Of all the DS9 Kit bash ships we saw the Centaur looks like it was designed right from the start to be exactly what it looks like. The Excelcior version of the Miranda class.
@@CaptainM792 California Class is a cost-reduced (less replicator mass usage) variant for New Orleans, Nebula, and Galaxy classes. California Class still has a Xindi-Reptilian style main defector like in New Orleans, Nebula, Galaxy, and Odyssey classes. The circular main defector design is from Andorian / Tellarite.
The Nebula was more a large mainline science vessel. But the Miranda and Centaur ships were definitely "Hatchbacks" although I think the Miranda Class was more the 1998 Toyota Corolla of Star Fleet. There is Rust on the Frame, the Engine is ratling, the Fanbelt is screeching, the powersteering has failed and the breaks are barely working, with only one headlight working and at least one turnsignal smashed, but its always there when the Fleet needs a ship. They REALLY wanted to get their money's worth with it!
I fell in love with the Centaur Class during the DS9 episode where it was chasing the "undercover" Jem'Hadar fighter...something was bad ass about its angle while firing torpedoes giving full chase.
As a kitbash, I think that the Centaur class design works well. Both kits are from the same in-universe era so it makes sense that the 'standardised' parts from two existing designs could well be combined to create a third class. The problem for the Centaur class in taking on the 'destroyer' role is that one of the pre-existing designs it was kitbashed from (the Miranda class) was already in service as an able destroyer. The only way the Centaur class makes sense is if either the design were to be built in a hurry using existing spare parts for the Dominion war or if, by using the Excelsior type saucer section, more powerful than a standard Miranda class vessel allowing it to take on a 'light cruiser' role.
I was amazed to see that Star Trek Resurgence is built in UE5. The cutscenes look - and I think this isn't totally a bad thing - like something out of the old Activision Star Trek games I grew up with back in the day.
It has a strong late 90s early 2000s feel to it, which is probably half intentional and half a result of the game design. Telltale's games weren't graphically impressive either, and Dramatic Lab/Bruner House have a lot of ex-Telltale devs, and the game is in that style. Though the lighting, in most scenes, is pretty darn good all things considered.
What blew me away was the planet surface "sets", not because they are amazingly lifelike or anything, but because the majority of them intentionally look like old TNG era sets. They have the cheesy ground fog effects that nonetheless managed to look atmospheric, the obviously fake rocks, and so on. Almost every set piece looks like it was ripped from TNG or DS9, and those that do not only do so because they contain CGI effects that neither show could afford to use.
I was wondering if any of the channels I follow would touch on Resurgence. For me, I really enjoyed the game and it was a throwback to the old days of Star Trek games like Bridge Commander to me.
I fell in love with this class the moment i saw it attacking Sisko's Dominion ship. I was extremely happy when Star Trek Resurgance chose to use it as its ship to carry the story. I LOVE the reworked design, especially since the ship now has a deflector. I still play Star Trek Online from time to time and my last active ship was the Centaur class, I hope we get this "skin" in STO too. Thanks for the video, always love the detail and effort you put into these videos.
Frankly the original configuration of the Centaur is a potential deathtrap with the photon torps passing dangerously close to the bottom of the saucer section.
Titan-A is even worse by those standards. One of the forward torpedo launchers has to fire at a downwards angle to miss the dome on the underside of the saucer!
I too adore that ship. I've always wanted to see a combat variant that uses the Lakota saucer with the extra engines and the big phasor cannons from the Miranda hanging off somewhere lol. Beautiful
Same, defiantly seems to have been "inspired by" the Ares which given the Ares was "inspired by" the Centaur to begin with seems to bring things full circle.
Both are designed by Tobias Richter was it not? Also check the Luna, you'll see that he has a certain penchant for starship design with rounded, relatively small secondary hulls with downward sweeping pylons.
@@KayleighBourquin, yes, the Melbourne , an Excelsior Class ship with an NCC-65xxx registry comes to mind. I rationalize that as being a ship built for some non-Federation customer ; the Vulcan Science Academy, or something like that. Federation Sciences ships get a contemporary NAR-xxxxx registry, so that can’t be it. In that scenario, the original NAR- prefix would be changed to an NCC- prefix without changing the number. In the Centaur’s case, I can’t see a re-registration without a renaming, like the Enterprise-A. But, then again, I’m not sure why they’d change the registry at all when they renamed a ship? With the E-A, the name and registry change was to honor a particular ship and a particular captain. (With the Defiant, it was just lazy writing.) Since the original USS Centaur wAS built in the early 2300s, a newer VERSION IN THE 2330s is plausible.
It looks great. The cohesive look is helped by the fact that its parent ships were designed (outside of story) for movies released in 1982 and 84 (the Miranda class saucer and nacelle designs are older but the Centaur does not use them). I imagine its saucer having the same size as that of the Excelsior.
This one managed to evade my attention when looking at old kitbashes (damn Yeager distracting me), but after it became my workhorse ship on STO I properly fell in love with this ship. Especially with those arced nacelle pylons, it has this cohesive & distinctive silhouette despite all of the obviously kitbashed parts- and it's just magnificent.
This class of ship has grown on me over the years. But I swear I thought you were calling it the "Sensor" class (with your accent it sounded like"Sen-sore" ) for the first few minutes of the video 😂. Thanks for another great video!
I think someone said it was not mass-produced due to not, at the time, performing better than the Miranda and Starfleet ultimately kept the large Miranda fleet and then try to replace it completely with a ship with very minor updates. Then, when Sisko used one to test the new Warp Core that later go the Defiant, and saw a vast improvement across the board, above the Miranda, they activated the ship and perform limited production as a stopgap as they slowly use it to replace the Mirandas, Constitutions, and Constellations being retired. Maybe even parietal replacement if it goes under a similar upgrade program like the Excellisor Type II or Obena class. I hope its true for its a compelling story and shows a lot of thought but in the story of an odd but loveable ship.
i've seen pictures of the shooting miniature they used on DS9 and it also had the bridge module from the Miranda-class model kit. that plus how greebels were added to the Excelsior saucer to make it seem different makes me think that it was meant to be scaled based on the Miranda components, making it about as small as the Jem'Hadar fighter it had a dogfight with. But the prevailing fan-consensus is that the Centaur is to the Excelsior what the Miranda is to the Constitution and Nebula to the Galaxy, and initial intent really doesn't matter that. i like the tweaks they did to the design for the new game, making it smoothed out more off of the surprisingly great basic lines from the kitbashed model. I'm personally not a fan of the front-facing shuttlebay. I'd have used an Enterprise-B model saucer and converted the center impulse engine into a shuttlebay area (and the two big side impulse engines would have really worked with the nimble destroyer aspect).
100% agree about the scaling of the ship. 100% disagree with the fan consensus. The original canon model had that Miranda bridge, which I think seals the deal. I could be wrong, but judging by the shots of the shuttle bay and the MSD of the Resolute in Resurgence, I think it is perhaps meant to be the smaller sized version?
@@adamlytle2615 The Resolute is about 10 decks tall (not counting the nacelles), which is on the smaller side for a Starfleet vessel, but in line with a patrol/science vessel (like the Nova, which is only 8 decks)
I would guess the saucer was roughly the same as the saucer on the Excelsior and the Miranda pod was designed from the ground up as a new component, only taking rough inspiration from that which came before.
@@triforcegaming2678 the issues I don't mind much they way I see it they got more right then they got wrong doesn't happen often especially in star trek game
The Centaur Class is more or less an improvised successor the Aries Class (Axanar). It is little wonder it was so good at sub light combat. So If Starfleet made a Non-improv Centaur-2 Class, they might have a real fighting ship on their hands.
@Kayleigh Bourquin You are correct. Edit: Aries and Ares are actually the same name. That's because in Greco-Roman astrology, the planet Mars (Ares) rules this constellation.
I have the advanced Light cruiser T6 in STO and am watching DS9 again so making it into a Centaur was a good choice for me as you see it in the fight against the dominion. It's a nice looking ship and you can imagine it hiding among some asteroids or in a nebula, as it is small enough to disappear but packs enough fire power and mobility to obliterate a squad and warp to safety. It's also a good choice for evacuating a station under attack or escorting a larger ship.
For a ship that was kit bashed on short notice I think it looked great. I would love to see a galaxy saucer variation of this. Sadly too many Kit Bash ships never seem to get their due on screen even though they look amazing.
I think the Centaur was more of a Large Destroyer (or from the Royal Navy, destroyer flotilla leader) than a Light Cruiser, and fulfilled the role of space cavalry much like the B'rel in the Dominion War. Otherwise, pretty much yes. A sleek vessel with the usual scaling issues. And such a vessel, using older parts, would be quickly replaced as a destroyer in the post-war Starfleet which was gearing to take on the borg - Steamrunner class anyone? That said, the refit Centaur we see in Resurgence is a smart repurposing of a capable ship, and even more pretty to the eyes.
Per Star Fleet Command games: The Centaur class was originally meant for cheap (both to build and operate) but capable patrol ships for the Federation and was meant to lead small destroyer/frigate squadrons (similar to the original idea of the Miranda) We can postulate that production was curtailed with the Khitomer accords, since large numbers of cheap yet capable capable patrol ships were no longer needed.
To put the scale and size of Star Trek ships into perspective: The ship weights 870.000 tons. The biggest warships we have today, the US super carriers, weight around 100.000 tonnes each (of which the US currently operates 11). Most normal warships are between 3000 and 10.000 tons. The entire US Navy combined (around 300 ships total) has a displacement (= weight) of around 4.600.000 tons. So the entire US Navy is about equal in size to 6 Centaur class ships.
You've got an interesting set of thoughts on this class. I thought the original story of the class was that during the Dominan war Starfleet was short of ships and just tool various parts to push out things quickly. So we got the Centaur class as a mash up of what was around.
That was indeed one origin I read, although later materials seem to suggest it had a much earlier origin. The main reason I spend hours sorting through apocryphal content is because things contradict in time.
Hello Captain Rik your channel is really popular well done making a video involves much research and labour so glad to see you are getting bigger a larger audience your erudition is truly breath-taking and large in scope satisfying both the Casuals and the Hardcore Trekkies
It dawned on me not too long ago that the saucer section on federation ships was essentially evoking the flying saucers of really old scifi novels and films.
This is my favorite kit bash ship it works! Look where the shuttle bay is, seemless and kinda makes sense. I love this ship I really want a eaglemoss/masterreplicas modele of it and if they make a XL version I'm on it. Thanks for the ever great work on this video. Oh the new Trek game features one of these beauties and I'm happy about that.
I always liked this design. The only real flaw in the design, is the fact that the torpedo pod fires torpedoes into the bottom of the saucer. That pod needed to either be offset, or tilted.
Originally the Centaur model (labeled "USS Buckner") was designed to be smaller than the Miranda-class with a large Miranda-style bridge dome. Later depictions used the Excelsior bridge and gave the ship a much larger scale to be in line with it. Personally, I think the ship being larger is a better fit, but it still makes sense as a small battleship like the Defiant and Saber classes.
I don't know where you got your background for the Centaur but you can tell just by looking at it that this is a vessel designed to carry things - freight, troops, something. Think "Kobayashi Maru"-style freighter with extensive defensive capabilities. The neck bolts are there to attach freight pods. This is why its impulse engines have to be big...and the nacelles have to be so far apart.
Funny how I started playing Resurgence only a few hours ago. But I can not really call it a game. It's more like a very linear interactive movie. So far I haven't found anything where my actions actually influenced what happens.
Ironically, at least IMO and to my eye, the Resolute 'refit' version (or "flight," if you like), echoes back to the Ares Class from Axanar (dubiously non-canon, I know, but still...) and thus presents itself as just as tactical as opposed to overtly scientific compared to its cousin classes. It's a nice aesthetic touch that I feel fits nicely into the overall evolutionary design language.
The USS Cheyenne, a Centaur Class ship, was disabled by a Maquis attack. Captain Charlie Reynold was a friend of Captain Benjamin Sisko, who came looking for the Maquis traitor Eddington. Sisko destroyed a Maquis colony with the USS Defiant.
Now do the Clarke Multi-Mission Light/Command Cruiser - Star Trek Online's 25th Century Centaur Class Successor - and the Malachowski Multi-Mission Light/Command Cruise - Discovery era Centaur Class Predecessor!!!!
Hey Rick, huge fan here! I'm not sure if you have done a video about this subject, but do you believe the Borg exist in the Kelvin universe? I know in your STO playthrough we have seen the Borg in Mirror Universe, so is it possible for the Kelvin Universe?
Going off of the top of my head, as the Kelvin timeline starts by introducing borg-influenced 24th century tech to a 23rd century universe, the Borg will be significantly inferior to Alpha quadrant tech by the time contact is made. There's some intriguing consequences for the collective going into the unknown of the Alpha quadrant and discovering seemingly ancient, but far more advanced iterations of their technology in use, though. I suppose depending on how the borg tech is implemented, they may be able to backdoor assimilate the alpha quadrant tech, which is gonna be at least somewhat compatible with their own, but that'd be their biggest chance of success. In a military conflict I imagine they'd be soundly defeated.
No room back there with the impulse drive, Warp Drive, fuel and weapons in the pod under the saucer. The bay being up front makes a lot of sense with that design
The excelsior has the centaur, the Galaxy has the nebula, however, the constitution has the Miranda and the constellation. What are the 4 nacelle variants of those other classes? Edit: the galaxy class has the Cheyenne, but still no 4 nacelle ship for the excelsior