I have a Lieutenant General, I fly a Guramba, I enjoy it quite a lot though I sometimes worry that I've given up too much to try to make my disruptor javeling viable. Thank you for your answer.

Do you always keep asking in different ways until you get the answer you wanted hear?
You originally asked:
With almost every answer you have changed the parameters of the question, but you didn't ask originally about specifics like bridge officer set ups, ships, costumes, species or anything else.
You have been given a variety of things that Feds have that Klingons are content to live without.

There's your answer....
Further debate is not needed.

No, I keep asking in different ways until I get an answer that's detailed and worth consideration.

That's true I didn't. I asked you to volunteer something and you said

Now, I could have just assumed you meant skins for ships, as it is starting to seem, or I could have just assumed you meant every part of the current Federation ship, from the bridge officer layout, down to the special abilities, but I assumed neither. I asked.

No, that would be their answer, not my answer. But see, what I want is YOUR answer. So ignore what everyone else has said, don't let them cloud your thoughts one second. What I want from you right now, and don't worry, we're not debating in the least, is for you to explain the parameters of your statement "They can keep all of the ships they have,"

As just about everyone here knows by now (I've bothered about everyone with this idea by now and also annoyed quite a few) I'm not happy with the KDF science-oriented ships available.
I'd perfer for them to have small Raptor/destroyer-based scoutships.
As others have pointed out the Varanus encroaches on the typical (smaller/light)cruiser-based science ships the Feds have.
Even though I'm not a fan of carriers I have however a radical proposal to "give the Feds their Science ships back" so to speak.
Turn the Varanus into a Battlecarrier.
Use the Kar'fi stats as a basis, reverse the red (tactical) and yellow (engineering) BO and console slots, give it the ability to launch Gorn NPC fighters and Vishop frigates and the Feds can have their monopoly on cruiser-derived science vessels back.
As a counter to them that fits the KDF better (IMO) use the Raptor-derived scouts I've bugged you folks so much with.

For the record, you have sold me on this idea. I'm not sure it'll ever happen, but I do want to see this idea in the game. And, many years from now, when we're all living in cities in Glitter Band orbiting the earth, when we're all playing via direct neural interface, and when they finally add the Romulan faction to the game, I will so be shamelessly asking for both flavors of science vessels. Yes, we must have all intelligence gathering ships no matter what.

But your idea for giving the Federation one niche that's truly theirs while satisfying the KDF mob with a third unique play option may not be the 'fedcarrier ending compromise' I was hoping to find.

Well, there'll always be one saying "when they built one, we'd build one too" so that debate will never end
(nor will I stop wondering whether those folks would need a reality check because "we" and "them" applies
to fictional sides...)
Anyway when you add the "anti-carrier" as the 4th option, being neither conventional cruiser nor conventional science ship you end up with 4 types of ships on both sides assuming you count the BoP as being in all categories at the same time (except the carrier).

Your ulterior motive for setting up this inquiry aside, is that not the real intention of the Fed carrier nay sayers? Not so much that you cannot have a carrier, (Scorpion fighters launched off a MVAM should satisfy this role), but that some degree of diversity be maintained between the factions.

This diversity should not only be visual, like the First City update, but also be mechanical. Fed ships tend to be more specialized to begin with, a real advantage when a team actually coordinates their builds. mister_dee's idea may give another ship class to the KDF but it falls within the combat philosophy of the KDF. One of strike fast strike and hard. Using fast support to back up the strike fits that notion. How will one or two small fast support ships upset the armada of available, specialized, ships the Feds currently enjoys?

You make a sound appeal to reason, but for the greater glory of Romulus I'm afraid you must be wrong.

Yeah, see I'm still not sold on the "anti-carrier" but I can see how it could be made game viable against normal ships so it, splitting the baby of science vessels and the large number of hybrid build ships exclusive to Starfleet making the BoP into little more than a Battle Cloaking version of many bigger ships would balance the scales.

My ulterior motive for asking this question and starting this discussion is to find out exactly that. Is the real intention of Fed carrier nay sayers to maintain some degree of diversity between the factions and does that intention extend to believing there are some play styles, some vessel types, some real mechanical differences that should remain exclusively available to the Federation?

Um, well let's see...I guess I thought the statement was self-explanitory

They... being the Federation
can keep....meaning to continue to have in their possesion
all of the ships....meaning every single current Federation starship in STO (keyword: all)
they have...they being the Federation still

read into it however you want, have fun....
*walks away*

Well, it's been 24 hours and I've been proven wrong. So thank you, Kolikos, Bearclaw75, mister_dee, and BobO369 for your answers and even Dirlettia, and piwright42 contributed civilly and intelligently even if I'm still not entirely sure what they'd want the Klingons to sacrifice to the altar of faction diversity. This has been far more productive than I anticipated.

Now, I suppose it's only fair I give an answer to my own question. I figure the ship has already sailed on Science Vessels and Cryptic just doesn't have the resources to institute any entirely new classifications of ships, whether they be Anti-Carrier Battleships or Klingon scouts. I also don't think it's fair to ask the Klingon faction to never accept a new ship of the three core classes. So let the Klingons have science vessels, there's atleast another standard escort layout and if Cryptic happens to make a Tier-5 KDF science vessel with an engineering Ensign and it just so happens to be a Nausicaan Sypon Destroyer I'd even be happy to see them.

Hybrids amount to six bridge officer layouts, all of of which can be closely duplicated by Birds of Prey but only 2 of which seem to be duplicated as an optimal choice for that light ship. Now I know, carriers have hybrid setups aswell, that's okay, it's the nature of the beast and their size and turn radius plus weapons loadouts make them significantly different even if half of them have the sci/tac arrangement that people keep bandying about as fun for the Nova-R.

Why do I think this is a good idea? Well, I can give a longwinded canon justification for it but I think canon reasons are a waste of time. Blasphemy I know. Here's why I like it, externally it's bland, my suggestion to keep the Federation unique is to keep giving them more versions of ships they already have but when you get into the nuts and bolts you realize the Sci-Cruiser and the Tac-Cruiser are very different ships. It doesn't force Starfleet to do anything we don't see in the show so it shouldn't mess with anyone's immersion or enjoyment of the pure Trek aspects.

Why do I think this is enough? Well, it's 6 bridge officer arrangements that can be tacked onto iconic ships that will make a Fed Captain feel like a Fed Captain. That it's less flashy than a Carrier or Battlecloak is not so important, the Federation IS Star Trek after all and if someone is interested in this game there's better than even odds they're already interested in joining Starfleet.

Why isn't this idea too much? Well, it is 6 bridge officer arrangements and the carriers/birds of prey make up a total of 4 ships. 5 if we manage to get Cryptic to take on mister_dee's Klink scout concept. It doesn't forbid the introduction of another Bird of Prey or another carrier, though I'm not sure what they would do with a third BoP or a fourth carrier. But we can acknowledge that even a hybrid escort is not as different a play experience as the Heghta and call the 1-2 ship difference even, right?

Now, obviously Tier-6 ships could shoot all kinds of holes into this and we may need to revisit the idea later but until such time as the current situation changes I would be happy with this. So, barring some change that requires this game go to a more efficient model, or barring the introduction of another type or group of KDF ships that appear to infringe upon this one last area of Federation uniqueness, I'm dropping the Fedcarrier and even the FedBoP thing.