Sovereign Speeds

[IceGiant]

Am I the only one that finds it's speed of 6/9.5/9.7 a little slow for the most advanceds ship in Starfleet?

[Snake_Plissken]

same here- but I think they had to use Starship Spotter has a reference and maybe that figure was in that book.

[Dan Gurden]

Starship Spotter does indeed agree with the cruise/max speeds at 6.0 and 9.7 respectively...

And its also not the fastest Starfleet ship in that book either, so they have already consdiered that the Sovvy as pride of the fleet is slower than other ships...

However look at it in one of two ways.

1 - Change it.

2 - An opportunity for your engineer players to squeeze every ounce of power and run the engines at faster speeds if required for a loss of safety. After all theres only so many decimal points you can add to the end of a Warp Speed before you realise that engineerings latest hurculerian effort has result in abut 1/2 an inch faster speed...

[buck rogers]

In the "Star Trek: Captains chair" virtual tour of the bridges of the ships of Star Trek, Riker explains that the Enterprise-E can go warp 9.975 or 5754c. I like starship spotter but I since they can't both be right I guess you'd just have to choose which ever one you think fits in your star trek sreies the best. Of course I've also seen several figures that sgree with the Starship spotter.

[IceGiant]

Looks like we have a winner, thanks Buck. 9.975 it is.

[Ergi]

I like the idea of the Sovereign being not the fastest ship in the fleet. Think about what the class has been designed for. That's right, to defeat the Borg. Therefore armament and shields were more important than other systems. The Intrepid, however, has been designed as a fast explorer. It seems that her complete hull has been designed around the warp drive. And to continue my comparison of the Sovereign and the Intrepid, what do you think can go faster, a battle cruiser or a speed boat? Although there is no friction in space a smaller ship would have to create a smaller Warp bubble to surround it than a larger one would. Therefore a ship as huge as the Sovereign would need more power, and probably bigger engines, so they are not fried by the greater amount of energy, to reach the same speed as a smaller vessel.

Besides, with the Sovereign class not beating all other classes in every respect, the PCs will still be happy about serving on other classes. "Hey, we might not have the biggest guns, but we have the best sensors, or anything, in the fleet."

And I forgot, instead of complaining about speed I think we should rather speak about the thresshold. I mean, giving the Sovereign shields as good as those of a Borg cube...?

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

I tend to go with what is in Spacedock it works for me and I've even managed to rationalize the First Contact situation so that it works for my campaign's "physics" so to speak.

It does mean that in my campaign, the Sovereign is not the fastest ship in the fleet but close to it as it needs the speed to be able to respond quickly to reach where ever the threatened region is, especially after what we see in First Contact.

Regards,
CKV.

[IceGiant]

Originally posted by Capt. K. Vaughn
I tend to go with what is in Spacedock it works for me and I've even managed to rationalize the First Contact situation so that it works for my campaign's "physics" so to speak.

It does mean that in my campaign, the Sovereign is not the fastest ship in the fleet but close to it as it needs the speed to be able to respond quickly to reach where ever the threatened region is, especially after what we see in First Contact.

Regards,
CKV.

I was thinking this as well. Perhaps drop it to 5?

[qerlin]

Originally posted by Ergi
I like the idea of the Sovereign being not the fastest ship in the fleet.

Same here. It's an all-piurpose animal, compared to the more specialized ships.

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

Originally posted by IceGiant
I was thinking this as well. Perhaps drop it to 5?

I have no problem with the speeds as listed in Spacedock. The ship may be multi-purpose but it is expected to respond where needed and in order to be effective must do so quickly.

Regards,
CKV.

[IceGiant]

Sorry, no I meant dropping the shield threshold to 5

[buck rogers]

Actually the Prometheus-class is the fastest ship in the fleet warp 9.99 and the Defiant-class is also technically faster warp 9.985, but she'd tear herself to pieces if she ever tried it. As far as the Enterprise E whether you agree to 9.7, or 9.975 her engines and Warp core are much larger than the Intrepid-class. So this would off set the fact that the Enterprise is four times bigger. Which brings me to another example from the "Captians Chair" in which Riker makes note of the fact the Enterprise has the maneuverability of a ship one quarter her size.

[Snake_Plissken]

Sorry, no I meant dropping the shield threshold to 5

IMVHO I'd leave it at 6. Remember, the Sovereigns are not mass-produced so they need to have exceptional stats.

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by buck rogers
Which brings me to another example from the "Captians Chair" in which Riker makes note of the fact the Enterprise has the maneuverability of a ship one quarter her size.

Woah there Buck.

Just remember that the Computer Games, just like the books, the RPG or even unfilmed/edited segments of script do not however constitute a canon information source.

At the end of the day if the information on a Game (or any other source) suits you, fine, keep it. But remember that not everyone will agree and will be equally correct in discarding it...

All we can really argue here are semantics and opinions.

It could equally be true (for example) that Riker was justly proud of his ship and boasting... just a little... Remember in insurrection, we saw exactly how manueverable the Enterprise was, and while it was pretty damn maneuverable it was still not a patch on the maneuverability of the Voyager when it went up against a Tactical Cube in Unimatrix One... The intrepid is about half the size and a third of the mass of the Sovvy (according to other, equally non-cani=on sources).

[buck rogers]

Captans chair isn't a game its a virtual tour of the bridges of famous trek ships including voyager. It is actually offically licenced by paramount even bringing in the actors to narrate the tour of their ships. As for arguing what's the point really? Besides I'm not arguing with anyone, merely presenting "facts" from other sources just as "offical" as Starship Spotter, or a roleplaying game. You are quite correct however no one has to use thoughs figures if they don't want to. I don't remember saying that anyone had too. As for the Enterprise E maneurability issue in the Briar patch remember she wasn't fitted for that part of space and her impulse manidolds couldn't handle the strain, hense the slowe response. As I recall she handled fairly well in "First Contact" as well as "Nemesis". Not to say I don't think the CGI Voyager is very maneuverable. If talking about the most maneverable feddie starships of all I'd say its the Defiant. She is far more maneuverable than both "Big E" or Voyager.