Am I the only who have noticed a balance issue with the original T5 vessels in that they don't have any special ability? Thus, players tend to favor the newer C-store ships and T5 refits(defiant, galaxy, intrepid). Considering I hate complaining without being constructive here is my proposal to resolve this issue.

Each of these could be offered in the C-store as refits, or as separate devices make though crafting, or as new consoles. I would prefer to see them as bound devices as this will add some much needed relevance to crafting, and does not force people to change their console layouts. You could port them to other ships if you wanted as well. Maybe only allowing one - two power devices per-player.

All of these powers have a root in lore and cannon and I wrote while reading memory alpha pages. I based these off what makes sense for a mixed class (science/tactical or tactical/engineering) vessel, and what would be of most useful for the future territory control game(open pvp), fleet actions, STF. Also, these just sound fun to use.

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Advanced Escort - multvecter assault mode

Fleet Escort - Concussive Isokinetic cannon 90 degree ark 4000 kinetic damage, -2500 all shields, 2 km AOE sphere; white/blue partical, fast moving (can not be shot down) 7 min cooldown;
+10 effectiveness on Hirogen; + 10 effectiveness on Borg; + 4000 kinetic damage, -2500 all shields to structures (turrets, shipyards, starbases)

Assault Cruiser- Colamite reflector- +1500 all shields; +10 shied power; reduced shield damage 20%; deflects torpedoes and energy weapons back at ship targeting user. 10 min cooldown

Star Cruser - Shield Inversion Beam- Absorbs shield power from target enemy and adds it to ships shield
to target - 2000 all shields; to self +2000 all shields ; 90 degree arh; 5 min cooldown

Luna - Remodulating Shield Disapater - to target -3000 all shields ; and AOE 1.5 km range - 20 all power levels, disable 2 sec; slow 10 sec; to self +1000 shields; +5 shield power; +5 engine power 90 degree arh; 10 min cooldown

Deep Space Science Vessel - Modulate Feet Shield Harmonics - to all allies in 3 km range +1500 all shields; +20 shields power; reduced shields damage 20%; over 30 seconds



Later
Typhoon Class Battleship or Battlecruiser

Gravimetric shockwave warhead - detonates making a gravimetric shear for 15,000 kinetic damage over 5 km sphere AOE; 5 km AOE disable 3 seconds, -3.0 repel for .5 sec
must have quantum, trasphasic, chronation or tricobolt torpedoes equipped; 30% shield penetration
global cooldown with torpedoes for 60 seconds; 20 min cooldown;
+ 10,000 kinetic damage to structures (turrets, shipyards, starbases) Effects magnified * number of GSWs used in 5 km range. (yay teamwork!)
Neutralizes omega molecules.

This could be introduced with omega molecule storyline in a featured episode series along with the playable Typhoon class.



What do you all think?

When the Prometheus MVAM console was offered in the C-store, it looked like it might be a solution. This was something that could be applied to the existing RA ship, which would give it a special ability, making it competitive with VA ships and C-store bought RA ships. I really looked forward to the release, especially since I saw the potential to craft special consoles instead of buying them, and to release additional consoles for the other RA ships.

Unfortunately, when it came out, it was a whole new ship, with a new BO layout. While this was nice, it meant you were effectively buying a whole new ship for the ability to use the original ship as an alternative. And I admit it, I had hoped it would be available at RA level. There are C-store ships available at RA that have special abilities. It would be nice if the Prometheus had one as well.

OTOH, the precedent being set, it is certainly possible now for a VA level Sovereign, Luna, Hermes or one of the other RA level ships to get a VA version that includes a console usable in the original ship. While we might have to wait some time for such a ship, and might see more popular choices like the Sovereign being given priority, eventually there is some potential.

However, the Oberth and Rhode Island seem to suggest another direction. While the Prometheus's MVAM was only available to the Prometheus, both of these ships have consoles that are available to EVERY other ship in the game. This leads me to believe that perhaps the C-store may eventually be glutted with consoles that are not specific to any one ship, as with MVAM, but instead will become universal. You can certainly put such a console in a Sovereign, and that WOULD give it a special power. But that would not give it any preferred status over any other ship that can also make use of exactly the same console.

All in all, I don't think I find any of this very encouraging.

Frankly, I don't find the special abilities to be particularly useful; Perhaps the MVAM is, but I never used it, I mainly use Science Vessels.

The Ablative armor on the Intrepid and the Tachyon detection grid on the Nebula are cool, but their usefulness can be questioned: if you use shields resists and hull heals properly, you hardly need the former; As a matter of fact if you use the ablative armor as a last stand defence it ends up putting you at risk, since it takes a second or so to deploy and during that time your shields are down. More than enough to blow you up if you are low on hull.
The Tachyon grid detects ships within a certain distance, and most BOP pilots are smart enough not to get withing detection distance unless they are decloacking and attacking immediately.

What really kills the "RA" ships is BO slots layout and the fact that they have a different skill set to invest points in, while the retrofit ones all fall into a single pool.
So if a character is specc'd in the RSV, he/she can't fly a DSSV efficiently, nor a Retrofit; If he/she is spec'd in the retrofit, however, he/she can fly the Intrepid, the Nebula and the D'Kyr, covering essentially the entire spectrum for the selected class (at least as far as science vessels are concerned).

I don't in general find anything wrong with the RA ships as such.

They are well balanced against the original retrofits, however i find the new ones have become a bit too powerful.
The original retrofits all lost something compared to other T5 ships for their ability.
However the Excelsior shot that balance to pieces and pretty much became the most overpowered ship in the game and the superior tactical choice over the assault cruiser.

I agree that it would be nice for the "original" T5 ships to get some sort of bonus like that. Especially ships like the DSSV that have been more or less outclassed by the VA ships (Intrepid > DSSV, imo).

+1 The DSSV really needs some love.

The D´Kyr is unsing the same Captain skill as the DSSV. The intrepid-R is using the same skill as the Nebula. Only the RSV has a Captain skill that isn´t used by any other ship so far, cause there isn´t any RSV refit yet.

The Boff layout off the DSSV is quite nice, the difference to the intrepid is that u have 1 more ensign eng. instead of the 1 ensign sci. As compensation for the special ability you ahve 1 more (eng) console with the DSSV which is quite useful. And ofc you have a slight difference in turnrate, since the update the base turnrate difference is only 1 degree which the DSSV has less.