Or, you know, you could do some grinding for Dilithium, and sell it to someone in exchange for some C-Points, and then use that to buy a ship (and unlock it for all your characters). Or as a Gold member, just save up your CPoint stipend for a few months and you should be good to go.

Agreed. I actually went from an Intrepid Refit to a Sovvy after a bit at VA on tribble, because I felt like it. If anything, I got more fun out of the sovvy.

ur idea is good but sadly you dont get dilithium when you level up. no story mission give dilithium so a low lvl cannot get it.

dont wanna be a Va without a Va ship

i wanna be able to get my va ship when i should have it.

not stuck in a RA ship at Va and grind for VA

1) Low-level characters don't have need of a VA ship, by the time you need it, you'll be able to grind the Dilithium to get it.

2) Please stop derailing my thread, this is not a thread about the need / lack of need for VA ship tokens. VA Ship tokens are an endgame issue, this is about the enjoyability of leveling a new alt/toon and the change (if any) in the enjoyability of doing so brought about by the recent season(s).

That's because one's a defensively laid out cruiser and the other a science ship. Compared to the other T5 cruisers the Star Cruiser is more than competitive and is still one of the best heal boats around, the Excelsior and Galaxy R are CStore ships but there's no PvE in the game where the Star Cruiser will be any more of a hindrance than either of those.

As far as levelling a new character goes, I levelled a KDF alt over the weekend and found it fairly enjoyable. There was very little grind compared to what it used to be like and I even liked the way the missions were laid out in order. Besides a couple of bugs (The House Always Wins is still bugged) I found it much more enjoyable than it was previously, just a pity it was through increased skill point rewards rather than more missions to do.

I leveled a toon on Tribble in half the /played time and an equal number of days using DOFFs--and I had blue gear for my tier by the end of it. No missions past LtCmdr 2

Basically, ~24-36 hours of /played if leveling religiously through DOFFs. It'll be slightly slower now but you'll get more dilithium and rewards in return.

Ah, right, my apologies.

I'll get back to you on the primary question once I've had time to continue my most recent toon, but right off-hand, I can't see how it could be much harder than it already was.

Is that truly better? Or is it simply faster?

What has gear acquisition been like?
How much Dilithium does that alt have?
Did any of it come from trading your stipend (if you've gotten it) and how much (estimate) from Doff Assignments and grinding?
What ships are you using, and how did you acquire them?