Federation Starships in Trek tended to come in groups that shared common design features; the largest known being the 'Galaxy family', which included the Nebula, New Orleans, Cheyenne, Challenger, Freedom, Niagara (sort of), and the Springfield. All of these had saucers that were of similar design to the Galaxy, and many of them used the same type of nacelles. The Constitution family, including the Miranda and Soyuz, is another example.

While I like many of Cryptic's designs, it is starting to bug me that they are all so distinctive.

A Heavy Cruiser that used a saucer and nacelles like those of a Saber class is not hard to picture; a Light Cruiser based on elements of the Aurora science ship could look pretty cool. Those are just 2 that pop into my head as I type this.

I would like it if future designs by Cryptic established a few new design families by taking components of ships already in the game and 'kitbashing' them into new classes (it is, after all, in the finest traditions of Star Trek :p).

Anyone else feel this way? And if so, are there any kitbashes you would particularly like to see?

Just some ideas I've had since starting the thread:

The Cerberus could easily be used as inspiration for a new t5 Starcruiser, as well as t4 and both t5 science configurations (I just love the Cerberus nacelles; they should use em more ).

If the Nebula is ever added to the game, I think every ship in that configuration should be based on something else (say 1 other from t4 cruisers, and 1 from t5 Assault cruisers). After all, the Nebula was a smaller counterpart to the Galaxy, the others should fill the same role for other starship generations.

A t3 Akira config escort based on the 'Cryptic's own' starter ship (not the Miranda or Centaur, the other one... I just can't remember the name ).

A Galaxy styled t5 Advanced escort based loosely on the Challenger could work (could even say it's a refit or something).

The Nebula class wasn't a counterpart for the Galaxy at all. It's a short duty, specialized mission oriented ship. The Galaxy class was a long tour, deep space exploration vessel. They may have used similar design specs for certain things, but they aren't even the same hull type.

Seriously, you're comparing apples and trout.

By the by, the other Light Cruiser you're thinking of is the Soyuz class, as featured in "Cause and Effect" (TNG) by the USS Bozeman, NCC-1941. It was the same hull type as the Miranda class, but had a different design for more combat-oriented missions.

Short duty? Specialized? Going by internal volume (the only measure worth considering when looking at the size of a space vessel) the Nebula is the second biggest ship in the fleet by a fair margin. Plus the technical manuals (the closest thing we have to actual official information regarding the Nebula class' function; other than that, all we have is fan speculation) state that both the Galaxy and Nebula are explorer ships.

Not only that, but the very early Nebula models really were just kitbashes of the Galaxy; and later ones were only slightly different.

As for the Soyuz, no that ship is not in the game; the Shikahr is what I was thinking of (I looked it up on Suricata's ship chart).

Simply put, that class is not designed to be away from a port of call for a long period of time. The specialized mission pod located above the saucer section is changeable at drydock, based on what the ship is being used for... combat, survey, or medium range exploration.

My bad. Yeah, I looked that up after I wrote it cuz I was like, "no, that isn't right, you idiot". Mainly cuz of the nacelles, I remembered it had some funky-looking ones.

Actually, nevermind. Been a bit of time since I really looked at the Nebula, it just mounted the Primary and Secondary hulls straight together. Still not meant for deep space exploration, though. The mission pod part I was talking about is right on.

Wups... never mind then lol

Yeah, rectified my post above.

95 views and the only response is a complaint about my definition of 'counterpart'.

Cryptic won't know what you do or don't want unless you tell them people.

Also, a Sabre variant based on the new Hephaestus could look pretty sweet