I don't think that putting a hard buff on ship classes is the way to go. One of the things I like about this game is that you can get different results from different ship/captain mixes. So, instead of just three classes, you have nine different combinations, each with different results.

However, I do think that Tactical officers Attack Pattern Alpha needs to be applied specifically to weapons power. This is why a Tactical officer can take a grav well and make it deadly. If you remove that specific buff, then the super powered Tac/Sci boat is not as viable of an option. Everything else after this I believe will start balancing out.

I agree and disagree with you.

I can see how a hard buff could be problematic, but you have to remember that the ship was designed to perform specific functions. Science ships were designed to perform scientific functions. As an analogy, it's like saying that a 4x4 off road vehicle is always going to perform better off road than a Lamborghini, even if the world's best off road driver is driving it.

Ships were designed to perform specific functions. And that is exactly what they currently do.

No need to mess with the ships. They already all have their own particularities and you recognize the function of most ships by looking at their BO seat configuration.

When you see a Commander Science seat, it is pretty clear the ship has a science bias. As a ship with Commander Tactical is definitely a tactical ship. There are maybe only 1 or 2 exceptions where it hard to figure out what bias the ship really has and they come from ships that have multiple Universal seats ( like BoP ).

If adjustments are really needed, i think it is the character classes that need specific changes ( buffs or nerfs ) but again i am not even convinced any changes are needed. Great players do great with all 3 classes in any kind of ship.

addendum: Most Science abilites are directly effect by Auxillary power levels. Would this proposal further increase the effectivness before or after Aux power levels are applied?

Here's irony... I actually think SCI is epicly overpowered...

NEEERRRFFF... NERRRRFFFF... NERF Sci...

There... balance helps.

I wouldn't mind seeing a boost to Sci or Engineer space powers in general. Its actually keeping me from starting another character at the moment.

On the tactical note, the "Precision" buff from season 7 watered down some of the tactical captains advantage over other classes. There is definitely some diminishing returns on it once it gets up there.

It is relatively easy to balance tactical and science classes.

Tactical is broken when it buffs science and other non-weapon related abilities like EWP. Weapon style consoles make sense though.

Science is under scienced. It has so many useless career abilities that don't have anything to do with science, while its main focus is ignored.

How do you buff engineers? If you make them more tanky it just breaks PvP. I would think if you allowed most of their abilities to be team oriented or thrown onto other players it would help a lot.

Umm I really don't think any class is overpowered now some class ships yes but not the career. I think sci and eng should get science and engineering Initiative just like tactical do but that it

I see nothing changed.
The same stupid threads still pop up: "hey, guys, if you only look at damage, the damage-oriented class is stronger!"
You don't say...

Tactical gets no CC/debuff ability whatsoever, no survivability ability whatsoever. None, zero, zilch. So, yes, that means all Tac (Space) abilities are damage-boosters.
If Tac wasn't the best DD (and I'm not so sure it is, tbh), something would be horrendously wrong.

Eng gets mostly survivability abilities (logical for a tank) and some damage-boosters; Sci gets some control, some survivability and some pointlessness.

On balance, the strongest of them all? Sci, by quite a margin. Photonic Fleet sucks, yes; but Subnucleonic Beam and Sensor Scan more than make up for it.

FAW + AP:Beta is the rough equivalent of sensor scan, FAW + APelta will give you a bit more surviability with the same damage output. Although sensor scan was buffed with the damage reduction DOFF but still. Yes you get no scattering field but there is enough resists that it doesn't matter that much. Tactical initiative will keep ALL of your Boff abilities charging faster. Need that target to drop? Hit it with fire on my mark.

They should boost photonic fleet to do more damage based on your AUX levels. That would only be logical.