3DUSS Legacy

calamity_si

Background info:

The Legacy project, which began in the early 2370's, arose from Starfleet's need to expand on the capabilities of the Galaxy class explorer. Whilst the project was put on hold in favour of warship production during the Dominion War, it was reinstated upon the war's end in 2375. Whilst the Galaxy class was at the height of it's production run, many considered the design to have several inherent weaknesses that could only be fully addressed with a new class of ship. The Legacy would aim to improve upon the apparently high attrition rate of the Galaxy class and other vessels on deep space missions.

It had been noticed that the Galaxy class had a comparatively fragile space frame for a vessel of it's size. In fact, once it's shields were negated, vessels of this class would often have a matter of minutes before their warp cores went critical. Two famous examples of such calamities were the fates of the USS Odyssey and the Enterprise-D. As such, the Legacy class focused on durability above all else. As the ship was primarily an explorer and not a warship (like the Sovereign class) it's weapons would be limited to type XI phasers and photon torpedoes. As ablative armour was too costly and complicated to cover the entire vessel with, a new technique in manufacturing hull plating was employed that incorporated layers of carbon-neutronium alloy. These were intended to increase the ship's survivability rate even in the event of total shield failure.

Durability was also a key element in the ships overall design geometry. The main components of saucer and secondary hull were brought closer together and the pylons connecting the warp nacelles were made thicker and actually intersected the nacelles themselves, providing the ship with it's unique 'winged' profile and a useful platform for extra phaser emplacements.
Whilst this feature slightly decreased the overall stability of the warp field (by partially covering the nacelle field grilles), it also offered an increased degree of protection from enemy fire.

Another notable design feature was the removal of the ship's ability to separate it's saucer from its engineering section. For the Galaxy class, this was envisaged as a means of maintaining the majority of non-combatants safe in the saucer section, while using the stardrive section to enter hostile situations. However, its utility was vastly outweighed by keeping the ship A‘whole,A’ as demonstrated by the lack of separation in the majority of risky or dangerous situations encounted by the Galaxy classes. Essentially, instead of having two ships that could operate independently, the ship actually created a capable, but weakened stardrive section (that lacked redundancy, such as impulse drive or additional transporter rooms) while simultaneously providing a huge liability in the need to defend the saucer. Overall, the removal of this feature gave the Legacy a much sturdier design which meant that it's structural integrity field required half as much energy as its Galaxy class counterpart.

With these modifications, Starfleeet hopes to create a starship that would be able to endure long range missions without the need of regular maintainence from a starbase. In fact, one of the primary missions of the Legacy would be to reinstate exploration of the furthest reaches of the Gamma quadrant, beyond the borders of the Dominion.

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stfanboy

Pretty nice design except the nacelle pylons are going through the warp field grilles. You will need to have those open to space without any interference from the hull.

TALON_UK

There are certain aspects of the design I quite like, but the way the pylons/wings intersect with the warp nacelles simply doesn't work. I reckon if you raised the nacelles slightly and moved them forward so the wider warp field cutaway occurs in front of where the pylon intersects with nacelle, you'd have a much stronger design.

^^ Heheh, yeah, what he said.

Polaris 004

Love this desighn. I really like the shape of the secondary hull and the deflector. I really like the view from the aft, especially the connection between the saucer and 2ndary hull. Yeah, just fix that intersection with the nacelles pointed out by others, and i would also suggest getting rid of all the rim windows underneath the saucer. Its hard to imagine that much demand for windows in the floor. It really jumped out at me as improbable.

evil_genius_180

Well, I'm not going to beat a dead horse, but I too noticed that issue with the nacelles and pylons. The rest I really like, though. The background info is a good read too.

TALON_UK

Will probably also make the silhouette look a little better too, with the forward swept pylons it looks like the shape would flow more naturally if the nacelles sat further forward on them. Would also hark back to the design of the Galaxy a little more while still doing its own thing.

calamity_si

Thanks guys. I know what you mean about the engines being intersected by the struts. Believe me, I've played around with the arrangement loads of times. I've tried raising the nacelles, lowering them, moving them further forward or back. Believe me, this is the best overall arrangement, that allows the nacelles to be fully visable from all angles (for example, moving them further forward would obsure the bussard collectors from a dorsal point of view - not a technical calamity, loads of ships do have that, but I felt that it ruined the overall profile as seen from above).

The best I can do is address the issue of the struts intersecting through the glass area or warp nacelle grille, if you prefer. The newer 'Mk II' nacelle has the grille more moulded around the strut. If you look closely at the port side elevation of this Haynes style set of orthos I've done, you can see what I mean. I'm currently waiting for another render to finish that'll better illustrate this modification.

Aresius

The design looks ugly.....
The model epic....

calamity_si

Aresius wrote: »

The design looks ugly.....
The model epic....

I don't know whether to be insulted or pleased with that comment....so I'll be a little of both. THIS is an ugly ship: Exploration_Cruiser_Refit.png My ship is not ugly...or THAT ugly, at least....

Aresius

The design seems to be based on one of the Nova-concepts in the TNG-Tech Manual. I already found that design stupid, eventho these topdown looks never clearly showed how the pylons and nacelles connected. If they meant it the way yo visualised it, it's crap.

Your ship (aka model) looks good for it's creation. It's just the inherent design that's ugly.

calamity_si

Aresius wrote: »

The design seems to be based on one of the Nova-concepts in the TNG-Tech Manual. I already found that design stupid, eventho these topdown looks never clearly showed how the pylons and nacelles connected. If they meant it the way yo visualised it, it's crap.

Your ship (aka model) looks good for it's creation. It's just the inherent design that's ugly.

Well I guess that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.
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BolianAdmiral

I love the design! I agree that the only thing I'd change, would be to lose the winglets that stick out from the warp grilles. But I love the design!

calamity_si

Thanks BA, but the best I can do for now is this adjustment that shows how the winglets no longer intersect the glowing glass section of the warp grilles. Now the grilles actually 'go around' the shape of the wing. USS LEGACY MKII nacelle Comparison.jpg

Starship

calamity_si wrote: »

Thanks BA, but the best I can do for now is this adjustment that shows how the winglets no longer intersect the glowing glass section of the warp grilles. Now the grilles actually 'go around' the shape of the wing. USS LEGACY MKII nacelle Comparison.jpg

Good workaround Simon! :thumb:

tricky

Not that it's relevant to this design now, but what I remember for the technical manual was the nacelles of the nova class with the sticky out pylons was designed to allow the nacell move inwards and outwards along the pylon, and I would imagine their ingestion was the nacelle sat on top of the pylon.
Like this design though, the pylon/winglet seems like a practical feature

anorax

Long-time lurker here, I love this design, I hope you post some more, and maybe a MSD.

BolianAdmiral

I think the original concept was that the nacelles simply sit atop the pylons themselves. At least, that's how I'd interpret it visually.

Aresius

So did I see it. It stated something along those lines if I recall right....