Featured Ships: The Heavy Cruisers

By PWE_BranFlakes @ December 27, 2012 at 12:00pm

75 Comments »

• matthewmaillet @ Feb 27th, 2013 5:56AM

  i have oonne question.. if im a complete free to play user, when i level to a lvl 20 will i be able to "purchase" this ship as one of the free ships? or do i need to be a diffrent lvl or do i need to earn other points to purchase this vessel?

• robertjenkins @ Jan 4th, 2013 7:15AM

  its hard to say what ship is the best. right now i am flying the Vesta/Aventine version and i love it. only complaint is that the vesta's need a fourth weapon slot on the front, and it needs it own bridge pack. the Excelsior (and retrofit) have always been one of my favorites...glad shes still around...!

• rahmkota19 @ Jan 3rd, 2013 8:21AM

  I love the Excelsior. Bought it last August. But this post is NOT TRUE!!!! I can't transwarp to TAU DEWA, despite what this post says! When will my TRANSWARP be updated to also visit tau dewa?

• bugspatteredjack @ Dec 31st, 2012 3:50PM

  I wish you could get a constitution refit class with these ships specs. I just dunno why the Excelsior in particular is so popular... Admittedly I do think Enterprise B was better looking as an excel refit but still... As far as the original ships go the A was a fantastic looking ship.

• steve14428 @ Dec 28th, 2012 10:04AM

  All this Defiant bashing! I have a fleet tactical escort retrofit and I have to say its the best ship I've ever played hands down! The tight turn rate and withering firepower make it a ship to be reckoned with! Last night I completed the Reman package which greatly increased survivability and now I'm going to replace my weapons one by one with fleet disruptors. See you in the PVE's!

• scotttetrius

  i already have 4 dual heavey cannon disruptors :) they are awesome for and escort

• excelly @ Dec 28th, 2012 6:35AM

  thats where you are wrong. there is the constitution, long range science vessel, galaxy class. but yes i wouldnt mind their being more KDF ships. another thing i like to mention is that why dont Cryptic release new stuff that isn't high level content. ie: NX Class at Lieutant 1?

• tom61sto

  They released the Steam Starter Pack, which comes with a T1 Steamrunner with the Team Fortress console not long ago. So, lowbie ship there, all you have to do is pay for it. Also comes with a T5, Vice Admiral version of the ship which is rather nice.

• selek2 @ Dec 28th, 2012 4:39AM

  LET"S ASK THE REAL QUESTION... WHERE IS THE AMBASS CLASS STAR SHIP!!!! I WANT MY OWN NCC-1701-C!! ;P

• admiraltirad235

  nearly a hundred years in the other direction(or a few months for the anniversary)

• bayonettawiccan

  It will be introduced in the Third Anniversary event come February(?).

• batuwolf @ Dec 27th, 2012 11:28PM

  ok i am confused. didn't they already put this ship in the game already. I mean I have on of these ship and it has been in serves for a while, so can somebody shed some light on the matter.

• shpoks

  Yes, it has been in the game for quite a while. They're just promoting it for new players and so.

• tom61sto

  Featured Ships are always ships that have been out for a while. Cryptic is just promoting them, though I wonder why they don't have a sale that corresponds to the featured ship. Also, somewhat recently they came out with a refit of this ship in the Fleet Shipyard, so they want to get that out there in case people missed it.

• dessniper @ Dec 27th, 2012 10:59PM

  Sooooo when are we getting the New Orleans Class, Challenger Class, Constellation Class, Springfield Class, or any other Wolf 359 grave yard ship classes I didnt mention or are not already in game?

• scotttetrius

  Technically the Constellation was already made a refit in the tier 3 cruiser as one of it's costumes, that is what the devs said but it does kinda look like it

• radioman901 @ Dec 27th, 2012 9:56PM

  No we can't use it on just any ship. The far more advanced and compact Intrepid Class U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656 barely survived one trip down a transwarp conduit, if an Excelsior Class could find a way to generate one there's no way such a ship could survive the journey

• dtaz

  Slipstream and Transwarp are two different things... Voyager survived the Transwarp... barely survived the Slipstream

• neoakiraii @ Dec 27th, 2012 9:00PM

  Aye, and if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon

• scotttetrius

  lol good old scotty!

• garaks31 @ Dec 27th, 2012 8:34PM

  that advanced transwarp drive can we use it on any ship ?

• admiraltirad235

  Unfortunately, no

• atavism1

  The transwarp console on the tier 3 version of the ship can be equipped on any ship. The one from the tier 5 version works on only that one ship.

• radioman901 @ Dec 27th, 2012 8:23PM

  The Transwarp drive used in Excelsior Class vessels was a grand experiment that failed so how is it possible for your ships to have working transwarp drives? Besides transwarp requires conduits and conduit generators (which are not part of the ship invloved) to work. I'd prefer a Nebula Class or Akira Class ship

• imadoctornota

  This is the 25th century now. There are different types of transwarp. The Borg, which the Federation based its transwarp technology on, use on board transwarp drives.

• captaind3

  There are several different transwarps. The Borg use onboard and conduits, the Voth have extremely advanced onboard. Arturis' Species 116 had the completely different Quantum Slipstream Drive. Then there is Coaxial Warp aka Folded Space Warp used by the Benthans. There's more than one way to the advanced FTL prize.

• tom61sto

  You can skin the Heavy Escort Carrier (T5:VA) to be an Akira, and there's even a Fleet refit of it (though, it's Tier V, so not many fleets can get it yet).

• goldendharmny @ Dec 27th, 2012 4:06PM

  Fleet version of this crusier is the only crusier I play anymore...

• borgressistance @ Dec 27th, 2012 3:07PM

  every time a new ship come's there are always people who complain about klingon ships,well: star trek is mostly about the federation,or can you give me the name from a serie of star trek who only follows the klingons? good luck with that,iuf you are willing to listen or not,sto is also mostly about fed side,so there are more fed ships as klingon ships,play the klingon side with the ships they have and enjoy,or deinstall the game and go cry.i dont care,i just hate it that there are always people who have to complain,for example: the fed have the mobuis from a lock box,but the klink side have also there ship from a lock box,so,if you need a new klinkl ship that badly, buy a freaking key!there are also several cross faction ships,so try them,you guys have clock,do we have cloack? oke i admit it,fed side have more ships,but klink side have also there own special abbilitie's and things,see the bright side guys c'mon!

• perfectself82

  My fed ships all have clocks, fancy grandfather clocks, very classy. Seriously though, if you're going to try to share your thoughts using text I suggest you actually take a minute or two and proof read what you're about to post. This is just an abomination.

• crownvic2door @ Dec 27th, 2012 3:06PM

  Cross faction ships!!!!! DOOOOEEEET!

• bullschizzy @ Dec 27th, 2012 3:01PM

  Fed only, like the Klingons don't need any "new" ships... pft this is getting pretty damn pathetic. nearly 6 times as many "new ships" for the whiney Feds, give us Klinks something for a change....

• claransa

  It's not a new ship man, Cryptic has nothing else to write about so they're showing old adds. This ship came out ages ago.

• xastirx

  If you go talk to the guy at the KDF shipyard, the thing he says about the "lack" of ship designs is actually canon. he says, and i know its not an exact quote but, "We are klingons. We dont design a ship for every single possible mission. When we find a design that works, we stick to that design and improve apon it." This is why there are tiers of raptors and tiers of BOP's and Tiers of battle cruisers. Each tier is SUPPOSED to be a newer and improved version of the one before it. Like the dock yard officer says, they only need to have those three designs and improve as they go. This way, they spend more time blowing enemies up and less time in a dock yard trying to come up with something more sick looking than their rivals. The KDF prefer to prove their ships worth in battle, not a space runway for starship modeling.

• lordrevan35

  The Klingons has a histroy of putting their tech into their ships weapons for more fire power, but not so much into their shields. They are a warrior race who believes in fire power over defence and they improve on the ships they have in service and do not need any new shps. Take the Klingon Battle Cruise, it's been in service since in the 2260's and te Klingon Bird-of-Prey has in service since 2286. And the Fedeaion put their tech into making more ship with styal and not much fire power. The Federation believes in defence over fire power. Except for the Defiant-Class she is the first and only Federation war ship in service. And yes I do have THE STAR TREK ENCYLOPEDIA: A REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE FUTURE book so I do know what I am taking about.

• nagyervin

  @lordrevan35: guess what's the Akira and the Prometheus were built for? Dusting crops? :)

• captaind3

  Indeed, the Defiant was the first "warship" the escort title is just that Starfleet doesn't even like the idea of a pure warship, which makes sense since they're closer to NASA in mission purpose than the Navy. That said NASA regularly uses military pilots and officers. But the Defiant was just the first, not the last. Between the Borg, the Cardassians, the Klingons, and the Dominion Starfleet realized that while strong they were tactically lacking, so they commissioned new ships to cover their weaknesses such as the Akira, Sovereign, and especially the Prometheus. But Starfleet has a long history of making battle capable ships, as the requirements for a ship that can explore deep space and survive isn't that different from one that can fight as a ship of the line.

• atreidesscion @ Dec 27th, 2012 2:40PM

  Do yourself a favor and purchase the T5 ship. Then go get the Fleet version once you figure out how to outfit it. I currently am running the Fleet Excelsior on my Tac Captain with a double AuxToBattery build and AP cannons, and it cooks. Just a hair below escort levels of damage.

• adamkafei

  I run a six Tetryon beam Fleet Excel, I solo almost anything, I can even do CSE BoPs now, a damn good ship if ever there was one

• sean2448 @ Dec 27th, 2012 2:19PM

  better turn rate tougher i think than the vesta granted you do have 3 versions of vesta only one heavy I will be get fleet version of the heavy

• sean2448

  ship currently using ong new toon till RA and us my new GALOR hehe

• maverick65 @ Dec 27th, 2012 2:11PM

  KDF crying for ships...wouldn't be something if they made the KDF a non-playable species in favor of one more sophisicated and fun and cooler like the Romulans.....then all our KDF buds could become NPC's...LOL

• evilgenius180 @ Dec 27th, 2012 2:11PM

  Why are we making a big deal about ships that have been in the game since the dawn of time? (In gaming time)

• phaggamemnon

  I played before the excelsior came out it has not been out since the dawn... and just because something has been wrong a long time doesn't make it less wrong

• atreidesscion

  Its called advertising and marketing. Coke still advertises its' coke, right?

• evilgenius180

  Who cares when it was added? I'm not an encyclopedia of what was added when. My point was that it's been available a long time. This post exists solely to point out a purchasable item that most people who have played the game have likely seen, as the C-store button is right there in the UI and the ship is also available through in-game ship sellers, which the game has you visit every time you get promoted. And it's not advertising when you put it on your own website.

• cptkickbutt @ Dec 27th, 2012 1:51PM

  Think ill still with my Vesta class, hopefully the next ship they release is better than these two (i know there retrofits)

• phaggamemnon @ Dec 27th, 2012 1:46PM

  I always loved how 200-300 year old ships were slugging it out with the Enterprise-E. Such a load of crap... retrofit or not. They should just make 3 different damn servers with the different times lines. Or have more ship variation and go back to energy weapons weapons needing lots of energy similar to when the game first started. This is one of the few games I've played where PVP got WORSE everytime they made "improvements"

• solantolval

  If you have ever read any of the tech manuals you would know that Fed ships are designed to have a life span of up to 200 years with refits. The Excel isn't 200 years old yet

• phaggamemnon

  Yes lifespan of VERSUS being on par with a Brand new state of the art ship are 2 different things. I never said they aren't useful but they should in no way be in the same league as a Galaxy, Nebula, Sovereign, and other such class of ships. Hell I love miranda's

• solantolval

  Why not, Just because the design is old doesn't mean the systems on the ship are, hell for all we know star fleet could be still building them, with state of the art tech on board.

• phaggamemnon

  It's common sense. Even in today's military ... retrofit all you want a ship designed around a system will always be better then one "retrofitted" from obsolescence

• sygerwulf

  Has everyone forgotten the episode of DS9 where the Defiant *which at the time was the most state of the art war vessels* had to battle it out with a refitted Excelsior class on it's way to Earth? If the Excelsior class ship had decided to use it's full yield quantum torpedoes the Defiant would have been a greasy spot floating in space. Federation ships are modular in design and literally their entire sub systems can be replaced and upgraded, pretty much everything except the hulls themselves.

• phaggamemnon

  Defiant is the size of a GNAT... they aren't even in the same class... I am comparing ships of equivlant classes.

• phaggamemnon

  Defiant is the size of a GNAT... they aren't even in the same class... I am comparing ships of similar/greater classes. Does anyone know how to read lol?

• sygerwulf

  Yes the Defiant is small, but it's systems were massively over designed. It's warp drive was so strong that it couldn't go past 9.25 without tearing itself apart, it had quad phaser cannons and quantum torpedoes AND ablative hull armor. In a real fight a Defiant class ship paired against virtually any other class fed ship of it's era would come out on top. Imagine a big ship like a Galaxy class going against a ship with arguably superior firepower *quantum torps* and WAY more mobility. Size does not always matter, especially when you're talking about spacecraft in the Star Trek universe.

• roamingmutt

  If the ships were that old then yes you'd have a good argument. But if the design was reintroduced in 2409 using modern technology and construction then it would be a viable alternative to ships like the Sovereign class.

• weasleyisourking

  Size didn't matter for the Defiant. We've seen her take down three Jemmies lickety-split, but the Galaxy-class USS Odyssey (canon) couldn't even off one. If anything this proves that technology can be updated, because we see Galaxies owning up on the Dominion Alliance later in the series.

• maerdyn @ Dec 27th, 2012 1:45PM

  fed ship, fed ship, fed ship ... where is some love for us, KDF players. More ships in ZEN store or somewhere else?

• mikeward1701 @ Dec 27th, 2012 1:24PM

  Slight issue, the Tier 5 is not showing in the c-Store (for me at least). When I follow the direct link above I get an "Item not found" message and it doesnt show if I brose the store (I already own both T3 and T5 but do not have "hide already unlcoked" box ticked).

• lynoman

  T5 is a Fleet ship.