For example, Voyager doesn’t look anything like the Enterpise-D or -E despite being starships of the same era. Also, the ship should be distinct from other hero ships in the same way that those hero ships are easily distinguishable from each other. I also took some considerations as if my ship was the star of its own series, which of course in my mind, it is! A hero ship needs to look distinct because viewers need to be able to pick it out quickly when it’s alongside other ships. I wanted situations where the crew had to use their wits and knowledge about the unique strengths (and weaknesses) of their ship. Having a flawless ship is like having a flawless character. I wanted a ship that was rough around the edges. With a backstory like that, the Tempest isn’t exactly a top of the line ship. The nacelles in particular look like they could’ve come from a Nova -class starship. The secondary hull and nacelles were spare parts lying around the shipyard that Starfleet engineers used to complete the makeshift vessel, which is why they are more generic looking. In repurposing Akira-class ship parts, priority would’ve been given to salvaging the saucer section–which contains the ship’s hangar bay–and the distinctive weapons pod–which holds the ship’s primary torpedo arsenal–so those are the elements that remain prominently on the Tempest. It sat in mothballs (figuratively speaking) at a shipyard until it was called upon in 2409. Although it was meant to return to battle, the Dominion War ended before its construction finished. Inspiration struck! Why couldn’t the Tempest be another such design? Deep Space 9 showed several Akira-class ships lost in battles with the Dominion, and the Tempest was salvaged from one of these ships. Why would Starfleet roll out a starship cobbled from several classes in 2409? We saw in Star Trek: Deep Space 9 that Starfleet sometimes combines certain starship elements when pressed. Once I settled on the design, I thought about giving it a backstory, if only for my own head canon reasons. In other words, I pretty stumbled on the look of the Tempest, but now I can’t imagine the ship looking like anything else. I came across a combination that still kept the basic aesthetic of the Akira-class but had a rugged appearance more suited to a warship. Although I hadn’t planned on using a design other than the standard Akira-class, I played around with the feature just for kicks. Now, STO allows you to customize the look of most ships by mixing and matching components from certain classes. The Akira-class was always one of my favorite designs from the moment I saw one deliver its torpedo barrage onscreen in Star Trek: First Contact. From the moment when I began playing Star Trek Online, I knew that my endgame ship would be an Akira-class starship.
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