But since the Nebula in "First Contact" had the same pod as the Sutherland that has in turn the same as the Nebula in STO, it's correct and valid to not fire from the pod.

This actually brings up another question I've always had about the Nebula class:

Why can't we mount more torpedo launchers to it?

As previously stated, the mission pod seen in TNG and VOY (not the one for the Phoenix) is meant to have additional torpedo launchers.

I'd love to have more fore and aft weapons slots for the Nebula class that are restricted to torpedoes (no energy weapons) and only a single forward and single aft mount for a phaser/energy weapons. This would give a clear reason to use a Nebula class in the game and a disadvantage (more torpedo damage from the front and rear but weaker broadside)

http://www.dlmparts.com/images/513_Nebula_top_side.jpg

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/...urbishment.jpg

There's a couple of pics of the actually model, notice the red bits on the pod? Those are torpedo tubes. That pod is LOADED!!!

Some of this knowledge also comes from a meeting I had with a set of actors that played the crew of a nebula class ship at N.A.S. Pensacola. They brought a mockup of the ship for people to look at, so I looked and loved.

Btw, the nebula's torpedo pod doesn't have the long range capabilities of the phoenix pod. Honestly, the pod they have on it in game doesn't really fit the whole science ship thing. If they want to make it a true science ship and step away from the true aggressive nature of the Nebula class they'd slap the phoenix pod onto it. However, if they wanted to have fun with it they could give us another nebula variant with, I dunno maybe a photon barrage console, something like a high yield and a torpedo spread all throw together.

OR!! And this is my solution to the whole "lol my ship has torpedoes and I can't shoot them because weaponslots problem" The current system for weapons hardpoints is canonically flawed because we KNOW that pretty much every ship in trek canon carried torpedoes and used them. HOWEVER what we see in this game is that it's not beneficial for many ships to carry them, eg. beam cruisers, turret cruisers, pure cannon escorts, and when you do they're not really much of a benefit to you because the fire rate is so slow, so to fix that here's what you do.

Give every ship in game their own SEPERATE hardpoints for projectile weapons, one point for each tube preferably.

Make torpedoes work like a magazine with a reload time after firing, (with a reload mechanic preferably) this should be different across different ships, eg.

Miranda class, 4 tubes: 2 fore. 2 aft. 1 shot each, 30 second reload

Star Cruiser 4 tubes: 2 fore. 2 aft. 4 shots each fore, 2 shots each aft. 30 second reload

Hegh'ta 1 for tube, 4 shots, 15 second reload

Negh'var 3 tubes, 2 fore. 1 aft. 4 shots each, 30 second reload

Fleet Escort 3 tubes, 2 fore. 1 aft. 4 shots each, 20 second reload

Nebula( gotta put it in) 14 tubes, 10 fore. 4 aft. 1 shot each, 60 second reload (this setup is for salvo fire)

working buffs into this system isn't too hard, the buffs effect each torpedo that is currently loaded, buffs cannot stack or overwrite(like they do now) except the "that thing's gotta have a tail pipe" torpedo, spread would work almost like a scatter volley, each torpedo splits to hit multiple targets, high yield would work like it should, each torp does more damage, yay

...except that just because something is red does not mean it's a torpedo tube.
Since when are torpedo tubes red anyway?
In fact the torpedo tube located between the saucer and the hull was not red

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/...cond_Sight.jpg

Not to mention the minor detail that the Sutherland fired from the forward most point of the pod, not those red dots.

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/...Sutherland.jpg

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albu...tiontwo198.jpg

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albu...tiontwo221.jpg

While we are at it, the hardpoint for cannons seems to be at the frontal outer edge of the saucer, which looks very funny when firing scatter volleys.

Can't we have cannons firing randomly from the beam array hardpoints, so that it may seem like a bit of a cannon "anti-matter spread" effect, where the whole saucer lights it up instead of one single point?