Anyone think it would be a good Idea to offer a player a chance to retrofit their existing ship via a token when they hit a new tier, instead of being forced to select a new ship (if they want to remain competitive.) I ask this because it always seems like you never see any lower tier ships...what if I want to upgrade my miranda class because I've gotten attached to it? I don't see why this would be a big deal as they take alot of liberty with starship combat in the game anyway...I think this would be easy to implement...any one else think this is a good idea? Hell, they could sell retrofit tokens in the c-store....
Yes I would like this idea. Of course if you mention this idea on the STO site some of the TNG purists over there will have a s@#t fit even though they wouldn't have to use it because it's mere existence irks them for some reason.
The idea is good and has been discussed on the STO Forums before. If don't think it would be THAT easy to implement because they would have to make up to 5 different versions of each class. One less for each following tier. With the exception of the starter ships and a handful of others (Constituition, Galaxy-X) you can, however, get a very powerful refit or even more powerful fleet refit version of nearly every ship in the game through the Starbase system. For that you need to be in a fleet that has some provisions for a ship purchase available and you have to have fleet credits and fleet ship modules available. Depending on the tier of the starbase's shipyard you have access to different ships. The TrekBBS Armada has so far unlocked 3 ship yard tiers, which makes almost all of the lower tier leveling ships available. A refit ship costs 1 fleet ship provision and 200,000 fleet credits (which you get by donating resources to the fleet holding projects). A fleet refit ship costs 1 provision, 20,000 fleet credits and 4 fleet ship modules. If you already own a c-store version of the ship, you get a discount on the modules and only have to pay 1. The modules are available via C-Store or from the exchange.
My engineer is currently flying his TOS Constitution and my science officer, Doc Lee, is running the episodes in his Oberth. However, I agree that it could be fun to refit a ship instead of replacing it. Perhaps they could just let us use the skin as a holoprojector image. Image the look on someone's face as they chase down your Miranda just to discover that it's really your Odyssey. :-)
Or just Imagine chasing down a puny oberth only to discover it's been massively upgraded and now you have a real, dangerous fight on your hands...like I said, they've already taken huge liberties with ships and combat in game... but true about the fleet upgrades...maybe thats the ticket...