@Mr StarTrek - No Reason to feel offended here ,i was just asking out of Curiosity.
Regarding Diversity in Federation Ships - take the Klingon Starships for an Example and you will get what i meant by Diversity ,they come with slightly different Design Ideas and Shapes + uneven Surfaces ,all of which makes them alot more interesting to me then the average smooth hulled streamlined Federation Starship.
Regarding Star Trek Novels and Strategy Games etc or the Ships coming from them - i see them in the same light as the expanded Universe of Star Wars ,as "non-canon" Stuff.
If you ever read the Star Trek Novel "Dreadnought!" written by Diane Carey you will get why ,the whole Idea of a Starfleet Warship felt so off place as it doesnt filled an existing Gap.And that is just one Example ( and a hideous Ship as well ) - to topple it JJ Abrams had nothing better in Mind then bringing up that Idea again
If you checked screenshots on Steam there is one player who stands out as far as Klingon ship designs go, I certainly could not do them the justice Omnibus has. His Borg, Jem H'adar, Romulan and Klingon designs are outstandingly done. I have no desire to compete with that.
I stuck with Federation designs and if you look though all my screenshots I have posted here you will see I have included both canon and non canon ship designs from Pre-TOS to STO. So there is quite a bit of diversity there as far as designs go, I could go back and do ships that are Pre Federation but I really do not like bulb looking ships from the Romulan War.
I do have plans to start Cardassian ship designs when I have presented enough Federation ship designs that anyone can use for any mod for any era in Star Trek Federation History. Maybe even a few other ST races ship designs that have not been touched yet here, time will tell. Right now I am having a lot of fun with Federation designs and my ships are very popular with Star Trek fans here.
I have read "Dreadnought" and the authors principal is correct. The concept of the Federation was never to be warlike. The purpose of Federation was First contact, exploration, science and discovery. It was politics that led the Federation to build armed ships to defend from attack. Federation never attacked another civilization with the purpose to expand and conqueror. Lessons learned from the Vulcan's was to guild emerging space faring civilizations to peacefully explore the wonders of the galaxy and share the knowledge with other peaceful races in hope they would join the Federation. Federation never forced their will.
@ Gaunlet, Yup The Steamrunner class is a Canon ship design, Appeared in DS9 as well as the Akira Class did.