Visual Refit on Rank-Up

posted on January 25th, 2011, 7:40 am

After I thought about how awesome it would be if the ships changed their appearance when they ranked up, I noticed that at least one of them actually does! It's probably common knowledge to everyone else here, but I saw that the Galaxy class gets the "Venture Bumps" when it gets a gold bar.

I checked a few more classes and couldn't find any more that get new stuff. Does anyone know if the Galaxy's the only one or if there are any plans to do this to more classes?

A few examples that spring to mind are:

Excelsior -> EntB/Lakota

Ambassador -> Yamaguchi Bussard Collector housings, shuttlebay addition, impulse engine, deflector dish, ect http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/ambassador.htm

Nebula -> Melbourne variant http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/proto-nebula.htm (might be a downgrade actually, add this as a separate class maybe?)

First Contact Sovereign -> Nemesis Sovereign

Neg'Var -> antennas -> weapon pods http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/neghvar.htm (Actually, a bunch of Klingon ships could get color changes. Neg'vars, BoPs, and Vor'chas could get the red feathers.)

Galaxy -> Venture -> Galaxy X? Maybe? Don't hate me...

if the Miranda ever gets added it could gain/lose the roll-bar or turn into a Soyuz

Anyway, I'm sure there's a bunch more. It doesn't really add to gameplay and it's probably a whole bunch of extra work, but I think it could add to the visual style. Is this something that anyone thinks is worth it, or am I just crazy?

posted on January 25th, 2011, 7:47 am

Lakota is planned for the future i believe, and additionally the saber also gets a new visual model upon rank up, this is a fairly recent thing so I think we will se more in the future...

posted on January 25th, 2011, 8:04 am

Oh, awesome! I'll have to check out the Sabre.

Anyway, thought of another one:

Nova (Equinox) -> Rhode Island

posted on January 25th, 2011, 8:53 am

the neggie already gets new pods when it ranks high enough i believe.

Soyuz was scrapped long before miranda, so mirandas wouldnt refit into soyuz. But old ships will become map objects, like tos connie, so soyuz could appear as its own class.

posted on January 25th, 2011, 12:24 pm

This would be so cool. It would add additional flavor to the game. Looking forward to seeing this in the future. I don't think I've ever seen the saber cosmetic change. I will be looking out for that next time I play.

posted on January 25th, 2011, 12:31 pm

when it goes vet it gets crisis suites refit. so it has a change on the top.


see attached. the darker panels are the crisis suites.

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posted on January 25th, 2011, 4:13 pm

The K'beajQ also gets a new frame

Most - if not all - vessels will get a unique texture/model change upon rank up (either veteran or officer).

posted on January 25th, 2011, 5:05 pm

oh yh, i forgot the armour on the kbq. Cant forget its gameplay effects though, over 900 hp is pretty tough.

posted on January 26th, 2011, 1:12 am

I don't the Galaxy-X will be in; I don't think the devs want it to have been designed in their timeline. Assuming it came as a refit; a different universe version may not have the same origin or path.

posted on January 26th, 2011, 6:42 am

I don't the Galaxy-X will be in; I don't think the devs want it to have been designed in their timeline. Assuming it came as a refit; a different universe version may not have the same origin or path.

Heh, maybe it could be a map object or random event trigger along with ridiculously weak Neg'vars and a scary blue death anomaly that erases your race from history unless you self destruct a bunch of ships in it.

posted on January 26th, 2011, 7:42 am

Nebula -> Melbourne variant http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/proto-nebula.htm (might be a downgrade actually, add this as a separate class maybe?)

The Nebula is modular, so the small nacelles the Melbourne are just a removable feature, the same as the tactical pod, on the scanner pod, both of which are allready in flops.

To be honest, I'd be content if ships were just given the weapons they should have.  Give Akira more torpedos, and lower it's phaser damage (especily at rank) since it's a torpedo cruiser. Give Sabre a photon instead of a quantum pulse, and just balance it by adjusting the time between shots (the same is done with, for example, the Nova's photon. list could go on  but I wont.

Heh, maybe it could be a map object or random event trigger along with ridiculously weak Neg'vars and a scary blue death anomaly that erases your race from history unless you self destruct a bunch of ships in it.

so THAT explains flops!

The dev's forgot that the Neg'var should due to it's size have a tad more range than a Defiant class .......

posted on January 26th, 2011, 8:14 am

Way to hijack someones thread Tok'ra

posted on January 26th, 2011, 8:45 am

The Nebula is modular, so the small nacelles the Melbourne are just a removable feature, the same as the tactical pod, on the scanner pod, both of which are allready in flops.

Yeah, you're right about the modular pods, but the old Nebula had a weird pointy engineering hull too. I guess that was back when the Neb was just another kitbash in the Wolf359 mess.

posted on January 26th, 2011, 12:37 pm

The Nebula is modular, so the small nacelles the Melbourne are just a removable feature, the same as the tactical pod, on the scanner pod, both of which are allready in flops.

the last time you tried arguing this there was a massive spam debate thread:
Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations - Fed Module Debate

you shouldnt make such definite statements when you know there is significant disagreement on it. YOU have the opinion its modular, just thought id make that clear

this really smacks of you trying to troll.

posted on January 27th, 2011, 1:45 am

you shouldnt make such definite statements when you know there is significant disagreement on it. YOU have the opinion its modular, just thought id make that clear

Oh my bad, I always just assumed it was modular. If it isn't , then would each different version (Melbourne, Phoenix, Farragut) be refit variants of the same class like the TOS and TMP Connie? Would it still make sense to have it upgrade pods on rankup, or would it be better to just leave each class separate?