Star Trek: Armada III begins with the first stirrings of the Dominion War and allows players to take command of five unique factions, the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Cardassian Union/Dominion Alliance, and the Borg Collective. Explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no one has gone before.
"Let's see what this Galaxy-class starship can do!"
- Captain Picard, pushing the newly commissioned USS Enterprise-D to the limits for the first time
The Galaxy-class starship is the largest and most sophisticated conventional starship in the Federation fleet, and the most legendary ship of exploration of her time. Taking the better part of a decade of development and featuring some of the most advanced and innovative technology at Starfleet's disposal, the Galaxy serves as the flagship of the fleet and represents the greatest leap forward in Federation starship design since the Excelsior.
Launched at the end of the 2350s, the Galaxy's impact on the Federation was immediate, effectively ending the Border Wars with the Cardassian Union. Since then, the number of Galaxy-class ships in the fleet has slowly risen, and they now serve at the farthest reaches of the frontier, on the outermost verge of known space. Surprisingly manoeuvrable for a ship of its mass, the Galaxy-class is also astoundingly fast - the fastest ship in the fleet at the time of her launch, and still among Starfleet's fastest vessels even after two decades of service with a top speed of Warp 9.8.
With a myriad of state-of-the-art science and research facilities the Galaxy is well equipped for a lengthy mission of exploration. Indeed, her interior is designed not only for long-term functionality, but comfort as well. The Galaxy-class' quarters are spacious and well appointed, and even allow some officers to have their families accompany them on lengthy voyages.
In battle the Galaxy's peaceful overtures are all but forgotten. Some of the most powerful phasers in the fleet coupled with photon torpedoes give the Galaxy immense, 360 degree firepower. A recent upgrade has further equipped the Galaxy with quantum torpedoes and additional phaser strips. In times of war this legendary explorer serves as nothing less than a battleship, defending the Federation with force, skill and unwavering courage.
I grew up with this ship. I love and appreciate TOS for all it does, but this ship is my childhood. It's a shame that the main shuttle bay and captain's yacht wasn't featured. Budgets be damned! Why did you have to crash the ship Deanna?!
Come to think of it, why the hell wasn't the main shuttle bay and the captain's yacht in Generations? Instead we got to see a needlessly elaborate Stellar Cartography. Okay, that room was cool I'll admit, but still, come on! It seems like a glaring oversight to me. Writers be damned!
My biggest problem was her starboard coupling drama. Was it a design flaw? Was it Geordi's? I don't know but hearing it go offline all the time made me so mad. State of the art ship and the damn coupling keeps going offline. Smh
I also grew up with her. TNG was my first. I remember lying to the grandparents and pretending to be sleeping. Once they would do their 5th round peeking into the bedroom and I knew they would give up I'd get up from the bed, turn on the old mega CRT TV, put on channel 11 (WPIX) and watch TNG reruns all night long. I still remember my first computer and first game too. Starfleet Command. With Chris Jones TNG mod. Something about that brings back such fun memories, turning off all the lights in the room, turning on this used red klaxon light I bought that would spin around like the Excelsior's red alert light and play SFC all night. Ah... I miss those days. Not a care in the world. Junior high school years and Star Trek. Now it's responsibilities and having to deal with my medical insurance increasing off the charts smh.
I wonder if the power coupling design flaw was rectified with upgrades?
You think the Galaxy Class would live up to surpassing or being equal to the length of time the Excelsior stayed in the fleet? I always wondered what ship would be the next Excelsior.
Well the Ambassador has already been around a good long time and shows no signs of becoming useless. The Galaxy is considerably more advanced and will likely serve in the fleet for a very long time.
It'll never match the Excelsior's numbers, though. It's a fairly big, expensive ship.
Somehow this kinda looks like an old screenshot from Bridge Commander :D
Yes...'kinda'...
Media.tenor.co
In times of peace she's Galaxy, in times of war - Galactica.
This comment wins.
I like the galaxy but dont at the same time. As an explorer the ship excels at its role, but in battle in the show, up until ds9 it failed in my book, the sheer amount of times it was attacked and disabled by older ships or weeker vessels was crazy. I know it happens because the script calls for it but in cannon i think it failed as a combat vessel until its upgrades. Even trekyards comment on this. But it is a lovely model
You right, that starboard power coupling ain't no joke.
Then you see them in 'Sacrifice of Angels' move majestically by and just wreck a Galor like it was made of paper. I love that scene.
I love that scene as well, only issue I had was the lack of shields. All the weapons were hitting the hulls. Other than that I love how those Galaxies swooping by and really going on the offensive.
Oh the Cardies had shields, otherwise the waves of fighters the Federation used would have wrecked them straight away.
Unfortunately Cardassian shields are significantly behind the Federation's level of technology, and the Galaxy herself is capable of a huge amount of firepower.
Thats why i said up until DS9, until sacrifice of angels galaxy ships shown in combat just didnt do well, again 99% of that was then enterprise so could be argued it was down to the crew haha. I always thought cardie shields and tech where about level with the feds. But after point in ds9 you really never see sheild effects on the ships again. Guess to much to render
Nah, in general Cardassian technology is a few steps behind the Federation.
Most of the battle scenes in and after SoA were completely CGI. Shield flare was probably skipped to save time and money.
Tease Rhode Island.
Moddb.com
Well, Federation with its scientific dedication should have best scout ships ever.
I wonder how you're going to improve diplomacy and exploration, aside from banal planetary traits.
Also, have you fixed that issue with all diplomatic branches available with one single dip point? Kinda strange to sign Khitomer Accords with romulans and act of reunification with klingons.
based on all the soft canon documentation and all the non TNG galaxy class screen time, the conclusion I draw about the galaxy class is that it's capabilities can vastly differ depending on how its set up. Apparently 70% of its interior space is essentially modular, and can be utilized in any sort of way. Be it how the ship was set up in the alternate reality seen in yesterday's enterprise, or luxury apartments for 1000 families, hundreds of state of the art science labs, and supplies sufficient enough for a 10+ year exploration mission outside of friendly territory.
Now that, thats how the enterprise D was set up, likely the odyssey as well. that is not the optimum configuration for a battle ship. It was still just about the most tactically powerful ship in the alpha/beta quadrant set up that way though. The galaxy and nebula class so outclassing anything the cardasians had, did most likely lead to an end to that conflict. But it was absolutely hobbled set up like that, jellico had to turn all that stuff off and make major changes to how the ship was run for the enterprise to be actually battle worthy.
The galaxy class appeared to be mass produced once the dominion threat became real, and were pushed into service as mostly empty hulls that had going for them massive damage soak capability and gigantic, most powerful ship mounted phaser arrays, and torpedo launchers that could expel vast swaths of torpedoes. In fleet battles, they appeared to be unstoppable juggernauts that barreled through enemy lines at full impulse, and then started flanking dominion cruisers while smaller ships caught up.
so, how the ship is outfitted dictates how well the ship performs at certain tasks. it can ether be the perfect long term explorer, a hot war dreadnought, or even something in between.
I like this explanation