The Defiant Part 1

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How good is the defiant class?

I've often wondered just how good that ‘tough little ship' really is. Is all the hype really accurate or is this ship class just a victim of its overblown propaganda?

So, with a view to finally working out an accurate picture of this ship I began looking at its depiction in BOTF and onscreen. Since this analysis is going to be rather in depth, I've divide the article into three parts

Part 1, this entry, will focus on the defiant in vanilla BOTF, and the accuracies or inaccuracies of this particular portrayal.

Part 2 will look at the onscreen evidence for the Defiant class

Part 3 will bring all this evidence together and hopefully arrive at some sort of worthwhile resolution.

So, let's begin.

In vanilla BOTF, the Defiant is given the following stats:

Defiant: Heavy Escort: Range Medium, Speed 4, Shields 580, Hull 123
Weapons: 15 x phasers @ 60, 9 x Quantum @ 100
Costs: Building 18270, Maintenance 91

Full Volley = 1800
http://members.aon.at/zelli/hships.htm


What immediately stands out is the massive cost to build this thing, and the incredible firepower it possesses. To put this in some perspective, let's look at other Federation vessels in vanilla BOTF.


Constellation: Heavy Destroyer: Range Medium, Speed 3, Shields 380, Hull 102
Weapons: 8 phasers @ 35, 5 Quantums @ 60,
Costs: Building 5000, Maintenance 65

Full Volley = 580

Ambassador: Light Cruiser: Range Medium, Speed 1, Shields 410, Hull 135,
Weapons: 7 x phasers @ 25, 5 x photons @ 44
Costs: Building 3100, Maintenance 85,

Full Volley = 395

Galaxy: Command Cruiser: Range Short, Speed 1, Shields 600 Hull 208
Weapons: 9 x phasers @ 30, 7 photons @ 52
Costs: Building 5320, Maintenance 115

Full Volley = 634

Sovereign: Dreadnought: Range Short, Speed 1, Shields 840, Hull 260,
Weapons: 14 x phasers @ 50, 9 x Quantums @ 84,
Costs: Building 14620, Maintenance 134,

Full Volley = 1456


I had always thought that vanilla BOTF was unbalanced with regard to ship types, but even I wasn't prepared for the extent of the imbalances and inaccuracies.

In the standard game, a ship of some 120m in length costs around 30% MORE to build than the top of the line Sovereign Dreadnought I (at close to 700m and supposedly state of the art in everything)!!! The Sovereign is a generation ahead of this escort, yet the game producers make it hideously expensive. That's just stretching the imagination too far (and starts to illustrate just how little these game designers really know of the Star Trek universe).

And the Defiant's ship class, heavy escort, by definition implies a lot of these ships around to provide escort duty to other ships. Sisko himself in DS9 ‘The Search', states that it was to be the basis of a new Federation battlefleet (more on that in part 2). Yet according to the game's cost figures, the Federation would be lucky to be able to afford half a dozen.

I'm assuming that the designers made it so costly to limit the number appearing in any game, and hence unbalancing the gameplay. Well, they've already unbalanced it with the stats they've provided.

And speaking of stats, can anyone explain how this little ship has more firepower than a fully fitted dreadnought I class vessel???? According to these figures, one Defiant vessel can theoretically punch through a Sovereign 1's shields and armour and score an additional 700 points!!!(effectively blowing it away). Clearly, this has got to change.

The Defiant is given a speed of 4, making it the fastest ship in the Federation fleet. It leaves the Galaxy and Sovereign classes, whose speeds are both 1, for dead. The Sovereign class 2 has a speed of 2, but this changes nothing with regard to actual onscreen performances.

Things are even worse for the Ambassador and Galaxy classes. Both types stand no chance against this heavy escort, with the Galaxy managing only about a third of the Defiant's weapons power. Even the uprated Galaxy 2 class only manages about half the Defiant's combat power. Ridiculous seems too soft a word for this situation.

And let's talk about some more vanilla inaccuracies. Why does a Constellation class vessel (already outdated when TNG series starts) cost more to build than a larger Ambassador Class vessel? (which is still in active service and fighting in the Dominion War). And when were Constellations fitted with quantum torpedos? (technology which hadn't even been invented when they were retired from Starfleet).

Inaccuracy in the game extends to foreign powers as well. To give just two examples,

B'rel Scout II (cloak): Range Long, Speed 1, Shields 140, Hull 30,
Weapons: 8 x disrutors @ 30, 3 x ion torps @ 52 ,
Costs: Building 1850, Maintenance 26,

Full Volley = 396

Galor: Battleship 2: Range Short, Speed 2, Shields 590, Hull 500,
Weapons 19 x phasers @ 75, 10 x Quantums @ 100
Costs: Building 23610, Maintenance 137

Full Volley = 2425
http://members.aon.at/zelli/hships.htm


The Klingon scout has absolutely no chance in one on one in combat against the Defiant, even with the help of its cloak. (and as I've always said before, B'rel is a cruiser not a scout designation)

The top of the line Cardassian vessel in vanilla BOTF, the Galor 2, fares much better (even though the top ship class on screen is the Keldon.....but this has been covered before). With greater defensive and offensive capabilities, this ship is a Defiant's worst nightmare. This vessel is even a match, in game, for a Sovereign 2. And being a bigger ship, you naturally expect greater building and maintenance costs, which it has got. So why am I unhappy with this type? Simply put, the maintenance and building costs (as in the case of the Defiant) are way too high, as are the combat values. Galors formed the backbone of the Cardassian fleet on screen. Such numbers could never have been maintained, given these maintenance values. And onscreen combat examples do not support such high weapon figures.

At a glance, the Defiant combat values, maintenance and building figures and speed all need to be drastically revised.

While the Defiant is probably the most extreme example of unbalanced stats in the game, we must therefore not overlook all the other inaccuracies. Thankfully, due to the efforts of many talented players and programmers out there (you know who you are!!!) it has been possible to modify and change the game to bring a more balanced and ‘realistic' version of BOTF to the public. The number of many fine mods available is testimony to that.

Much still needs to be done, especially with regard to AI, but a solid groundwork has been established.

If one simply plays this game as a good sci fi strategy based, galaxy conquering wargame then its one of, if not the best of its genre (despite the software and AI limitations - let's not go there today). I myself often enjoy playing vanilla single player games.

But if one is trying to reconcile what you see in the TV series and movies with what is being shown on your computer screen, then you are in for a lot of confusion and disappointment. If you are trying to determine the screen Defiant's actual stats for the game, you must first determine it's true on screen performance. That we shall attempt in part 2.