Already looks like quite a beauty. Much more elegant and less “blocky” than the typical Imperial design.
You can see the Mon Cal references while it still remains a murder wedge rather than turning into triangle-shaped fishtank.
Unlike the almost prohibitly expensive Nebula-class, this one was actually produced in quite some numbers for the (Legends)-New Republic and deemed effective enough to become a mainstay ship of the fleet alongside the MC90 Cruiser.
Mary
11 days ago
“Oh it’s beautiful…”
Silentstorm
15 days ago
Such an interesting but beautiful design the more I look at it the more I love it. Can’t wait for it to be fully finished. Great work as always!!!!!
Nate
17 days ago
I like this, it really seems to bridge the gap between Imperial SDs and the Nebula class nicely. Plus some Mon Cal elements in the curves and bulges of the hull.
Shaun
21 days ago
Say what you will about Cracken, but that guy couldn’t draw for sh!t!
kleppstad
21 days ago
Love the design, especially compared to the questionable look from Crackens threat dossier.
So how do you reconcile this ship’s existence with the nebula? Are your two designs more different than the “lore” we have for them? This looks to be a bit shorter than the official numbers is that right?
The underbelly “fins” look like the same art asset as on the Nebula – which is consistent with an idea that the Nebula is a refinement of the Republic.
From Wookieepedia on the Nebula’s creation:
Development of the Nebula-class Star Destroyer began shortly after the fall of Coruscant. Formally renamed as the Defender when it was made a part of the Defender design program, the Nebula-class refined the core elements of Walex Blissex’s Republic-class design into a smaller, more angular hull.
The twin guns also look like the same guns as on the Nebula (40 TT). I’m guessing the bigger quad guns are 70TT – perhaps they are the Vector-class’s basic gun turret design modified by the New Republic?
I also notice that this ship and the Turbulent have the same reactor dome design.
My headcanon for this:
When Walex Blissex defected from the Empire to the Rebellion, he took with him an incredibly efficient reactor design. Because he took everything with him, and had not yet divulged it to the Empire, the Empire did not have it.
As soon as the New Republic was able, they built a ship around this design – the Republic. Because the reactor is so good, ships with it had more firepower than appropriate for their size – the Republic class, for example, is characterised as having more firepower than the Imperial I (Originally called Imperator when it came out in the last days of the Old Republic), despite being quite a bit smaller, and with much less volume (volume goes up as the cube of length).
During the Yuuzhan Vong War and its immediate aftermath, the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant progressed from “at peace” to “closely allied” and there were technology trades.
One of these trades was the reactor design, which the Imperial Remnant immediately built a new ship design around (or modified an existing model in development, to add the reactor).
Result: the Turbulent, which we start seeing in the Legacy of the Force books.
The basic idea is that Nebula and Republic are two different warships built for different priorities by different shipyards (Fondor for Nebula and Rendili for the Republic), but they’re both part of the same overall design program – the New Class Modernization Program. So they’re (trying to) use similar design architecture, guns, electronics, etc.
Nebula is a slow, medium-range second-rate destroyer with a hefty capacitor punch meant primarily for patrol, convoy duties, showing the flag, and planetary defense – not fast enough to operate with the Fleet.
Republic is the fleet boat – fast, well-armed, and well protected, she’s slightly smaller than an Imperator but is intended to be a peer.
The Republic apparently predates the New Class Modernisation Program, but it does appear that the basic Republic design was modified to create the Nebula.
I’m not sure why the Nebula’s supposed to be slower than the Republic though – it has 5 engine nozzles of the same class as the Republic’s, and two larger engines on either side of those. 7 engines nozzles all firing compared to 4 on the Republic, may imply a ship that is faster in sublight combat.
It also has a better hyperdrive according to Wookieepedia (Class 1 to the Republic’s Class 2).
I think the Fractalsponge version of the Republic-class might also be shorter than the official version.
Official Nebula length – 1040m
Official Republic length – 1250m
The Republic here is about 1400-1500 meters (ballpark; exact length unconfirmed) while his Nebula is 1275 meters in length
The commission for Fractal’s Republic model involves entirely different starting points including technical details and tactical doctrine, which might only vaguely reflect official lore (which rightfully should be discarded and/or recontextualized)
I didn’t know he’d upscaled the Nebula that much. Might make it not quite as overpowered for its size.
A 1275m ultra-modern ship outgunning a 1600m older ship may not be quite a big a trigger of breaking of suspension of disbelief, as a 1040m ship outgunning a 1600m one.
It would be interesting to see what his versions of the history of the Nebula and Republic respectively are, compared to the Legends versions.
Certainly his version of the Nebula seems to have a different weapon suite from the Legends version – there’s no obvious ion cannons on the ship at all.
Nebula would only outgun a 1600m ship for as long as its capacitors retain energy, which would not be for very long. After the capacitors are drained, the ISD would outgun it plentifully.
If you want to backread, you can join Fractal’s Discord (Link is in the page’s righthand banner below the donate button) and go to the Nebula and Republic archive channels
Already looks like quite a beauty. Much more elegant and less “blocky” than the typical Imperial design.
You can see the Mon Cal references while it still remains a murder wedge rather than turning into triangle-shaped fishtank.
Unlike the almost prohibitly expensive Nebula-class, this one was actually produced in quite some numbers for the (Legends)-New Republic and deemed effective enough to become a mainstay ship of the fleet alongside the MC90 Cruiser.
“Oh it’s beautiful…”
Such an interesting but beautiful design the more I look at it the more I love it. Can’t wait for it to be fully finished. Great work as always!!!!!
I like this, it really seems to bridge the gap between Imperial SDs and the Nebula class nicely. Plus some Mon Cal elements in the curves and bulges of the hull.
Say what you will about Cracken, but that guy couldn’t draw for sh!t!
Love the design, especially compared to the questionable look from Crackens threat dossier.
So how do you reconcile this ship’s existence with the nebula? Are your two designs more different than the “lore” we have for them? This looks to be a bit shorter than the official numbers is that right?
The underbelly “fins” look like the same art asset as on the Nebula – which is consistent with an idea that the Nebula is a refinement of the Republic.
From Wookieepedia on the Nebula’s creation:
Development of the Nebula-class Star Destroyer began shortly after the fall of Coruscant. Formally renamed as the Defender when it was made a part of the Defender design program, the Nebula-class refined the core elements of Walex Blissex’s Republic-class design into a smaller, more angular hull.
The twin guns also look like the same guns as on the Nebula (40 TT). I’m guessing the bigger quad guns are 70TT – perhaps they are the Vector-class’s basic gun turret design modified by the New Republic?
I also notice that this ship and the Turbulent have the same reactor dome design.
My headcanon for this:
When Walex Blissex defected from the Empire to the Rebellion, he took with him an incredibly efficient reactor design. Because he took everything with him, and had not yet divulged it to the Empire, the Empire did not have it.
As soon as the New Republic was able, they built a ship around this design – the Republic. Because the reactor is so good, ships with it had more firepower than appropriate for their size – the Republic class, for example, is characterised as having more firepower than the Imperial I (Originally called Imperator when it came out in the last days of the Old Republic), despite being quite a bit smaller, and with much less volume (volume goes up as the cube of length).
During the Yuuzhan Vong War and its immediate aftermath, the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant progressed from “at peace” to “closely allied” and there were technology trades.
One of these trades was the reactor design, which the Imperial Remnant immediately built a new ship design around (or modified an existing model in development, to add the reactor).
Result: the Turbulent, which we start seeing in the Legacy of the Force books.
The basic idea is that Nebula and Republic are two different warships built for different priorities by different shipyards (Fondor for Nebula and Rendili for the Republic), but they’re both part of the same overall design program – the New Class Modernization Program. So they’re (trying to) use similar design architecture, guns, electronics, etc.
Nebula is a slow, medium-range second-rate destroyer with a hefty capacitor punch meant primarily for patrol, convoy duties, showing the flag, and planetary defense – not fast enough to operate with the Fleet.
Republic is the fleet boat – fast, well-armed, and well protected, she’s slightly smaller than an Imperator but is intended to be a peer.
The Republic apparently predates the New Class Modernisation Program, but it does appear that the basic Republic design was modified to create the Nebula.
I’m not sure why the Nebula’s supposed to be slower than the Republic though – it has 5 engine nozzles of the same class as the Republic’s, and two larger engines on either side of those. 7 engines nozzles all firing compared to 4 on the Republic, may imply a ship that is faster in sublight combat.
It also has a better hyperdrive according to Wookieepedia (Class 1 to the Republic’s Class 2).
I think the Fractalsponge version of the Republic-class might also be shorter than the official version.
Official Nebula length – 1040m
Official Republic length – 1250m
It’s hard for me to tell for sure though.
The Republic here is about 1400-1500 meters (ballpark; exact length unconfirmed) while his Nebula is 1275 meters in length
The commission for Fractal’s Republic model involves entirely different starting points including technical details and tactical doctrine, which might only vaguely reflect official lore (which rightfully should be discarded and/or recontextualized)
I didn’t know he’d upscaled the Nebula that much. Might make it not quite as overpowered for its size.
A 1275m ultra-modern ship outgunning a 1600m older ship may not be quite a big a trigger of breaking of suspension of disbelief, as a 1040m ship outgunning a 1600m one.
It would be interesting to see what his versions of the history of the Nebula and Republic respectively are, compared to the Legends versions.
Certainly his version of the Nebula seems to have a different weapon suite from the Legends version – there’s no obvious ion cannons on the ship at all.
Nebula would only outgun a 1600m ship for as long as its capacitors retain energy, which would not be for very long. After the capacitors are drained, the ISD would outgun it plentifully.
If you want to backread, you can join Fractal’s Discord (Link is in the page’s righthand banner below the donate button) and go to the Nebula and Republic archive channels