, four of these (two in non-military configurations) actually survived the General War.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 03:43 pm: Edit

This FC ship card shows the refitted Y170 configuration because FC uses refitted ships. We might do a MY version sometime, as it would just involve deleting the drone rack.



Yes, lots and lots of you proposed or requested such a ship. I actually did this one in 1982 or 1983 but the staff at the time found it too small to bother with. The concept of "middle years" and "early years" was very vaguely defined at the time.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 03:44 pm: Edit

I for one plan for it to be part of R13.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 03:45 pm: Edit

I am not sure if the phaser-3s are original or part of the refit. I don't think Fed ships had phaser 3s back then.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 03:48 pm: Edit

Will everyone get Corvettes, or just the Feds? (Well, besides the Klingons. The Klingons already have the G2/E3 which are directly comparable. And Tholians.)

How many crew units does it have?

Thanks for the look! I like this little ship!

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 03:53 pm: Edit

For something contemporaneous, the Federation FF has 2xPh-3 from the get-go and is YIS 127.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 04:01 pm: Edit

Confirming Jason Schaff who made the observation before I could.

The addition of the drone rack and APR is the same as the refit of the FF to the FFG configuration. Subsequently the APR is further refitted to an AWR.

But the original FF design included two phaser-3s (in addition to the three phaser-1s and two photons).

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 04:46 pm: Edit

I agree that, to match the FF, the Corvette should only have the APR/AWR and drone as part of its refit.

That said, I honestly have always thought the FF was done incorrectly, as its development works nothing like any of the other Federation ships. From an out-of-game perspective, it was obviously designed as a stablemate to the NCL and therefore designed like the NCL (with equal shields and including the Ph-3s.) But, because it filled a long-standing hole in the Federation fleet, it was given an extremely early YIS date.

If it was designed as a stablemate of the CA, then it should have not included the Ph-3s and should have unequal shields. The unequal shields could then get equalized, along with the Ph-3s, as part of its "plus" refit. (Second complaint: The FFG should have been the FF+. Calling it the FFG instead of the FF+ has screwed up a bunch of other stuff, too.)

Am I advocating any changes to the FF? Not really; it is way too late for that. But, realizing just how anachronistic its design is helps explain why it is such an exception to the rest of the Federation design approach.

Back to the Corvette. As the FF *does* exist as it does, the Corvette refit should just be the APR/AWR and the drone rack.

By John Sickels (Johnsickels) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 05:00 pm: Edit

Love it.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 05:23 pm: Edit

At first glance, that looks a lot like the SSD that I made of a Saucer - Police Cutter, with all the same boxes just moved around into a different hull shape.

EDIT: Now that I look closer, it's a bit smaller than a POL: minus two Warp and Cargo, minus one Ph-1, TRAN, and Hull, and no EMER. Oh, and the phaser arcs are different.


Garth L. Getgen

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 06:00 pm: Edit

So, it looks nothing like Garth's then...

I don't know how you missed it; this ship was done by me 35 years ago but 20 people have sent the same ship at least that many times.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 06:13 pm: Edit

I missed it because I was looking at the pretty colors......


Garth L. Getgen

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 06:24 pm: Edit

Should be a fun alternative.

SVC notes that no end of people have requested or submitted similar things.

The version I did, in 2006 or so (based on a Wax miniature I did in 1985) was the "Boxer-class corvette. I envisioned it as a contemporary of the Texas-class oCL, from a time when that hull was considered a top line cruiser (some fluff text has mentioned it being a 'heavy cruiser' in its earlier days.

My design didn't use the traditional saucer. I considered the FF to be about the smallest that could make normal deck heights work in one. To give it enough space inside, I took inspiration from the more wedge-like forward hull of the oCL. My Corvette was a very rounded wedge shape.

Another key difference was that I had mine using a single unique 9-point engine, mounted above. (That would've been a deal-killer).

I considered a photon too juice-hungry at this size (from trying to fly the Pol) and set my corvette up with 1 phaser-2 FA ventral (another deal-killer), a phaser-3 on each side, and a drone rack (which was much to early).

sketches

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 08:04 pm: Edit

Yes, this is very close the the Pol. Interestingly, when undamaged, I think it actually has a slightly better power curve. But it will take damage worse because of the smaller engines.

Another interesting thing is how comparable this is to the Thunderbolt. Obviously, this is a full ship, whereas the Thunderbolt is more minimal. But it's closer than you might initially think.

I look forward to the shapeways model. Actually, that brings up a question: what would this ship's volume be? How big/small would it be compared to the frigate?

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 08:28 pm: Edit

Actually, if you're flying 3125 minis, I think a 3788 FFG could stand in for this.

What if it was an oval about the same length as the FFG, but about 2/3 to 3/4 as wide??


Garth L. Getgen

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 09:30 pm: Edit

Full circle is structurally stronger.

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 10:55 pm: Edit

I don't see an issue with the Fed FF and its equal shields from the start. The FF was more maneuverable than the larger ships, which probably tried to keep their targets in the FA arc. The FF was more of a dog fighter.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 11:17 pm: Edit

I don't see it as that. At turn mode B, for a move cost 1/3 ship it's not very maneuverable. It's phaser arcs aren't particularly amenable to this either, compared to the more maneuverable Klingons out there (not to mention the equally maneuverable Klingon cruisers) which generally have better arcs on their phasers.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, August 16, 2019 - 11:57 pm: Edit

Regardless of the shields, the Ph-3 on the base FF is anachronistic. But, again, bridge, water.

Another question on the Corvette. It's BPV with the plus and AWR refit is 48. We know the plus refit is worth 5 points. (It's the exact same refit the FF got, and that is 5 points.) The AWR refit is another point. That means the unrefitted Corvette, which removes the AWR and drone rack, has a BPV of 42. Compare the unrefitted Corvette with the unrefitted Pol, which has a BPV of 40. The Pol has an extra hull, two cargo, an extra Tran, an extra control box, bigger engines, an extra excess damage. It has 3xPh-1s instead of 2xPh-1s and 2xPh-3s, which is roughly equivalent, but the arcs are much better on the Pol. The one disadvantage for the Pol is slightly weaker shields. Is the Corvette actually better than the Pol as the BPV suggests? I would think the Pol is stronger. I think the Corvette BPV is a bit too high.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Saturday, August 17, 2019 - 12:27 am: Edit

What turn mode does the POL have?

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, August 17, 2019 - 04:10 am: Edit

The POL is Nimble, with an A Turn Mode.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, August 17, 2019 - 09:08 am: Edit

>>>Compare the unrefitted Corvette with the unrefitted Pol, which has a BPV of 40.

Wrong, Mike. The POL was changed in Y2K to make it a 50-point ships, +8 for the Plus Refit and +1 more for APR->AWR. Also, it has 10 crew-units and 4 BP, not 6 & 2.

With 100 crew minus BP and deck crew, the POL has ~70 crew to run the ship. Checking the number of systems that need to be manned, I would have to say the Corvette also needs 10 crew units. It "might" be possible to trim a slot or two here and there to take it down to nine units, but no less. At eight units less BP/DC, that's only 50 to run the ship. I don't think I could make a 24/7 ops crew roster with only 50 people. I suppose it could be done, but you've trimmed all the fat and are now hitting bone.

Good catch on the Turn Mode. There may be some technobabble reason why it's a "B", but it'd be easy to argue that this should be an "A", even if not Nimble.

Interesting tidbit: thus far, the only other ship I've found in the game with a 1/4 Move Cost is the Romulan Snipe.


Garth L. Getgen

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Saturday, August 17, 2019 - 09:38 am: Edit

SVC, while none need appear on the F&E Order of Battle, will they be available to be built in F&E?