I totally agree with you on that point.

What exactly is the fix then?

The short answer to that question is essentially to make ship viability based in equipment.

Add new console slots for interior "consoles" like Reinforced Bulkheads, Emergency Force Fields, and the like to increase ship hit points? What about weapon / BOff / console / device slots? How could those be increased as we level? X number of each per Y number of levels? "Buy" them with points? Craft them? Lay it on us, man.


Z

Well, I was waiting mostly to do up some artwork and make a full on thread about it, but ok, briefly:

The basics are that each ship has three main things that will drive its relative position to other ships on the "tier" scale. They are space, power, and power utilization. Space is controlled by the size of the ship, power by the warp core, and utilization by the style of the ship. That last one is so that escorts don't get shafted, as they will have very high utilization. It will essentially dictate how much of the maximum output of your warp core you can get to your systems.

The space part essentially works like consoles do now, you can put as much of them inside the space as you can fit, and that's where your weapons go. Each thing will have a power requirement, and if you exceed the maximum you can get out of the ship, then they will progressively become debuffed. So, say I fill all of my space with phasers and blow way beyond my power generation. My phasers will be all but useless because I couldn't power them all. But if I'm more conservative and only add a second shield generator, maybe I get 2x stronger shields.

There are six systems that are static and must be on each ship: hull (alloy), shields, warp core, impulse drive, sensors, and deflector. They'd work almost identically to how they do now, only sensors would determine when you get target lock to fire and your warp core obviously dictates maximum power generation. Getting a newer, better hull alloy may also get you more space. And except for the warp core/impulse drive, they'd all have some power drain.

Every system would have crafting stuff that could go with it, and certain subsystems (to replace "consoles") would potentially buff things like utilization or space. There would be BO/crew buffs as well, but you get the gist.

Would that system not allow for a Connie to be blowing up Sovereigns?

Which you seem to be against?

Not really. The Sovereign would have too much of an advantage. She would have a bigger warp core, a much higher starting power utilization, and just plain more room for weapons and buffs. You would have to seriously work to get a TOSC strong enough to start hurting a Sovereign.

It would, however, give you the ability to push the TOSC pretty deep in the game if you were serious about it.

So, there would be limits to how far you can push a ship?

Isn't that just a different Tier system?

Any system that is consistent with both a natural progression and the setting will have some form of "tiers." This one is much more flexible about it, if for no other reason than you can add more weapons.

So, its a refit type system without the name and it just automatically does it?

This is kinda why I wanted to have artwork to go with this.

No, you wouldn't refit the ship, at least not in the way I think you're thinking. You're going to find/craft stuff and put it in the ship. There's no overall "refit me to next tier" setup.