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Description
The Nova class of light cruisers represent the next generation of human warships - elegant, agile, deadly.

Armed with a multitude of long range guns and missiles, Nova cruisers are able to rip apart enemy fleets with impunity. Its quad ARCdrives provide it with unparallelled maneuverability, cementing its role as a battlespace dominator.

Design notes:

Designed as an evolution rather than a revolution of the established standard ship design philosophy, the Nova cruiser was to be a melding of the chunky, rugged and militaristic look of the previous ship designs with with flowing, elegant lines that made up the Cirrus lightship (a new generation of ships).

Thus the use of the ARCdrives, seen first on the Cirrus lightship. The armour emplacements on the Nova are smaller, smoother and much more elegant compared to the chunky emplacement covering the previous warship designs. While armour plates and hull design still follow the generic angular hexagonal design philosophy due to their prime geometric properties (angular shapes deflect incoming fire and radar), flowing lines and gull shapes now come into play to provide a more technologically advanced look to the Human fleet.

Weapons have also been upgraded. While previously, all weaponry existed as spinal mounted weapons due to the structural superiority of having the entire ship surrounding it. The Nova cruiser departs from this with exposed gun emplacements mounted at the bow. While still maintaining the forward firing design of its predecessors, this design allows for weapons that exceed the structural limitations of the hull.

The continuation of forward firing weapon mounts is due to the fact that it is an optimal position for:

1. Reducing recoil, as the mass of the entire ship is behind it as well as the propulsion system.

2. The forward profile presents as drastically reduced target signature when firing, thus minimizing enemy weapons impacts.

3. Weapons mounted at the front, and thus the first line of defense against enemy fire, ensures that the habitation and propulsion modules will be adequately protected.

4. Human war fleets generally emerge from hyperspace and burn in-system head on, thus having weapons mounted generally facing the frontal arc maximizes immediate firepower upon engagement.

Improvements possible:

ARCdrives are very exposed at the moment, what with being mounted on nacelles face from the main hull. These nacelles may present a shearing hazard when the ship engages in combat maneuvers that exert undue stress upon the struts connecting the ARCdrives to the main hull.

Firing arc still limited to forward arc of fire. Turrets have been trialled but the use of mechanical systems makes it prone to jamming and other problems, thus turret systems are not recommended.

Description
The Nova class of light cruisers represent the next generation of human warships - elegant, agile, deadly.

Armed with a multitude of long range guns and missiles, Nova cruisers are able to rip apart enemy fleets with impunity. Its quad ARCdrives provide it with unparallelled maneuverability, cementing its role as a battlespace dominator.

Design notes:

Designed as an evolution rather than a revolution of the established standard ship design philosophy, the Nova cruiser was to be a melding of the chunky, rugged and militaristic look of the previous ship designs with with flowing, elegant lines that made up the Cirrus lightship (a new generation of ships).

Thus the use of the ARCdrives, seen first on the Cirrus lightship. The armour emplacements on the Nova are smaller, smoother and much more elegant compared to the chunky emplacement covering the previous warship designs. While armour plates and hull design still follow the generic angular hexagonal design philosophy due to their prime geometric properties (angular shapes deflect incoming fire and radar), flowing lines and gull shapes now come into play to provide a more technologically advanced look to the Human fleet.

Weapons have also been upgraded. While previously, all weaponry existed as spinal mounted weapons due to the structural superiority of having the entire ship surrounding it. The Nova cruiser departs from this with exposed gun emplacements mounted at the bow. While still maintaining the forward firing design of its predecessors, this design allows for weapons that exceed the structural limitations of the hull.

The continuation of forward firing weapon mounts is due to the fact that it is an optimal position for:

1. Reducing recoil, as the mass of the entire ship is behind it as well as the propulsion system.

2. The forward profile presents as drastically reduced target signature when firing, thus minimizing enemy weapons impacts.

3. Weapons mounted at the front, and thus the first line of defense against enemy fire, ensures that the habitation and propulsion modules will be adequately protected.

4. Human war fleets generally emerge from hyperspace and burn in-system head on, thus having weapons mounted generally facing the frontal arc maximizes immediate firepower upon engagement.

Improvements possible:

ARCdrives are very exposed at the moment, what with being mounted on nacelles face from the main hull. These nacelles may present a shearing hazard when the ship engages in combat maneuvers that exert undue stress upon the struts connecting the ARCdrives to the main hull.

Firing arc still limited to forward arc of fire. Turrets have been trialled but the use of mechanical systems makes it prone to jamming and other problems, thus turret systems are not recommended.