Star Trek Online is a huge multiplayer online role-playing game set in Trek's 25th century. Players get to control a wide range of unique Federation and alien vessels that have taken ship design to the next level. In the fifth weekly feature, lead artist Thomas Marrone looks at the latest starships included in the Victory is Life expansion.

5. Jem'Hadar Vanguard Dreadnought Cruiser

Length: 621 metres

Description: The Jem'Hadar Vanguard Dreadnought Cruiser frequently acts as the flagship for Dominion fleets, as this commanding starship is just as suited to frontline assaults as it is to leading its fellow starships in strategic strikes from a position of authority. Gameplay features

The Jem’Hadar Vanguard Dreadnought Cruiser is a large and powerful starship capable of mounting heavy canons and soaking up enemy fire. It comes equipped with a Dominion Targeting Synchronizer console, can launch a wing of Jem’Hadar Vanguard Gunboats, and as a ship in Odo’s Jem’Hadar Vanguard fleet has a pair of permanent escorts that use the Jem’Hadar Vanguard wingman mechanic. Design

The primary action of Star Trek Online takes place in the early 25th century – around 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. Technology has progressed in these three decades, and when thinking about where the Dominion were in the STO timeline, we knew we wanted to update the look of their starships. We started by broadly outlining their design language, and then isolated which new starships we wanted to build for the Dominion. The first was their Heavy Raider. The second was the Warship. The third would be a large dreadnought, designed to be the flagship of the fleet that would bring Odo back to the Alpha Quadrant in order to drum up support against the emerging Hur’q threat. Even when we began the initial experiments with form and colour for the new selection of Jem’Hadar ships, we were planting the seeds that would eventually become the Dreadnought Cruiser. In terms of purpose, the new dreadnought would share its role with the canon “battleship” that appeared in the DS9 episode “Valiant.” It was meant to be huge, imposing, and tough. Hector Ortiz, STO’s concept designer, developed several possible directions. Some were longer and thinner from the top, but had massive vertical bulk. Others shared the traditional delta wing shape that defined the large Jem’Hadar ships in established canon. Ultimately, we settled on a more traditional footprint, but decided to maintain some of the vertical bulk as well. Hector’s final design had large heavy plating protecting the belly of the ship, as well as massive weapons pods slung under its wings to imply the heavy arsenal a ship of this size would carry.

STO ship artist Ian Richard then went to work modelling the ship for the game, translating Hector’s concept into a ship that players could fly. He added a selection of unique detailing and paneling to reinforce the scale of the ship, and continued the visual language seen on the previous two Jem’Hadar vanguard ships. Once complete, the Jem’Hadar Vanguard Dreadnought Cruiser was an imposing addition to the Dominion fleet of 2410, and served as Odo’s flagship throughout the events of Star Trek Online: Victory is Life.

Click on the images for larger views.

Click here to find out more about Star Trek Online.

This ship is available as part of the Gamma Vanguard Pack. Click here for details.