Uncle Snake's Starship Building Tutorial
I've read several times that some people's world has literaly stopped to turn because Decipher, in all their inherent evilness, have not yet published some canon design...(never mind that Starship contains THE MAIN - I repeat 'MAIN'- ST ships from all the series and movies)... how could they they commit such blasphemy?
It seems the fact that you can actually build (yes it can be done!) your own designs has eluded some people.
But fear not! Uncle Snake will take your hand through the process and show you how to build a ship.
Uncle Snake has decided to build a canon ship, the New Orleans class.
FIrst of all you will need the following:
-the Starship supplement
-the Narrator's Guide
-a calculator
-a pen and some paper
-preferably a copy of LUG Spacedock with the appropriate SRM (ship recognition manual) and access to canon sources like the ST encyclopedia
-and finally a good dose of courage
The first step is to decide what is the purpose of the New Orleans? What do we know about it? It has only appeared once in the Wolf 359 battle in 'The Best of Both Worlds'. There doesn't seem to be much canon reference to the ship so we'll have to go along speculation. So we turn to the first Spacedock SRM and see what it says. SD says that it is a combat-oriented ship, being designed during a time of tension with the Cardassian Union, and it is equipped with a large complement of torpedo launchers. It also seems to have good shields. But then you ask: if the New Orleans was such a kick-ass ship, why did Starfleet feel the urge of fielding new combat-oriented designs like the Akira, Steamrunner or Norway? Good question, but you have to remember that while the SD supplement is great to get some hard facts, it often looks like a group effort where the left hand doesn't know what the right one is doing (yes boys and girls, Uncle is being very polite). So we decide to take the middle of the road and make the New Orleans a tough ship, but without bells and whistles like ablative armor or quantum torpedoes. So the NO is a ship built using existing, time-proven components.
So by looking at the dimensions we can see that the NO is a size 6 ship. It is also supposed to be a Frigate. Now you pull out your copy of the NG and you look at table 9.1; you can see that only ships sizes 3-5 can be 'frigates' so you decide to make the NO a 'heavy frigate' (since a FFH can be sizes 4-7). Then you look at table 1.3 in 'Starship' (which shall hereafter be referred to as 'SS'). You now realize that the NO's beam and height belong in the Size 7 category, while the length is Size 6. The rule of thumb is that if 2 out of the 3 dimensions belong to a category then you go along that size category. But the beam and height are definitely in the lower range of the Size 7 bracket. So you decide that the NO is a big tough ship and you go along with size 7. Table 1.3 indicates that a size 7 ship has 99 pts of space to spend and has a starting structure at 35.
Now you have to decide what kind of systems the NO has. Since it is supposed to be a tough ship you decide that weapons and shields will be prioritized, and the systems will have above-average reliability codes. You theorized that the NO was meant to fight Cardassian ships which don't have cloaks so you won't give the NO exceptional sensor capabilities. You then look at the other ships published in SS and try to 'size' the NO's capabilities to what you see. You look at the Ambassador and the Excelsior. You see that both have a single shuttlebay, both have Class 2 sensors and 2 tractor beams. The Ambassador has 2 allotments of transporters while the Excelsior has only 1 (which should be 3, not 4). The Excelsior has more reliable propulsion, ops and life support systems (if you take the uprated version).
So the NO has 70 cargo units (7 x 10); you decide that you want more shuttlebays so that the NO can also act as a fast-response ship equipped for ground support ops so you give it 2 shuttle bays (2 A), giving the NO the capacity to carry 14 size worth of shuttles. Also for that reason you give double the # of transporters to 6 of each type at an extra cost of 1. You only give it one tractor beam however (1 FV). So far you have spent 5 space pts (for the shuttlebays and transporters)
Next, you have to allocate sensors, life support and ops systems. As decided you give to the NO average sensors but you decide to make them a little bit durable but less reliable, so you pick Class 2a sensors (+2/BB) on table 1.7 at a cost of 3 space pts. Then you decide to put durable LS and OPS systems and you choose from table 1.6 both Class 3R systems (with a DD rating at space cost 8: 7/2 = 3.5 rounded down to 3 plus the 5 base pt cost) for a total LS + OPS cost at 16. So far you've spent 23 space costs, 76 remain.
You then have to pick impulse and warp engines. You want the NO to be fairly fast and have a propulsion reliability close to the Excelsior's. So you pick on table 1.10 the FIG-4 impulse system at a cost of 5 pts of space. That system is rated at 0.9c and has a reliability rating of D. You also made sure so far that all component availability dates match. The NO was comissioned in 2358 so so far so good. You then pick the LF-41 warp engines at a cost of 5 space also and a reliability rating of D, which gives the NO an aggregate propulsion reliability of D. You could have picked the LF-35 engine but you decide not to overdo it and that a top warp speed of 9.6 is enough.
Weapons! All right, if you want to kick spoonhead arse you'll need weapons. You feel that 'Type IX' phasers sounds good so that's what you pick. You aim for a beam penetration value of 5/5/4/0/0, 2 notches down from the Galaxy and the Ambassador, and one notch below the Excelsior. Remember, we think that the NO is more torpedo-heavy so that's where we'll put the bacon. Table 1.15 says that a Type IX phaser costs 6 pts of space (-1 because of the 'heavy' designation') and we need 3 of those, so the total cost is 15 (6-1 x 3). The Offensive Value (OV) is 9 per phaser so 3 x 9 = 27. You consult table 1.18 and you look at the beam penetration column and you see that at 5/5/4/0/0 penentration you need a beam OV of 25-34. So at 27 you're fine. Now let's do torpedoes. We pick the MK 60 DF launcher (we don't want to be able to fire quantum torps, this is supposed to be an 'old school' ship remember). The MK 60 DF has an OV of 7 and you aim for an above-average torpedo penetration of 6/6/6/6/6. So you look up table 1.18 in the photon penetration column and you see that in order to have a penetration of 6/6/6/6/6 you need to be within the 25-34 bracket. So you need 4 launchers (7 OV x 4 = 28, which is within 25-34). Each launcher costs 5 space for a total cost of 20 space pts. You then look at the combined OVs for phasers and torpedoes and you see that it's 55, which is within table 1.18's 45-59 bracket, giving an aggregate weapon reliability of D. You now have 30 pts left.
The final system you have to pick are the shields. You want strong shields but nothing cutting edge. You pick the FSQ system on table 1.19 at a base cost of 11. The FSQ's base protection rating is 17 and you start at 2 treshold pts. You decide to max out the treshold at 4 but you want to lower the protection value so you give the Prototype- defensive system flaw -1 protection (table 1.25). You look up again the shield table 1.19 and you see that the system preceding the FSQ is the CIDSS-4 with a protection rating of 16. So the NO has shields at 16/4, with a reliability rating of D.
The last thing you now have to do is to attribute the maneuver modifiers, whose table can be found in the NG (table 9.14). You see that a frigate has a base of 0 in each category (C,H,T) with a max of 2 for each. The NO is size 7, so you get 5 pts to spend (7/2 = 3.5 rounded up = 4 + 1 = 5). You decide to max out the C and T modifiers and give the reminder to H, giving: +2C, +1H, +2H. You then decide to give the NO the Battle Tested edge because you think that it saw a lot of action in a relatively short period of time, giving a final +3T modifier.
And voila! You have a nifty New Orleans-class Heavy Frigate. But some will ask: Uncle Snake, there were a total of 99 space pts to be spent and there are 17 remaining. Surely that can be used to buy more systems, make the ship tougher or buy tons of new edges, no? Well, boys and girls, no. You have to resist the temptation to overdo it. The NO is supposed to be a tough ship but not a super ship, it must have limits somewhere. Also remember that we first thought of making it a size 6 in the first place, so some tradoff for being a size 7 had to be considered. It is not because you can do a thing that you must do that thing (shameless ST quote here)
so here it is :
PRODUCTION DATA
Origin: United Federation of Planets
Class and Type: New Orleans-class Heavy Frigate
Year Launched: 2358
HULL DATA
Structure: 35
Size/Decks: 7/20
Length/Height/Beam : 361/83/259
Complement: 758
OPERATIONAL DATA
Transporters: 6 standard, 6 emergency
Cargo Units: 70
Shuttlebay: 2 A
Shuttlecraft: 14 size worth
Tractor Beams: 1 FV
Sensor System: Class 2A (+2/BB)
Operations System: Class 3R (DD)
Life Support: Class 3R (DD)
PROPULSION DATA
Impulse System: FIG-4 (0.9c) (D)
Warp System: LF-41 (warp 6/9.2/9.6) (D)
TACTICAL DATA
Beam Weapon: Type IX (x3/D)
Penetration: 5/4/4/0/0
Missile Weapon: Mk 60 DF (x4/D)
Penetration: 6/6/6/6/6
Deflector Shield: FSQ (D)
Protection/Treshold: 16/4
MISCELLANEOUS DATA
Maneuver Modifiers: +2C, +1H, +3T
Traits : Battle tested; prototype (defensive system -1 protection)
