Intelligence Report: United Federation of Planets

Relevant History

After the Dominion War, the Federation is the weakest major military force in the Alpha Quadrant. The Federation lost many ships, as two complete armadas had been destroyed in giant battles. The Breen energy weapons showed a cruel effectiveness against Federation starships, while leaving Klingon warships relatively untouched. Likewise, the battlefield of the Dominion War took place in Cardassian AND Federation space. While the Klingons had to have suffered from giant losses too, they rendered themselves immune to the Breen energy weapons and thus their losses shouldn’t be as high as the Federation - even considering internal affairs. The Romulans - a military super power - just sent a minimum of their fleet to aid the Federation as they still don't trust them and just did this to survive. You must also divide the Romulan fleets into two sections. There is the Tal'Shiar (which organized the assault on the Founders "homeworld") and the Galea (which, for example, Sela belongs to). The Romulans only sent around 10 to 20 percent of their complete armada to the Dominion border, and they couldn't have sent more. Romulan ships (except the Norexan) do still have a large problem with reaching even warp 9 and their home systems are very far away from Bajor. Maybe there were Norexans in battle during the Dominion war, but we didn't see them (well we didn't see the Sovereign class there either).

Although you only see Starfleet designing and implementing new vessels in the shows and movies, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire had technological advances too, especially the Romulans. In the shows, however, you only see the old alien vessels because budgets are too low to account for new and less popular non-Federation designs. Consider the events of Deep Space Nine, where 75% of Federation fleet consists of Excelsior and Miranda class vessels, which are incredibly old and not even a matter to talk about onboard a Negh’var.

Federation marines don’t play a role in the Fleet Operations Universe, and they are not considered to be existent. Local governments of planets do of course have some kind of planetary police - sometimes even a local military that may even be deployed on starbases or foreign planets if there is a proper Federation mandate for it - but that’s rarely the case. The developers consider the “marines” seen in DS9 as ground forces. There is nothing like a Star Fleet Marine Corps in the Fleet Operations Universe.

As a Federation player is considered to be playing Starfleet (just to be more precise) there won’t be buildable troopships for them, as potential planetary militias are not part of Starfleet, but the Federation.

In the Fleet Operations universe "II" versions are relatively rare. This nomenclature was only used for some very popular chassis which were developed at the same facilities as their original versions and were made to actually replace their predecessors or fulfill the same roles in the fleet. Ships like the Okinawa of course have some common Starfleet design elements, but they are independent chassis which share only a few aspects with other starships. The Excelsior is not called the Constitution-II for example, although they share a lot in their general design.

There will be one or two additional "II" versions in the not-so-distant future, but besides the Excelsior-II, none made it into the regular ranks of Starfleet. Mixed-Tech-Laboratories or certain admirals could still grab a few of them for modifications.

In Fleet Operations, the Enterprise-E is still the flagship of the fleet. At the moment, however, she has to run from colony to colony, trying to solve the diplomatic and economic chaos that the war left behind.

Important Figures

Admiral Jane Risner: Starfleet Command

Before Fleet Admiral Risner was promoted to the rank of commander, she was the first officer aboard the USS Alamo, which was destroyed in the first conflict with the Dominion. She soon got her own command during the war, but this also ended in tragedy. Her ship, the USS Churchill, was ambushed by the armed forces of the Dominion, shortly after the space station Deep Space 9 was conquered. She was one of the few survivors, but still capable of destroying two Dominion Attack Destroyers with nothing more than a Type 9 Shuttle.

Although some in Starfleet Intelligence reported her to have links with the illegal "Section 31," she was still appointed to the position of Admiral shortly after Dominion War. Admiral Risner swore that she would defend and preserve the Federation and her followers for any price – perhaps in part to render honor to the Federation’s comrades and officers who had fallen during the war.

There are some links between Section 31 and the Admiral, but nothing that is official or free from doubt. The cause of these rumors was never brought up and there never was an official investigation. In any case, the SFI file on her is clean and shows no connections to Section 31. However it is still uncertain where those Magnan Phaser plans came from all of a sudden. Despite that, as Section 31 has not shown any activity in the last decade, it is uncertain if they even exist still. Section 31 plays no major role in the Fleet Operations storyline, and therefore won't be honored with its own avatar any time soon.

Admiral Ben Mayson: Starfleet Engineering

Fleet Admiral Ben Mayson is a typical star admiral of the fleet. His affection for the ideas of the Federation and the Federation itself never seem to fit better than with the Starfleet bureaucrats of the 24th Century. With this realization, it is easy to understand that the war against the Dominion was a real nightmare for Ben Mayson. He was one of the first to appeal for a possible peace treaty after the Dominion Conflict. Furthermore, he also was able to make peace with the Tholian Assembly - a minor Alpha Quadrant Power which had been allied with the Dominion during the war.

With a rich and successful history, one could say that Star Fleet Admiral Mayson is more a diplomat than an Admiral of years past. If his plans to unite the Alpha Quadrant are be successful, then it will be a peaceful and bright future.

Unique Federation Weaponry

Phalanx Weapon System

The Magnan Phaser is not named after a scientist, but after the Planet Magnan Erethos IIV. The Sun of the Magnan Erethos System had a very unique fate. It was passed by a black hole, which nearly consumed the entire mass of the sun and triggering a giant chain reaction within the Magnan Erethos system. A small Starfleet observation outpost on Magnan Erethos IIV and a few brave scientists who declined evacuation were able to get complete and detailed sensor scans of this galactic disaster. It was one of the major scientific events in the 2260s.

Among many unique sensor readings there was one kind of particle emitted by the dying sun which never got completely analyzed. The so called "Magnan Particle" remained a mystery, until 2371 where suddenly someone found a way to create Magnan Particles without killing a sun each time. While the technological details of the Magnan Phaser remained secret, its firepower soon became well known. Many people - including Federation Council members - still wonder why the Magnan Particles were used as a weapon in the first place, why there is no record of the research with them, and why they get only installed on Phalanx Class vessels. But well, what would the universe be without little secrets…?

The Magnan Phaser Array is still called an array even if it is just a forward firing cannon. The name array defines the way energy is charged (in this case in a special coil similar to normal phaser arrays).

Quantum Pulse

The Quantum Pulse (or better called "Quantum Enhanced Photon Impulse Weapon") is one of the newer weapon systems that were developed by Starfleet in the early 25th century. Combining the effectiveness of both Quantum Torpedos and Pulse Phasers it became one of the most powerful weapon systems in the Star Fleet arsenal. While they perform far better than normal Phasers and do not require a vessel to load ammunition like torpedoes, the energy spike required to charge a small EM bubble with energy is immense, limiting their effectiveness. Also as the Canaveral Class is only equipped with a light version of this weapon you can expect larger Quantum Pulse cannons on avatar vessels in future Fleet Operations releases…

Phaser

Phasers are powerful beam weapons that utilize Nadion particle emissions. They are very popular among space-travelling species of all kinds. Phaser Arrays are a special mounting method for the emitters, to achieve short reload times and wide attack arcs. The new layer XV Phaser Arrays use a tripled charging system to achieve high impact values and short reload times for strike volleys. The Type XV Phaser is experimental technology that has not yet gone into mass production.

Quantum Torpedo

Quantum Torpedoes are a powerful replacement of Photon Torpedoes and are being used since the 24th century. They rely on rapid energy extraction from zero-point vacuum and can inflict massive damage upon detonation. Most Quantum Torpedo launchers use a volley-fire pattern.

Tricobalt Torpedo

Tricobalt was in use as an explosive for centuries. As modern warheads can carry far greater payloads, they have become popular again, in particular for clearing massive objects like asteroids. Or starbases.

Pulse Phaser

Pulse Phaser cannons use the same technology as normal Phaser arrays do, but the fire-mode has been modified to fire high energy bursts in short sequences.

Starships

The Avalon

The USS Avalon is one of the newest Starfleet designs and the first vessel of its class left the San Francisco Yards almost on the same day when Voyager went through the Borg Transwarp Hub back to the Alpha Quadrant. As the quickly produced Federation fighters showed good performance during the Dominion War, Starfleet decided to keep a constant number of Attack Fighters in service even in times of peace. With great support for the project from Admiral Risner, the Avalon Class was designed as a mobile command center for fighter operations. The vessel can also acts as a logistics center for evacuation or routine missions, it is however not equipped with sufficient labs for scientific tasks.

The main body of the Avalon is actually some kind of micro yard with a complete set of small-sized but industrial replicators. That's why the thing it is so big after all.

Galaxy Class

The USS Enterprise-D, the former flagship of Starfleet, was a vessel of the Galaxy class. These advanced vessels are very popular, but only a few of them exist. A very long construction time makes them unsuitable for efficient production programs. However, there are still Galaxy Class ships in service, which can be assigned to tasks by Starfleet Command. The Galaxy program was already closed at the outbreak of the Dominion War, and although a Galaxy class starship was the Federation Flagship, it was no war-ship. Its combat performance was far from good (how many did you see explode during the Dominion War) and it even had major flaws in shield harmonics, so it had to be upgraded with additional shield generators (the Dominion War refit). There were only a few Galaxy Class vessels in service and a hand full of space frames (6-8) that had been rapidly put together to make them "war ready" (without most of the civil interior like holodecks, labs and other such things). Just for the time scale, the USS Galaxy began its first 5-year-mission around 2360.

Galaxy class vessels are rare and are no longer in their production phase. That makes them ideal Warp-In vessels. It’s nice for a player to get something popular from time to time, which is what makes the Galaxy class feel special. The saucer separation was included as a giant "escape pod" for the 800 plus civilians on the Galaxy. Unlike other Starfleet ships like the Intrepid or the Sovereign, the Galaxy was a kind of giant city. Although it is often misunderstood that it had a Starfleet crew of above 1000, many of them were civilians, and that is what the saucer was there for - to evacuate them in case of an emergency. The saucer is actually close to unarmed. Cut off from its primary power core, the vessel only had the fusion engines supporting a perimeter shield system, impulse engines AND weapons. Galaxy saucer separation might make it in as a last minute emergency maneuver - but not as an enhancement to the Galaxy’s offensive or defensive power. Just for the record, the Galaxy class will not be buildable, ever.

Prometheus Class

The vessel will be in as a map object (and something you can get through neutral buildings in a future release). What crazy idea drove the storyboard authors to make the Prometheus MVAM a "super weapon" is beyond Optec’s imagination. As he said, “even my mobile phone can calculate 3-d vectors for attacking 3 vessels, that’s not much of a trick. Putting three power cores in one vessel to make them real combatant vessels seems like a waste to me—what with modern electronic warfare mechanisms, like ECM and stuff like that. At the end of the day I think the Prometheus is probably an effective tool of war – but its power cores are just damn expensive!" DOCa Cola on the other hand thinks the Prometheus is cool, but believes currently there is no proper way to achieve a good-looking multi-vector assault mode (one that doesn’t involve three single parts flying around the map with each being able to be commanded). Until then, the Prometheus won’t be a buildable warship.

Miranda II

The Federation Mixed-Tech unit is buildable after capturing Dominion Technology and thus the vessel has Dominion-style elements. Since it was built with Dominion technology, it will not be buildable outside of mixed technology. The Miranda-II is what the Miranda once was - a powerful heavy cruiser. Her "Backbone" passive ability reduces damage taken from sources with a lower offensive value then her defensive value, that leads to a very durable vessel if fighting destroyer fleets. If damage reduction seems to be not enough for turning the tides the Miranda-II may still engage her "Blockade Breaker" special ability, greatly increasing the rate of fire of her heavy Quantum Pulse weapons! A powerful asset for every Federation fleet! Keep in mind that although the Miranda II shares the same name as her predecessor, she is a wholly new class built on a brand new chassis.

The Miranda is a very compact vessel. While we know almost nothing about the "true" interior or technological aspects of Star Trek vessel design, there must be a reason why the Miranda looks that way. There must be a reason why the engineers designed a complete new chassis layout, although a well tested one was available. In Fleet Operations lore, the Miranda carried a few very remarkable pieces of technology. Its primary systems, for example, were directly charged from its antimatter reactor, with much less energy/plasma transitions than required on other ships (consider the pure distance from the Enterprise's saucer systems to its core compared to the Miranda). Later on, a similar technology was used to directly charge phaser emitters from the antimatter core. Quite similar to the way the Defiant works. So, the Miranda has a lot more in common with the Defiant than with most other vessels, at least speaking of its design intentions. The Miranda II was developed with the exact same goals in mind. Starfleet called for a vessel as agile, robust and - in the context of the Dominion War - well armed as the Miranda once was in its century. So the Miranda II is some kind of "cover" of the old engineering concepts with the technology and achievements of the late 24th century.

Just to note down, there never was a "USS Miranda-II" or "USS Miranda-A". The Miranda-II vessel designations are carried on in the same Starfleet registry as the original Miranda designations.

Mediterranean Class

The Mediterranean class is a relatively new service vessel, which has been designed to construct stations or complete maintenance tasks. It is equipped with mass replicators and a large shuttle bay as well as several types of worker bees.

Mandril Class

The original blueprints of the Mandril class have been designed in the same development program where the very successful Miranda Class was born. Since then the construction plans have experienced several modifications. The vessel is named after a colony on Alpha Centauri.

Newton Class

The Newton Class is a multifunctional repair and service vessel which is used by both Starfleet and member planets of the Federation as an all round starship for stellar maintenance.

Venture Class
 

The very small Venture Class is a fast scout ship which can reach every place of a system within a very short time and provides an impressive sensor range.

Saber Class

Starships of the Saber class have been produced since the Dominion War to bolster the Federation fleet ranks and replace old Miranda class vessels. Saber class vessels can be operated with a low crew and can be constructed in a short amount of time. Their long range weaponry also makes them an excellent complement for every Federation Fleet.

Canaveral Class
 

The Canaveral class was originally designed for the Federation and not for Starfleet. It was meant as a small well-rounded vessel, which would allow the member planets of the Federation which don't have yards of their own to build their own vessels and explore space or guard their trading vessels. During the Dominion war Starfleet refitted many Canaveral class vessels with long range phasers. With the Dominion War over, the Canaveral class became a common Starfleet vessel.

Monsoon Class

This heavily armed Destroyer was designed by the Starfleet Intelligence for special tactical missions. The special energy relays in the saucer section of a Monsoon class vessel allows this unique starship to use two phaser arrays at the same time, but only at a short distance.

Intrepid Class
 

The Intrepid class is a short range cruiser which is equipped with photon torpedoes and phaser arrays, which gives it a superior capability to attack large vessels or stations. It is rather common in Starfleet armadas and is designed to be similar to a patrol vessel with strong scouting capabilities, which would also explain why the USS Voyager was sent to track the Maquis in the first place. It has more of a military touch than the Galaxy class, without being a real combat ship like the Defiant class. The weapon range of this vessel is given as short because it was never seen to engage targets at long range in Voyager (other than using its tricobalt torpedoes). Instead it's always quite close to the action, making cool "fly-around" moves like the USS Defiant. "Variable geometry nacelles" will eventually make an appearance, but it is not yet sure what effect they will have.

Akira Class
 

The Akira Class is a powerful cruiser, which has been designed to fulfill both combat and civil tasks. Akira Class vessels are the backbone of many Federation fleets. Starfleet initiated a global Akira class construction program after the Dominion War to bolster the thin lines of Federation vessels (as much of the Federation fleet was in tatters after the war).

Remore Class

The Remore class is based on construction plans which had been developed in the same program as the Defiant class. Today’s Remore class vessels have been refitted many times and are equipped with a very advanced computer core, based on an advanced, dynamic ISO structure, which are predictably called “ISO-Dynamic Processors”. The Remore is similar to the Canaveral in that both were not designed for use by Starfleet, but instead for use as Federation science vessels.

Excelsior II Class
 

The successor of the most common Starfleet class ever - the Excelsior class - is a light long range cruiser. It is a sister program to the Sovereign Class and one of the most advanced Starfleet Ships in the fleet. Like the Miranda II, the Excelsior II is a completely new chassis and is not a refitted Excelsior. For that you get the Excelsior War Refit which is available via your emergency warp-in. It should be noted that in a future release, the original Excelsior-class will get "Lakota-type" textures when becoming a veteran.

Excelsior Class

In the Fleet Ops Universe there are still plenty of Excelsior ships in use. Some of them survived the Dominion War, some were retired from the Starfleet arsenal and were moved to local planetary governments for transport or logistics duty and some are still deployed on the countless patrol routes within Federation space. It's the later type that you get from warp-in.

They are no longer built, still, there were countless refits and modernizations for Excelsior ships in the past centuries, and they seem to work like a charm for the Federation, so these vessels had their service time increased and increased over and over again. It's definitely the most successful Starfleet ship design. Nowadays, with the lack of vessels (due to the losses in the Dominion war) and the countless pirates and shady factions popping up, the Federation just cannot afford to retire their most reliable ships.

Defiant Class

The Defiant class was designed in a program to defend the Federation against an upcoming Borg invasion. After the USS Enterprise defeated the Cube heading for earth, the Defiant was declared as an escort unit for convoys. In fact it is a fast and powerful battlecruiser with heavy armor and armament. The Defiant Class is one of the most common starships if the Federation gets into military trouble.

Sovereign Class

The Sovereign class is one of the most advanced starships in the Federation fleet and the flagship, the USS Enterprise, is a starship of this type. Sovereign class vessels have a huge spectrum of tasks including patrols, defense or exploration as well as scientific missions.

Steamrunner Class

The Steamrunner class was designated as a 'long range tactical cruiser' and is one of the very few military vessels in Starfleet. During the Dominion war many of these very flexible starships have been refitted with experimental technology, including Tricobalt Torpedos. These vessels are in the emergency Warp-In list because they were only produced in very small numbers and are not yet part of a usual mass production program (only within the last three years of the Fleet Operations timeline).

Nebula Class

The Federation maintains a specialized fleet of science and exploration vessels for several scientific tasks. One of these classes was the Nebula Class, which now has been refitted with more advanced weapons and shielding. It still cannot compare to one of Starfleet’s military vessels, but its modular construction system allows refitting. Other Nebula variants will probably make it in as a  "once in a while" addition, but most of the Nebulas in service are of the "default type" that is currently available through the emergency warp in.

Descent Class
 

Another success of Starfleet Intelligence engineers was the Descent Class. These giant vessels are driven by two independent anti-matter cores and have multiple quantum torpedo bays and a very advanced shield system. Still, there were two of four Descent Class vessels lost during the conflict with the Dominion, yet Starfleet initiated a new experimental construction program for Descent Class vessels.

Ambassador Class

An old, but capable craft, the most famous appearance of the Ambassador is of course the Enterprise-C incident (TNG: Yesterday’s Enterprise). This Enterprise fought against four Romulan short-range attack crafts and bound them for quite some time… if that's not the strategic outline of a short range craft…

Okinawa Class

The first Okinawa Class starship that appears most prominently in the Fleet Ops storyline should be the USS Vanguard. Commanded by a Starfleet captain, but almost half of the crew belongs to the Klingon Empire, she participated in two of the most important battles during the phase of "Klingon Destabilization", when the empire was thrown into internal affairs. Among a few other Starfleet vessels, the USS Vanguard was responsible for the Federation being dragged into the conflict, too.

The Okinawa is actually named after the Japanese island, not the battle that took place there and was of course named the same. The Okinawa starship names are of course a bit less typical Starfleet designations, as Klingon engineers participated in the development process too. Qapla'!

These Mixed-Technology ships will focus on quantum pulse weapons while the upper "sensor pod" is actually an experimental quantum phaser. Happy toasting!

Teutoburg Class

The Teutoburg is not used except in situations of conflict. There are only a hand full of these vessels and they are docked at starbases. They don't have efficient cargo decks or civil facilities. Even if it was desired, these craft could not participate in trade or patrol missions without major reconfiguration.

The Teutoburg is a specialized weapon, developed at Vulcan for a very defined and single purpose - to avoid the terrible losses as seen in the Dominion War, when "average" Starfleet ships try to brawl with a dedicated war machine. They strike from afar, they strike with escorts at hand, and they are at warp speed before the opponent reacts.

The Teutoburg is not the new generation of Starfleet warships - they don't build warships. It's a highly specialized tool, not a Starfleet Negh'var.

Plans

The Nova will appear in both the “normal” and the modified version seen in Voyager: Endgame. Precise balancing and the ship’s exact role are not yet set. The modified vessel will probably appear under Special Agent Lewitt, a Star Fleet Intelligence Avatar planned for a future version, as many long-term stealth or espionage missions are not much different from deep space missions in terms of contact with “friends”. In the Fleet Operations Universe the Nova only exists in small numbers.

The fourth Federation Avatar planned for the future is from SFI (Star Fleet Intelligence), so you can expect some sneaky stuff from him.  This Admiral Lewitt, (the head of Starfleet Intelligence) will allow you to build Incursion class vessels and provides other special features fitting to his organization. Incidentally, although we don't know much about SFI, we do know that it has its own independent structure and is a small, independent part of the Federation, just like Starfleet.

The Discovery class (created by Lt.Cdr.White) will be in a future version of Fleet Operations as a non buildable vessel - something to hire or perhaps as a secret feature. More information about the vessel from its creator can be found here.

The Federation main station is called the "Outpost" and our most famous space-mushroom is called the "Spacedock". A new Spacedock model on todo is - you guessed it - a new model for the fungus. It is planned to return within a planned feature in future patches.

The New Orleans is mainly on todo because it is one of Optec's favorites - as a consequence, how it will factor in game is not known yet.

The Norway's Plasma Coil will be replaced by a more Federation ability - some sort of navigational deflector-based weaponry. The Federation does love its deflector dishes!

The Federation will become a bit more focused on "non-traditional weapons". Starfleet always ended up destroying ships with holo-generators, bussard collectors, and stones, instead of their quantums - at least in the special weapons.

The Olympic Class will be featured in Fleet Ops as a special feature.