well...no the defiant is horribly underpowered...it just needs stronger hull and sheilds, it's crap right now

it depends hugely on that weapons disabling thing otherwise it's bantha fodder...
The game is not "so cannon" have you been playing the same game? The romulans can nuke ships from across the map, the Tavara takes down any borg ship 1 on 1...The cube is supposed to be a threat, even more so to the romulans who aren't the strongest power in the galaxy...The Interceptors with their transwarp are deadly, a group of 5+ can beat a warbird, soveriegn, and a negvar...it's a joke to say that, the game doesn't become equalized because there are god ship(s) on every race, it becomes equalized when there are no godly ships...
SFCIII wasn't a great game, plain and simple, besides the horrific fact it was two dimensional...The starbases were disproportionate to the ships, the glows in game were completely unrealistic, and the only real great thing about it was the ability to name a ship whatever you want, and to totally customize the ship systems...
I like the game, however I wouldn't give up fleet ops to play it, it's not nearly as good, and wanting to have more realistic weapons in game is not something to scoff at...the games aren't ment to be like star trek, if they were, a galaxy would take one hit and everything would shut off

The ships were ment to last a little longer, but there is no reason they can't portray a realistic strength...