Question about LF-35 warp drive

[John]

"Designed for much larger vessels, the LF-35 provides enough power to meet the needs of much larger starships. Indeed a Defiant-Class warp core can damage the vessel's structure as it functions closer to its maximum speed of warp 9.8."

So this is just a particular situation for Defiant-Class warp cores - because the class has taken a design flaw (warp drive)? Any other ship design, say size 5 or less does not have to worry about using the LF-35, right?

I know that in other game systems (Like Icon) there may be a difference in the warp core used and the nacelles - is this just the way we make that distinction in Coda - with design flaws and enhanced systems?

[BouncyCaitian]

essentally, the ship is over-enginned for it's sixe and power requirements. The Definat was a prototype progress in work and I can only assume that starfleet would work out hammering out the bugs when they had time to work on the design.

[Tobian]

Hmm, yes the distinction is very vague, but then in some ways it has to be. Too often the show doesn't make the disticntion between the 'warp core' and the 'warp drive' which serve very different functions.

Indeed, in TOS there was no such distinction - the Nacelles were combined units, which did much of the work, it was only later that they refined the process into a 'warp core', most likelly after the set they built for the first movie, with that iconic engineering bay, with the great big energy conduits. (TMP had some of the nicest sets of any of the films, perhaps with the exception of the Stelar cartography room in Generations )

Bottom line with the Defiant is that it is described in the show as having such a flaw, so the game designers gave it one! You do not need to give a similarly designed vessel, with the same size and stats a similar disadvantage - but you also have to realise that with the flaw you also get extra.... space ! Which helps to go towards those massive weapons arrays! Ok that's a game mechanic, but it helps to balance the design!