Ship costumes do not change ship type
 

For example, creating a Battleship group (Reman) and setting it to a Scimitar, doesnt change the ship type. It is still a D'Deridex, still has the same weapon points and skills as a D'Deridex, but looks like a Scimitar. Hence, it doesnt use its special beam :(

Yes - this is because all you did was change the skin, not the powers.

The enemy mob defines what abilities and the number of spawns present; the costume changes the appearance only; the behavior edit changes whether they move and what space "emotes" they use, like scanning.

This is actually a perk, as it allows you to use ships and characters with unexpected abilities. When you choose to replace an enemy, you have to delete it and place a new one.

Costumes are for making one enemy resemble another, while retaining the "true" enemy's abilities.

A great way to make "enemy" Federation ships.. without using Uber Mirror Universe fleets... take some Orions (or, you know.. whatever) and re-skin them as Federation vessels.

Aye, this is intended. If you have any specific feedback as to how we could make the functionality clearer to players, I'd definitely like to hear it, as I understand it can be confusing.

This is more fun on the ground.

Take the Targ/Sehlat/Mastiff enemies. Apply a custom costume of, say, Federation personnel, alien race, infected skin... Instant zombies. Why? Because their standard attack becomes a lunge/bite. Set their default out of combat animation to the Assimilated Undine for that lurching quality.

Or if you want a fight kinda like the Gary Miotchell fight from TOS, take a Devidian. Apply a Starfleet officer alien costume that looks human but with reflective eyes. Set the default animation to the "possessed" floating option. Suddenly you have flying, silvery eyed people who fire energy from their hands.

I would advise AGAINST applying costumes to a Borg cube because you'll have something weird like a shuttlecraft you can't get too close to that produces cube debris when destroyed.

These are epic suggestions. I've got this idea in the back of my head for some kind of "conspiracy" mission.. where you've basically uncovered some horrible plot or conspiracy within Starfleet. Now you're forced to steam back to Starbase 001.. but to GET THERE.. you have to fight your friends.. because the bad guy at Starfleet HQ has labelled you crazy/infected/an imposter.. whatever. So now you've got to fight you way through federation ships, then federation officers.. all the way to the big boss.

I keep hoping we'll see some combat options like "Stun" rather than "Kill" and "Disable" rather than "Destroy enemy ships".. I'd hate to have to "become a monster" to defeat the enemy in our ranks.

It clearly says "costume" not powers, so it "should" be clear

Build some really nice mission with a Dedi as base but cloaked as "Fekhiri Dreadnought", totally blown away :)
Now i have to find some story about that big boss

Im not so that story guy, but this experience has awakened something in me ...

Regards, Stargazer

costume changing can become very cool.

if you want a klingon ship to fight along side you, make a starfleet mob and then change the skin to a klink. same with ground forces. that way the klingon ship or ground force will then aid you, at least within their sphere of attack

When I saw the ship-changing costumes mentioned a week or two, this is exactly what I was hoping for! Didn't even think about the toons being able to do so. I agree, EPIC suggestions! Gary Mitchell-esque episodes, ZOMBIE eps, etc. Oh... the possibilities! :D