40 to 50 seconds for each frame render on this thang without certain anamolies developing - at 30 frames a second, yall can do the math - someday Ill get a better computer for this kind of work! :D
@@resurrectedstarships I really like the fearsome, powerful, and beautiful Romulan D'Deridex class Warbird. It is a True Romulan Warbird design unlike those imposter Warbird's in Star Trek: Picard that look nothing like the D'Deridex class Warbird. Why didn't they go with the D'Deridex Warbird as the Main Hero ship instead of the La Sirena (which is a tiny, yet near inferior transport ship)?
I think the gap is there to serve in better hiding the ships warp signature whie cloaked, as the line of sight between the nacells is in a shroded place which could house a system to better mask it
About the gap: Early Vulcan ships use a Warp ring similar to the ones that have been drawn before by NASA and others. I bet the gap serves the same purpose along with the warp nacelles.
So essentially instead of having a ship hull and a seperate warp ring like the Vulcans, they've incorporated the ring into the ship's overall hull design? That's a nice idea.
You are more right than you know. One of Gene Roddenberry's other rules (and there is an illustration of this for Star Trek The Motion Picture) is that warp is achieved by the interaction of pairs of warp nacelles. In order for this to work the warp nacelles MUST have line of sight to each other. It was intended to show special effects of this interaction of the 2 warp nacelles but the budget never allowed for it.
Like the fact that you dealt with engine design and warp/impluse/thruster placement. If you've played STO, trying to steer a D'deridex, without some major upgrades, is like parallel parking a fully-loaded dump truck on a narrow one-way street: you may do it, but it's going to take a while, and likely wreck your ride.
do cloaking ambush runs, while it's cloaked it gets a huge turn rate bonus. De-cloak amubush, fly right past and re-cloak then turn to re-engage. Rinse and repeat complete with the damage bonus of a romulan battle cloak!
My headcanon about the TOS plasma torpedo never being seen after TOS has always been that's the reason the Federation never, officially, developed cloaking technology; Starfleet saw the Romulan torpedo that could smash whole asteroids as a greater threat than the cloaking device, especially after the Enterprise stole one from a Romulan cruiser and got to analyse it, and so pressed that the torpedo be banned by the Treaty of Algeron. The Romulans complied in exchange for the Federation agreeing not to develop cloaking devices, while still keeping their own.
As powerful as the TOS plasma torpedo is: It had some major drawback. Its limited range, speed and maneuverability reduce its usefulness against fast and agile targets. And it took forever to charge. In my headcanon the Romulans sacrificed fire-power in order to have a weapon that is faster to charge and more useful against non-stationary targets. If I had anything to say, TNG-era romulan plasma torpedos were adjustable and could be weak but incredibly fast and agile or strong but slow and ponderous, depending on what the tactical situation demands.
I always love headcanon. However I'm not sure it would work. There would be no way of policing such an agreement, as the Romulans could do whatever they wanted behind their closed borders. You would need Federation inspectors in Romulan space. Perhaps in the end, the photon torpedo was determined by the Romulan military as a more efficient weapon.
@@MrAranton I played a text-based tactical simulator set in TOS-era tech, where one could choose flagship and support ship classes from one of Federation, Klingon, Romulan, or Orion Pirate. The Romulan Plasma Torpedo was roughly modeled as you indicated; it had powerful punch at close range, was slow and ponderous but able to track & follow a target at low warp velocity. Its power dissipated rapidly and if it did not impact within two or three 'turns', was relatively easy to destroy with phasers and did not do serious damage (except to shield systems) if it wasn't intercepted by point-defense fire. If Romulan science wasn't able to stabilize it for longer-range attacks, it would make sense that they would shelve the technology in favor of long-range photon torpedoes (casings charged with plasma, instead of matter & antimatter, since the Romulans would rather screw around with a high-gradient gravity well instead?) and powerful distruptors.
@@LazarusRemains yes the Plasma torpedoes while powerful are pretty inefficient for their Plasma power supply. They must drop some subsystems to charge leaving them vulnerable. Comparatively the Photon they use, is pretty darn powerful in its own right and can be tuned up or down in its Isotonne rating. More importantly... it's a simpler mechanism to load, store, rack, and ready photons in preparation for a rapid sneak attack. If your enemy doesn't believe that they are in danger, you don't need a big boom. You need a boom just big enough to get the job done.. and then you blast the ever loving crap out of them with a rapid fire Salvo before running away and recloaking, they... if they survived not having their shields at full power, or even down for scanning and transport and such.. then you can easily prep another Salvo, run into a flank position and then ripple fire your torpedoes against their nacelles or secondary hull and main engineering section. Alot of strategic options available and the romulan variant of the Photon Torp matches well with their tactics. I've no doubt they still have a few Plasma Blaster torps on hand for this class of ship. But the smaller warbirds.... nah you can pack way more Photons. More ammo, means more power.
I could see the gap being used as an area to "carry" other smaller warships (that are too large for the shuttlebays) or maybe allowing the ship to act as a mobile "dry-dock"/repair facility.
Being a battle-carrier, the D'deridex warbird would be a highly likely choice for a flagship or even a highly mobile command center, and regardless, it would have a large crew capable of easily repairing and refuelling, rearming, and otherwise resupplying various kinds of ships.
interesting idea, however I would add that this area could also be used to haul smaller ships that were 'disabled' or 'captured' . Such vessels would benefit from the D'Deridex's shield protection, and be cloaked regardless if the vessel had a cloak or not.
I don't see the Romulans conducting drydock-style repairs in-theater, esp. if it would compromise strategic objectives or tactical readiness. They're crafty and subtle, but they like to stay in a controlling position and revile 'getting caught with one's pants down.' As a sort of ferry for troop carriers, surface-deployable structures, or orbital facilities such as a sensor+defense station or an orbital defense grid, _THAT_ makes a lot of sense to me.
I personally believe that Romulans would add iridescent patterns on a ship like that just because it’s pretty. We are, after all, the most arrogant race in the galaxy.
I rather like the idea of it also being part of a visual deception system (a la the dazzle camouflage used on naval vessels in World War I.) Though I do appreciate the aesthetic appeal.
Alternatively it could be an affect of the glowing bits being either vector thrust or heat dissipation. Certain metals change color when undergoing heat treating. The patterns could be a byproduct of the special heat treating these areas undergo to protect it from the enormous heat variations emitted from this section of the ship.
'Most arrogant,' huh? I will admit that the Romulan Star Empire and the Tal Shiar are pretty arrogant. Look at what Sela and Hakeev do in _Star Trek Online_ . What about the Voth, Borg, Founders, Sphere Builders, or Iconians? Temporal Investigations isn't a race, but they seem pretty arrogant too, determining the 'correct' timeline and making efforts to undo any changes to it. To the point where in _STO_ they will deny the Nakh'ul their sun.
Outstanding rendering!! congratulations! If I was designing a ship like this, that huge negative space could be used for quite a few things, 1. Cargo capacity. Such a large volume could be used to carry cargo pods or detachable drop-ships or carry assorted payloads. it would be more protected and arrive faster than in a transport ship and free up a Warbird instead of convoy duty. 2. Transport or Rescue. That space could house smaller Romulan ships inside the warp bubble to transport them at the speed of the Warbird. 3. Minimize the target profile. These are MASSIVE ships and anything to minimize a target profile would be a good design. 4. It Just Looks Effen COOL!!
Agreed! All of the above: which has been my HeadCanon for decades anyway. Also, as others have pointed out, it increases the size without increasing the overall mass to uncontrollable levels. We do see them being fairly un-manoeuvrable (compared even to a Galaxy Class) but there is no avoiding how impressive and imposing they are.
Star Trek Romulan warbird open Gap design is 2 facilitate the warp field in the ship rather than running around the outer edges of the ship like FEDERASION making it less readable by scanning sensors. But slightly less effective in actual performance. This is the main reason why a Romulan cloaking devices are superior to that of the Klingon counterparts
@@resurrectedstarships I remember watching an interview with the creator of the warbird he said something about that. The original concept also said that the inner part was used to hold ships I like a carrier disconnect and reconnect themselves like Colony ships inside. I personally like the cloaking device part better.
@@resurrectedstarships That has been my main theory about how the 24th-Century Warbird's design has its internal volume spread around a central point, almost like a bubble. I don't have any hard canon or present-day-futurism ideas about how cloaking works, but essentially to cloak a ship, one has to turn all of its signature emissions into randomized emissions that have no discernible origin, locus, or vector to them. Basically I conceive of a cloaking field randomizing the momentum of every possible band of EM and particle radiation, so that it's not distinguishable from a sensor artifact or mirage at long (relativistic) ranges. The only other option I can think of is to pull in all the emissions and put them in some sort of energetic stasis field or drive them into subspace.
She looks glorious! As far as the gap is concerned I have this idea: by having a gap there (and by extension her peculiar nacelle placement) she can look bigger while not having a substantially bigger internal volume (plus potentially housing tricks, like fighters as you mentioned and the like). After all she definitely looks intimidating and ready to smack you, especially compared to Starfleet designs of her era. By the way I wonder whether she could potentially carry something bigger in that gap, like a warbird of sorts (a small B'rel would definitely fit in there, although I don't know whether it's advisable or whether the D'deridex would be able to enter Warp with a smaller ship in there)
And it most certainly wasn't just another cruiser. I guess maybe the Dominion focused on them due to their threat, and destroying one is a huge blow to moral.
@@resurrectedstarships The D'deridex was a truly monolithic beast. Truly a shame they never got the spotlight put on them. I can just image a warbird being swarmed by Jem'Hadar fighters, just taking blow after blow, making the Jem'Hadar pay for every hit they land. Slow and sluggish, maybe, but the D'deridex in my head canon is a true battleship - taking punishment and dishing it out.
I like this way more than the completely redesigned Romulans ships in Picard. Here is someone who actually likes Star Trek and has actually given the lore considerable thought. Awesome work!
I believe the gap is an enormous “Toast Rack” for millions of drones to be launched from in the event that the fighters and flight decks are knocked out. It’s similar to the Cylon Base Ship’s “toast racks.” This is one theory. The other is it’s a massive interior portion for RCS thrusters, making the ship more maneuverable. Edit: Also, the area with the deflector fish looks like a Cylon Raider head with the visor down. I see what you did, Ronald D. Moore
I _do like_ your comment - good observations. Based on their respective design philosophies, tech differences aside, I don't think that the Base Stars (Classic or BSG) could hold a candle to the 24th-cen Warbird. A ship that has both capital cruiser _AND_ carrier capabilities?! *GULP* 'Check please!'
I preface my wall of text with this: the D'deridex is my favorite alien ship and I also love the improvements you've made to it. Especially since I always wanted to see the original Probert version realized in 3D. My suggestions come from a place of love for the design, and I don't want to diminish your fantastic work! Only tweak it a little. I would add several disruptor points to eliminate blind spots. One on the very top of the spine, since the ones on the wing tips might not reach every point above. In particular targets close to the hull. One additional disruptor on the backside of the beak near the botanical deck and one on the very bottom near the torpedo launcher. As it is now there is a rather huge blind spot right underneath the head that potentially only the lower torpedo launcher could reach; something you don't want that close to the ship. Another disruptor at the top of the inside of the gap. If an enemy ship somehow manages to get into the gap or smaller vessels from the hanger bay get hijacked by hostile forces, there is currently no way to neutralize them inside the gap. It's a necessary risk analysis since the gap gives relatively easy access to vital parts of the ship. Of course you could launch your own fighter to combat any intruder vessel there, but that takes time and might not be possible when the hangar is overrun. The disruptor acts as a second fail safe in this regard. Lastly I would keep the original disruptors on both sides of the tail section. While the disruptors on the top and bottom back can fire aft, there is a significant portion that is a blind spot. Namely right behind the impulse outlets. These two disruptors could also help keeping the gap save. Keep in mind how huge that ship is. An Intrepid class could easily park right next to the tail and be completely out of reach. In case of the upper torpedo launcher I would remove the inlet completely and have a plain surface with two slots instead. As it is right now, torpedoes would have to fly in a straight line for 25-50m before they could fly left or right. It might appear to be a minuscule delay but in regards to weapon systems that is something you don't want. The bottom one could immediately engage targets left, right and center. Regarding plasma torpedoes it was my understanding that they still use plasma torpedoes despite them being now green. In season 7 of DS9 the Romulans place plasma torpedoes on one of Bajor's moons. I'd wager it's the same they use on their ships as seen during the attack on the founder homeworld. One thing I noticed that there seems to be a separation line at the end of the tail section. Could that be another life boat similar to the head section? Or is the singularity in that part so that it could be decoupled from the ship similar to a warp core ejection in case of emergency?
Fun video. The D'Deridex is probably my favorite science fiction ship of all time. It's just cool in all respects. Massive, menacing, powerful, and able to ambush prey out of cloak and disappear again. Such a cool ship!
Great job on the D’deridex! I was always bummed we never really saw the full combat potential of this ship ... but that sort of ties into how the TNG conflicts were never full-out battles. Did you notice how the rear of the ship is “sunk” down lower than the head, from the side view? I never notice that when it’s on-screen, but only from the side view. Interestingly enough, it seems different in each side view schematic I see - some are a lot more in-line where others are more sunk. Just an interesting observation. This is a wonderful ship and model again. Part of my really wants to see the big expansive interiors of these (that they never could show in the TV show)!
Considering the damage done to the Enterprise at range (despite the range limit itself) and the century of potential development, the plasma torpedo would make for a excellent weapon for siege and orbital bombardment which could mostly likely to be part of the D'deridex class design requirement and mission profile. So yes, the plasma torpedo would be part of the armament.
I imagine the illuminated feather panels on the wings would make good heat banks. Structures for storing the generated heat while cloaked so the ship does not overheat and cook the crew on prolonged missions. When the ship goes to cloak, the panels close up, sealing the glowing induction vents away in the hull. When it decloaks, the plates open, exposing the vents and releasing the banked heat. This is my favorite ship design from from TNG, followed a close second by the Klingon Vor'cha attack cruiser. I like your reimagining of the design. Great work!
The gap is for docking non cloaked ships. So they can be enshrouded when the d deridex cloaks. And the glowing strips are used to cool the plasma. Hydrogen is pulled through the bussard scoops, fet through the radiators and released through gaps after being cooled again.
Great work, I see it as a natural progression in the design of the ship more than an enhanced version, as you put all the right thoughts behind every choice. And the result is outstanding! I see just one thing missing: the tractor beam emitter on the ventral side, as seen in "The Mind's Eye"!
I don’t know what the gap is for, but I can imagine it being very damaging if a small attack ship got in there and started blasting around. I noticed the two rectangular hanger doors way back on the old Micro Machines model, and I’m happy you’ve given them a ‘real’ purpose that makes sense and I like the idea of the whole underside section being shuttle/fighter bays.
@@ZeroB4NG hum we have a contradiction at work here... In startrek away team they say that sort of manuver is not posable as you would bring 2 warp bubles into contact causing them both to colapse, with its resulting desaster for the smaller ship, as In the STNG episode where Lesly acedently traps hes mother, doctor crusher, in a static warp bubble because of this affect when he leaves an exsperament runing while the enterprise is having it's own warp driive worked on.
My favourite ship in all of sci-fi. I was blown away by its reveal in ST:TNG. I think that the gap is to allow it to function as a mobile starbase/shipyard/repair facility for smaller Romulan starships like Shrikes and Griffins.
I like how you bring the practical engineering into the design. Something that I find a lot of people skip when making ships. They are so focused on the looks that they dismiss the functionality. That being said, have you ever tried to build a warpdrive ship that is close to our current technology. I think it would be fun to find workarounds to making the power hungry warp drive work without the all mighty antimatter. I’m thinking capacitors. Charging them up with a nuclear or fusion core, then using that stored power to activate the warp drive for a few hours before needing to drop out of warp and recharge. Aka “Warp jump”. It’s fun to findout how we would be able to manage it without things like shields, integrity fields, photon torpedoes, impulse drive and phasers. A real adventure like the sailing ships of old that didn’t have all the fancy easy technology of today. Sadly Star Trek Enterprise didn’t really go that far as they already magically had antimatter and impulse engines. And then not almost immediately after they had phasers. But that was just lazy writing lol. (not to mention lazy designers as a ship was a rip off of the Akira class). Anyway, sorry for writing a book and keep up the great work! I look forward to your next video.
I really like this design for the D'deridex. Here's 3 things I noticed: 1-The sensor array on the dorsal spine in front of the forward torpedo launcher looks like it could interfere with that launcher's ability to fire, possibly striking the sensor array and damaging the ship. 2-The iridescent pattern could be an affect of the glowing bits being either vector thrust or heat dissipation. Certain metals change color when undergoing heat treating. The patterns could be a byproduct of the special heat treating these areas undergo to protect it from the enormous heat variations emitted from this section of the ship. 3-I think I would have kept the disruptor nodes at the port and starboard of the base of the ventral neck. You are right that their firing arcs are limited by the ship's spaceframe, but it looks like without them there is a gap in the ships' overall firing coverage. Especially where small ships like runabouts are concerned, were they ever able to get close enough. In a more specific instance I am reminded of the Iconian Probe in the TNG episode "Contagion" that was allowed to get perilously close to the Haakona before it was destroyed. Perhaps they could be placed port and starboard of the hanger deck to improve their arcs and give the design more forward beam coverage?
I like your take on the upgrade. It reminds me of the upgrade of the real-world F/A-18 A/B & C/D Hornet to the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, essentially a new aircraft derived from the earlier versions.
Well done. LOVE it. Ive always loved the D'D. Ive never given the gap in the middle much thought, we know it cant be due to the singularity as other ships have it and they dont have the gap. I NEVER knew the head could pop off and fly around like the Galaxy's saucer. Very cool. I get that the D'D is a Battle Carrier, we also know the Galaxy has several main hanger decks. The same could be said for that ship but w/ out launch tubes. Those features were never addressed in TNG most likely because of FX cost/time. I love your glowing ribs, id surmise they have to do w/ an advanced cloak OR added impulse engines for increased maneuverability. You know cause this is an "advanced" version.
Nice job. Very well done. Additionally it adresses some of the inconsistencies which came up for me during TNG and delievers well elaborated explanations. Keep up the good work!
The gap... line of sight for the warp nacelles facilitates more efficient warp field projection around the ship. It can be done without line of sight, but it would take more energy to manipulate the field in that way. The D'deridex is a huge and intimidating battle cruiser and having the gap and large wings help facilitate this while reducing cost. Ships in Star Trek utilize subspace fields to maneuver, and the mass of the ship helps determine the needed power output to generate a field strong enough to move the ship (at sublight). RCS thrusters are backups.
I understand your conundrum with the photon/plasma torpedo issue on 24th century Romulan warships since I've had to deal with the issue in my own works. Romulan plasma torpedoes in the 24th century are still a thing since they were mentioned in the DS-9 episode "Image in the Sand." But rather than mount dedicated plasma launchers on D'Deridex's, I made up a compromise. In the Star Fleet Battles game, they came up with a Type F (fixed round) plasma torpedo. I reasoned that such ordinance could theoretically be reduced to the size of a photon torpedo and fired out of a standard photon torpedo tube. That way, you wouldn't have to change the design of your Aquila at all. Just include some of these plasma torpedoes along with your photon ordinance. Just an idea.
in another video they said the gap was due to where the ship sits in the warp bubble. federation ships sit low, Romulan used to sit high. The D'deridex straddles the warp bubble for maximum efficiency, maximum all speeds usage.
To me, the gap in the space frame is there, basically to make the ship look bigger. As massive at the D'Deridex seems, when one subtracts that empty space from her over all volume, she comes in at far lower tonnage than her initial dimensions would imply, so to me, this is an example of Romulan Tarkin Doctrine, aiming to intimidate potential opponents with the sheer massive size of their mainline warship.
Also, as for the gap, I can imagine the ship originally designed with just the upper wing as a more classic "bird" shaped warship. But as the design requirements grew and especially the carrier aspects added to the growing list of tasks the architects needed to squeeze into the hull; adding a "duplicate" wing underneath to fit these additional mission packages proved more effect than expanding the original primary hull even larger. What makes me think this is that the lower of the 2 "neck" extensions is not aesthetically shaped at all, like the upper neck is, it's just a long box shaped arm, giving it the appearance of a totally functional later addition to the otherwise sculpted shape of virtually every other aspect of the ship design.
Despite only depicting Photon Torpedoes onscreen, on DS9 the Romulans had a base on one of Bajors moons that was building Plasma Torpedoes. I assumed the gap was for smaller, and slower, uncloaked ships. That area was inside the cloaking field, and could anchor smaller craft, rendering them invisible as well.
I would say the gap is storage, tractor beams could keep salvage and structures inside. Similar in design philosophy to the galaxy class, except for space facilities rather than ground based ones. The wings I would guess are part of the cloaking system, but as a passive component either heatsink or sensors that can be used while in Cloak.
Romulans were to me based on Romans. The Roman military were also an efficient engineering force. The Warbird is a massive multi-role vessel. The gap and extensive hard points that can be used a million different ways. Weapons pods like the Federation New Orleans class. Drydock for repairing / resupplying smaller vessels where the Warbird could act as a small starbase. A way to piggyback cloaked Tal Shiar vessels. As a Cargo area, transport everything a colony or garrison could ever want. And the main reason for the gap. Engine efficiency. Engines have 100% LOS of each other. With power always a premium and the energy consumption of the Cloaking devise. Efficiency is everything. And buy design. Not being able to have shields while cloaked. the Gap becomes even more important. A wise Romulan will follow his target from the rear off set 45-degrees port or starboard. If detected. the vessel would fire center mass of the cloaked Warbird. And the Phaser would pass harmlessly thru the Warbird. Causing even more confusion to the ship being followed. Is there something really their? Sensor malfunction. Meanwhile the Warbird can remain cloaked and retreat further away and reposition elsewhere.
Perhaps not the most innovative idea, the gap could be used to house a smaller frigate- or scout-sized ship. In an episode of TNG called "The Defector", a small Romulan scout craft that could easily fit in the gap is seen on-screen several times. Being a battle-carrier, the IRW Aquila could be modified to act as a mother ship to one or several of these small scout ships (in addition to its own starfighters) and send them (the scout ships) to examine several enemy bases simultaneously before choosing a target; the smaller scout ships would also be harder to detect in addition to providing the Aquila with reconnaissance data from several (moderately) distant positions simultaneously.
This is absolutely fantastic. You really put a lot of effort into your videos that pay off very well. I was super hyped for this video as I love the warbird and knew that you would give it an enhanced design that still remains as pleasing to the eye as the original probert design. I look forward to it being used again and am interested in your “use of the hollow centre of the ship” theory !
The gap is to pull fighter wings along at warp. The ability to drop out of warp with dozens of fighters already launched would be an incredible advantage in a universe where most space battles are decided in minutes.
This is using STO lore, but many new federation ships have a split neck such as the avenger line and odyssey line of starships. This is more "environmentally" friendly to space due to the disruption caused to space by warp. This also makes the ships "faster" at warp due to less area being forced through space as a result of the split neck. (Yes I know space doesn't have a atmosphere that will cause air resistance, but this is how warp works atleast according to STO lore) Perhaps the Romulans with their avenues of technology came to this conclusion before the federation, and did this design for their massive warbirds in order to have less surface area thus improving warp speeds without building better singularity cores thus future proofing the Dederidex. Also maybe they are more eco friendly idk. Just a theory/thought. A side theory is that this less area taken up by the ship gives the cloak less area to actually cloak thus improving efficiency of their cloaking devices, as it doesn't have to use power to cloak the massive amounts if extra external area taken up by the ship.
Essentially i imagine the Dederidex as the pinnacle of Romulan design and technology for that era. Wereas the Galaxy was built with the Federation's multi mission and modularity design theory. The Romulans designed the Dederidex as this utter powerhouse warship. 1 of these could take on a Galaxy. 2 of them could annihilate it. Without Picard shenanigans of course.
This is really really good! And I love your ideas and reasoning behind the design and the changes you made :) With the green highlights on the upper hull, they could just be green highlights, the Romulans showing off. And it saves them having to paint a great big bird on it :D
That is absolutely awesome work. I'm amazed. Now, I actually like that Warbird after your revamping of it. I still think a Dominion Battleship would win in a 1 vs 1 dual, but that's just my biased..ness. BUT your variant is a massive improvement. Best one I think. I love the glowing in the wings. You could totally bring back the old plasma cannon as a siege weapon or as you said; sneak attack weapon. I'll shut up now; just amazed at your work. 🤘🤘
Many years ago I read somewhere ( can´t remember if it was Memory Core Alpha ) that during the Dominion war the only ship that could actually stand tow to tow with a Jem Hadar battlecruiser was in fact the D´Deridex warbird due to its massive size and firepower ... and in the hands of very capable captains who would take full tactical advantage of the clocking device it could even defeat a Jem´Hadar battlecruiser in a one on one fight ...
I'll speculate on the 'gap' It's a slot for mission modules. Similar to how the Federation Nebula class can be tailored to, say, exploration by mounting a module with additional science labs and equipment or for combat by mounting a module with extra weapons or shield generators, the gap here represents one or more slots to install mission specific modules / equipment for the ship.
For myself (though my knowledge / dedication to Star Trek is limited), the hollow structure is both to conform to that arcane 'optimal warp field structure' that the Vulcans / Romulans share from their ancestral Warp Field Theory, and as a way to make a large and intimidating (like the spread out wings of a bird?) warship without it becoming too bulky and expensive to make. Star Trek ships seem to have a strange 'optimal size', and ships like the Galaxy, Negh'var and Scimatar classes are themselves nigh-unwieldy engineering marvels. The hollowness is in some way related subconsciously to the "paper (hollow) tiger/bird" situation/mentality the Romulans are in or have when compared to the sturdy Klingon Empire or more diverse United Federation of Planets. I feel the need to compare the structure of the D'deridex to the older D'ker type cruiser of the Vulcans, as this comparison both highlights that Vulcanoid Warp Field thingies, and such a ship might somehow be in the Vulcanoid mindset as an ideal warship, like how the triangular dagger is a special thing for the history of the Sith and Palpatine's empire as seen with Star Destroyers and it's iconic design. The one flaw with that warp ring structure idea are the rectangular Warp Nacelles on the sides. For my part I just see those as technological holdovers of the Romulans reverse-engineering the D7 / K'Tinga battlecruiser from the infamous Tech exchange.
She's beautiful and an exceptional addition to the imperial fleet. Answers 1: Accommodation for a different warp field geometry, or maybe a secondary warp field necessary for warping while under cloak. 2: Sad to say, but nope. The Dominion doesn't build glass cannons. Romulan ships are tough, and a battleship might be left clinging to life by a thread, but I believe it would still be standing at the end of a 1v1 brawl. Note: Fighters might actually tip the scale here, but if the Dominion has an animation budget and writing staff on par with Romulus, they'd probably field fighters as well. 3: If the Aquilla was the first Romulan ship the Borg met, she could probably destroy a Cube. That's about the best I'd expect. 4: I'd run 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I'd want that. Nerd channel: I can't remember where I saw this, but I remember some commentary on the micro singularity. It's supposed to be a little less dense than a black hole and consisting of a few hundred atom's worth of material. This was calculated against the anti-matter reactions of a Federation warp core and shown to be a little more powerful, but fairly evened out in the pro/con department. Not sure how that would play into your secret weapon, but there's been enough shenanigans with the Romulan warp core that it could range from space/time distortions to crushing ships as a suicidal attack. Maybe an ultra condensed plasma attack? You've got the hamster on leg day again.
Your glowing green in the feather cracks could either be emitters for the cloaking device itself, or special radiators that are designed to operate while cloaked.
I will place an order for 14 immediately with an option for a possible 70 more ships. We prefer ours in Coyote Brown or Stealth Gray over the Olive Drab for understandable reasons. - US Space Force
The gap is there because it is the most effective defense to the tactics of their largest enemies(Federation and Klingon, the Dominion nor the Borg were known when the D'deridex was first built), while also meeting the requirements a larger ship would need like heat dissipation, aka larger surface area, while also mitigating the problems larger surface areas bring to combat. It creates redundancies in the weak points that their enemies have, notably the neck and the pylons while making it impossible for their enemies at the time to cripple the ship in a single volley whenever they decloak. Also, negative space makes it possible for ships to fire through the ship without hitting anything, making it harder for ships to hit it while the shields are down. Honestly, the only empire they would be potentially scared of is the Dominion as their tactics are the only ones that could destroy a ship with a single fighter by having it crash into both "necks", but that would be extremely difficult to pull off and might require two fighters.
Amazing work! I love the attention to detail. I would love to see the ship in a future trek series, hopefully one down by new show runners that respect the canon and history of the show.
if I may make a point. During DS9 after Romulans had joined the Alliance, the Romulans brought injured Romulans to DS9 medical bay. The wounds were consistent with plasma burns. The Bajorans discovered the Romulans were storing plasma torpedoes n a moon in the Bajorn star system. Major Kira Neyris was prepared to got to war with the Romulans if they didnt remove the plasma torpedoes. The Romulans blinked first and removed the plasma torpedoes. The ships shown in the episode where D'Deridex class ships.
The face of the mechanized Cylon Centurion (from the 2004 reboot of Battlestar Galactica) and also the face of the Cylon Raider and Cylon Heavy Raider all look suspiciously similar to the bow section of the Romulan D’deridex Class Battle Cruiser featured in this video. I don’t feel that the 2004 BSG reboot design was ripped-off from the Star Trek franchise or anything, but I think it was definitely inspired-by the legendary design of the Romulan Warbird. This Romulan Warbird design is one of my favorite starship designs from any series, and it makes sense that I would also be naturally drawn to the 2004 BSG Cylon Raider design.
wow that was interesting to know! So if not the FX team mistake with forward beam weapons, it would fire smth like Omega class from Babylon 5. Also I used to use ukulele strings called Aquila haha. Huge respect for such sick Blender modelling skills as well
The Gap is merely to crate the illusion of more bulk The D'Deridex was the Romulan answer to the Galaxy Class...the Senate wanted "bigger", and so to facilitate....the oid space was created to create the impression of greater volume without costing more resources And that would explain why other Romulan designs don't share the asthetic
Yeah but since this design was so successful for so many years I'm surprised more ships related to this class weren't created. Also if this ship was designed to create the illusion of size why not take advantage of that? This should would make excellent mobile starbase and it carrying a few smaller birds of prey isn't such a bad idea. Plus if larger variants of this class were made I could imagine this being able to carry larger ships inside them. Ships of this class could easily quickly establish dominance over multiple star systems simultaneously.
haven't watched your video about the "gap" yet, wanted to share this thought first. Secrecy and misdirection are the Romulan's theme. right? maybe that was the thought process? a sleek and imposing exterior that gives nothing away while hiding its interior. she's intended as a widely configurable multi role vessel after all. so what if the outer shell was actually very densely armored? and rigged with a vast array of sensor dampeners and jamers and confusers. no weapons on the outer shell, just the heavy armor, and maybe the primary shield emitters which if they failed, the armor is so dense it wouldn't matter too much. secondary shield arrays could then protect the forward and aft sections as well as the nacelles. this extra armor would also be useful as her shields go down when she cloaks. diving at her target firing all weapons then rolling and banking once past her target to avoid return fire as she cloacks to line up for another attack run. hope you are still with me since you mentioned the firing arcs, this should be good. notice how there is some amount of the interior space visible from any and all directions? what if all if the weapons systems were actually mounted inside the gap: phasers, distruptors, torpedo launchers, ect. all hidden inside the gap where sensors would have a hard time detecting them but they would still be able to fire in any direction on the horizontal plane, a generous amount on the vertical plane fore to aft, nothing on the vertical plane port to starboard but again, heavy armor. Maybe she isn't configured as a heavy gunship but a carrier with nothing but the launch bays you mentioned but just way way more of them. or maybe a pair of non warp capable defiant sized attack frigates, shoot without the warp nacelles I wonder if you couldn't park four defiants in there. alternatively it could be just a transport, or a science vessel, industrial even. you wouldn't know because of the dense armor, uniform exterior and sensor blockers. so three "war" birds show up.... but are all three configured for war? you'd never know. really hope to hear your response. thanks for the video.
The "Gap" in the middle of the hull is a plot hole device that allows smaller enemy spacecraft to "Hug the Donkey". Re-configure your defensive deflector grid accordingly as a classic shield bubble!
If the negative space is for the uninterrupted line of sight of paired nacelles, then that leads to a _interesting minor refit…_ New designs (like the Defiant class and the newer Warbirds) don't need a line of sight between nacelles, and they can be mounted on either side of a main hull. So if a D'deridex was retrofitted with such a warp system, then the entire negative space between the nacelles could be *filled in.* That would massively increase the internal volume of the ship. [And most likely the mass, requiring more powerful warp drive ect, but just the efficiency of the newer nacelles could compensate somewhat]. But it would completely change the nature of the ship. It might be useful for specialised variants, such as massive fleet carriers and even strategic transports. As the newer lighter Warbirds become the standard attack ship, retrofitting D'deridex's to have giant interiors would give them a whole new lease of life. There are so many possibilities with a ship with a internal volume that huge, that had a cloak and no fuel requirements, and still had a lot of firepower - and maybe even more if some of the extra internal volume is dedicated to "defensive systems". It could easily overtake the original concept of the Galaxy class as a "city in space", with it almost being a major/mega city in space… damn useful if you need to move populations because of a supernova… But as a long range exploration ship it would be unparalleled - and when you factor in the Romulan lifespan, it could do a really long range mission. [Not that it's in the Romulan character, but maybe a one off after Voyager returned and the Empire realised the strategic and technological advantages that Voyager had brought back. Knowing what's 20 years out would be useful, and they knew that travel would be technically possible one day - and maybe it's a good way to get rid of a disruptive element that doesn't warrant actually being eliminated, a group that's too peaceful or a religious minority with differing views. Give them a super cargo colony City ship and have them go off to explore the great beyond, and stop spreading counter revolutionary views at home]. I'm curious as to the internal volume possible compared to a standard D'deridex if all the negative space was utilised. Add in comparisons to the Galaxy class and the giant Kazon carriers just for an idea of scale.
I think the idea of the Aquila is great, and could easily be used as a means to employ new technologies in existing ships already in use by the empire with relatively few modifications. Reverse-engineering technology from the Reman's Scimitar could easily account for the Aquila's new upgrades and abilities over the older D'Deridex ships; a perfect cloaking system, multiple layers of shields, advances in weapons tech. And serving as a battle-carrier, the Aquila would be far more capable of serving as a "Fleet in Being," tying up enemy resources simply to be prepared to deal with it while the Romulans covertly employ other forces to areas now less defended than before. As for the gap, it is a rather spacious area. Capable of fitting a few large ships in there without breaking line of sight between the nacelles. Since in the Star Trek universe, warp speed is achieved with the aid of a warp drive to create the field necessary to travel at FTL speeds and the actual thrust is provided by regular impulse engines and sub-light thrusters, it is not inconceivable that an Aquila (or even standard D'Deridex) would be able to generate the warp field needed not just for itself, but any other ships "inside" of it. Either towed with tractor beams or piloted by synchronized navigation computer systems.
Great design. Love the level of thought... Way more than what passes for industry standard now. I'm always fascinated with idea of space frames being used in different ways or being slightly modded by the captain/crew. In my mind the gap was in some way related to the artificial singularity... But i look forward to seeing what you've got planned. There are a couple of things I thought would benefit from further explanation in trek; fighter craft and marines. In my mind the fighter craft are used to support ground operations and fly missions in atmosphere. I think it would add another element to the combat. I also really liked the makos in enterprise and who wouldn't want to see boarding actions or ships battling in orbit as their respective marines fight over the mcmuffin on the planet? Looking forward to future videos featuring The Eagle.
In the 2370s, romulans used Disruption torpedos. In star trek online,, the Romulan Republic used plasma banks and torpedos, while the Imperial navy used disruption tech.
My head-canon is that this is an evolution of the D'Kazanak class, the first-generation prototype of which was "IRW Syrinx" and -- according to 'The Romulan Prize" novel -- had been intended to enter service in about 2368. In their own language, the D' prefix discloses to us us that here follows the name of the particular shipbuilding family nobleman patriarch who conceived, designed, sponsored, and helped fund the development of the given particular new variety of Romulan ship. At the end of "The Romulan Prize" novel, the extremely redoubtable Ambimorph species uses deception to make it outwardly SEEM that the Syrinx has gone missing without trace, in the hope of planting a false idea that there must be a catastrophic flaw present in the D'Kazanak design. The Enterprise officers conclude it is more than possible this may prompt the Romulan planners to incur huge cost overruns, delayed time schedules, and have other setbacks as they may wrongly conclude there is a need to re-evaluate everything about the D'Kazanak class from a clean slate. incidentally, the Ambimorhs are noticeably similar to the Founders of the Dominion even though at the time of novel publication in 1993, there was at that time no such thing as the DS9 franchise. Moreover, if I were to guess, I'd say there is an extremely high chance that those who would become the Founders were themselves in fact a "lesser" biophysical mutation drifted and splintered off from the still-existing Ambimorphs. All physical feats of the Founders are easily within the Ambimorph capability set -- additionally however the Ambimorphs are all comprehensively telepathic with great power and skill, even sending and receiving to a hundred or more humanoids and causing them to go to sleep, or to experience perfect illusory environments, etc. Unlike the Founders, Ambimorphs need no resting period of reverting to liquid, but can maintain whatever form they need for as long as they wish -- further, I observe no particular inclination to cruelty, imperialism, client species, or the use of lethal force. So, because we meet Lord Kazanak, we can derive also that "D'Deridex" means that Lord Deridex must have been the main sponsor for the D'Deridex class. IRW Syrinx was under the command of the great luminary strategist Valak, a man learned in languages, cultural studies, and the comparative study of foreign martial arts. Valak was also a champion big game hunter who had famously taken three enormous, dangerous flying animals called syrinxes. He was a Romulan colonial citizen and didn't come from Romulus itself -- he was born and raised on a world called Abraxas, known for it's dangerous animals. It is inauspicious not to be able to know more of Valak's adventures or know other thinks about Valak, so because I fanatically like the Rihannsu novels of Diane Duane, I have unilaterally decided that his full name is Ennahwei tr'Valak and that Valak too is of some moderate degree of noble birth -- Valak managed to be unusually open-minded. Valak rejected the Romulan Empire's non-evidence-based propaganda about inferiority of non-Romulans. During the period of his managing to use a brilliant strategy to seize control of the Enterprise-D, Valak showed great professional respect for officers such as Picard, Worf, and Data -- Valak even had so much respect for Worf's prowess and Worf's knowledge of classified information. initially Tellingly however, Valak was quick to indicate that executions would begin if captured personnel did not obey Valak's orders, and he indicated that the children would be the first to be killed. Valak stressed he himself was ready to show respect and that even in the long run, he would go out his way to do whatever he could to make sure whoever might cooperate with him would be kept safe as much as possible. Captain It was made very clear the physical capabilities of the D'Kazanak conclusively outclassed those of the Enterprise-D. Firstly, the Enterprise-D was extricated from the situation through the crew of the Enterprise-D finding ways to worsen and manipulate certain psychological factors (de-escalation, negotiation, psywar). For example, Riker realizes he can take advantage of the fact that Valak's second-in-command is a racist, arrogant, volatile individual. Riker soon understands that this person is ferociously proud, will never back down from anything having to do with a human being, and would rather die than change his mind or ask for help in dealing with a human being, Secondly, the Enterprise-D was extricated from the situation though changing factors because after the Enterprise-D was captured, Valak decided it had become necessary to explore a certain place of which little was known, so that to a certain degree the two sides were thrust into working together simply to figure out what was going on and how to be able to leave. strategyValaksolicitedclosed-mindedness visitors
So really great but just one thing, the two disruptors on the sides of the front look like they would have trouble firing directly forward and if the ship wasn't pointing exactly at a target, only one would have a line of sight. There is so much empty real estate on the forward facing leading edges of the "wings" between the center line and the engines that would give huge forward firing arcs, I never understood why nothing was ever put on them.
My hypothesis about the gap is that it greatly reduces the overall mass of the warbird compared to having it filled in with "ship". I think it could have tactical advantages too. The atypical hull profile could be confusing to enemy tactical officers as they would be unsure as to where the critical systems are. In addition shots aimed at the ships center of mass from many angles would simply pass straight through the gap harmlessly. So the gap could be for all or some of these purposes, or many other reasons, or it could be purely aesthetical.
How ST cannon ships manoeuvre is always in conflict, on one hand they're big and slow like an old saloon car. Then next episode they can do intense things like the Picard manoeuver or chill happily in the Corrona of a star. I'd imagine it being more like BSG or Baby with the benefits or inertial dampening/gravity control. Also, if you're ever after inspiration for space battles and bridge designs, there's the Anime Heroic Age. The bridges are amazing on the human ships and their use of drone formations is inspiring.
the gap would actually make for a great place for doing small craft operations (or even mass small craft operations while keeping the hangar bays pretty well protected by having the launch apertures on the inside of the wing) and basically provide something pretty close to a dry dock for small craft. or even larger craft that that can fit in there- such as having mounts for being able to piggy back a tliss sized bird of prey inside while cloaked. basically it's a lot of real estate that can be used for a bunch of different things... the question is how modable or how module friendly would the inside of the wings be?
Thoughts on the placement of the nacelles, If they are above the center of mass, the ship is more maneuverable, if they are below the center of mass, it is faster. If they are in the center, it splits the difference, but it is also easier to cloak the warp signature. I know that wouldn't make sense in reality, in zero gravity, but this is science fiction.
My headcanon was always that the gap was so that critical damage would leave the other section unimpaired, as well as allowing mission modules to be easily mounted. As for the torpedoes, in DS9 there is specefic mention of components for romulan plama torpedoes, and my headcanon is instead of 'green photons', they simply fire smaler shots than in TOS that require less reload time, and they could still fore the TOS sized plasma torpedo but it would require a longer charge time.
My tip about the gap is that it can transport smaller vesels like original warbird within Aquilas warp field, like NX-01 and NX-02 shared one field for some time. I bet that is the purose of that gap.
This might just be head canon, but I always thought that despite the size, a D'deridex was still just on par with, or slightly less powerful than the Galaxy Class. An enhanced one, would be about the same as the "war variant" of the Galaxy Class as well, and I do not think that either could actually take on a Jem'hadar Battleship in a one on one fight, let alone a Borg Cube.
Not really a theory on the purpose of the gap but rather a dangerous maneuver, of having a couple of smaller tactical support ships hide within the gap to appear on sensors as a single ping. I'm sure a couple frigate sized ships could fit in there an exit with some clever flying. By the time the ship reaches visual range, they disembark and close the distance quickly to soften their target allowing the D'deridex to devastate with ease.
Beautiful render. I would've made the glowing feathers the impulse engines myself. That would certainly get rid of the maneuverability problems in my mind. I could've sworn in the original Probert design that the spinal hump at the top of the ship is where the Singularity Core was located. Putting it at the stern like that makes the Power Transfer Conduits really long as opposed to the straight shot. And no, it can't take a Jem'Hadar Dreadnought. You need a Scimitar for that.
Okay so I haven't finished with the still-images yet at the website - check back here tomorrow and I should have them up there!
40 to 50 seconds for each frame render on this thang without certain anamolies developing - at 30 frames a second, yall can do the math - someday Ill get a better computer for this kind of work! :D
So are there going to be a set of Bird of prey units that dock within the cavity for stealth docking.
OKAY 1080p labeled still images are now up on the website at resurrectedstarships.com
@@resurrectedstarships I really like the fearsome, powerful, and beautiful Romulan D'Deridex class Warbird. It is a True Romulan Warbird design unlike those imposter Warbird's in Star Trek: Picard that look nothing like the D'Deridex class Warbird. Why didn't they go with the D'Deridex Warbird as the Main Hero ship instead of the La Sirena (which is a tiny, yet near inferior transport ship)?
I think the gap is there to serve in better hiding the ships warp signature whie cloaked, as the line of sight between the nacells is in a shroded place which could house a system to better mask it
About the gap:
Early Vulcan ships use a Warp ring similar to the ones that have been drawn before by NASA and others. I bet the gap serves the same purpose along with the warp nacelles.
So essentially instead of having a ship hull and a seperate warp ring like the Vulcans, they've incorporated the ring into the ship's overall hull design? That's a nice idea.
You are more right than you know. One of Gene Roddenberry's other rules (and there is an illustration of this for Star Trek The Motion Picture) is that warp is achieved by the interaction of pairs of warp nacelles. In order for this to work the warp nacelles MUST have line of sight to each other. It was intended to show special effects of this interaction of the 2 warp nacelles but the budget never allowed for it.
The Vulcans use warp rings instead of nacelles. Maybe the split hull could be a carry over from that
@@Triplitz Yes, that was why Probert introduced the gap for the warbird.
Sooo...
Did Lucas steal the 'hyperdrive ring' idea from OST?
Like the fact that you dealt with engine design and warp/impluse/thruster placement.
If you've played STO, trying to steer a D'deridex, without some major upgrades, is like parallel parking a fully-loaded dump truck on a narrow one-way street: you may do it, but it's going to take a while, and likely wreck your ride.
Facts.
do cloaking ambush runs, while it's cloaked it gets a huge turn rate bonus. De-cloak amubush, fly right past and re-cloak then turn to re-engage. Rinse and repeat complete with the damage bonus of a romulan battle cloak!
Reminds me of my Kelvin Timeline Intel Dreadnought Cruiser.
My headcanon about the TOS plasma torpedo never being seen after TOS has always been that's the reason the Federation never, officially, developed cloaking technology; Starfleet saw the Romulan torpedo that could smash whole asteroids as a greater threat than the cloaking device, especially after the Enterprise stole one from a Romulan cruiser and got to analyse it, and so pressed that the torpedo be banned by the Treaty of Algeron. The Romulans complied in exchange for the Federation agreeing not to develop cloaking devices, while still keeping their own.
As powerful as the TOS plasma torpedo is: It had some major drawback. Its limited range, speed and maneuverability reduce its usefulness against fast and agile targets. And it took forever to charge. In my headcanon the Romulans sacrificed fire-power in order to have a weapon that is faster to charge and more useful against non-stationary targets. If I had anything to say, TNG-era romulan plasma torpedos were adjustable and could be weak but incredibly fast and agile or strong but slow and ponderous, depending on what the tactical situation demands.
I always love headcanon. However I'm not sure it would work. There would be no way of policing such an agreement, as the Romulans could do whatever they wanted behind their closed borders. You would need Federation inspectors in Romulan space. Perhaps in the end, the photon torpedo was determined by the Romulan military as a more efficient weapon.
@@MrAranton I played a text-based tactical simulator set in TOS-era tech, where one could choose flagship and support ship classes from one of Federation, Klingon, Romulan, or Orion Pirate. The Romulan Plasma Torpedo was roughly modeled as you indicated; it had powerful punch at close range, was slow and ponderous but able to track & follow a target at low warp velocity. Its power dissipated rapidly and if it did not impact within two or three 'turns', was relatively easy to destroy with phasers and did not do serious damage (except to shield systems) if it wasn't intercepted by point-defense fire. If Romulan science wasn't able to stabilize it for longer-range attacks, it would make sense that they would shelve the technology in favor of long-range photon torpedoes (casings charged with plasma, instead of matter & antimatter, since the Romulans would rather screw around with a high-gradient gravity well instead?) and powerful distruptors.
@@LazarusRemains yes the Plasma torpedoes while powerful are pretty inefficient for their Plasma power supply. They must drop some subsystems to charge leaving them vulnerable.
Comparatively the Photon they use, is pretty darn powerful in its own right and can be tuned up or down in its Isotonne rating. More importantly... it's a simpler mechanism to load, store, rack, and ready photons in preparation for a rapid sneak attack.
If your enemy doesn't believe that they are in danger, you don't need a big boom. You need a boom just big enough to get the job done.. and then you blast the ever loving crap out of them with a rapid fire Salvo before running away and recloaking, they... if they survived not having their shields at full power, or even down for scanning and transport and such.. then you can easily prep another Salvo, run into a flank position and then ripple fire your torpedoes against their nacelles or secondary hull and main engineering section.
Alot of strategic options available and the romulan variant of the Photon Torp matches well with their tactics.
I've no doubt they still have a few Plasma Blaster torps on hand for this class of ship. But the smaller warbirds.... nah you can pack way more Photons.
More ammo, means more power.
I could see the gap being used as an area to "carry" other smaller warships (that are too large for the shuttlebays) or maybe allowing the ship to act as a mobile "dry-dock"/repair facility.
Being a battle-carrier, the D'deridex warbird would be a highly likely choice for a flagship or even a highly mobile command center, and regardless, it would have a large crew capable of easily repairing and refuelling, rearming, and otherwise resupplying various kinds of ships.
interesting idea, however I would add that this area could also be used to haul smaller ships that were 'disabled' or 'captured' . Such vessels would benefit from the D'Deridex's shield protection, and be cloaked regardless if the vessel had a cloak or not.
I don't see the Romulans conducting drydock-style repairs in-theater, esp. if it would compromise strategic objectives or tactical readiness. They're crafty and subtle, but they like to stay in a controlling position and revile 'getting caught with one's pants down.'
As a sort of ferry for troop carriers, surface-deployable structures, or orbital facilities such as a sensor+defense station or an orbital defense grid, _THAT_ makes a lot of sense to me.
I personally believe that Romulans would add iridescent patterns on a ship like that just because it’s pretty. We are, after all, the most arrogant race in the galaxy.
Jolan tru..
I rather like the idea of it also being part of a visual deception system (a la the dazzle camouflage used on naval vessels in World War I.)
Though I do appreciate the aesthetic appeal.
Alternatively it could be an affect of the glowing bits being either vector thrust or heat dissipation. Certain metals change color when undergoing heat treating. The patterns could be a byproduct of the special heat treating these areas undergo to protect it from the enormous heat variations emitted from this section of the ship.
'Most arrogant,' huh? I will admit that the Romulan Star Empire and the Tal Shiar are pretty arrogant. Look at what Sela and Hakeev do in _Star Trek Online_ . What about the Voth, Borg, Founders, Sphere Builders, or Iconians? Temporal Investigations isn't a race, but they seem pretty arrogant too, determining the 'correct' timeline and making efforts to undo any changes to it. To the point where in _STO_ they will deny the Nakh'ul their sun.
BNuts Yes, but none of them will actually *admit* how arrogant they are. Unlike me hehe 😉.
Outstanding rendering!! congratulations!
If I was designing a ship like this, that huge negative space could be used for quite a few things,
1. Cargo capacity. Such a large volume could be used to carry cargo pods or detachable drop-ships or carry assorted payloads.
it would be more protected and arrive faster than in a transport ship and free up a Warbird instead of convoy duty.
2. Transport or Rescue. That space could house smaller Romulan ships inside the warp bubble to transport them at the speed of the Warbird.
3. Minimize the target profile. These are MASSIVE ships and anything to minimize a target profile would be a good design.
4. It Just Looks Effen COOL!!
Agreed! All of the above: which has been my HeadCanon for decades anyway. Also, as others have pointed out, it increases the size without increasing the overall mass to uncontrollable levels. We do see them being fairly un-manoeuvrable (compared even to a Galaxy Class) but there is no avoiding how impressive and imposing they are.
Star Trek Romulan warbird open Gap design is 2 facilitate the warp field in the ship rather than running around the outer edges of the ship like FEDERASION making it less readable by scanning sensors. But slightly less effective in actual performance. This is the main reason why a Romulan cloaking devices are superior to that of the Klingon counterparts
The cloaking bit and warp field is something I'd not considered! I like it!
@@resurrectedstarships I remember watching an interview with the creator of the warbird he said something about that. The original concept also said that the inner part was used to hold ships I like a carrier disconnect and reconnect themselves like Colony ships inside. I personally like the cloaking device part better.
@@resurrectedstarships That has been my main theory about how the 24th-Century Warbird's design has its internal volume spread around a central point, almost like a bubble. I don't have any hard canon or present-day-futurism ideas about how cloaking works, but essentially to cloak a ship, one has to turn all of its signature emissions into randomized emissions that have no discernible origin, locus, or vector to them. Basically I conceive of a cloaking field randomizing the momentum of every possible band of EM and particle radiation, so that it's not distinguishable from a sensor artifact or mirage at long (relativistic) ranges.
The only other option I can think of is to pull in all the emissions and put them in some sort of energetic stasis field or drive them into subspace.
She looks glorious!
As far as the gap is concerned I have this idea: by having a gap there (and by extension her peculiar nacelle placement) she can look bigger while not having a substantially bigger internal volume (plus potentially housing tricks, like fighters as you mentioned and the like). After all she definitely looks intimidating and ready to smack you, especially compared to Starfleet designs of her era. By the way I wonder whether she could potentially carry something bigger in that gap, like a warbird of sorts (a small B'rel would definitely fit in there, although I don't know whether it's advisable or whether the D'deridex would be able to enter Warp with a smaller ship in there)
Love it I have always thought this ship never got the love it deserved in any show.
I agree ... especially when it’s just blown up on some of those DS9 episodes like it was any other cruiser!
And it most certainly wasn't just another cruiser. I guess maybe the Dominion focused on them due to their threat, and destroying one is a huge blow to moral.
@@resurrectedstarships The D'deridex was a truly monolithic beast. Truly a shame they never got the spotlight put on them. I can just image a warbird being swarmed by Jem'Hadar fighters, just taking blow after blow, making the Jem'Hadar pay for every hit they land. Slow and sluggish, maybe, but the D'deridex in my head canon is a true battleship - taking punishment and dishing it out.
I like this way more than the completely redesigned Romulans ships in Picard. Here is someone who actually likes Star Trek and has actually given the lore considerable thought. Awesome work!
When you wish he would create his own star trek animated show(i know for a fact it would be better than what CBS does)
I so very much want to see this thing in action..
Behold: the Empire is born anew, made physical in battle.
This really is the ultimate D'deridex! great job sir!
I believe the gap is an enormous “Toast Rack” for millions of drones to be launched from in the event that the fighters and flight decks are knocked out. It’s similar to the Cylon Base Ship’s “toast racks.” This is one theory. The other is it’s a massive interior portion for RCS thrusters, making the ship more maneuverable.
Edit: Also, the area with the deflector fish looks like a Cylon Raider head with the visor down. I see what you did, Ronald D. Moore
I _do like_ your comment - good observations.
Based on their respective design philosophies, tech differences aside, I don't think that the Base Stars (Classic or BSG) could hold a candle to the 24th-cen Warbird. A ship that has both capital cruiser _AND_ carrier capabilities?! *GULP* 'Check please!'
I always figured the gap was an intimidation ploy to make the ship look bigger than it is.
Can I just seriously thank you for this? What an amazing project and MASSIVE amounts of creativity and work. Very grateful and wonderful presentation!
First time in my life I agree with all changes made to a Star Trek ship.
I preface my wall of text with this: the D'deridex is my favorite alien ship and I also love the improvements you've made to it. Especially since I always wanted to see the original Probert version realized in 3D. My suggestions come from a place of love for the design, and I don't want to diminish your fantastic work! Only tweak it a little.
I would add several disruptor points to eliminate blind spots. One on the very top of the spine, since the ones on the wing tips might not reach every point above. In particular targets close to the hull.
One additional disruptor on the backside of the beak near the botanical deck and one on the very bottom near the torpedo launcher. As it is now there is a rather huge blind spot right underneath the head that potentially only the lower torpedo launcher could reach; something you don't want that close to the ship.
Another disruptor at the top of the inside of the gap. If an enemy ship somehow manages to get into the gap or smaller vessels from the hanger bay get hijacked by hostile forces, there is currently no way to neutralize them inside the gap. It's a necessary risk analysis since the gap gives relatively easy access to vital parts of the ship. Of course you could launch your own fighter to combat any intruder vessel there, but that takes time and might not be possible when the hangar is overrun. The disruptor acts as a second fail safe in this regard.
Lastly I would keep the original disruptors on both sides of the tail section. While the disruptors on the top and bottom back can fire aft, there is a significant portion that is a blind spot. Namely right behind the impulse outlets. These two disruptors could also help keeping the gap save. Keep in mind how huge that ship is. An Intrepid class could easily park right next to the tail and be completely out of reach.
In case of the upper torpedo launcher I would remove the inlet completely and have a plain surface with two slots instead. As it is right now, torpedoes would have to fly in a straight line for 25-50m before they could fly left or right. It might appear to be a minuscule delay but in regards to weapon systems that is something you don't want. The bottom one could immediately engage targets left, right and center.
Regarding plasma torpedoes it was my understanding that they still use plasma torpedoes despite them being now green. In season 7 of DS9 the Romulans place plasma torpedoes on one of Bajor's moons. I'd wager it's the same they use on their ships as seen during the attack on the founder homeworld.
One thing I noticed that there seems to be a separation line at the end of the tail section. Could that be another life boat similar to the head section? Or is the singularity in that part so that it could be decoupled from the ship similar to a warp core ejection in case of emergency?
Fun video. The D'Deridex is probably my favorite science fiction ship of all time. It's just cool in all respects. Massive, menacing, powerful, and able to ambush prey out of cloak and disappear again. Such a cool ship!
Great job on the D’deridex! I was always bummed we never really saw the full combat potential of this ship ... but that sort of ties into how the TNG conflicts were never full-out battles.
Did you notice how the rear of the ship is “sunk” down lower than the head, from the side view? I never notice that when it’s on-screen, but only from the side view. Interestingly enough, it seems different in each side view schematic I see - some are a lot more in-line where others are more sunk. Just an interesting observation. This is a wonderful ship and model again. Part of my really wants to see the big expansive interiors of these (that they never could show in the TV show)!
Considering the damage done to the Enterprise at range (despite the range limit itself) and the century of potential development, the plasma torpedo would make for a excellent weapon for siege and orbital bombardment which could mostly likely to be part of the D'deridex class design requirement and mission profile. So yes, the plasma torpedo would be part of the armament.
I imagine the illuminated feather panels on the wings would make good heat banks. Structures for storing the generated heat while cloaked so the ship does not overheat and cook the crew on prolonged missions. When the ship goes to cloak, the panels close up, sealing the glowing induction vents away in the hull. When it decloaks, the plates open, exposing the vents and releasing the banked heat. This is my favorite ship design from from TNG, followed a close second by the Klingon Vor'cha attack cruiser. I like your reimagining of the design. Great work!
The gap is for docking non cloaked ships. So they can be enshrouded when the d deridex cloaks. And the glowing strips are used to cool the plasma. Hydrogen is pulled through the bussard scoops, fet through the radiators and released through gaps after being cooled again.
SHHHHHHHHH *inhales* SHHHHHHHH *inhales SHHHHHHHHHH....inhales....inhales SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
@@resurrectedstarships great minds and all that ;)
How have I only just found this channel? Romulans are my favourite race in Star Trek, and one of my favourites in Sci-Fi. Loved this video!
Great work, I see it as a natural progression in the design of the ship more than an enhanced version, as you put all the right thoughts behind every choice. And the result is outstanding!
I see just one thing missing: the tractor beam emitter on the ventral side, as seen in "The Mind's Eye"!
_GREAT CATCH._ I painted one of these as a plastic model way-back-when, and that was one of the details I did remember.
Outstanding work. You brought what was already a fine design to a work of true art.
I don’t know what the gap is for, but I can imagine it being very damaging if a small attack ship got in there and started blasting around.
I noticed the two rectangular hanger doors way back on the old Micro Machines model, and I’m happy you’ve given them a ‘real’ purpose that makes sense and I like the idea of the whole underside section being shuttle/fighter bays.
Initiate maneuver Worf Theta One: ruclips.net/video/Ked-Pw0mZyY/видео.htmlm58s
@@ZeroB4NG hum we have a contradiction at work here...
In startrek away team they say that sort of manuver is not posable as you would bring 2 warp bubles into contact causing them both to colapse, with its resulting desaster for the smaller ship, as In the STNG episode where Lesly acedently traps hes mother, doctor crusher, in a static warp bubble because of this affect when he leaves an exsperament runing while the enterprise is having it's own warp driive worked on.
My favourite ship in all of sci-fi. I was blown away by its reveal in ST:TNG. I think that the gap is to allow it to function as a mobile starbase/shipyard/repair facility for smaller Romulan starships like Shrikes and Griffins.
Amazing job! This has always been my favorite ship from Star Trek.
This was amazing. I'm happy you did this. that is my favorite ship from any Star Trek movie or series.
I like how you bring the practical engineering into the design. Something that I find a lot of people skip when making ships. They are so focused on the looks that they dismiss the functionality. That being said, have you ever tried to build a warpdrive ship that is close to our current technology. I think it would be fun to find workarounds to making the power hungry warp drive work without the all mighty antimatter. I’m thinking capacitors. Charging them up with a nuclear or fusion core, then using that stored power to activate the warp drive for a few hours before needing to drop out of warp and recharge. Aka “Warp jump”. It’s fun to findout how we would be able to manage it without things like shields, integrity fields, photon torpedoes, impulse drive and phasers. A real adventure like the sailing ships of old that didn’t have all the fancy easy technology of today. Sadly Star Trek Enterprise didn’t really go that far as they already magically had antimatter and impulse engines. And then not almost immediately after they had phasers. But that was just lazy writing lol. (not to mention lazy designers as a ship was a rip off of the Akira class). Anyway, sorry for writing a book and keep up the great work! I look forward to your next video.
I really like this design for the D'deridex. Here's 3 things I noticed:
1-The sensor array on the dorsal spine in front of the forward torpedo launcher looks like it could interfere with that launcher's ability to fire, possibly striking the sensor array and damaging the ship.
2-The iridescent pattern could be an affect of the glowing bits being either vector thrust or heat dissipation. Certain metals change color when undergoing heat treating. The patterns could be a byproduct of the special heat treating these areas undergo to protect it from the enormous heat variations emitted from this section of the ship.
3-I think I would have kept the disruptor nodes at the port and starboard of the base of the ventral neck. You are right that their firing arcs are limited by the ship's spaceframe, but it looks like without them there is a gap in the ships' overall firing coverage. Especially where small ships like runabouts are concerned, were they ever able to get close enough. In a more specific instance I am reminded of the Iconian Probe in the TNG episode "Contagion" that was allowed to get perilously close to the Haakona before it was destroyed. Perhaps they could be placed port and starboard of the hanger deck to improve their arcs and give the design more forward beam coverage?
I think cryptic would be wise to hire you on as a artist.
I like your take on the upgrade. It reminds me of the upgrade of the real-world F/A-18 A/B & C/D Hornet to the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, essentially a new aircraft derived from the earlier versions.
Well done. LOVE it. Ive always loved the D'D. Ive never given the gap in the middle much thought, we know it cant be due to the singularity as other ships have it and they dont have the gap. I NEVER knew the head could pop off and fly around like the Galaxy's saucer. Very cool. I get that the D'D is a Battle Carrier, we also know the Galaxy has several main hanger decks. The same could be said for that ship but w/ out launch tubes. Those features were never addressed in TNG most likely because of FX cost/time. I love your glowing ribs, id surmise they have to do w/ an advanced cloak OR added impulse engines for increased maneuverability. You know cause this is an "advanced" version.
Nice job. Very well done. Additionally it adresses some of the inconsistencies which came up for me during TNG and delievers well elaborated explanations. Keep up the good work!
The gap... line of sight for the warp nacelles facilitates more efficient warp field projection around the ship. It can be done without line of sight, but it would take more energy to manipulate the field in that way.
The D'deridex is a huge and intimidating battle cruiser and having the gap and large wings help facilitate this while reducing cost.
Ships in Star Trek utilize subspace fields to maneuver, and the mass of the ship helps determine the needed power output to generate a field strong enough to move the ship (at sublight). RCS thrusters are backups.
I understand your conundrum with the photon/plasma torpedo issue on 24th century Romulan warships since I've had to deal with the issue in my own works. Romulan plasma torpedoes in the 24th century are still a thing since they were mentioned in the DS-9 episode "Image in the Sand." But rather than mount dedicated plasma launchers on D'Deridex's, I made up a compromise. In the Star Fleet Battles game, they came up with a Type F (fixed round) plasma torpedo. I reasoned that such ordinance could theoretically be reduced to the size of a photon torpedo and fired out of a standard photon torpedo tube. That way, you wouldn't have to change the design of your Aquila at all. Just include some of these plasma torpedoes along with your photon ordinance. Just an idea.
So, their version of the Federation trick of the Quantum torpedoes.....an very early version.
in another video they said the gap was due to where the ship sits in the warp bubble. federation ships sit low, Romulan used to sit high. The D'deridex straddles the warp bubble for maximum efficiency, maximum all speeds usage.
To me, the gap in the space frame is there, basically to make the ship look bigger. As massive at the D'Deridex seems, when one subtracts that empty space from her over all volume, she comes in at far lower tonnage than her initial dimensions would imply, so to me, this is an example of Romulan Tarkin Doctrine, aiming to intimidate potential opponents with the sheer massive size of their mainline warship.
A beautiful and well-reasoned design.
In the Star trek ccg they had a card called the D'deridex advanced. This reminded me of that awesome card.
Also, as for the gap, I can imagine the ship originally designed with just the upper wing as a more classic "bird" shaped warship. But as the design requirements grew and especially the carrier aspects added to the growing list of tasks the architects needed to squeeze into the hull; adding a "duplicate" wing underneath to fit these additional mission packages proved more effect than expanding the original primary hull even larger. What makes me think this is that the lower of the 2 "neck" extensions is not aesthetically shaped at all, like the upper neck is, it's just a long box shaped arm, giving it the appearance of a totally functional later addition to the otherwise sculpted shape of virtually every other aspect of the ship design.
Like you I have always been a Romulan fan since Balance of Terror!
I like the visual design of the Romulan ship.
I find the romulan designs the most interesting in Star Trek. Well done!
The model came out really good.
I gotta say it; damn good job, worth the wait.
Despite only depicting Photon Torpedoes onscreen, on DS9 the Romulans had a base on one of Bajors moons that was building Plasma Torpedoes.
I assumed the gap was for smaller, and slower, uncloaked ships. That area was inside the cloaking field, and could anchor smaller craft, rendering them invisible as well.
I would say the gap is storage, tractor beams could keep salvage and structures inside. Similar in design philosophy to the galaxy class, except for space facilities rather than ground based ones. The wings I would guess are part of the cloaking system, but as a passive component either heatsink or sensors that can be used while in Cloak.
Romulans were to me based on Romans. The Roman military were also an efficient engineering force. The Warbird is a massive multi-role vessel. The gap and extensive hard points that can be used a million different ways. Weapons pods like the Federation New Orleans class. Drydock for repairing / resupplying smaller vessels where the Warbird could act as a small starbase. A way to piggyback cloaked Tal Shiar vessels. As a Cargo area, transport everything a colony or garrison could ever want. And the main reason for the gap. Engine efficiency. Engines have 100% LOS of each other. With power always a premium and the energy consumption of the Cloaking devise. Efficiency is everything. And buy design. Not being able to have shields while cloaked. the Gap becomes even more important. A wise Romulan will follow his target from the rear off set 45-degrees port or starboard. If detected. the vessel would fire center mass of the cloaked Warbird. And the Phaser would pass harmlessly thru the Warbird. Causing even more confusion to the ship being followed. Is there something really their? Sensor malfunction. Meanwhile the Warbird can remain cloaked and retreat further away and reposition elsewhere.
Romulus Victor! Those are some great ideas,
This is incredible!!! You really brought this ship to life
Love it! I always thought the gap in the hull had something to do with the quantum singularity drive.
Perhaps not the most innovative idea, the gap could be used to house a smaller frigate- or scout-sized ship. In an episode of TNG called "The Defector", a small Romulan scout craft that could easily fit in the gap is seen on-screen several times. Being a battle-carrier, the IRW Aquila could be modified to act as a mother ship to one or several of these small scout ships (in addition to its own starfighters) and send them (the scout ships) to examine several enemy bases simultaneously before choosing a target; the smaller scout ships would also be harder to detect in addition to providing the Aquila with reconnaissance data from several (moderately) distant positions simultaneously.
This is absolutely fantastic. You really put a lot of effort into your videos that pay off very well. I was super hyped for this video as I love the warbird and knew that you would give it an enhanced design that still remains as pleasing to the eye as the original probert design. I look forward to it being used again and am interested in your “use of the hollow centre of the ship” theory !
The gap is to pull fighter wings along at warp. The ability to drop out of warp with dozens of fighters already launched would be an incredible advantage in a universe where most space battles are decided in minutes.
Beautiful work, well done!!
This is using STO lore, but many new federation ships have a split neck such as the avenger line and odyssey line of starships. This is more "environmentally" friendly to space due to the disruption caused to space by warp. This also makes the ships "faster" at warp due to less area being forced through space as a result of the split neck. (Yes I know space doesn't have a atmosphere that will cause air resistance, but this is how warp works atleast according to STO lore) Perhaps the Romulans with their avenues of technology came to this conclusion before the federation, and did this design for their massive warbirds in order to have less surface area thus improving warp speeds without building better singularity cores thus future proofing the Dederidex. Also maybe they are more eco friendly idk. Just a theory/thought.
A side theory is that this less area taken up by the ship gives the cloak less area to actually cloak thus improving efficiency of their cloaking devices, as it doesn't have to use power to cloak the massive amounts if extra external area taken up by the ship.
Essentially i imagine the Dederidex as the pinnacle of Romulan design and technology for that era. Wereas the Galaxy was built with the Federation's multi mission and modularity design theory. The Romulans designed the Dederidex as this utter powerhouse warship. 1 of these could take on a Galaxy. 2 of them could annihilate it. Without Picard shenanigans of course.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Bravo. Romulans are my favorite.
This is really really good! And I love your ideas and reasoning behind the design and the changes you made :) With the green highlights on the upper hull, they could just be green highlights, the Romulans showing off. And it saves them having to paint a great big bird on it :D
That is absolutely awesome work. I'm amazed. Now, I actually like that Warbird after your revamping of it. I still think a Dominion Battleship would win in a 1 vs 1 dual, but that's just my biased..ness. BUT your variant is a massive improvement. Best one I think. I love the glowing in the wings. You could totally bring back the old plasma cannon as a siege weapon or as you said; sneak attack weapon. I'll shut up now; just amazed at your work. 🤘🤘
Many years ago I read somewhere ( can´t remember if it was Memory Core Alpha ) that during the Dominion war the only ship that could actually stand tow to tow with a Jem Hadar battlecruiser was in fact the D´Deridex warbird due to its massive size and firepower ... and in the hands of very capable captains who would take full tactical advantage of the clocking device it could even defeat a Jem´Hadar battlecruiser in a one on one fight ...
I'll speculate on the 'gap'
It's a slot for mission modules. Similar to how the Federation Nebula class can be tailored to, say, exploration by mounting a module with additional science labs and equipment or for combat by mounting a module with extra weapons or shield generators, the gap here represents one or more slots to install mission specific modules / equipment for the ship.
For myself (though my knowledge / dedication to Star Trek is limited), the hollow structure is both to conform to that arcane 'optimal warp field structure' that the Vulcans / Romulans share from their ancestral Warp Field Theory, and as a way to make a large and intimidating (like the spread out wings of a bird?) warship without it becoming too bulky and expensive to make. Star Trek ships seem to have a strange 'optimal size', and ships like the Galaxy, Negh'var and Scimatar classes are themselves nigh-unwieldy engineering marvels. The hollowness is in some way related subconsciously to the "paper (hollow) tiger/bird" situation/mentality the Romulans are in or have when compared to the sturdy Klingon Empire or more diverse United Federation of Planets.
I feel the need to compare the structure of the D'deridex to the older D'ker type cruiser of the Vulcans, as this comparison both highlights that Vulcanoid Warp Field thingies, and such a ship might somehow be in the Vulcanoid mindset as an ideal warship, like how the triangular dagger is a special thing for the history of the Sith and Palpatine's empire as seen with Star Destroyers and it's iconic design.
The one flaw with that warp ring structure idea are the rectangular Warp Nacelles on the sides. For my part I just see those as technological holdovers of the Romulans reverse-engineering the D7 / K'Tinga battlecruiser from the infamous Tech exchange.
She's beautiful and an exceptional addition to the imperial fleet.
Answers
1: Accommodation for a different warp field geometry, or maybe a secondary warp field necessary for warping while under cloak.
2: Sad to say, but nope. The Dominion doesn't build glass cannons. Romulan ships are tough, and a battleship might be left clinging to life by a thread, but I believe it would still be standing at the end of a 1v1 brawl.
Note: Fighters might actually tip the scale here, but if the Dominion has an animation budget and writing staff on par with Romulus, they'd probably field fighters as well.
3: If the Aquilla was the first Romulan ship the Borg met, she could probably destroy a Cube. That's about the best I'd expect.
4: I'd run 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I'd want that.
Nerd channel: I can't remember where I saw this, but I remember some commentary on the micro singularity. It's supposed to be a little less dense than a black hole and consisting of a few hundred atom's worth of material. This was calculated against the anti-matter reactions of a Federation warp core and shown to be a little more powerful, but fairly evened out in the pro/con department. Not sure how that would play into your secret weapon, but there's been enough shenanigans with the Romulan warp core that it could range from space/time distortions to crushing ships as a suicidal attack. Maybe an ultra condensed plasma attack? You've got the hamster on leg day again.
Your glowing green in the feather cracks could either be emitters for the cloaking device itself, or special radiators that are designed to operate while cloaked.
The gap is there because it looks cool af. This is all of the knowledge I need😂
The Gap ; would be used to house larger frigate style ships for tactical and rescue , or so i would use it . great video
I will place an order for 14 immediately with an option for a possible 70 more ships.
We prefer ours in Coyote Brown or Stealth Gray over the Olive Drab for understandable reasons.
- US Space Force
The gap is there because it is the most effective defense to the tactics of their largest enemies(Federation and Klingon, the Dominion nor the Borg were known when the D'deridex was first built), while also meeting the requirements a larger ship would need like heat dissipation, aka larger surface area, while also mitigating the problems larger surface areas bring to combat. It creates redundancies in the weak points that their enemies have, notably the neck and the pylons while making it impossible for their enemies at the time to cripple the ship in a single volley whenever they decloak. Also, negative space makes it possible for ships to fire through the ship without hitting anything, making it harder for ships to hit it while the shields are down.
Honestly, the only empire they would be potentially scared of is the Dominion as their tactics are the only ones that could destroy a ship with a single fighter by having it crash into both "necks", but that would be extremely difficult to pull off and might require two fighters.
Amazing work! I love the attention to detail.
I would love to see the ship in a future trek series, hopefully one down by new show runners that respect the canon and history of the show.
if I may make a point. During DS9 after Romulans had joined the Alliance, the Romulans brought injured Romulans to DS9 medical bay. The wounds were consistent with plasma burns. The Bajorans discovered the Romulans were storing plasma torpedoes n a moon in the Bajorn star system. Major Kira Neyris was prepared to got to war with the Romulans if they didnt remove the plasma torpedoes. The Romulans blinked first and removed the plasma torpedoes. The ships shown in the episode where D'Deridex class ships.
The face of the mechanized Cylon Centurion (from the 2004 reboot of Battlestar Galactica) and also the face of the Cylon Raider and Cylon Heavy Raider all look suspiciously similar to the bow section of the Romulan D’deridex Class Battle Cruiser featured in this video.
I don’t feel that the 2004 BSG reboot design was ripped-off from the Star Trek franchise or anything, but I think it was definitely inspired-by the legendary design of the Romulan Warbird.
This Romulan Warbird design is one of my favorite starship designs from any series, and it makes sense that I would also be naturally drawn to the 2004 BSG Cylon Raider design.
wow that was interesting to know! So if not the FX team mistake with forward beam weapons, it would fire smth like Omega class from Babylon 5.
Also I used to use ukulele strings called Aquila haha. Huge respect for such sick Blender modelling skills as well
The Gap is merely to crate the illusion of more bulk
The D'Deridex was the Romulan answer to the Galaxy Class...the Senate wanted "bigger", and so to facilitate....the oid space was created to create the impression of greater volume without costing more resources
And that would explain why other Romulan designs don't share the asthetic
Yeah but since this design was so successful for so many years I'm surprised more ships related to this class weren't created. Also if this ship was designed to create the illusion of size why not take advantage of that? This should would make excellent mobile starbase and it carrying a few smaller birds of prey isn't such a bad idea. Plus if larger variants of this class were made I could imagine this being able to carry larger ships inside them. Ships of this class could easily quickly establish dominance over multiple star systems simultaneously.
haven't watched your video about the "gap" yet, wanted to share this thought first. Secrecy and misdirection are the Romulan's theme. right? maybe that was the thought process? a sleek and imposing exterior that gives nothing away while hiding its interior. she's intended as a widely configurable multi role vessel after all. so what if the outer shell was actually very densely armored? and rigged with a vast array of sensor dampeners and jamers and confusers. no weapons on the outer shell, just the heavy armor, and maybe the primary shield emitters which if they failed, the armor is so dense it wouldn't matter too much. secondary shield arrays could then protect the forward and aft sections as well as the nacelles. this extra armor would also be useful as her shields go down when she cloaks. diving at her target firing all weapons then rolling and banking once past her target to avoid return fire as she cloacks to line up for another attack run. hope you are still with me since you mentioned the firing arcs, this should be good. notice how there is some amount of the interior space visible from any and all directions? what if all if the weapons systems were actually mounted inside the gap: phasers, distruptors, torpedo launchers, ect. all hidden inside the gap where sensors would have a hard time detecting them but they would still be able to fire in any direction on the horizontal plane, a generous amount on the vertical plane fore to aft, nothing on the vertical plane port to starboard but again, heavy armor. Maybe she isn't configured as a heavy gunship but a carrier with nothing but the launch bays you mentioned but just way way more of them. or maybe a pair of non warp capable defiant sized attack frigates, shoot without the warp nacelles I wonder if you couldn't park four defiants in there. alternatively it could be just a transport, or a science vessel, industrial even. you wouldn't know because of the dense armor, uniform exterior and sensor blockers. so three "war" birds show up.... but are all three configured for war? you'd never know.
really hope to hear your response. thanks for the video.
The "Gap" in the middle of the hull is a plot hole device that allows smaller enemy spacecraft to "Hug the Donkey". Re-configure your defensive deflector grid accordingly as a classic shield bubble!
If the negative space is for the uninterrupted line of sight of paired nacelles, then that leads to a _interesting minor refit…_
New designs (like the Defiant class and the newer Warbirds) don't need a line of sight between nacelles, and they can be mounted on either side of a main hull. So if a D'deridex was retrofitted with such a warp system, then the entire negative space between the nacelles could be *filled in.*
That would massively increase the internal volume of the ship. [And most likely the mass, requiring more powerful warp drive ect, but just the efficiency of the newer nacelles could compensate somewhat].
But it would completely change the nature of the ship.
It might be useful for specialised variants, such as massive fleet carriers and even strategic transports.
As the newer lighter Warbirds become the standard attack ship, retrofitting D'deridex's to have giant interiors would give them a whole new lease of life.
There are so many possibilities with a ship with a internal volume that huge, that had a cloak and no fuel requirements, and still had a lot of firepower - and maybe even more if some of the extra internal volume is dedicated to "defensive systems".
It could easily overtake the original concept of the Galaxy class as a "city in space", with it almost being a major/mega city in space… damn useful if you need to move populations because of a supernova…
But as a long range exploration ship it would be unparalleled - and when you factor in the Romulan lifespan, it could do a really long range mission.
[Not that it's in the Romulan character, but maybe a one off after Voyager returned and the Empire realised the strategic and technological advantages that Voyager had brought back. Knowing what's 20 years out would be useful, and they knew that travel would be technically possible one day - and maybe it's a good way to get rid of a disruptive element that doesn't warrant actually being eliminated, a group that's too peaceful or a religious minority with differing views. Give them a super cargo colony City ship and have them go off to explore the great beyond, and stop spreading counter revolutionary views at home].
I'm curious as to the internal volume possible compared to a standard D'deridex if all the negative space was utilised. Add in comparisons to the Galaxy class and the giant Kazon carriers just for an idea of scale.
I think the idea of the Aquila is great, and could easily be used as a means to employ new technologies in existing ships already in use by the empire with relatively few modifications.
Reverse-engineering technology from the Reman's Scimitar could easily account for the Aquila's new upgrades and abilities over the older D'Deridex ships; a perfect cloaking system, multiple layers of shields, advances in weapons tech.
And serving as a battle-carrier, the Aquila would be far more capable of serving as a "Fleet in Being," tying up enemy resources simply to be prepared to deal with it while the Romulans covertly employ other forces to areas now less defended than before.
As for the gap, it is a rather spacious area. Capable of fitting a few large ships in there without breaking line of sight between the nacelles. Since in the Star Trek universe, warp speed is achieved with the aid of a warp drive to create the field necessary to travel at FTL speeds and the actual thrust is provided by regular impulse engines and sub-light thrusters, it is not inconceivable that an Aquila (or even standard D'Deridex) would be able to generate the warp field needed not just for itself, but any other ships "inside" of it. Either towed with tractor beams or piloted by synchronized navigation computer systems.
Great design. Love the level of thought... Way more than what passes for industry standard now. I'm always fascinated with idea of space frames being used in different ways or being slightly modded by the captain/crew.
In my mind the gap was in some way related to the artificial singularity... But i look forward to seeing what you've got planned.
There are a couple of things I thought would benefit from further explanation in trek; fighter craft and marines.
In my mind the fighter craft are used to support ground operations and fly missions in atmosphere. I think it would add another element to the combat.
I also really liked the makos in enterprise and who wouldn't want to see boarding actions or ships battling in orbit as their respective marines fight over the mcmuffin on the planet?
Looking forward to future videos featuring The Eagle.
In the 2370s, romulans used Disruption torpedos. In star trek online,, the Romulan Republic used plasma banks and torpedos, while the Imperial navy used disruption tech.
Disruptor torpedo's work wonders if you can tear a whole in the enemies shield and then finish them off with a tricobalt torpedo fired from rear.
My head-canon is that this is an evolution of the D'Kazanak class, the first-generation prototype of which was "IRW Syrinx" and -- according to 'The Romulan Prize" novel -- had been intended to enter service in about 2368. In their own language, the D' prefix discloses to us us that here follows the name of the particular shipbuilding family nobleman patriarch who conceived, designed, sponsored, and helped fund the development of the given particular new variety of Romulan ship. At the end of "The Romulan Prize" novel, the extremely redoubtable Ambimorph species uses deception to make it outwardly SEEM that the Syrinx has gone missing without trace, in the hope of planting a false idea that there must be a catastrophic flaw present in the D'Kazanak design.
The Enterprise officers conclude it is more than possible this may prompt the Romulan planners to incur huge cost overruns, delayed time schedules, and have other setbacks as they may wrongly conclude there is a need to re-evaluate everything about the D'Kazanak class from a clean slate.
incidentally, the Ambimorhs are noticeably similar to the Founders of the Dominion even though at the time of novel publication in 1993, there was at that time no such thing as the DS9 franchise.
Moreover, if I were to guess, I'd say there is an extremely high chance that those who would become the Founders were themselves in fact a "lesser" biophysical mutation drifted and splintered off from the still-existing Ambimorphs. All physical feats of the Founders are easily within the Ambimorph capability set -- additionally however the Ambimorphs are all comprehensively telepathic with great power and skill, even sending and receiving to a hundred or more humanoids and causing them to go to sleep, or to experience perfect illusory environments, etc. Unlike the Founders, Ambimorphs need no resting period of reverting to liquid, but can maintain whatever form they need for as long as they wish -- further, I observe no particular inclination to cruelty, imperialism, client species, or the use of lethal force.
So, because we meet Lord Kazanak, we can derive also that "D'Deridex" means that Lord Deridex must have been the main sponsor for the D'Deridex class.
IRW Syrinx was under the command of the great luminary strategist Valak, a man learned in languages, cultural studies, and the comparative study of foreign martial arts. Valak was also a champion big game hunter who had famously taken three enormous, dangerous flying animals called syrinxes. He was a Romulan colonial citizen and didn't come from Romulus itself -- he was born and raised on a world called Abraxas, known for it's dangerous animals. It is inauspicious not to be able to know more of Valak's adventures or know other thinks about Valak, so because I fanatically like the Rihannsu novels of Diane Duane, I have unilaterally decided that his full name is Ennahwei tr'Valak and that Valak too is of some moderate degree of noble birth -- Valak managed to be unusually open-minded. Valak rejected the Romulan Empire's non-evidence-based propaganda about inferiority of non-Romulans. During the period of his managing to use a brilliant strategy to seize control of the Enterprise-D, Valak showed great professional respect for officers such as Picard, Worf, and Data -- Valak even had so much respect for Worf's prowess and Worf's knowledge of classified information. initially
Tellingly however, Valak was quick to indicate that executions would begin if captured personnel did not obey Valak's orders, and he indicated that the children would be the first to be killed. Valak stressed he himself was ready to show respect and that even in the long run, he would go out his way to do whatever he could to make sure whoever might cooperate with him would be kept safe as much as possible. Captain
It was made very clear the physical capabilities of the D'Kazanak conclusively outclassed those of the Enterprise-D. Firstly, the Enterprise-D was extricated from the situation through the crew of the Enterprise-D finding ways to worsen and manipulate certain psychological factors (de-escalation, negotiation, psywar). For example, Riker realizes he can take advantage of the fact that Valak's second-in-command is a racist, arrogant, volatile individual. Riker soon understands that this person is ferociously proud, will never back down from anything having to do with a human being, and would rather die than change his mind or ask for help in dealing with a human being,
Secondly, the Enterprise-D was extricated from the situation though changing factors because after the Enterprise-D was captured, Valak decided it had become necessary to explore a certain place of which little was known, so that to a certain degree the two sides were thrust into working together simply to figure out what was going on and how to be able to leave.
strategyValaksolicitedclosed-mindedness
visitors
So really great but just one thing, the two disruptors on the sides of the front look like they would have trouble firing directly forward and if the ship wasn't pointing exactly at a target, only one would have a line of sight. There is so much empty real estate on the forward facing leading edges of the "wings" between the center line and the engines that would give huge forward firing arcs, I never understood why nothing was ever put on them.
Eh theres at least a ten degree over-lap where they might converge at about 300 meters out, since the horizon of the head surfaces falls off quickly.
Absolutely stunning!
One of my absolute favorite sci fi ships ever!
My hypothesis about the gap is that it greatly reduces the overall mass of the warbird compared to having it filled in with "ship". I think it could have tactical advantages too. The atypical hull profile could be confusing to enemy tactical officers as they would be unsure as to where the critical systems are. In addition shots aimed at the ships center of mass from many angles would simply pass straight through the gap harmlessly. So the gap could be for all or some of these purposes, or many other reasons, or it could be purely aesthetical.
Aquila means eagle in many latin derived languages aswell
How ST cannon ships manoeuvre is always in conflict, on one hand they're big and slow like an old saloon car. Then next episode they can do intense things like the Picard manoeuver or chill happily in the Corrona of a star. I'd imagine it being more like BSG or Baby with the benefits or inertial dampening/gravity control.
Also, if you're ever after inspiration for space battles and bridge designs, there's the Anime Heroic Age. The bridges are amazing on the human ships and their use of drone formations is inspiring.
the gap would actually make for a great place for doing small craft operations (or even mass small craft operations while keeping the hangar bays pretty well protected by having the launch apertures on the inside of the wing) and basically provide something pretty close to a dry dock for small craft. or even larger craft that that can fit in there- such as having mounts for being able to piggy back a tliss sized bird of prey inside while cloaked. basically it's a lot of real estate that can be used for a bunch of different things... the question is how modable or how module friendly would the inside of the wings be?
The green glow on the feather plates could be impulse engines
Thoughts on the placement of the nacelles, If they are above the center of mass, the ship is more maneuverable, if they are below the center of mass, it is faster. If they are in the center, it splits the difference, but it is also easier to cloak the warp signature.
I know that wouldn't make sense in reality, in zero gravity, but this is science fiction.
My headcanon was always that the gap was so that critical damage would leave the other section unimpaired, as well as allowing mission modules to be easily mounted.
As for the torpedoes, in DS9 there is specefic mention of components for romulan plama torpedoes, and my headcanon is instead of 'green photons', they simply fire smaler shots than in TOS that require less reload time, and they could still fore the TOS sized plasma torpedo but it would require a longer charge time.
Beautiful! Very well done!
My tip about the gap is that it can transport smaller vesels like original warbird within Aquilas warp field, like NX-01 and NX-02 shared one field for some time. I bet that is the purose of that gap.
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*inhales*SHHHHHHHHHHHH*inhales :P
If I am not mistaken, the Eaglemoss magazine on the Warbird had the engineering deck at the front top section. I could be wrong though
Great job, thanks you for making another great video.
This might just be head canon, but I always thought that despite the size, a D'deridex was still just on par with, or slightly less powerful than the Galaxy Class.
An enhanced one, would be about the same as the "war variant" of the Galaxy Class as well, and I do not think that either could actually take on a Jem'hadar Battleship in a one on one fight, let alone a Borg Cube.
No that is pretty much canon. Despite the greater size she is equal in firepower
Not really a theory on the purpose of the gap but rather a dangerous maneuver, of having a couple of smaller tactical support ships hide within the gap to appear on sensors as a single ping. I'm sure a couple frigate sized ships could fit in there an exit with some clever flying. By the time the ship reaches visual range, they disembark and close the distance quickly to soften their target allowing the D'deridex to devastate with ease.
Beautiful render. I would've made the glowing feathers the impulse engines myself. That would certainly get rid of the maneuverability problems in my mind. I could've sworn in the original Probert design that the spinal hump at the top of the ship is where the Singularity Core was located. Putting it at the stern like that makes the Power Transfer Conduits really long as opposed to the straight shot. And no, it can't take a Jem'Hadar Dreadnought. You need a Scimitar for that.