I’m sitting here tonight a little overwhelmed by my choice to buy the Super pack. Lets be honest, there’s a lot going on in the game right now. The Kobali ship is fun to use, and the Anniversary gear set is well work the effort to get. And it’s free. My OCD is telling me to downsize a BOFF collection bordering on being unmanageable. And of course, spending time to grind out Omega Upgrades.

After only seeing one new ship in Earth orbit, I broke down and bought it (although I am not happy they replaced the $100 option with a $200 option on the in-game store.)

Aesthetics – these ships are surprisingly good looking, and the forum images do not do them justice. The little details from sensors arrays and antennas to the spinning ‘AEGIS’ dome on the bottom of the Romulan and Klingon versions (forgot to check if the Feds had them as well). I was shocked at the level of variation control you could have.

Update: Yes, the Fed version has the rotating AEGIS domes top and bottom, although they are very understated.

The design team knocked this right out of the park.

@LaughingTrendy – these are ships that deserve a video clip for each variation. Seriously. You’ll increase your sales. Do a few flyby’s. It will be worth the investment in marketing time.

@LootCritter tap-dancing hell, that is a beautiful ship — Morrigan (@LaughingTrendy) February 13, 2015

Functionality – I cracked the seal on the tactical versions first, primarily on the advice of the guys in the DPS channel for the “All Hands on Deck” Ship Trait. In turn I took each for a run – the Federation Presidio, the KDF Ty’Gokor and finally what became my immediate favorite the Romulan Vastam Command Battlecruiser.

Hands down the Romulans got the best variant.

The first ISA runs were clumsy with the multitude of new options (3 free Inspiration Abilities, 3 console platforms, the Kobali Regenerative Console, and Kobali Warp Core) and 4 new command powers. It was ridiculously overwhelming. My initial DPS? 16-18K while randomly attempting to deploy platforms, mashing my spacebar like a pro.

I can’t wait to see what these ships can do in the hands of a decent pilot.

As a side note I ran the Romulan BC through VCE pug. I normally struggle even with a good group of players in VCE, but this ship handled like a dream. Concentrate Firepower 3 with TS3 was ridiculously fun.

Console Platforms – I was expecting these to have a shared cool down. I can happily report they don’t share a cool-down timer. While I’ve yet to use them effectively (still reviewing the parses), the added bonuses for the 4-pc did appear to work as promised.

Now will I keep all 4 consoles in the final build? I honestly don’t know. Normally you ditch the gimmicky or situational consoles for things that improve your performance. But the collective bonuses beyond the platform abilities are almost consoles in themselves. This is going to be a hard call.

I realize there will be lots of build ideas and tests to do over the next several weeks. But unlike any other ship I played with recently (initially hated the Guardian, grew to love it), the new Command Battlecruisers are impressive right out of the box.

UPDATE 2: I’ve managed to produce a consistent 16-18K even with the platforms. The Offensive platforms (you get 2 with the full set) and the Tachyon beam (range extended to 10km with the full set) platforms seem to be of most value in tight corners. ISA, KSA and CSA they proved to be of use. BKE however they were of little use, and actually held me back with only 5-7K even with a great group. 😦 . I think I’m going to try a Korfez build without them.

Damn Cryptic. Damn you. Please no more new ships for at least 2 months.