So I just got promoted to Lt. Commander and got to pick my cruiser, and looking at the three cruiser choices given me going the engineer path they are sorely lacking. Not only that, but every time I tried to use the randomization feature to create a unique looking ship combination, my game would crash! So I gave up on that and decided to just decide between the three ship designs as they come from the factory, new ship smell and all. Here were my thoughts as I went through my process:
First, I love the design of the Constitution refit may be the best space ship design in the history of science fiction, but every self respecting Trekkie knows all the Connies should be in museums at this time of trekdom. Instead of the Connie, I would have loved to have seen the Constellation class as an option here as there had been rumors that it was going to be before the launch of STO. Now there's a tier 3 cruiser called the Stargazer class which looks nothing like the Constellation.
Next, the Vesper class. I tried to find some redeeming qualities about this ship and I just simply couldn't. Why oh why couldn't they have given us the Excelsior class as a choice here instead of this eyesore that has parts that only serve to remind us of the Excelsior class? I don't think I've actually seen a Vesper class starship being flown in game yet. Even the Computer run ships in certain missions use Excalibur class ships! Oh Cryptic... Poor sad Cryptic... Next time... Just use what the good ILM gods have already given you....
And finally that does bring us to the Excalibur class. Now after looking at her, I kinda started to like her and she's a perfect modern "retro" look for the Connie. The lines are for the most part smooth and the overall design works for me, though the impulse deck appears a bit blocky. They could have ditched the Connie and have had the Excalibur as your Connie look alike option. But regardless of what the designers did with the other ships, they did a pretty nice job with Excalibur. After weighing in the options I decided to go with the Excalibur as my Tier 2 cruiser and I namer her the USS Falcon.
So I'm officially at tier 2. Cryptic now have 1-2 tiers left to get the Nebula class in here somewhere depending on how they want to classify her before I can get it. Let's go, Cryptic! I don't wanna have to settle here. The Nebula class is my dream girl!!!