I seem to remember, but I'm not sure, that while my character was a Lt. Commander, I went to Ship Requisitions, but was not offered a new Lt. Cmdr-level ship. (At least, not for free.) Like I said, my memory is hazy on this, but I didn't take a ship.

Today, that character leveled to Commander. In Ship Requisitions, he is offered a free Lt. Cmdr ship, but would have to pay dilithium for a Commander-level ship.

I'm tempted to take the free lower-level ship and see if I will then be offered a Commander ship. I'm afraid that I'll be stuck one ship-level down for the rest of this captain's career!

Any thoughts?

Firstly: You have to claim your promotional process from Quinn/J'mpok in order to get the ship. If you missed one and forgot to claim it at some point, you will have to claim it multiple times to catch up.

Secondly: Unless you are a Gold member, you should NOT do this. Silver members do not receive the respec when they claim their promotion. It will not be retroactively awarded if you get Gold. That means your respec is gone forever! Wait until you opt to grab Gold, THEN claim them. No crappy free ship you will throw out in 2 hours is worth the loss of your respec. As a Fedling, you should easily be able to tough out the next 15 levels in your Miranda, whereupon you receive the Free Amby (crap but free), a ship which you can then tough out for the next 15 levels until you can buy a Mirror Box off the Exchange for the ship of your choice and use it.

But if you're already Gold/Life, then yeah, do whatever, man.

Also, the UI tends to lag when you switch the filters. Click on a different ship other than the one visibly selected and click back to get a non-borked readout.

I didn't realize that I should have mentioned: when I started the character I was Gold, but at present I'm Silver. I don't plan to go back to Gold any time soon.

1) So, I guess the best thing would be to claim a free Lt. Cmdr ship right now?

2) When would I get the next free ship?

3) Will it be level-appropriate, or will it be a rank too low?

Well, then, I'd stop claiming any further promotions until you do, then.

If you have a free token already and REALLY want a ship (that you will quickly throw out/replace), sure.

If you ignore my advice and claim your promotions anyway, at your next promotional claim. Otherwise, never. Tough it out in the free T3 Amby and buy a Mirror Box Ship(very cheap) or C-Store Ship. Fed Mirrorboxen contain every freely available ship at this point anyway, and cost peanuts. No sense wasting multiple $5 promotional tokens to get a "free" ship.

QUOTE=svwilson;8627581]3) Will it be level-appropriate, or will it be a rank too low?[/quote]If you unwisely claim all your promotions up to your current rank, they'll be "level" appropriate. Insofar as things degraded to your level can be considered appropriate. But I wouldn't do this. Tough it out. Stay strong.