I was reading another thread on how to refit existing ships as you rank up. It was overly complicated, where the solution should be simple. I came up with another idea that may be simpler than even my idea on just making the existing lower tier ships available as customization options as you rank up.
Remove the shield modifier from the ship that reduces the effectiveness of a shield (not to be confused with the modifier for Science or Escort ships).
Right now, using a Covariant Shield Mk X my DSSV gets 10,888 points per side on shields. When that same shield is moved to a Tier 4 Science ship the shield points are reduced to 9457 points.
If you remove the variable from each ship that modifies how this figure is calculated you allow players to continue using existing lower tier ships up to endgame, without having to add additional weapon slots. Players would have to rely on the weapons and BO stations that come with the ship.
This would be a temporary solution until the devs can come up with a solution that will enable us to either upgrade a lower tier ship to a higher, or select lower tier ships as customization options at higher tiers.
I think you're making it overly complicated as well. They already have ship costumes. Give us a ship costume for our t5 that looks exactly like the t4. You are done. No recalculating power, bo's, or anything that changes game dynamics. Simple.
I think you're making it overly complicated as well. They already have ship costumes. Give us a ship costume for our t5 that looks exactly like the t4. You are done. No recalculating power, bo's, or anything that changes game dynamics. Simple.
This. The only issue is PvP and whether we care about seeing the true ship level / type.
I.e. is that T4-looking ship an RSV or a DSSV?
I think you're making it overly complicated as well. They already have ship costumes. Give us a ship costume for our t5 that looks exactly like the t4. You are done. No recalculating power, bo's, or anything that changes game dynamics. Simple.
except it defeats the purpose of the various ship classes.
Sovereigns are clearly larger, and more powerful than a Constitution class. It's just how they're built. If you want to fly a Consitituion class, you have to be prepared to accept the limitations that come with it.
Imagine if this were a Modern Day navy battle game. Would you expect the game to let you upgrade a little tugboat up to the same capabilities as a huge Destroyer or Aircraft carrier? Of course not...doesn't matter if the tug boat looks cool as hell.
This. The only issue is PvP and whether we care about seeing the true ship level / type.
I.e. is that T4-looking ship an RSV or a DSSV?
Is that anything like expecting Klingon ships to act like.. I don't know Star trek ships instead of the better than everything Federation they are now?
Maybe confusing the Klingons with ship skins is a start for you to make up to the Feds how badly broken the klangs are "Kryptic."
And I posted the skin idea in the other thread but blockheads keep over thinking it.
I'll print big in slow letters that you must read before trying to think about it:
NEW SHIP SKINS THAT LOOK LIKE LOWER TIER SHIP FAVORITES, BUT BIGGER TO REFLECT TIER 5 CAPABILITIES.
I say give each ship class and tier a unique special ability (or two or three for the lowest tiers to make up for the lack of BO slots) in line with thier class that everyone would want to have in a fleet.
The upper tier ships retain their raw power, more BO, weapon & console slots. But welcome the smaller frys due to the added functionality that they could bring to the table.
First off, I suggested back in closed beta the idea of making lower tier ships available as skins for higher tier ships. Said they would look into it, was a great idea. I only suggest this idea as a temporary fix until that could be made possible. Seems easier to change one arbitrary value in the interim, than redo code to allow the skins for each current ship, and make the UI adjustments.
Regarding that specific shield, it is a result of Memory Alpha "crafting" that a fleetmate took the time to max out, and those stats are while mounted on a science ship, and may be lower when mounted on a cruiser, and definitely lower when mounted on an escort.
If i'm in pvp, and i'm an admiral. I should be facing other admirals. So whether I see a connie or a sovereign, i will know its an assault cruiser or star cruiser of admiral caliber. The ship costume I suggest is simply a way to solve without any effort what I see as a wide request to make lower tier ships available/viable at RA5.
As for realism, you are right. No connie should stand up to a sovereign. But this is a game and I feel that if I want to fly a connie in RA content, I should be able to. Quite frankly the t4 ships are the ones I want most for t5 content. Currently the drawbacks of trying to use a t4 in t5 content is pretty steep. The outcome of a borg encounter on my Galaxy is brutal, compared to not nearly as much on my soverign. It's too much of a difference to overlook.
Honestly, I think the debate now is down to simple aesthetics. Some people just don't like our taste in older ships.
Of course... "older" is all relative... since most of the "older" ships have variants that are clearly new advanced versions. I think, if anything, that suggests that they have been refitted to handle the slots and capabilities of a tier 5 ship.
What I still find astounding is how many people try to argue for "uplifting" the old ships. That is, instead of a reskinning of ther T5 ships to look like the T4 or lower ships, they'd rather see tweaks to shields, weapons, etc. Are they missing the massive balancing debates and flames that will result from that?
@Etaris - I am actually for, and suggested in closed beta, skins as the option for the lower tier ships. I even forwarded the suggestion to make available in the C-Store any new ship designs, as well as old ones. Maybe I should petition for a special forum avatar thingy for that. Anyways, what I proposed here only affects one value on the ship as a short-term interim fix, until they can make the skin thing a real option.
By removing the shield modifier, any player level 40-45 can get full benefit of their best shield (+/- for escort/science mods) instead of being penalized for choosing to fly a lower tier ship. They would still be limited to the number of weapons, BO stations and ranks/skills, but their survivability would be brought up to a reasonable level.
Anyways from the looks of this discussion, all of us that participated seem to agree that having the lower tier ships as a skin option is far more agreeable to us.
I think you're making it overly complicated as well. They already have ship costumes. Give us a ship costume for our t5 that looks exactly like the t4. You are done. No recalculating power, bo's, or anything that changes game dynamics. Simple.
Did you see the screaming and crying when they were allowing custom colors for beam weapons? (I think it was during open beta, or maybe the early start period.) People were complaining they couldn't tell what they were being hit with because the color was different, or that it just wasn't canon.
Now imagine if you couldn't tell what tier a ship was from it's hull.
Did you see the screaming and crying when they were allowing custom colors for beam weapons? (I think it was during open beta, or maybe the early start period.) People were complaining they couldn't tell what they were being hit with because the color was different, or that it just wasn't canon.
Now imagine if you couldn't tell what tier a ship was from it's hull.
Your argument is invalid. PvP is set up for specific level ranges. If you are a Commander, all your opponents will be Commander as well, with the possibility of Captain 1. It is therefore safe to assume that the guy in the Nova (tier 2 science ship) is at least a Commander, and if the skin system were in place, then their ship would in all likelihood be a tier 3 science ship.
This. The only issue is PvP and whether we care about seeing the true ship level / type.
I.e. is that T4-looking ship an RSV or a DSSV?
Would it really be all that relevant either way? It's still a science ship and is going to do sciencey stuff. What difference does it make if it has a n extra tactical or Engineering slot. You are still going to deal with it the same way in PvP.
Did you see the screaming and crying when they were allowing custom colors for beam weapons? (I think it was during open beta, or maybe the early start period.) People were complaining they couldn't tell what they were being hit with because the color was different, or that it just wasn't canon.
Now imagine if you couldn't tell what tier a ship was from it's hull.
This is incorrect. There was no loud screaming and gnashing of teeth over that. The ability to change the colors was a bug. Probably code left over from CO. In fact there was a heck of alot more whining about them taking it out than there ever was about having it in.
Actually it was removed because of the huge amount of whining from the PvP crowd, who claimed that it took away their ability to defend against specific weapons because of a different color. However, there is no chance to defend against these weapons until you are out of combat and can change up gear. Thier argument was completely invalid, but it's a case of yet another game developer catering to the PvP/endgame crowd.
Just should note, I do a lot of PvP on my KDF character, and participate in endgame PvE on my Fed. I'm not carebearing anything.
Your argument is invalid. PvP is set up for specific level ranges. If you are a Commander, all your opponents will be Commander as well, with the possibility of Captain 1. It is therefore safe to assume that the guy in the Nova (tier 2 science ship) is at least a Commander, and if the skin system were in place, then their ship would in all likelihood be a tier 3 science ship.
While that's a good point at this time, they have also said that Open PvP of some kind will probably happen. And there won't be level parity limits there.
While that's a good point at this time, they have also said that Open PvP of some kind will probably happen. And there won't be level parity limits there.
Well again, your point is pretty much invalid. Open PvP, you are level 45, you target a TOS Connie, and notice it is an even con. Just assume he's in a tier 5 ship with a skin. People made this same argument in SWG when they were adding the appearance item system. They argued that they would see somebody in normal clothes and not know what type of armor they were wearing, or see them in battle armor, but they were wearing assult or recon. SOE added in an option to turn off appearance items when you examine somebody, but who has time to do that in a mass PvP battle?
Canon examples of higher ranking people commanding a (STO) lower level ship -
* Kirk - every Connie version of the Enterprise up to Admiral rank (tier 1 or tier 2 ship ingame)
* Riker - As Admiral he commanded the Enterprise-D (All Good Things...) (tier 4 ship)
* Harry Kim - commanded a Nova, the Rhode Island (End Game) as a Captain (Tier 2 ship)
* Admiral Eric Pressman - had his flag on the USS Crazy Horse (Excelsior-class) (not in game, should be a tier 2 variation IMO)
* Beverly Crusher - Captain, USS Pasteur (Olympic-class) (Tier 3 ship)
* Vulcan Captain of USS Saratoga (named as Saros or Storil in two differing texts) (Reliant-class) (Starter Ship)
I can quite literally go on and on here. The fact remains that many people want to at least have the appearance of a specific ship which is currently only available at lower tiers than are feasible to use at current endgame, or for progression for that matter.
A similar counter argument was made about custom beam colors, that you could tell from the actual graphic and the effects, and, of course, your combat log. It didn't stop them.
Logic doesn't stop the kind of people who would raise a ruckus about not being able to tell from the hull what tier the ship was.
I was reading another thread on how to refit existing ships as you rank up. It was overly complicated, where the solution should be simple. I came up with another idea that may be simpler than even my idea on just making the existing lower tier ships available as customization options as you rank up.
Remove the shield modifier from the ship that reduces the effectiveness of a shield (not to be confused with the modifier for Science or Escort ships).
Yay. I like it.
BTW - I brought this idea to the forums a while back and was almost clubbed to death. (and I'm sure a lot more people had this idea before me too) And yes, the other ideas are overcomplicated, but recieved far less fire this time around.
....we've come a long way.
Well again, your point is pretty much invalid. Open PvP, you are level 45, you target a TOS Connie, and notice it is an even con. Just assume he's in a tier 5 ship with a skin. People made this same argument in SWG when they were adding the appearance item system. They argued that they would see somebody in normal clothes and not know what type of armor they were wearing, or see them in battle armor, but they were wearing assult or recon. SOE added in an option to turn off appearance items when you examine somebody, but who has time to do that in a mass PvP battle?
Canon examples of higher ranking people commanding a (STO) lower level ship -
* Kirk - every Connie version of the Enterprise up to Admiral rank (tier 1 or tier 2 ship ingame)
* Riker - As Admiral he commanded the Enterprise-D (All Good Things...) (tier 4 ship)
* Harry Kim - commanded a Nova, the Rhode Island (End Game) as a Captain (Tier 2 ship)
* Admiral Eric Pressman - had his flag on the USS Crazy Horse (Excelsior-class) (not in game, should be a tier 2 variation IMO)
* Beverly Crusher - Captain, USS Pasteur (Olympic-class) (Tier 3 ship)
* Vulcan Captain of USS Saratoga (named as Saros or Storil in two differing texts) (Reliant-class) (Starter Ship)
I can quite literally go on and on here. The fact remains that many people want to at least have the appearance of a specific ship which is currently only available at lower tiers than are feasible to use at current endgame, or for progression for that matter.
The ranks of the captains of those ships is irrelevant. The ships themselves were not top of the line. Also, this is a video game based on a television/move franchise, not a television show itself.
This topic has become the favorite of STO kiddies who are completely clueless about how MMOs work.
The Galaxy class was surpassed by the Sovereign class, just as the Constitution was surpassed by the Excelsior and the Excelsior by the Galaxy. Get over it and move up to the appropriate class ship for your tier.
The ONLY reason Cryptic's performance has been tolerated is love for the shows and movies.
Remove that by "getting over it and moving up" might just remove that safety blanket and make them accountable for what can only be characterized as poor performance and QA.
I like that people are willing to work with cryptic and help them along while suggesting more flash to keep them happy.
People being encouraged to "move up" is not what Cryptic needs right now as they may decide to move up to a better maintained game.
A similar counter argument was made about custom beam colors, that you could tell from the actual graphic and the effects, and, of course, your combat log. It didn't stop them.
Logic doesn't stop the kind of people who would raise a ruckus about not being able to tell from the hull what tier the ship was.
A simple fix, maybe anyway, why not list what tier the ship is next to the player's name. example: T2, T3 ect.?
Wouldn't that work? Or at least have the player's rank appear next to their name. That way even if they were in a lower tier ship, one could assume that the ship has advanced abilities?
The ranks of the captains of those ships is irrelevant. The ships themselves were not top of the line. Also, this is a video game based on a television/move franchise, not a television show itself.
This topic has become the favorite of STO kiddies who are completely clueless about how MMOs work.
The Galaxy class was surpassed by the Sovereign class, just as the Constitution was surpassed by the Excelsior and the Excelsior by the Galaxy. Get over it and move up to the appropriate class ship for your tier.
Those are non-issues for this. It is simply an issue of customization. Our "avatar" in this game is our captain, crew, and ship. I want to customize my "avatar" to be what I like. If that means I use a weaker tiered ship because it is my favorite, why should I be FORCED to be weaker than the number crunching min/maxers who only care about "BIG NUMBERS"?
Cryptic, please allow us the ability to bring our favorite ships up to par with the top end ships. This adds another level of customization to this game. Isn't having huge amounts of customization part of what makes you Cryptic?
The ranks of the captains of those ships is irrelevant. The ships themselves were not top of the line. Also, this is a video game based on a television/move franchise, not a television show itself.
This topic has become the favorite of STO kiddies who are completely clueless about how MMOs work.
The Galaxy class was surpassed by the Sovereign class, just as the Constitution was surpassed by the Excelsior and the Excelsior by the Galaxy. Get over it and move up to the appropriate class ship for your tier.
Well YOUR argument is flawed. Starfleet has a history of refitting older ships to keep them as close to current tech and specs of newer ships. The original Enterprise had many many refits before the rebuild into the TMP era Connie. The Galaxy Enterprise was also refit multiple times during the run of TNG, and while it wasn't implicitly stated, the Sovereign Enterprise was probably refit to some degree each time it went in for repairs after each movie in which it was featured.
Taking just the TMP Connie, while an older spaceframe, it was easily on par with and in many cases superior to the Excelsior-class ships that were deployed befoe the Connie class was retired.
Now as far as how MMOs work, it's time to break the mold, not only think outside the box, but reshape it into another form. With the level of customization the STO engine can allow, not to mention Cryptic's own design philosophy on the matter, there is no reason not to allow players to choose the skin they prefer for their ships, which is in essence a cisualization of their ingame character. I've been playing MMOs since 2001, and frankly I am sick and tired of how MMOs work - ugly craptastic gear at low levels, grind and camp and farm for several levels to get both decent stats and look, rinse repeat because your gear is now not good enough for the content you are now facing. Other games have already started letting players dress how they wish (appearance tab) and while the arguments against it are vocal and full of how it will negatively impact their game, they are always proven wrong.
For the record my Fedrat is flying a DSSV with the Nimbus skin. I've moved up to the appropriate tier ship each time I ranked, but like many many others, I would rather my ship look like something else. It won't affect gameplay at all, despite what anybody thinks.
Dewitt: I agree with pretty much everything you said.
I've been playing MMO's since 2004, and the whole idea that there can't be change in MMO's really irates me.
It's like every game has to follow the same formula, or it get's trashed (though if it follows the formula too much it gets called a WoW clone usually).
Sadly, this is the whiner part of the PvP community surfacing. They do in every game, giving the rest of us PvPer's a bad name. Most nerfs, changes, and general idiocy is because of this minority of people, whining because they actually have to work to be good at PvP.
Now as far as combat effectiveness goes, I have a real life example. In WWII, many navies used converted merchantmen as escort craft for convoys. If you looked at it, it looked almost exactly like a merchantman.
They also used ships like this as bait for subs, hopefully the sub would surface to order the "merchantman's" crew to lifeboats and sink it from the surface....only the bait would uncover it's deck guns and (hopefully) sink the sub.
Look up "WWII escort carrier"....this was a small aircraft carrier that had begun as a civilian freighter. When the war broke out, they took ships in the yards still being built, and reconfigured them into aircraft carriers. I'm sure the same thing happened with other types of ships being converted into cruisers, destroyer escorts, ect. Yet, many of them internally and below the waterline were/began as civilian cargo type ships.
In real military forces, equipment is often used for many decades, look at the AK-47 (over 60 years)or the M1 Abrams (over 30) . I'd have to think that something as expensive as a starship would be refitted and used for as long as possible.
As far as ST ships go, isn't the reason they got bigger was for crew size? Kirk had 2 or 400 people, whereas Picard had something like 1000. I'd think the actual parts for say a phaser bank would get smaller over time (look at say cellphones IRL). So, there's no reason a RA5 couldn't have a Connie retrofitted with top of the line gear.
If anything, I'd do it for the same reasons as the WWII "bait" ships I mentioned earlier.
Comments
This. The only issue is PvP and whether we care about seeing the true ship level / type.
I.e. is that T4-looking ship an RSV or a DSSV?
except it defeats the purpose of the various ship classes.
Sovereigns are clearly larger, and more powerful than a Constitution class. It's just how they're built. If you want to fly a Consitituion class, you have to be prepared to accept the limitations that come with it.
Imagine if this were a Modern Day navy battle game. Would you expect the game to let you upgrade a little tugboat up to the same capabilities as a huge Destroyer or Aircraft carrier? Of course not...doesn't matter if the tug boat looks cool as hell.
Is that anything like expecting Klingon ships to act like.. I don't know Star trek ships instead of the better than everything Federation they are now?
Maybe confusing the Klingons with ship skins is a start for you to make up to the Feds how badly broken the klangs are "Kryptic."
And I posted the skin idea in the other thread but blockheads keep over thinking it.
I'll print big in slow letters that you must read before trying to think about it:
NEW SHIP SKINS THAT LOOK LIKE LOWER TIER SHIP FAVORITES, BUT BIGGER TO REFLECT TIER 5 CAPABILITIES.
The upper tier ships retain their raw power, more BO, weapon & console slots. But welcome the smaller frys due to the added functionality that they could bring to the table.
Biggest blue Covariant Mk X I can find is like 8k cap with 131 regen.
Regarding that specific shield, it is a result of Memory Alpha "crafting" that a fleetmate took the time to max out, and those stats are while mounted on a science ship, and may be lower when mounted on a cruiser, and definitely lower when mounted on an escort.
As for realism, you are right. No connie should stand up to a sovereign. But this is a game and I feel that if I want to fly a connie in RA content, I should be able to. Quite frankly the t4 ships are the ones I want most for t5 content. Currently the drawbacks of trying to use a t4 in t5 content is pretty steep. The outcome of a borg encounter on my Galaxy is brutal, compared to not nearly as much on my soverign. It's too much of a difference to overlook.
Of course... "older" is all relative... since most of the "older" ships have variants that are clearly new advanced versions. I think, if anything, that suggests that they have been refitted to handle the slots and capabilities of a tier 5 ship.
What I still find astounding is how many people try to argue for "uplifting" the old ships. That is, instead of a reskinning of ther T5 ships to look like the T4 or lower ships, they'd rather see tweaks to shields, weapons, etc. Are they missing the massive balancing debates and flames that will result from that?
By removing the shield modifier, any player level 40-45 can get full benefit of their best shield (+/- for escort/science mods) instead of being penalized for choosing to fly a lower tier ship. They would still be limited to the number of weapons, BO stations and ranks/skills, but their survivability would be brought up to a reasonable level.
Anyways from the looks of this discussion, all of us that participated seem to agree that having the lower tier ships as a skin option is far more agreeable to us.
Did you see the screaming and crying when they were allowing custom colors for beam weapons? (I think it was during open beta, or maybe the early start period.) People were complaining they couldn't tell what they were being hit with because the color was different, or that it just wasn't canon.
Now imagine if you couldn't tell what tier a ship was from it's hull.
Your argument is invalid. PvP is set up for specific level ranges. If you are a Commander, all your opponents will be Commander as well, with the possibility of Captain 1. It is therefore safe to assume that the guy in the Nova (tier 2 science ship) is at least a Commander, and if the skin system were in place, then their ship would in all likelihood be a tier 3 science ship.
Would it really be all that relevant either way? It's still a science ship and is going to do sciencey stuff. What difference does it make if it has a n extra tactical or Engineering slot. You are still going to deal with it the same way in PvP.
This is incorrect. There was no loud screaming and gnashing of teeth over that. The ability to change the colors was a bug. Probably code left over from CO. In fact there was a heck of alot more whining about them taking it out than there ever was about having it in.
Just should note, I do a lot of PvP on my KDF character, and participate in endgame PvE on my Fed. I'm not carebearing anything.
All the Klangs say that it's not true that their ships are better.
When you play FvF it takes like 45 minutes mimimum to do the same map that takes 10 minutes tops in FvK.
Just let them add "ship costumes" in the C=Store, It will be much better than trying to redo the ships.
While that's a good point at this time, they have also said that Open PvP of some kind will probably happen. And there won't be level parity limits there.
Well again, your point is pretty much invalid. Open PvP, you are level 45, you target a TOS Connie, and notice it is an even con. Just assume he's in a tier 5 ship with a skin. People made this same argument in SWG when they were adding the appearance item system. They argued that they would see somebody in normal clothes and not know what type of armor they were wearing, or see them in battle armor, but they were wearing assult or recon. SOE added in an option to turn off appearance items when you examine somebody, but who has time to do that in a mass PvP battle?
Canon examples of higher ranking people commanding a (STO) lower level ship -
* Kirk - every Connie version of the Enterprise up to Admiral rank (tier 1 or tier 2 ship ingame)
* Riker - As Admiral he commanded the Enterprise-D (All Good Things...) (tier 4 ship)
* Harry Kim - commanded a Nova, the Rhode Island (End Game) as a Captain (Tier 2 ship)
* Admiral Eric Pressman - had his flag on the USS Crazy Horse (Excelsior-class) (not in game, should be a tier 2 variation IMO)
* Beverly Crusher - Captain, USS Pasteur (Olympic-class) (Tier 3 ship)
* Vulcan Captain of USS Saratoga (named as Saros or Storil in two differing texts) (Reliant-class) (Starter Ship)
I can quite literally go on and on here. The fact remains that many people want to at least have the appearance of a specific ship which is currently only available at lower tiers than are feasible to use at current endgame, or for progression for that matter.
Logic doesn't stop the kind of people who would raise a ruckus about not being able to tell from the hull what tier the ship was.
Yay. I like it.
BTW - I brought this idea to the forums a while back and was almost clubbed to death. (and I'm sure a lot more people had this idea before me too) And yes, the other ideas are overcomplicated, but recieved far less fire this time around.
....we've come a long way.
I hope we see this come true at some point.
The ranks of the captains of those ships is irrelevant. The ships themselves were not top of the line. Also, this is a video game based on a television/move franchise, not a television show itself.
This topic has become the favorite of STO kiddies who are completely clueless about how MMOs work.
The Galaxy class was surpassed by the Sovereign class, just as the Constitution was surpassed by the Excelsior and the Excelsior by the Galaxy. Get over it and move up to the appropriate class ship for your tier.
The ONLY reason Cryptic's performance has been tolerated is love for the shows and movies.
Remove that by "getting over it and moving up" might just remove that safety blanket and make them accountable for what can only be characterized as poor performance and QA.
I like that people are willing to work with cryptic and help them along while suggesting more flash to keep them happy.
People being encouraged to "move up" is not what Cryptic needs right now as they may decide to move up to a better maintained game.
A simple fix, maybe anyway, why not list what tier the ship is next to the player's name. example: T2, T3 ect.?
Wouldn't that work? Or at least have the player's rank appear next to their name. That way even if they were in a lower tier ship, one could assume that the ship has advanced abilities?
Just a thought
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=151843
Adding anything else other than an example of something they already supply is not as easy.
Those are non-issues for this. It is simply an issue of customization. Our "avatar" in this game is our captain, crew, and ship. I want to customize my "avatar" to be what I like. If that means I use a weaker tiered ship because it is my favorite, why should I be FORCED to be weaker than the number crunching min/maxers who only care about "BIG NUMBERS"?
Cryptic, please allow us the ability to bring our favorite ships up to par with the top end ships. This adds another level of customization to this game. Isn't having huge amounts of customization part of what makes you Cryptic?
Well YOUR argument is flawed. Starfleet has a history of refitting older ships to keep them as close to current tech and specs of newer ships. The original Enterprise had many many refits before the rebuild into the TMP era Connie. The Galaxy Enterprise was also refit multiple times during the run of TNG, and while it wasn't implicitly stated, the Sovereign Enterprise was probably refit to some degree each time it went in for repairs after each movie in which it was featured.
Taking just the TMP Connie, while an older spaceframe, it was easily on par with and in many cases superior to the Excelsior-class ships that were deployed befoe the Connie class was retired.
Now as far as how MMOs work, it's time to break the mold, not only think outside the box, but reshape it into another form. With the level of customization the STO engine can allow, not to mention Cryptic's own design philosophy on the matter, there is no reason not to allow players to choose the skin they prefer for their ships, which is in essence a cisualization of their ingame character. I've been playing MMOs since 2001, and frankly I am sick and tired of how MMOs work - ugly craptastic gear at low levels, grind and camp and farm for several levels to get both decent stats and look, rinse repeat because your gear is now not good enough for the content you are now facing. Other games have already started letting players dress how they wish (appearance tab) and while the arguments against it are vocal and full of how it will negatively impact their game, they are always proven wrong.
For the record my Fedrat is flying a DSSV with the Nimbus skin. I've moved up to the appropriate tier ship each time I ranked, but like many many others, I would rather my ship look like something else. It won't affect gameplay at all, despite what anybody thinks.
I've been playing MMO's since 2004, and the whole idea that there can't be change in MMO's really irates me.
It's like every game has to follow the same formula, or it get's trashed (though if it follows the formula too much it gets called a WoW clone usually).
Sadly, this is the whiner part of the PvP community surfacing. They do in every game, giving the rest of us PvPer's a bad name. Most nerfs, changes, and general idiocy is because of this minority of people, whining because they actually have to work to be good at PvP.
Now as far as combat effectiveness goes, I have a real life example. In WWII, many navies used converted merchantmen as escort craft for convoys. If you looked at it, it looked almost exactly like a merchantman.
They also used ships like this as bait for subs, hopefully the sub would surface to order the "merchantman's" crew to lifeboats and sink it from the surface....only the bait would uncover it's deck guns and (hopefully) sink the sub.
Look up "WWII escort carrier"....this was a small aircraft carrier that had begun as a civilian freighter. When the war broke out, they took ships in the yards still being built, and reconfigured them into aircraft carriers. I'm sure the same thing happened with other types of ships being converted into cruisers, destroyer escorts, ect. Yet, many of them internally and below the waterline were/began as civilian cargo type ships.
In real military forces, equipment is often used for many decades, look at the AK-47 (over 60 years)or the M1 Abrams (over 30) . I'd have to think that something as expensive as a starship would be refitted and used for as long as possible.
As far as ST ships go, isn't the reason they got bigger was for crew size? Kirk had 2 or 400 people, whereas Picard had something like 1000. I'd think the actual parts for say a phaser bank would get smaller over time (look at say cellphones IRL). So, there's no reason a RA5 couldn't have a Connie retrofitted with top of the line gear.
If anything, I'd do it for the same reasons as the WWII "bait" ships I mentioned earlier.