2553: The war with the Covenant is over. The UNSC enters a period of consolidation and replenishment of its devastated fleets, 85% of which were lost during the war. Due to the high attrition rate of frigates during the conflict- particularly in atmospheric engagementn of UNSC frigates were required. Applying lessons learned during the flagship ‘Infinity’s construction and the utilization of recently reclaimed Forerunner technology, the new ‘Nevada’ class of UNSC frigates were born. Defensive Capabilities UNSC Nevada was launched in late 2553. Notably the smallest UNSC vessel to be equipped with Integrated Shield Technology, the Nevada was specifically intended to provide escort cover for the new flagship. The Nevada’s new energy shielding meant that the ship would be much more capable of absorbing damage from plazma and beam weapons (which the Covenant had used to such devastating effect), especially when in the vulnerable position of deploying troops/equipment on a planet surface. However, the UNSC were keen not to stray too far from the few key features which gave their older warships their limited effectiveness against the technologically superior Covenant fleets. Therefore, armor plating was retained in key areas, adopting the old US Naval ‘All or Nothing’ armor principle. In other words, the most vulnerable areas of the ship (such as the engines) were covered with the thickest plating available, whilst other more redundant areas had virtually no armor at all. This meant that the ship carried, on average, 40% less armor than its predecessors and so could significantly out-perform them in terms of speed and maneuverability, yet if the ship were to crash land on a planet’s surface, it is predicted to have approximately 60% chance of remaining largely intact. Offensive Capabilities The MAC gun, or Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, is standard equipment on most modern UNSC vessels. During it's intial construction, the Nevada was retrofitted in 2552 with an updated configuration of its MAC system, famously innovated by the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. Most MAC systems had to recharge the magnetic fields between bursts, but the Nevada had a system modified to fire 2 MAC rounds on a single charge. Magnetic field recyclers and booster capacitors allowed for this one-charge, two-shot advantage. The Nevada's MAC munitions were light rounds of an outer layer of tungsten carbide concealing a ferrous core.
I like it. I hate the usual human spaceship designs. They are too clunky and have too many antennas sticking out.
It's almost identical to the Halo Reach Heavy Frigates, how is it new? What I'd really like to see is a fusion of human/covenant/forerunner ship. Theoretically, it could be real and super powerful with the combination of 3 types of technology. Nice enough job, but like I said, looks pretty much the same as the Reach frigate.
Geez, you lot are a tough crowd! That's fine, I based the main hull of the ship around the new ARC-920 Railgun design as when I first saw it, I immediately saw a spaceship, so you lot thinking the reverse makes perfect sense. As for it looking identical to previous designs, I respectfully disagree. It's meant to be an evolution of the design. Yes it could've been more advanced but you didn't see apes evolving straight into man did you? There were intermediary steps, which is what this is meant to be. Here's another shot to show the design evolution, starting with the In Amber Clad at the top and finishing with the Nevada at the bottom.
I think it looks very cool. I thought you'd taken the text from a source somewhere prior to reading through the thread. It did remind me a lot of 'In Amber Clad', but saw some bits weren't fitting to the books though. Pillar of Autumn could fire 3 MAC shots with a single charge. The observation deck was identified by the 'Covenant' as being located on the 'prow' of their ships, which the Sanghelli gave slight admiration to the UNSC for being so daring. But saying that, I've noticed you've got the 'Main Bridge' located in that position regardless... although the Bridge and the Observation decks are usually closely connected.* *from what I can remember!
It might look like a flying gun, but it looks like an awesome flying gun to me. It's certainly evident that you put thought into the ship. The one thing that I noticed from the evolution picture is that your observation deck doesn't seem to have the same extension off of the body of the ship that the other frigates do. All other elements of that portfolio view definitely show similarity to the other designs, but I feel like more of an extension on the top would have fit in rather nicely. In any case, I still think it's a really cool ship. Nice work!
More than likely, I've posted this thing everywhere. Scifi-meshes, Deviantart, Bungee.net. I think someone even did an animated flyby of an earlier version of it in YouTube. [br][/br]Edited by merge: The El Salvador is a Nevada-class frigate from the Halo universe which has been heavily modified for atmospheric use. It is primarily used to carry and support troops. The ship has a heavier payload bay on its underside which enables it to drop off large amounts of vehicles and equipment to any planet surface combat zone. The modified M.A.C. cannon of the standard Nevada class has been sacrificed to make room for upgraded maneuvering thrusters and better point-defence weaponry. As a result, the ship is a little less effective in space-bourne combat but much better suited to atmospheric engagements.
To get into specifics, I'd first like to say that it's spelt "Plasma" not "Plazma". Looking at your size ratio to other UNSC Frigates, this ship could barely be considered a frigate do to the fact that it's about the size of a UNSC destroyer. You need to be much more specific on "missile launchers" because a frigate will tend to carry a large battery of Archer missiles, and Shiva class nuclear warheads. Your "Fighter hangars", and by fighter I'm guessing you mean Longsword interceptor bays are very large. And finally I don't see any vehicular bays that Pelicans and other ground support vehicles can be launched effectively without the use of an Albatross. Overall it looks good, but come on, we both know that isn't an origional design knowing that I've seen this on Halo Wiki and google images, those of which supply very much more specific info that what's been provided.