Best designed SF/sci-fi ships

[Enlightenment]

Of the multitudes of ships in SF and sci-fi, which are the best designed to deal with the universes in which they are based? By best designed I mean ships that have, among other things, no irrational weaknesses such as explosive warp cores, reactors vulnerable to fighter attack (*cough*Death*cough*Star), whisp-like hullforms that are not structurally sound (e.g. typical Romulan and Minbari designs), or exposed bridges and suchlike.

The SSD comes close if not for its idiotic bridge tower. The various Culture ships are quite well designed from all apperances but that's to be expected.

[Beowulf]

Harrington-class SD(P)

[Shinova]

A Borg sphere, after going through lots of internal design changes and tech changes.


Or the Excession, which is also a sphere.

[Shinova]

Also your tradition UFO. Omni-directional, 360 weapons coverage, but narrow profile compared to a sphere.

[Cpt_Frank]

Of the multitudes of ships in SF and sci-fi, which are the best designed to deal with the universes in which they are based? By best designed I mean ships that have, among other things, no irrational weaknesses such as explosive warp cores, reactors vulnerable to fighter attack (*cough*Death*cough*Star), whisp-like hullforms that are not structurally sound (e.g. typical Romulan and Minbari designs), or exposed bridges and suchlike.

The SSD comes close if not for its idiotic bridge tower. The various Culture ships are quite well designed from all apperances but that's to be expected.

The bridge is not that bad since there are back-up bridges and the ship can continue it's normal function after the bridge has been destroyed.

The Death Star II is probably one of the best designed 'ships'. It would have been virtually invincible.

[Neko_Oni]

Jovian Chronicles ships are fairly well designed. Modular for easy repair/changing configuration, the bridge is buried deep in the main hull. They do however lack any dedicated anti-fighter weapons.

[Peregrin Toker]

Actually, I can't remember any particular ships which don't have any weaknesses...

[SWPIGWANG]

DSII is too big and expensive for its role IMO

[Xon]

An Imperial Terra Class planetiod which is bigger than the Earth's Moon and can be killed by a gravimetric warhead which generates an even horizon 400,000km in diameter for a really short period of time. How ever hitting it while it is moving at 800C in realspace(Generates 2 super massive black holes for .15 fermo seconds, which causes the ship to translocate its position some figue forward, repeated as fast as the generators can cycle for an apparent FTL velocity of 800C) might be a bit hard.

Note: This comes from a David Weber book and is not some fanficion wank fest.

[BenRG]

I loved the 'Nostromo' in 'Alien'. Like a lot of the private-owned ships in 'Star Wars', it gave the impression of being a working ship: Something that had to go years in between services and that was as much a home to its' crew as it was a tool for a certain purpose. Remember in the opening scene that some of the corridor lighting was knackered and didn't come on as the crew came out of hibernation? Star Trek designs have always struck me as being too clean and antiseptic. Where is the clutter. Where are the ripped-out pannels in Engineering where the chief engineer has bypassed something, 'chopped' a part of the engine or customised the fuel system for greater efficiency? It is those little things that make Trek a little less engaging.

Externally, too, the 'Nostromo' was a sensible design, and one that I would like to see more of in sci-fi. Instead of putting everything in one hull, they had a much smaller 'tug' ship (which was capable of planetary landing) and a huge 'cargo rig' that it carried around and was limited to orbit and deep space. I have waited, in vain, for years to see a cargo ship in a sci-fi series acting as a tractor rig, carrying around a 'train' of self-contained cargo units like the ones in 'X-wing vs. TIE Fighter'.

In terms of millitary ships... Well, I am obsessed with the 'Executor'-class SSD. When 'The Art of Star Wars' came to London, I spent a good twenty minutes just staring at the SSD model in disbelief. There is something right about that design. I also love the Narn Battlecruiser design and the Shadow 'spider from hell' cruiser design (both from 'Babylon 5', the latter being extravigantly alien and starting a trend that other series have scrambled to copy.

[Stormbringer]

All of the ships of the Honorverse

The Muntineer-verse Planetoids

Any of the Star War's canon Imperial Ships

[Peregrin Toker]

Any of the Star War's canon Imperial Ships

Don't the exposed bridges make for big weaknesses???

However, there are probably EU ships with less exposed bridges - such as Admiral Giel's flagship.

[Typhonis 1]

The ships in Star Frontiers are decent designs even though there engines are mounted on pylons.Reason being they use nuclear reactors in the engines to create motive thrust

[Stormbringer]

Any of the Star War's canon Imperial Ships

Don't the exposed bridges make for big weaknesses???

Not really, they are exposed but if you can batter the sheilds down and can still keep fighting then you're tough enough to do serious damage anyway. And most won't be destroyed immediatly afterwards like the Executor, they have massive redundancy and would ahve regained control if they had hit the Death Star.

The idea that the bridge tower is some horrible vulnerability is blown out of proportion. It's not the dangerous except in a few very rare situations.

[Alyeska]

For Trek, specifically the Federation. The Nebula and Miranda class ships are designed quite well. Good fire arcs, less area for shields to extend outward. Compact design with good weapon loadouts.

[Exonerate]

Lancer frigate. Good anti-fighter coverage.

[Stormbringer]

Lancer frigate. Good anti-fighter coverage.

But an easy lunch for any ship designed for a ship to ship fight.

[Master of Ossus]

For Trek, specifically the Federation. The Nebula and Miranda class ships are designed quite well. Good fire arcs, less area for shields to extend outward. Compact design with good weapon loadouts.

I like the Saber class, which combines these advantages with a slightly better volume to surface area ratio.

[Alyeska]

For Trek, specifically the Federation. The Nebula and Miranda class ships are designed quite well. Good fire arcs, less area for shields to extend outward. Compact design with good weapon loadouts.

I like the Saber class, which combines these advantages with a slightly better volume to surface area ratio.

Good point. It places its warp engines in a position that protect them in the frontal arc. Its got all of its weapons almost solely designed for forward arc as well. A decent little destroyer, good escort to bigger ships.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Jovian Chronicles ships are fairly well designed. Modular for easy repair/changing configuration, the bridge is buried deep in the main hull. They do however lack any dedicated anti-fighter weapons.

Modular structure usually means weak and is quite stupid. Sounds like a wank brain bug to me.

[Dahak]

Any Xeelee ship.

The Nightfighter is some very rugged design. It survived some 5 million years in a glacier on Ganymede without a scratch, and perfectly working.

Or the Xeelee ship which evacuated the few surviving humans through the ring. Space enough for all humanity inside its paperthin hull (all spaces collapsed, and the engines, computers, everything, also included in the hull), and was able to build a solar system with a earth-like planet from complete scratch

[Neko_Oni]

Modular structure usually means weak and is quite stupid. Sounds like a wank brain bug to me

I dunno, the new ships are designed for mass production. So they have a engine block designed for warships, they just connect it to the mainhull and bingo new ship. I guess it would be weaker, but the finished ships look pretty damn cool.

[Darth Fanboy]

Spaceball One, not only was it large enough to house a large portion of the Spaceball Army, but it could go into Ludicrous speed (which is .5 factors past Ridiculous?) and only incur damage from passengers not wearing their seatbelts.

No other vessel has ever engulfed the gaseous contents of an atmosphere either.

[Sokar]

For me its the Honorverse warships, elegant, utilitarian, believable(short of the propulsion system, but then again this is Sci-Fi) and deadly. Special mention goes out the the SD(P) class for sheer overkill, but being a winning combination in its setting.

[aerius]

Also from the Honorverse, I think the new Courvoisier pod lauching battlecruisers could an amazing design. They should be able to easily match the missle firepower of a conventional SD while being much faster and more maneuverable. They'll still get ruined at energy range by an SD, but with their speed they'd be hard to pin down.