[horatio]

I like your idea, the Daedalus looks less elegant but more sturdy than the NX and the clear seperation of ship parts might (besides the easier exchange of a new engine which you already suggested *) make it cheaper to produce which is crucial in a war.

* - On the other hand, Drexler imagined the NX warp core to be also exchangeable, but that idea did not really transpire in the series and the exterior design of the Daedalus immediately suggests an engine exchange or rather an exchange of the entire secondary hull

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by horatio

I think that the allies of humankind are a key question in any story ideas about the war. Why is the UFP founded afterwards if they fight mainly on their own? Why is it called Earth-Romulan War if it involves all of the four races?
Perhaps Earth was the main target of the Romulans and the other three species were only drawn in afterwards. Another attempt of the Romulans to infiltrate governments or to create dissent among them might have been successful, I doubt that they would attack a stable Coalition of Planets.

So I guess that mankind was on its own at first. Yet there is one Vulcan and one Andorian (the producers intended to make Shran a crewmember of the NX-01) aboard who might have reached out to their people.

Pitty the show was cancelled when it was about to become really good.

I so agree with you!

[Commodore]

Originally Posted by horatio

I like your idea, the Daedalus looks less elegant but more sturdy than the NX and the clear seperation of ship parts might (besides the easier exchange of a new engine which you already suggested *) make it cheaper to produce which is crucial in a war.

* - On the other hand, Drexler imagined the NX warp core to be also exchangeable, but that idea did not really transpire in the series and the exterior design of the Daedalus immediately suggests an engine exchange or rather an exchange of the entire secondary hull

Drexler's idea of a swappable warp core is not a new one, and it's plausible that there was an upgrade or two to the NX-class' engines during its short operational life (they may even have skirted warp 6 during the Romulan Wars, who knows?). But the Warp 7 engine may have been a radical design departure from Henry Archer's engine and may have initiated the NX-class' premature obsolescence. There's also the possibility that other technological breakthroughs developed during the Romulan Wars may also have driven the NX-class into early retirement as well.

For smaller, more utilitarian ships like the Daedalus-class, it might not have been an issue since being able to be built quickly and in larger numbers may have been their primary purpose. They may not be very fast or pretty to look at, but Starfleet could crank 'em out by the dozens in fairly short time. Even after the war, the Daedalus-class might have been looked at as the previously mentioned workhorse in the early years of the newly-formed Federation...

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by Commodore

Drexler's idea of a swappable warp core is not a new one, and it's plausible that there was an upgrade or two to the NX-class' engines during its short operational life (they may even have skirted warp 6 during the Romulan Wars, who knows?). But the Warp 7 engine may have been a radical design departure from Henry Archer's engine and may have initiated the NX-class' premature obsolescence. There's also the possibility that other technological breakthroughs developed during the Romulan Wars may also have driven the NX-class into early retirement as well.

For smaller, more utilitarian ships like the Daedalus-class, it might not have been an issue since being able to be built quickly and in larger numbers may have been their primary purpose. They may not be very fast or pretty to look at, but Starfleet could crank 'em out by the dozens in fairly short time. Even after the war, the Daedalus-class might have been looked at as the previously mentioned workhorse in the early years of the newly-formed Federation...

Shame we never got to offically find out.

[Buckman]

the Daedalus-class is ment to be smaller then the NX-class. which i never got.
STARSHIP CLASS Daedalus-class
Affiliation: Federation
Starfleet
(formerly United Earth Starfleet)
Type: cruiser
Service period: 2140s to 2196
Dimensions
Length: 105 meters
Width: 25 meters
Height: 40 meters

Specifications
No. of decks: 7


Maximum speed: warp 7 STARSHIP CLASS NX-class
Affiliation: United Earth Starfleet
Type: cruiser
Service period: 22nd century
Dimensions
Length: 225 meters
Width: 136 meters
Height: 29 meters

Specifications
No. of decks: 7
Crew: 82

Maximum speed: warp factor 5
Cruising speed: warp factor 4
Armaments: 3 PC-10a phase cannons; 3 FST mk III spatial torpedo launchers
Defenses: polarized hull plating
Notable systems: WE-5 warp engine; SBD impulse drive
Auxiliary craft: 2 shuttlepods

[Zardoz]

Nice comparison!

[Roysten]

Having the Daedalus smaller allows less material to be involved in it's construction making it easier to have them thrown out in larger numbers. I could be wrong but I read somewhere that Daedalus class ships were the first to utilise dilithium crystals allowing for smaller warp cores and hence more space for other armaments etc (don't think it's a canon source though).

[Commodore]

Originally Posted by Buckman

the Daedalus-class is ment to be smaller then the NX-class. which i never got.

It's simple. The Daedalus-class was meant to be roughly half the size of the Constitution-class (since the Constitution-class was roughly half the size of the Galaxy-class, there was a certain logic to the Daedalus-class being a very small ship).

That was too small for the NX-class to be, though, so it wound up being only marginally smaller than the Constitution-class. Volume-wise, however, NX-01 is a substantially smaller ship than NCC-1701, and that's probably what was considered more important...

[Zardoz]

Makes sense, so anybody know when, or if, the Vulcans shared sheilding technology?

[Commodore]

My bet is that Earth ships became equipped with deflector shields sometime after the Coalition of Planets was formed. Who knows, perhaps the advent of deflector shield technology aboard Earth ships was the turning point in the Romulan Wars...