Idea for old ships: Upgrades

onehappytapeworm

What if there was a system in place in which you could upgrade your old ships to make them viable in the endgame?

My thoughts thus far are this: use Dil, EC, and consoles, components, and commodities to upgrade your ships to T5.

If you think about it remember an episode in TNG where Geordi had to defend the modifications he made, and Voyager was constantly being upgraded. Got some hull breaches on decks 2 and 3? Instead of simply patching them with the same material, you patch with newer, stronger stuff. Your comms array got knocked out? Well a new system came out last year so why not upgrade rather than simply replace?

This would allow people to have a T5 Miranda (or any other favorite ship).

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earlnyghthawk

Well, with his version, it allows for ships that don't have a fleet variant. (Big ones, would be, the MU variants, and the earlier BoP's, and a few other KDF ships. As well as of course, the Constitution, and the Enterprise classes (along with it's sister classes), and possibly other ships I'm not remembering)
Lobi/Lockbox ships, as well as most T5 C-store ships, would be the exceptions to this, as those are already at "fleet" retrofit level.

onehappytapeworm

Well actually my idea was something along the lines of this:

I take my starting cruiser and decide I absolutely love this ship. Instead of having to scrap it once I level and it becomes more and more obsolete allow me to upgrade via a reputation type progression.

Want an additional weapon slot? Start a project that requires donating x number of ship weapons.

Want some additional shield modifiers? Start a project that requires x number of shield emitter consoles.

Want a new tac console slot? Start a project that requires x number of tactical consoles.

You get the idea.

Obviously there would be caps in place and a maximum number of enhancements per level of ship and type (example is no more than 5 console slots). This would allow you to take any ship just about and turn it into the ship you want. Since there is no T5 Miranda or Fleet Miranda (that I am aware of) this would allow you to have a viable one at level 50, and one you worked on and designed. Hell they could make special projects just for ship costume options.

johngazman

onehappytapeworm wrote: »

This would allow people to have a T5 Miranda (or any other favorite ship).

I forsee this turning into a "it'd make sense and we could have a T5 Constitution too!" sort of discussion.

CBS says no.

Otherwise - Retrofits, Fleet Retrofits. They already exist.

unangbangkay

onehappytapeworm wrote: »

You get the idea.

We do, and it's still a no. Why would anyone ever pay for a new ship if they could just upgrade the old one they have piecemeal? If these forums are to be believed, 120% of all Star Trek Online's players play specifically for the sole reason of exclusively, now, and forever, flying the one ship they saw on TV and liked.

Problem is, currently most of the TV ships are free. That's a good thing, but if forum logic is correct (thank goodness it isn't), then there would never ever be any reason to buy a new ship in STO, and in STO, there's nothing worth buying that isn't a ship, or related to a ship.

Besides, Refits, Retrofits, and Fleet Ships fill this exact role: allowing you to play an otherwise obsolete ship at the highest level of content. You just have to pay for the privilege.

Look, look, I get that you don't want to ditch your Miranda or your Connie or your Stargazer or whatever ship you love from the canon just because you've hit level 40 or something, but think about it this way: The game is telling you to try something new. You might even like it.

And if you are absolutely so closed to new experiences in unfamiliar ships, keep in mind that STO's single-player content is TRIBBLE-EASY. It is entirely possible to just play through it in a newb cruiser and get everything done. Just don't expect to get it done quickly.

aloishammer

onehappytapeworm wrote: »

What if there was a system in place in which you could upgrade your old ships to make them viable in the endgame?

Never happen- see any of the countless "No really, I've found the loophole to get around the whole 'no Tier 5 Constitution' thing" threads. (Except this one...'cause that's all this really is, just another T5 Connie thread.)

starkaos

Upgradable ships are not possible. This is probably the reason why Cryptic created Fleet ships instead of just having a consumable that automatically upgraded your ship to fleet ships. Each ship is a fixed model where the stats of the ship are fixed. So in order to do something like upgrading the Miranda would require a Miranda model for each Tier which is just not practical and you are not upgrading the ship, but replacing it with a better model.

Since they pretty much have a Fleet Ship version for almost every ship, then it is not unlikely for the devs to create upgradable ships. There is also various ships that Cryptic are not able to make Tier 5 Versions of like the Starfleet Tier 1s and the Constitution Refit.